Folk Music
Neil Young
Folk Music By Fusive on Friday, January 27, 2006
Neil Young From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Neil Percival Kenneth Robert Ragland Young, better known as Neil Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has become one of the most respected and influential musicians of his generation. Young is recognizable for his high-pitched, nasal voice and for his deeply personal lyrics. Musically, most of Young’s work falls into two distinct styles. The first is an acoustic, country-tinged folk rock, heard on such songs as "Heart of Gold," "Old Man" and "Long May You Run." The other style is a grinding, lumbering form of hard rock, heard on songs like "Cinnamon Girl," "Southern Man" and "Rockin' in the Free World" and often recorded with the backing band Crazy Horse. He has also experimented with soul, swing, jazz, rockabilly, and electronica in his widely varied career.
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Mike Harding - Radio 2 - Wednesday 8pm -
Folk Music By Fusive on Friday, January 27, 2006
Mike Harding's Folk show on Wednesday nights, always well worth a listen, if you miss it you can always listen again for the next week on the internet. Here's the playlists for the last two weeks. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/harding/playlist.shtml
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Dick Gaughan
Folk Music By Fusive on Thursday, January 26, 2006
Dick Gaughan is a Scottish singer-songwriter. Richard Peter Gaughan was born on 17 May 1948 in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire, where his father was temporarily working as an engine driver. One and a half years later the whole family moved to Leith, a port on the outskirts of Edinburgh. He has never returned to Rutherglen. Richard's mother was from Lochaber, and was a native speaker of Gaelic. As a child in the 1930s she won a silver medal at the Gaelic Mod. His father was an Irish speaker from Mayo, who played the fiddle. He was the eldest of three children. Dick Gaughan took up the guitar at the age of 7.
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Show of Hands - Steve Knightley - Phil Beer
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Show of Hands is an English acoustic roots duo comprising singer-songwriter Steve Knightley and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer. Their appeal is based on the combined power of Knightley's original songs, the quality of their vocals and harmonies, and their multi-instrumental virtuosity. Their performances feature guitars, mandolin, mandocello, fiddle, cuatro, viola and concertina. With thousands of fans on their mailing list, Show of Hands had long wanted to play a concert big enough to gather all those fans together. Different ideas were brought up but none seemed right until London's Royal Albert Hall was suggested; the perfect venue, prestigious and big enough! The undertaking required a huge gamble by the duo and their management, but the show sold out in advance and took place on the evening of March 24, 1996.
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Folk Clubs
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Folk clubs (as distinct from American folk-music nightclubs) were primarily an urban phenomenon of 1960s and 1970s Britain. Ewan MacColl was a founder of the "Ballad and Blues Club" in a pub in Soho. After a few weeks they moved to "The Princess Louise" at Holborn in 1961. A.L. Lloyd, Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins and many others sang there. Within five years every major city in the UK had a pub where, once a week there would be a room set aside for young people, usually students, to sing traditional and contemporary songs, perhaps with a guitar accompaniment.
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Ralph McTell
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Ralph McTell (born Ralph May in Farnborough, England, 3 December 1944) is an English singer/songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk scene since the 1960s. Ralph McTell is probably best known for the song Streets of London which has been covered by over a hundred artists around the world. In the 1980s he wrote and played songs for two TV children's programmes, Alphabet Zoo which also featured Nerys Hughes, followed by Tickle On The Tum featuring Jaqui Reddin. Albums were also released from both series. McTell's guitar style has been influenced by many of the USA's country blues guitar players of the early 20th century, including Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell and Robert Johnson.
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Fairport Convention
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Fairport Convention is often credited with being the first British folk-rock band. Formed in 1967, Fairport rapidly developed from playing cover versions of American 'west coast' style music to an individual style which melded rock music with traditional English tunes and songs. Bedevilled by numerous personnel changes throughout its first decade, Fairport Convention was temporarily disbanded in 1979 but played annual reunion concerts until it reformed in 1985. Since then, it has enjoyed stability and continues to tour and record regularly. In part, the continuing success of Fairport Convention is due to the annual music festival it organises. Cropredy Festival has been held every year since 1974 near Cropredy, a village five miles north of Banbury, Oxfordshire and attracts 20,000 fans.
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Ballad
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, January 25, 2006
A ballad is a story in a song, usually a narrative song or poem. It is a rhythmic saga of a past affair, which may be heroic, romantic or satirical, political (affected by the previous three types mentioned, refers to either glorifying the exploits or causes of a particular leader or group, and is typical of totalitarian political systems), almost inevitably catastrophic, which is related in the third person, usually with foreshortened alternating four- and three-stress lines ('ballad meter') and simple repeating rhymes, and often with a refrain. If it is based on political or religious themes, a ballad may then be a version of a hymn. Ballads should not be confused with the ballade, a 14th and 15th century French verse form.
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Whistles
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, January 25, 2006
The tin whistle, also called the whistle, pennywhistle, or Irish whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. The Irish words for the instrument are feadóg ('whistle' or 'flute') or feadóg stáin ('tin whistle'); feadóga stáin is the plural. It can be described as an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, Native American flutes, and many other woodwind instruments found in traditional music. History L.E. McCullough notes that the oldest surviving whistles date from the 12th century, but that, "Players of the feadan are also mentioned in the description of the King of Ireland's court found in the Brehon Laws dating from the 3rd century A.D
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Liam O'Flynn
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Liam O'Flynn (b. 1945) is a well known Irish folk musician. He was born in County Kildare to musical parents, his father played the fiddle and his mother played the piano. After his first encounter with the uillean pipes, the greatest influences of his development were Leo Rowsome, Willie Clancy, and Séamus Ennis. Liam won recognition by winning prizes at the Oireachtas Festival and the Fleadh Ceoil in the 1960s. He became a founder member of Planxty. The Chieftains were the first to record Irish traditional instrumental music in a group format, but Planxty took it one step further.
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The Battlefield Band
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, January 25, 2006
For 30 years Battlefield Band has been a training ground for some of the greatest Scottish musicians. The band's current brand of music was developed when Jenny Clark (vocals, guitar, cittern, dulcimer) and Duncan McGillivray (pipes and whistle) joined up with Brian McNeill and Alan Reid. Stand Easy, the album they recorded in 1979 still stands up as one of the band's finest. The next line-up included Dougie Pincock (bagpipes) and Jim and Sylvia Barnes, Alan Reid (vocals andelectric keyboards) and Brian MacNeill (fiddle). Alan has been a constant member ever since. Every line-up has had a bagpiper, and sometimes two. For a mainly instrumental and traditional band, the presence of electric keyboards is unusual but even more unusual is the absence of percussion. Every album revives some well-researched, long-dead Scottish songs and tunes as well as modern compositions (often original ones). The music ranges from the usual drinking, friendship and hard times to history, geography and politics.
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Appalachian (Mountain) dulcimer
Folk Music By Fusive on Tuesday, January 24, 2006
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument with three or four strings, although contemporary versions of the instrument can have as many as twelve strings and six courses. The body extends the length of the fingerboard and traditionally has an hourglass, teardrop, triangular, or elliptical shape (also called the galax). A courting dulcimer has two fretboards allowing two players to closely sit across from each other to perform duets, hence the name. Some prominent musicians who have used the dulcimer in contemporary settings include Joni Mitchell, Cyndi Lauper, David Massengill, Wendy Waldman, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Page, and Peter Buck of the group R.E.M. Many British folk-rock groups of the late 1960s and early 1970s used it as well; these include Battlefield Band, Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and The Strawbs.
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Music of England
Folk Music By Fusive on Tuesday, January 24, 2006
England has a long and rich musical history. The United Kingdom has, like most European countries, undergone a roots revival in the last half of the 20th century. English music has been an instrumental and leading part of this phenomenon, which peaked at the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s. Little survives of the early music of England, by which is meant the music that was used by the people before the establishment of musical notation in the medieval period. Much that survives of folk music must have had its origins in this period, although the melodies played by morris dancers and other traditional groups can also be from a later period. For other classes instruments like pipe, tabor, bagpipe shawm, hurdygurdy and crumhorn accompanied folk music and community dance. The fiddle gradually grew in popularity. Differing regional styles of folk music developed, in geographically separated areas such as Northumbria, London and the West Country.
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Dave Swarbrick
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
Dave Swarbrick (born 5 April 1941) is an English folk fiddle player. He was born in New Malden, Surrey and grew up in Birmingham. He learnt the rudiments of the fiddle from a local fiddler and attended the Birmingham College of Art in the late 1950s. Playing guitar, he joined Beryl Marriot's Ceilidh Band in Birmingham. Beryl encouraged him to take up the fiddle again. Swarbrick joined the Ian Campbell Folk Group in 1960. In 1966 he teamed up with Martin Carthy and the pairing had a significant influence in the contemporary folk music scene. In 1969 he joined folk-rock group Fairport Convention.
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Davey Graham
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
Davey Graham (originally Davy Graham, b. 22 November 1940) is a virtuoso guitarist who is credited with sparking the folk-rock revolution in the UK in the 1960s. He inspired most of the famous practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar, such as Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, Paul Simon and even Jimmy Page, and is best-known for his acoustic instrumental, Anji. He introduced the DADGAD guitar tuning to British guitarists, though it is not clear if it originated with him. Its main attraction was that it allowed the guitarist more freedom to improvise in the treble while maintaining a solid underlying harmony and rhythm in the bass. While 'non-standard', or 'non-classical' tuning was widely practiced by guitarists before this, especially by Blues and Slide guitar players, his use of DADGAD introduced a second standard tuning to guitarists.
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Archie Fisher
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
Archie Fisher was born in Glasgow on 23 October 1939. His sisters Ray and Cilla Fisher, are also singers. In 1960 he moved to Edinburgh and ran a folk club called "The Howff". In 1962 Ray and Archie released a single on the Topic label, "Far Over the Forth". They appeared on the BBC programme 'Hootenanny' In 1965 the whole family released an album "Traditional and New Songs from Scotland". Bert Jansch visited The Howff in 1960 and received guitar lessonsfrom co-organiser Jill Doyle. Archie met Robin Williamson, Clive Palmer and Mike Heron, later to become The Incredible String Band.
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Incredible String Band
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
The Incredible String Band (or ISB) are a Scottish acoustic band who, (in the words of one of their early songs) "way back in the 1960s" built a popular following among the British counter culture, and who are considered psych folk music pioneers. The Incredible String Band was formed in 1965 by Scottish folk musicians Robin Williamson, Mike Heron and Clive Palmer. They recorded their eponymous debut album in 1966, a lighthearted affair which revealed only the merest hint of the psychedelic adventures to come. After that, the band broke up. Palmer decamped for the Trail to Afghanistan and Williamson visited Morocco from where he returned laden with exotic instruments like the famous gimbri, which was, much later, eaten by rats. In 1967 Heron and Williamson recorded The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, an audaciously eclectic mix of bookish folk music, hippy love songs and Eastern modalities. They soon became the-name-to-drop-in-interviews for luminaries such as Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan. In their
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Jeannie Robertson
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
Jeannie's most celebrated song is "I'm a man you don't meet every day", otherwise known as "Jock Stewart". It has been recorded by Archie Fisher, The Dubliners, The McCalmans, The Tannahill Weavers and The Pogues. Variants are known from the USA in the 1880s and Australia in the 1850s. It was to the 1990s what "The Wild Rover" was to the 1960s in folk clubs.
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The Dubliners
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
The Dubliners formed in 1962, in the city of Dublin. Their original members were Ronnie Drew (vocals, guitar), Luke Kelly (vocals, banjo, guitar), Barney McKenna (banjo), Ciaran Bourke (tin whistle, harmonica, guitar, vocals), and John Sheahan (fiddle). Originally called "The Ronnie Drew Group", they changed their name to "The Dubliners", named after the James Joyce novel, Dubliners, which Kelly was reading at the time. Their first UK hit was "Seven Drunken Nights".
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The Clancy Brothers
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
The Clancy Brothers were an Irish folk music singing group, most popular in the 1960s, who are often credited with popularizing Irish traditional music in the United States. The brothers were Pat, Tom, and Liam. Though born in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, Ireland, they did not begin playing together until they emigrated to the United States where, in 1955, they met Tommy Makem in New York City. For years the quartet performed as The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. The four were primarily vocalists, though Makem was an accomplished banjo and tin whistle player, and Liam played guitar. Pat would sometimes play harmonica. Nevertheless they often were accomplanied by other musicians, notably Pete Seeger on several occasions.
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Jethro Tull
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
Jethro Tull, famous for its unique brand of progressive rock, was formed in Blackpool, England in the 1960s. Their music is marked by the quirky vocal style and unique lead flute work of frontman Ian Anderson, and by unusual and often complex song construction, mostly after Anderson made his name as a pop songwriter of the more usual kind. Their music, though starting with blues rock with an experimental flavour, has incorporated elements of classical and celtic folk music, as well as the art rock and alternative rock phases of rock music. Despite this, it is difficult to point to specific artists who have directly influenced or been influenced by Jethro Tull, though they have been lauded by many, notably Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Pete Townshend.
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Tom Paxton
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
Tom Paxton is a well-known American folksinger and singer-songwriter.He was born October 31, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest child of Burton and Esther Paxton. The Paxton family moved to Bristow, Oklahoma in 1948, where Tom grew to adulthood and which he still considers home. He attended the University of Oklahoma where he majored in drama and developed an interest in folk music.
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Joni Mitchell
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
Joni Mitchell, (born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta), is a legendary Canadian musician and painter. Initially working in Toronto and western Canada, she was associated with the burgeoning folk music scene of the mid-1960s in New York City. Through the 1970s she expanded her horizons, predominantly to rock music and jazz, to become one of the most highly respected singer-songwriters of the late 20th century. Mitchell is also an accomplished artist; she has, through photography or painting, created the artwork for each of her albums, and she often describes herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance." A painter who had also dabbled in piano, guitar and ukulele since childhood, Mitchell took her surname from a brief marriage to folksinger Chuck Mitchell in 1965. She performed frequently in coffee houses and folk clubs and became well known for her unique style of song writing and her innovative guitar style.
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Joan Baez
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
Joan Baez was born in Staten Island, New York, into a Quaker family of Mexican, English and Scottish descent. Her father Albert Baez, a physicist, refused lucrative defense industry jobs, probably influencing Joan's political activism in the American and international civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s to the present. The family, frequently having to move by reason of his work, lived in different towns across the US, in France, Switzerland, Italy, and the Middle East, where they stayed in 1951. Baez, at the time only ten years old, was deeply influenced by the poverty and the inhuman treatment the local population in Baghdad suffered from. In the late 1950s, Dr. Baez accepted a faculty position at MIT, and moved his family to the Boston area, at the time the epicenter of the up-and-coming folk music scene, and Joan began performing locally in Boston/Cambridge area clubs, and attended Boston University. Her most noted venue was the Club 47 Mount Auburn, in Cambridge, where she performed twice a w
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Kate Rusby
Folk Music By Fusive on Monday, January 23, 2006
Kate Rusby (born 1 December 1973) is a folk singer and songwriter from Barnsley, England. She has headlined various United Kingdom national folk festivals, and is regarded as one of the most famous English folk singers of contemporary times. Kate Rusby was born into a family of musicians. After learning to play the guitar and the piano, as well as to sing, she played in many local folk festivals as a child and adolescent, before joining (and becoming the lead vocalist of) the all-female Celtic folk band The Poozies. In 1997, with the help of her family, she recorded and released her first solo album,
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Shane McGowan and The Pogues - support - Drop Kick Murphy's -
Folk Music By Fusive on Friday, January 20, 2006
The Pogues with Shane McGowan and The Drop Kick Murphys How good was it to see Shane MacGowan and the Pogues playing in Manchester at the M.E.N on the 17th of December? For me it was excellent, a great gig, amazing to see them live, so good to see Shane and the band. The only complaint I have would be the sound, when the support band (Dropkick Murphys) were playing, the energy they gave was just amazing, but the sound was poor, foravenue of the size of the M.E.N. it certainly needed more 0ooomph, okay they turned the volume up for the Pogues but it was a struggle to make out the lyrics on some of the songs, it just didn't have the clarity to do them justice, Shane was on great form, a great performance.
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Music Nights and Gig info - Jims Thursdays - cancelled until further notice - Trades Club Gigs -
Folk Music By Fusive on Friday, January 20, 2006
I spoke with Jim last night, sad to say Thursday's music night has been cancelled until further notice, there is an open mic night on Sunday nights at the Queens in Colne, so at least somewhere else to go. It's not long ago that I could go out Tuesdays for folk night at the Derby's, Wednesdays for Jam night, Thursday's at Jims and every other saturday for live music at the Hendly, all within a few miles from home. The Mike Harding shows on Wednesday Nights at 8pm were excellent as usual, thanks for Mike bringing this music to us, certainly my best nights on the radio, something to look forward to each week. Roy Bailey, and Martin Carthy to play Hebden Bridge Trades Club - John Martyn, Janis Ian, The Strawbs, Susan Vega to play The Picturedome in Holmfirth.
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Nick Drake
Folk Music By Fusive on Friday, December 16, 2005
Nick Drake Nicholas Rodney Drake (June 19, 1948 – November 25, 1974) was a British singer/songwriter. Drake is known for his gentle, autumnal songs and his virtuoso right hand finger picking technique. Although he recorded only three albums, critics and fellow musicians held his work in very high esteem. Drake failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, though, which fed his severe clinical depression. Since his death, Drake’s music has gained a significant cult following. He was discovered by Ashley Hutchings, the bass player of the folk rock group Fairport Convention. Hutchings introduced Drake to the other members of Fairport Convention, folk singer John Martyn and producer Joe Boyd.
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John Renbourn
Folk Music By Fusive on Friday, December 16, 2005
John Renbourn (b. August 8, 1944) is a British guitarist and songwriter. He is possibly best-known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career both before, during and after that band's existence (1967-1973). While most commonly labelled a folk musician, Renbourn's musical tastes and interests take in early music, classical music, blues and world music. His most influential album, Sir John Alot (1968), featured his take on songs from the Medieval era. John Renbourn was born in Marylebone, London. He studied classical guitar at school and it was during this period that he was introduced to Early Music. In the 1950s, along with many others, he was greatly influenced by the musical craze of "Skiffle" and this eventually led him to explore the work of artists such as Leadbelly, Josh White and Big Bill Broonzy.
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Mike Harding - BBC Radio 2 - Wednesday Folk Music
Folk Music By Fusive on Thursday, December 15, 2005
Mike Harding show last night, I always like to catch the show on a Wednesday night. This week Mike announces the winner and plays highlights from the final of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award 2006, held at The Sage Gateshead last weekend, plus a selection of the best in folk, roots and acoustic music. It was another good show as usual, I managed to catch the beginning as I was driving home, and the rest on digital radio when I got home, if you miss the show you can listen for the next 7 days on BBC Radio 2 on the internet.
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John Martyn
Folk Music By Fusive on Thursday, December 15, 2005
John Martyn (born September 11, 1948) is a singer-songwriter. He was born Ian David McGeachy in New Malden, Surrey, England. His parents divorced when he was five; Martyn spent his childhood alternating between England and Scotland. His professional musical career began when he was 17; a blend of blues and folk resulting in a unique style that made him a key figure in the London folk scene during the mid-1960s. He signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records in 1967 and released his first album, London Conversation, the following year. This first album was soon followed by The Tumbler which was moving towards jazz. By 1970 Martyn had developed a wholly original and idiosyncratic sound: acoustic guitar run through a fuzzbox, phase-shifter, and Echoplex. This sound was first apparent on Stormbringer in 1970, which also had Martyn's then wife, Beverley Kutner, as his collaborator. She also appeared on The Road to Ruin in 1970.
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Leadbelly
Folk Music By Fusive on Thursday, December 15, 2005
Leadbelly (born Huddie William Ledbetter; January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949) was an American folk musician, notable for his clear and forceful singing, his virtuosity on the twelve string guitar, and the rich songbook of folk standards he introduced. Leadbelly was born to Wesley and Sally Ledbetter in a plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana, but the family moved to Leigh, Texas when he was five. It was there he received his first instrument, an accordion from his uncle, and by his early-20s, after fathering at least two children, he left home to find his living as a guitarist (and occasionally, as a labourer). His boastful spirit and penchant for the occasional skirmish sometimes led him into trouble with the law, and in 1918 was thrown into a Texas jail for the second time, this time after killing a man in a fight. He was released seven years into his thirty year sentence after writing a song appealing to Governor Pat Neff for his freedom, but in 1930 was back in prison, this time in Louisiana for attem
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Bert Jansch
Folk Music By Fusive on Thursday, December 15, 2005
Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 - ), known as Bert Jansch, is a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and, particularly in his early career, was sometimes characterized as a British Bob Dylan. This, however, was misleading, in that Jansch's best work has always been fundamentally instrument-driven unlike Dylan's which is primarily lyric-based. In the 1960s, he was heavily infuenced by the guitarist Davey Graham and folk singers such as Anne Briggs. His work influenced such artists as Johnny Marr, Bernard Butler, Led Zeppelin and Neil Young, and earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2001 BBC Folk Awards.
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Pentangle
Folk Music By Fusive on Thursday, December 15, 2005
Pentangle is a British folk-rock band. The original band was active in the late 1960s and the 1970s; its successor has been active since the early 1980s. The original line-up, which was unchanged throughout the band's first incarnation (1967-1973), was: Jacqui McShee vocals; John Renbourn guitar; Bert Jansch guitar; Danny Thompson bass; and Terry Cox drums. Of the original members, only McShee survives in the current line-up (though Jansch also was a member of the second incarnation of the band for some time, between 1982 and 1995). The original group formed in 1967. Renbourn and Jansch were already popular musicians on the British folk scene, with several solo albums each and a duet LP, Bert And John (they also shared a house in London). Although nominally a 'folk' group, the members each shared catholic tastes and influences.
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Woody Guthrie
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967), known almost universally as "Woody", was a folk singer and raconteur who wrote some of America's best-loved songs. He is best known for "This Land is Your Land". Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, in 1912, the year his namesake Woodrow Wilson was elected President. At age 19 he left home for Texas, where he met and married his first wife, Mary Jennings, with whom he had three children. He left Texas (and his family) with the Dust Bowl, following the Okies to California. The poverty he saw on these early trips affected him greatly, and many of his songs are concerned with the inequities faced by America's working men and women. A lifelong socialist and trade unionist, he also contributed a regular article, "Woody Sez," to the Daily Worker and People's World newspaper.
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Martin Carthy
Folk Music By Fusive on Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Martin Carthy (born May 21, 1941) is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring later artists such as Bob Dylan and Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of the folk revival. He was born in Hatfield and grew up in Hampstead, London. After training as an actor he sang in coffee bars. He became a resident at the Troubador folk club in Earls Court in the late 1950s. He joined Redd Sullivan's Thameside Four in 1961. He is a renowned solo performer of traditional songs in a very distinctive style, accompanying himself on his trusty old Martin Guitar; his style is marked by the use of alternate tunings, and a strongly percussive picking style that emphasizes the melody.
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Richard Thompson
Folk Music By Fusive on Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Richard Thompson (born April 3, 1949 in London, England) is a musician, best-known as a guitar player, singer, and songwriter. A solo artist since 1971, he first became widely known as a founding member of the British folk-rock ensemble Fairport Convention. He is a Muslim convert, although this is not apparent from his songs, which are mostly concerned with the darker side of life. He enjoys a loyal fan following, despite lack of mainstream commercial success.
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Billy Bragg
Folk Music By Fusive on Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Stephen William Bragg (born December 20, 1957), known as Billy Bragg, is a British musician known for his blend of folk, punk-rock, and protest music. He has been active for over 20 years. His music is a combination of poetry and political comment, with a dash of romance. He has collaborated with many other musicians, from Johnny Marr of The Smiths, protest folk singer Leon Rosselson to R.E.M., Kirsty MacColl, and Wilco.
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Cyril Tawny
Folk Music By Fusive on Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Cyril Tawney, British singer/songwriter, proponent of the traditional songs of the West of England and traditional and modern maritime songs. (Born October 12, 1930, Gosport, Hampshire; died April 21, 2005, Exeter.) Perhaps due to Tawney's family tradition of Naval service, Tawney joined the Royal Navy at the age of sixteen, serving for thirteen years, several of which were spent in submarines. During his service he developed a lifelong interest in English traditional music.
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Kathryn Tickell
Folk Music By Fusive on Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Kathryn Tickell (b 1967) is an English player of the Northumbrian smallpipes and fiddle. She has recorded eleven albums, and toured widely. Kathryn Tickell was born in Wark, in the North Tyne Valley of Northumberland. She took up the smallpipes aged nine, inspired by her family - especially her father Mike who was heavily involved in the local traditional music scene - and by the music of an older generation of traditional musicians such as Billy Pigg. By thirteen, Kathryn had won many traditional open smallpipes competitions, and was also making a name as an accomplished player of the fiddle.
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Anne Briggs
Folk Music By Fusive on Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Anne Patricia Briggs (born 1944), known as Anne Briggs, is an English folk singer. Although she travelled widely, in the 1960s and early 1970s, appearing at folk clubs and venues in England and Ireland, she never aspired to commercial success or achieved widespread public acknowledgement of her music. However, she was a highly influential figure in the English folk music revival, being a source of songs and musical inspiration for others such as A.L. Lloyd, Bert Jansch, The Watersons and Maddy Prior.
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The Saw Doctors - Huddersfield - Dec 2005
Folk Music By Fusive on Friday, December 09, 2005
Just been sent a review from a friend who went to see the Saw Doctors at Huddersfield last Thursday night, would love to see them myself, they sound absolutely awesome. Great music, great singing great dancing, and great venue- the band were on top form and the crowd was storming! The Huddersfield town hall was perfect. Even Leo Moran was publicly enthusing about the venue! the audience was very mixed ,very family orientated, with lots of young fans Excellent gig loved every minute - didn't want it to end! Atmosphere was wicked, songs were brill, they were just amazin! At times it was hard to work out who was having more fun the band or the audience.
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Dick Gaughan - Jims Cafe - Dec 6th
Folk Music By Fusive on Friday, December 09, 2005
At the Dick Gaughan gig at Jims Cafe on Tuesday, people were queing outside in the freezing cold for around 30 minutes to get a good seat for the performance. It was a fantastic gig with Dick Gaughan playing guitar and singing with the passion that he is well known for, his stage presence is amazing, his guitar playing is unbelievable, a great troubadour, he plays songs full of conviction that make you look at how you live your life, and certainly come away thinking, he is certainly a mastercraftsman.
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Mike Harding - Wednesday BBC Radio 2 - Folk Show
Folk Music By Fusive on Friday, December 09, 2005
I didn't get a chance to listen to the Mike Harding show on BBC Radio 2 on Wednesday night as I was out for the night in Burnley, so listened last night and also again today through the website, another great show as usual, this one with a difference being based on the Beatles Rubber Soul Album. In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the release of (arguably) The Beatles' folkiest album Rubber Soul.
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Jim's Cafe
Folk Music By Fusive on Friday, December 02, 2005
A quiet night last night at Jim's Cafe Colne, I ventured out in the heavy rain for the music night but unfortunately only 3 or so people turned up. I think that the weather and the fact that Christmas is approaching were the main reasons for this, as it is usually one of the best nights of the week. I'd like to think that people were saving themselves for the Dick Gaughan gig on Tuesday night, whick looks like it will be a great night. It's a small intimate venue so numbers will be limited. Tickets can be booked from planet records 01282 866317.
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Another great Mike Harding Show last night
Folk Music By Fusive on Thursday, December 01, 2005
Tonight Mike's show features three songs written about the civil rights movement in America, in recognition of the late Rosa Parks' Montgomery bus protest 50 years ago. Also Mike chats to 1970s folk icon Roy Harper and plays tracks from his new retrospective release Counter Culture. Plus Mike's usual great selection of the best in folk, roots and acoustic music including news of artists currently on tour and the latest album releases.
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Mandolin - The mandolin was first built in early 18th century.
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, November 30, 2005
A mandolin is a stringed musical instrument. At different times and in different places, the number and type of strings found on mandolins has varied. Today, the predominant configuration is that of the Neapolitan mandolin, with four courses of metal strings. Each pair of strings is tuned in unison, and are a fifth apart from adjacent pairs, giving an identical tuning to a violin (G-D-A-E low-to-high). Unlike a violin, the fingerboard of a mandolin is fretted and it is typically played with a flat pick (a plectrum). The mandolin was first built in early 18th century, and was descended from the mandora, a small lute used in the 16th century. Like the guitar, the mandolin is a poorly sustaining instrument. A note cannot be maintained for an arbitrary time as with a violin. Its higher pitch makes this problem more severe than with the guitar, and as a result, use of tremolo (rapid picking on a single note) is sometimes used to emulate a sustained note. This technique works particularly well with a mandolin's p
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Andy Irvine
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Andy Irvine is an Irish folk musician, singer, and songwriter, and former member of the popular band Planxty. He is an accomplished player of the mandolin, bouzouki, mandola, guitar, cittern, and harmonica. Irvine was born in London to Irish/Scots parents. As a child he took to acting, but gave it up when he reached adolescence. He studied classical guitar, but forsook it for the traditional method upon discovering Lonnie Donegan and the Skiffle boom of the 50s, and later Woody Guthrie. In the 1960s he found himself in Dublin, and began an itinerant life of a musician. He found musical influences in the likes of Ewan MacColl (notably the songs he wrote for his radio-ballads), and the Child Ballads.
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Acoustic Guitar
Folk Music By Fusive on Wednesday, November 30, 2005
An acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the Classical guitar, but generally strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound. Much heavier construction is required to withstand the added tension. Sometimes the term steel-stringed guitar or folk guitar is used to differentiate from the classical guitar. The term "acoustic guitar" is a retronym, since before the invention of the electric instrument, "guitar" meant only the non-amplified variety.
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Bodhrán - Irish Traditional Drum - Frame Drum
Folk Music By Fusive on Tuesday, November 29, 2005
The bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging in anywhere from 10" to 26" in diameter, with most drums measuring from 14" to 18". The sides of the drum are 3 1/2" to 8" deep. A goat skin head is tacked to one side (although nowadays, synthetic heads, or new materials like kangaroo skin, are sometimes used). The other side is open ended for the left hand to be placed against the inside of the drum head to control the pitch. One or two crossbars may be inside the frame. Some professional modern bodhráin integrate mechanical tuning systems similar to those used on drums found in drum kits.
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