This has been a good week for seeing well-known people in unusual settings doing interesting things.

On Friday, d_floorlandmine and I took ourselves off to the Barbican to see Bright Phoebus Revisited.

A bit of backstory required here - Bright Phoebus was a seminal modern folk album released in 1972 by The Watersons and friends. The songs were written mostly by ( Read more... )

One for the folklore and oral tradition hobbyists:

Here's a Health to the Barley Mow

From the sexy, savage' Cornish May Day rites of Alan Lomax's Oss Oss Wee Oss, to Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane's footage of ferociously fought traditional football; from children's games in London's bombed East End to intricate sword and step dances, this ( Read more... )

For everyone who's feeling a bit blue and hopeless right now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mary_Ellen_Carter

The Mary Ellen Carter
(Stan Rogers)

She went down last October in a pouring driving rain.
The skipper, he'd been drinking and the mate he felt no pain.
Too ( Read more... )

On Sunday afternoon my Dad called me to let me know that his good friend Matt Armour, a folk singer and songwriter, had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Unfortunately as a complication of the cancer, Matt suffered an embolism, and died in the early hours of Monday morning.

Matt was a stalwart of folk festivals and clubs across England and Scotland, ( Read more... )