Category Archives: English folk/traditional

February 2, 2016 · 13:47

The Rising Sun

 

On Candlemass Day, a tune to drive winter away – a shining waltz from Leveret‘s newly-released second CD, In The Round. The cover notes tell us the tune was originally published by Daniel Wright in 1715, in An Extraordinary Collection of Pleasant & Merry Humours (etc.).

(See below for where to buy In The Round, and booking details on the UK launch tour)

 

Leveret

Andy Cutting (diatonic melodeon), Rob Harbron (concertina), Sam Sweeney (fiddle)

 

(‘Leveret – The Rising Sun’ YouTube video, 3.58.  Posted by Leveret, 17 Dec 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36U2v05nk4)

 

Leveret introduce ‘In The Round’

The band talk about the making of the CD, their material, and playing together.

 

(‘Leveret Introduce “In The Round”‘ YouTube video, 4.47.  Posted by Leveret, 26 Jan 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhLJ4pZe4IU)

(Recorded live at The Convent)

 

Leveret

 

CD available from Leveret website here

 

‘IN THE ROUND’ UK LAUNCH TOUR starts 25 February. Details here (scroll down for dates)

 

 

Leveret: website  Soundcloud  Facebook  Twitter

Rob Harbron: website

Sam Sweeney: website

Andy Cutting: website

(Social media: see websites for links)

 

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January 14, 2016 · 11:33

DOUBLE GIG ALERT: TONIGHT & SATURDAY

 

ALMA

Emily Askew, John Dipper, Nicola Lyons (fiddles), Adrian Lever (guitar)

almafiddlesTONIGHT, Thursday 14 January, at Islington Folk Club 

 

 

 

 

 

GRAVITY

Dipper Malkin (John Dipper/viola d’amore, Dave Malkin/guitar), with dancers Hat Vail and Helen Penn

Saturday 16 January, Cecil Sharp House, 7.30-9.00 pm

Free event: details and booking 

dippermalkin

Preview of work from their Creative Artist Residency – based on manuscripts from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library – that explores ‘the unique relationship between music and morris dance, specifically the gravity defying ‘slows’ that allow dancers to showcase their expertise.’

 

EFDSS_Gravity_CAR_Banner

 

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January 8, 2016 · 08:52

Stop Press! Multi-instrumental folk courses about to start

 

Folk Music Retreat with Laurel Swift

BOOKING ABOUT TO CLOSE!

Laurel’s retreats always need a pair of walking shoes as well as your instrument/s, but this one needs a torch as well! Fabulous teaching and playing in wonderful locations – can’t recommend too highly.

tannershatch

 

15-17 January

Tanner’s Hatch, Surrey

Full details and booking on Laurel Swift website

 

 

Old Time Music Course with Ed Hicks

A rare opportunity to focus on this delightful music in depth. (Warning: you may just lose your musical heart!)

oldtimestringband-326x446

Wednesdays 7.00pm-8:30pm

13 January to 17 February

14 Bacon St, London E1 6LF

Full details and booking: Trad Academy website

 

 

 

 

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December 18, 2015 · 17:26

Three Christmas Jigs

Hello everyone!

It’s been a longer break than I’d hoped, but here I am again – and there are more tunes to come to celebrate Christmas and New Year.

My first Christmas post is this  sprightly set of jigs played and sung in wonderful harmony by Finnish folk band Himmeli – named for the traditional Finnish geometric ornaments made of straw  hung above dining tables from Christmas to midsummer to ensure a good crop in the coming year.Himmeli image_n

I Saw Three Ships (trad. English)

On lapsi syntynyt meille  (There is a child born to us) (trad. Finnish)

Sussex Carol (trad. English)

 

Himmeli

Markus Asunta (flute), Jaakko Kyrö (octave mandolin), Paula Susitaival (fiddle), Anni Tolvanen (nyckelharpa, vocals)

 

(‘HIMMELI – Three Christmas Jigs’ YouTube video, 3:41. Posted by Himmeli Folk, 8 Nov 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvj7_IIU2s4)

 

Further details of Himmeli’s gigs, recordings etc are on their website, and on Facebook.

 

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October 31, 2015 · 18:42

Quinn Darrow Hornpipe

 

Breezy hornpipe that may have travelled to American and back* before arriving in the playlist of Boldwood’s unissued 2012 album Mudlarking.  (*see Matthew Coatsworth’s Folkmusicnotes)

 

Boldwood

Becky Price (accordion), Miranda Rutter  (fiddle, viola), Matthew Coatsworth (fiddle, viola)

 

https://soundcloud.com/boldwood/08-quinn-darrow-hornpipe

 

 

boldwood cdBoldwood’s wonderful CDs are available on their website – along with marvellous tunes book The Boldwood Dancing Master,  ‘a collection of English country dance tunes from 1679 to 1838’.

Current details of recordings, concerts etc are also on their  Facebook page.

 

Use the Search box above to find other great Boldwood tunes.

 

 

 

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October 8, 2015 · 20:57

First False Path

 

A beautiful light-and-shade waltz composed by English fiddler, bass-player and violist Laurel Swift, also widely known as a dancer, choreographer, composer, and inspirational teacher of all things musical. Laurel is playing here with duo partner, fiddler, melodeon-player and dancer Ben Moss (you may remember the tune from a May 2015 Fiddletails post which focused on the second tune in the set, Whitefrairs’ Hornpipe.)

 

Ben Moss & Laurel Swift

Filmed at Sidmouth Folk Week 2014.

 

(‘Ben Moss & Laurel Swift – Waltz Set’ YouTube video, 3:48. Posted by Laurel Swift, 12 Dec 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNSsjxrLv0M)

 

Laurel Swift (fiddle)

Solo teaching video made for Laurel’s Ealing Folk Band class (a treasure-trove of mainly English tunes and their dots).

 

(‘first false path’ YouTube video, 1.15. Posted by ealingsessions, 1 May 2012. https://youtu.be/KBG4RDja8Zk)

 

BenandLaurel 2

GIG ALERT!

Ben Moss & Laurel Swift play Walthamstow Folk Club, London, Sunday 25 October. Details and tickets here. (Highly recommended – they played and sang up a storm at their Green Note gig back in January 2015!)

More information on their website, and on Facebook, and Twitter (@FolkieBen, @Laurel_Swift).  Oxford Folk Weekend has an interesting biography of the duo linked to a future gig in April 2016.

Current EP available from Ben & Laurel’s website, where you can listen to the great (free!) track No Money. 

 

BenandLaurelCD

 

 

 

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September 26, 2015 · 15:24

Purlongs

 

Purlongs is an intriguingly crooked tune from Playford’s Dancing Master (1651), and the roots of its inscrutable title are much debated. (Andy Cutting’s definition: ‘Any distance travelled by a cat.’)

However, the word appears to be a Middle English variation of ‘purloin’ – to steal, in a stealthy manner:

Purlong: Middle English purloinen, to remove, from Anglo-Norman purloigner. Noun: purloiner. (Via thefreedictionary.com)

And there you have it. Purlongs. Thieves/robbers. Case closed?

(Perhaps not. Googling purlongs also gave me furlongs/corruption of, and instructions for installing purlins when putting up a roof.)

 

Cut to the chase! Here are two wonderful bands – Leveret and Boldwood – playing the lovely Purlongs.

 

Leveret*

Andy Cutting (melodeon), Rob Harbron (concertina), Sam Sweeney (fiddle)

Purlongs played second in a set with Whitefriars Hornpipe, which was the tune for 28 May (Purlongs: 2:50). Mr Cutting half visible but entirely audible.

 

(‘Leveret – Whitefriars & Purlongs Live in Dursley Town Hall’ YouTube video, 5:41. Posted by Sam Sweeney, 12 Jul 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwCdsI6Qrx4)

The set is on Leveret’s 2015 CD New Anything, available from their website.

*GIG ALERT!

Leveret tourLeveret kick off their UK tour at Cecil Sharp House, London. THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boldwood

Becky Price (piano accordion), Matthew Coatsworth, Kate Moran, Daniel Wolverson (fiddles)

Played second in a set with Fete de Village (Purlongs: 2:10) in a live performance at The Queen’s College Chapel, Oxford, 1st June 2013, featured on the unpublished CD Mudlarking**.

 

https://soundcloud.com/boldwood/fete-de-village-purlongs

 

For news of gigs and recordings, see Boldwood’s website and their lively Facebook page.

**For previously-featured tunes from Mudlarking, see also Jackson’s Shaving Brush (June 2015) and The Miller of Perth (Aug 2015).

 

 

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September 18, 2015 · 11:56

When At War on the Ocean

 

It’s one of those weeks when you can step up to the plate and learn a set of tunes, or just kick back and focus on one. Or of course just kick back…

Oss is an English trio playing English regional ‘gems and forgotten songs’ unearthed from manuscripts. The featured tune is John Dipper’s reworking of a traditional English tune, played second in a surprising set with the lovely ‘Dance’ from Purcell’s 1688 opera Dido and Æneas.

(Worlds collide for me this week — I sang chorus in this opera at school!)

 

Oss

John Dipper (viola d’amore), Nick Hart (duet concertina, voice), Tom Moore (violin)

(When At War: 3:20)

 

 

The self-titled EP is available from the Oss website.  You can also follow them on Facebook.

 

GIG ALERT!

oss playing

Catch Oss live at Camden’s Green Note, MONDAY 21 SEPTEMBER

 

 

 

These guys really get around – here are just a few of their individual musical projects:

 

Nick Hart: melodeon and concertina player, multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire, maker of beautiful bones.

Plays with many collaborations, including the Ceilidh Liberation Front, and for the Belles of London City Morris.

Co-hosts and teaches at East London’s great Trad Academy. (Look out for his amazing bones workshops, and read the fascinating esoteric notes on his handmade bones in his online shop!)

 

John Dipper: English Acoustic Collective and multiple projects/collaborations, including:

WORKSHOP ALERT! Acoustic Creativity and Exploration Workshop Days with Emily Askew: Guildford 11 October, Bristol 29 November.

2015 EFDSS Creative Artist Residency with guitarist Dave Malkin and dancers Hat Vail and Helen Penn.

Alma, with fiddlers Emily Askew and Nicola Lyons, and guitarist Adrian Lever.

And not forgetting… The Hobbit soundtrack. (See John’s website above for other projects.)

 

Tom Moore: False Lights, with Sam Carter, Nick Cooke, Jim Moray, Sam Nadel, Jon Thorne.

GIG ALERT! False Lights at the London Folk & Roots Festival, 30 October,  Sebright Arms.

Moore Moss Rutter, with Archie Churchill-Moss and Jack Rutter.

Duo with Nick Hart.

 

Phew! Great music played by great guys!

Don’t forget – they’re live at Camden’s GREEN NOTE, MONDAY 21 SEPTEMBER!

 

 

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September 17, 2015 · 10:37

GLOWORMS GIG ALERT!

 

GLOWORMS 

Laurel Swift (fiddle, voice, clogs), Colin Cotter (banjo, stompbox), Jon Brenner (piano accordion)

 

The mighty Gloworms play their ‘shiny-bright English ceilidh’ at a rare Knees Up Cecil Sharp ceilidh tomorrow night, Friday 20 September, at Cecil Sharp House. 8-11pm, £10/£8 on the door.

glowormsderek

 

Dance, stumble, or just sit and soak up their amazing rhythms. Make it if you possibly can!

 

 

 

 

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September 4, 2015 · 12:43

Jenny Pluck Pears

An attempt to conjure a golden September from this year’s grey English summer – if we all play it like mad, the sun will come out!

My beautiful namesake tune is from Playford’s Dancing Master of 1651. Two very different arrangements – it is traditionally played with the A and B parts in different time signatures. And (might have guessed!) any tune involving women and fruit had sexual connotations. Who knew…

 

Leveret

Andy Cutting (melodeon), Rob Harbron (concertina), Sam Sweeney (fiddle)

 

https://soundcloud.com/sam-sweeney/jenny-pluck-pears-1

 

The tune is on Leveret’s 2015 CD New Anything, available from their website.

Leveret are touring in the UK in October – starting with a gem of a format: an acoustic set, performed in the round. Cecil Sharp House, 1 October. Details and booking here. Don’t miss it! Full tour dates here (scroll down to Gigs/Autumn Tour 2015).

 

Blowzabella

Andy Cutting (diatonic button accordion, triangle), Jo Freya (vocals, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophones, whistle), Paul James (border bagpipes, soprano and alto saxophones, whistle), Gregory Jolivet (alto hurdy-gurdy), Dave Shepherd (violin, octave violin), Barn Stradling (acoustic bass guitar, octave bass guitar), Jon Swayne (border bagpipes, soprano and alto saxophones)

Played here with the traditional time-changes, first in a set with Half Hanniken

 

(‘Jenny Pluck Pears / Half Hanniken’ YouTube video, 4.37. Posted by #Blowzabella, 20 Nov 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h49aR3R_g8U)

For upcoming gigs, band news and recordings, go to Blowzabella’s website here.

 

 

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