The last two things I've listened to:

A new (to me ) CD, Celtic Wales (Arc Music 2001), part of their excellent Celtic Music series, with good liner notes in English and Welsh.   I particularly liked Seidr Ddoe ("Yesterday's Cider") by Plethyn, set to music by that group for a poem by Myrddin ap Dafydd, a poet hitherto unknown to me, but judging by these lyrics even in translation (I have no Welsh) is one I should look up.

And an old favorite I hadn't listened to for a while, Lads & Lasses: Music of the English Countryside (Soundalive CD, 1995), with performances by groups I haven't known from other CDs, The City Waites and The Noise of Minstrels. They are very much in the style of such better known (to me at least)groups as The Baltimore Consort. The spirited performances are mostly from Playford, and will be very attractive to anyone who enjoys this period of English music. Of particular note was a Playford song called here "Rufty Tufty," which proves to be yet another name for the tune most commonly known now as "Cold and Raw." This is a fascinating tune, some say originally Scottish, but reappearing again and again in British music, even having been used as a surprisingly good fit for the words of The Vicar of Bray. I've adapted it myself as a setting for Housman's Oh, when I was in love with you.

Jon Corelis