Singers and songs which stunned me .

Subject: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Betsy
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 06:10 AM

As a part release from the 1954 definition Thread I thought I would like to recall the Singers and songs which got me going to and kept me going to Folk Clubs.
I emphasise the FIRST time, as some of these songs may have been hammered to death by now
40-odd years ago Vin Garbutt Black Velvet Band
40-odd years ago - Jim Sharp singing " At the turning of the Century .........." It may be called the Old man's song - (writer unknown to me).
30-Odd years ago an unbelievable R.McTell song performed by Dave Burland - Streets of London.
30-Odd years ago Tony Capstick performing Jimmy Clay (writer unknown to me).
Happy formative years for me.
I still remember the pleasure and anarchy of singing the Wild Rover 45 years ago but unfortunately it doesn't arouse the same sentiment these days.
Have you got any to mention ?

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 06:17 AM

At the turning of the century I was a lad of six

This is Old Man's Lament by Ian Campbell.
I'd bracket it with Billy Bragg's Between The Wars.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Will Fly
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 06:20 AM

40-odd years ago - the Dransfield brothers in York: "The Rout Of The Blues" and their version of "Scarborough Fair" - and the rest!

40-odd years ago - Davy Graham at the Cousins: "Better Git It In Your Soul" and "Angi" - and the rest!

40-odd years ago - Rev. Gary Davis in Manchester: "Buck Dance" - and the rest!

50 years ago - Big Bill Broonzy in Bristol: "Guitar Shuffle", etc...

40-odd years ago - unknown singer in Leeds: "The Golden Vanity"

40-odd years ago - Dave Swarbrick in Lancaster: "The Cuckoo's Nest"

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 06:28 AM

I wonder if the "unknown" singer in Leeds was Stefan Sobell?

A truly sparkling moment was hearing a then unknown Jim Moray in a radio interview (c 2003?) singing Early One Morning over a counterpoint of Young Collins. I went to his website to post congratulations and within minutes rather a lot of others had done the same.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Will Fly
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 07:14 AM

Diane - I think you've just solved a 40-year old mystery. All I knew was that he was indeed called Stefan and that he played what was then, to me, this wonderful fingerstyle guitar, and that his singing of the "Golden Vanity" was assured and captivating. I was just 20 at the time, but I can still see him at Leeds University Folk Club - and wishing I had a camera to capture his playing!

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: The Sandman
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 07:26 AM

Maggie Holland,singing The Death Of Blair Peach.
Nic Jones singing Canadeeio,TheJuke box as she Turned.
Jeannie Robertson singing My Son David.
Lou Killen,Flying Cloud.
Sara Carter singing the golden vanity, RoscoeHolcomb across the rocky mountains
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=roscoe+holcomb&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=Vf3RSb39KN7PjAf8mM3UDw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Kampervan
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 07:43 AM

30 years ago, Young Tradition singing Ratcliffe Highway
40 years ago Messrs Carthy and Swarbrick with Broomfield Hill
15 years ago Rosie Stewart and Moutains of Pomeroy
Quite recently, Bob Fox singing Trimden Grange.

That's what's so fantastic about this music, the greats are not all in the past.

K/van

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: kendall
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 07:44 AM

The sun is burning. It's about a nuclear explosion. Powerful message.

...twisted sightless wrecks of men go groping on their knees and cry in pain...(Ian Campbell)


And, of course, The Band played Waltzing Matilda; one of the most powerful songs I have ever heard.(Eric Bogle)

No Man's Land (Eric Bogle) ...for Willy McBride it all happened again, and again, and again and again..

And my favorite poem...home they go up the windy streets; they're thinking their men are homeward bound with anchors hungry for English ground; but the bloody fun of it is, they've all drowned... (The Loch Arcray by John Masefield)

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Will Fly
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 07:49 AM

Kendall, I'm lucky enough to have got a ticket for one of the dates (in July) on Eric Bogle's last UK tour. I first saw him in a country pub (the Laughing Fish) in a village in Sussex (Isfield) in 1982, I think. He sang "The Band played Waltzing Matilda" then - and I'm sure he'll play it when I see him in July - 27 years later!

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Banjiman
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 07:51 AM

4 days ago..... a new (to me) song by The Young'uns I think written by Sean Cooney (Plastic Cod'ead on here) about the bombardment of Hartlepool during WW1 ... from a Childs point of view. Hopefully he'll pop along and tell me what it is called. Simply Stunning!

2 Years ago: Southern Girls Reply (anon) sung by Jeff Warner & collected by his parents. Love it!

3 Years ago: Down In Mississipi (J.B. Lenoir)as sung by Sara Grey. Powerful song and great banjo playing.

Nearly 2 years ago: First time the Mrs sang me "The Visitor". I just knew she had written a great song. Still raises the hairs on the back of my neck.

40 years ago (when I was about 4): Fiddlers Green/ Three Score & Ten as done by The Broadside. Still remember singing them with the rest of the family in the back of my Dad's Morris 1000 Traveller while going (slowly) over the road to Applecross.

I could go on..........

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: jacqui.c
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 07:59 AM

All Around My Hat - Steeleye Span - thirty-five years ago.
Ellen Vannin - The Spinners - thirty-five years ago.
The Bloody Gardener - Martin Carthy - nine years ago.
Miners Lullaby - four years ago.
Oystershell Road - Gordon Bok - three years ago.
The Lockkeeper - Kendall Morse - one year ago.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to have lunch
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 08:18 AM

Um..... how can I put this....









Mozart's 'Coronation Mass', sung by the Dorchester Choral Society, August bank holiday, 1989. took me 9 days to come down from that high and was worth missing Towersey for. Got me totally hooked on Mozart, and was seconded only by another Mozart moment - singing the 'Requiem' in St Martin-in-the-Field, London with East London Chorus, in 2004.

Can't remember the first folk song, my granfer was always humming tunes, many of which I now recognise as folk songs.

LTS

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: GUEST,George Henderson
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 08:32 AM

Sorry to upset you Kampervan but the Young Tradition broke up in 1969 (I was at their darewell gig in Cecil Sharpe House). That was 40 years ago.

Inluences for me were a group of singers who never made fame. They sang as The Reivers in the 7 Stars in Ponteland Northunberland singing all the popular folk of the time. These songs included The Wild Rover, The Black Velvet Band, Home boys home and we often heard Jim Sharpe singing Paddy Lay Back.

Great days and what an introduction.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Harmonium Hero
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 08:33 AM

Ooo, er....let's see....
Somewhere about 1966, Joan Baez singing 'The Great Silkie'.
Bit eaarlier, and onwards...Bob Dylan, singing Bob Dylan stuff.
Must have been 1967ish, on Julie Felix show (British TV), The Corries, with 28-string guitar and enormous bodhran (played with a bone) singing 'Kishmul's Galley'.
Sometime in the 70s, on a TV broadcast of a Scottish concert (the significance of which I can't now recall) which featured all the usual crowd then beloved of British TV - who shall remain nameless, but who Billy Connolly likes to refer to as 'singin' shortbread tins', all doing their 10 minute spots and getting together for the Scottish Old Pals act; then the Corries came on - no tartan - and sang one song - 'Liberty'. Stirring stuff. Makes you think you're Scottish when you're not. Or is that just me?
In the opening sequence (if memory serves) of a black and white film on telly in the 70s (?). Somebody - possibly Bert Lloyd - singing 'Searching for Lambs.
At a folk festival in St George's Hall, Liverpool, 1968/9?. Lizzie Higgins singing McCrimmon's Lament.
Just looking at this list.... there seems to be a preponderance of Scottish stuff. I love it!
John Kelly.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 08:36 AM

The first time I heard Ian Campbell's The Sun Is Burning it was by The Three City Four (Leon Rosselson/Roy Bailey/Marian McKenzie/Martin Carthy (or possibly Ralph Trainer had already replaced MC). It was one of those moments.

Dick Gaughan doing his Sail On / Why Old Men Cry and Bran McNeill's No Gods And Precious Few Heroes.

And as he's coming soon on tour, I'll mention Chris Foster doing Leon Rosselson's The Olive Tree in a dreary, dusty Oxford room. It was the first time I'd heard it but for him it was the first time he'd got through it without crying.

Most recently, seeing Jon Boden do Blue Dress live for the first time during the launch for his 2nd solo CD a couple of weeks ago.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 08:44 AM

I was at that farewell YT gig in 1969 too, but they did reform once or twice during the 70s, so maybe Kampervan rolled up at on one of these occasions. Especially memorable was the benefit for Clive Woolf (former Assistant Librarian at VWML) at Hampstead Town Hall in (probably) 1977.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 08:45 AM

Norma Waterson singing her solo version of ' Coal Not Dole ' this is one powerful song.

Ian Campbells song is ' The Old Mans Tale, ' dated now but a powerful song nonetheless.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: nutty
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 08:56 AM

Over 40 years ago .... Vatican Rag and Rickety Tickety Tin -- Tom Lehrer

35 years ago ... Barbara Dickson ... The Witch of the Westmorland (Archie Fisher)? and Firebird .... Rosie Hardman


30 ish years ..... Bedlam Boys ..... Nic Jones
Crazy Man Michael .... Fairport Convention .... Richard Thompson


25 Years ago (approx) Dick Gaughan .... Stand up for Judas ... Leon Rossleson and Rosa's Lovely Daughters .... Roy Bailey


15+ years The Drover's Boy   .... Ted Egan and The Easter Tree .... Brian McNeil


10 years approx Flowers and Guns ... George Papavgaris

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: breezy
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 09:00 AM

Hello Diane Easy

At the turning of the century
Wasnt he
a lad of Five
Me father went to hunt the boer
and never came back alive

'69 ish Tony Capstick singing that and Grey October at the Rising Sun Catford

Hi Will yes it was Stefan Sobell who also sang 'The Black Velvet' and I think 'Johnny Cope' or 'Lowlands'Low' 1964-7

Then there was PP M singing 'Blowing In the Wind' at S N at the london palladium

'72/3 ish Mary from Sheffield singing Bogles 'The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' from the recording by June Tabor at the stable loft in Wadebridge. Same voice range great delivery Mary see ya at the ringers.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: breezy
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 09:01 AM

Harvey Andrews 'The Soldier'

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: SINSULL
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 09:06 AM

46 years ago - Dylan singing Hard Rain's Gonna Fall after Joan Baez dragged him onstage at a concert in NY.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 09:07 AM

Another one that grabbed me was Pete Seeger singing ' Little Boxes ' on Sunday Night At The London Palladium, long long time ago, then two Paul Robeson songs, ' Joe Hill ' and ' No More Auction Block '

Dave H

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 09:49 AM

Late 1960s - Martin Carthy singing and playing "Brown Adam".

The accompaniment was a masterpiece of understatement.

Janis Ian - "At Seventeen", and "Tea and Sympathy".

June Tabor - "Hugh the Graeme".

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: greg stephens
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 09:57 AM

(The title, and the first posts, are amBiguous; is it confined to singers heard in folk clubs, or is it more general? I have taken it to mean people singing folk songs anywhere)
Aubrey Cantwell singing the Nightingale in the Bell in Standlake, c1966.
Seamus Begley singing in Dingle, c 2000.
Gary Davis, Cambridge c 1966.
Martin Cummins singing the Flying Cloud, several places, 60's.
The Watersons, some pub in London 64ish.
Jim Parkin singing Joe Bowman and Follow the Plough, Highwayman, Burro, Kirkby Lonsdale c 1975.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Betsy
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 09:59 AM

Breezy thanks for correcting Diane's post 06:17 AM - I was flummoxed - I assumed she was correct and that I had forgotten / was having a Senior moment .
In your reply , Father went to fight the Boer ( as in Boer war ) not to hunt the boer , still we can't get everything right can we?
Thanks for everyone for giving my memory banks a good waking-up, loads of top singers and songs mentioned, and Kampervan's note re Bob Fox is reassuring that we can still get stunned these days - we don't need to go back "years" .

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: topical tom
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 10:11 AM

1.And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda by Eric Bogle at the Golem Coffeehouse in the 80s
2.No Man's Land, same venue and era (by Eric Bogle)
3.Natalie MacMaster in Lasalle, Quebec circa 2000 (a blowaway concert!)
4.A Reason for it All, again by Eric Bogle, Champlain Valley Folk Festival
5.Odetta singing Oh Freedom

But, oh, so many more!

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 10:35 AM

The Talkin' Taser Blues

I've yet to write this. One o' these days...

But I WILL BE stunned by it, I'm certain.

Art

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: matt milton
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 10:44 AM

An unknown singer in Cuba last year. She was in her 60s or 70s. She was talking to a younger singer, about 20 years or so younger (her daughter?) who had just finished playing a set in a bar. The younger woman was describing something that was upsetting her, because she started to cry. The older woman picked up her guitar (which as it happens was badly out of tune) and sang a couple of verses of a song. The younger woman stopped crying.

It was the most direct and moving demonstration of what the point of music is I've ever experienced. I like to think that whatever the problem was, the words of the song offered a solution to it.

I'd seen the same old lady singing on the street two days before. Wish I'd spoken Spanish, because she was, with no exaggeration, the most interesting son singer I've heard. She sounded like Elizabeth Cotten, but croaky and Hispanic.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 10:45 AM

All my folk epiphanies are about 30 years apart, mid-70s or mid-00s - what can I say, I was listening to the Desperate Bicycles when I could have been listening to Nic Jones.

On TV: bah-dap-ba-doo-da, bah-dap-ba-doo-da-dum... Opening credits of a long-forgotten programme called Take three girls, performed by Pentangle and subsequently worked up into Light Flight, the first track on Basket of light. Impressed me deeply - it was like the Swingle Singers only cool. My sister got the LP shortly after the programme had been on, & that impressed me even deeperly. All acoustic, and a fantastic production (Shel Talmy).

On TV (more recently): the Coppers (shortly before Bob's death) doing Thousands or more. It was the first time I'd heard that song, and I was transfixed - I didn't want to listen to anything else ever again.

On record: Pentangle again, When I was in my prime; planted the idea that you could sing songs unaccompanied in my mind.

Live (more recently): I won't embarrass him by going on about it, but John Kelly.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 10:48 AM

Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick "Two Butchers" Birtley Folk Club 1966

Martyn Wyndham-Read "The Overlanders" Royal Turf, Felling 1968

Ewan MacColl "James Herries" South Tyne Folk & Blues,County Hotel, South Shields 1970

A.L.Lloyd "Tam Lin" Newcastle Festival 1971

Nic Jones "Lakes of Shilin" The Barleycorn, Rose & Crown, Newcastle upon Tyne 1973

Louis Killen "The Sheffield Apprentice" Robin Hood Folk Club, Stapleford, Notts 2004

Mary Humphreys "Sheath and Knife" Traditions at the Tiger, Long Eaton 2008
among many others

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 11:14 AM

1972 - Martin Carthy singing "Skewball"
1972 - Maddy Prior singing "Wee Weaver"
1974 - The Songwainers singing "Bright Phoebus" and "Holland's Leaguer"
.....
1997 - June Tabor singing Bogle's "And The Band Played Waltzing matilda". My skull and face went numb, I nearly had a stroke. Later I just cried uncontrollably. No better song and no better singer in my book.
2001 - Bob Fox singing "From Clare to Here" and "Big River"

Nutty, thanks for the accolade. But time doesn't flow as fast as that - The Flowers & The Guns was written in August 2002, so you must have heard it at "your" Song & Ale the following winter.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: bobad
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 11:35 AM

"....Tony Capstick performing Jimmy Clay (writer unknown to me)."

That writer would be Patrick Sky.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 12:09 PM

Steeleye Span..King Henry
Fairport Convention...Matty Groves
Joan Baez.. Mary Hamilton
Frankie Armstrong...The Two Sisters (The Bonnie Swan)
June Tabor..Clerk Sanders & Reynardine and most of what she has done Since
Martin Carthy..Famous Flower of serving Men and all of what he has done since
COB..Skranky Black Farmer
Nic Jones...Miles Weatherhill and Saea Bell
Norma Waterson..Caledonia
The Watersons..Swarthfell Rocks, To name but a few.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 12:16 PM

I've never been a 'folk consumer' as I've heard it termed elsewhere. So I guess I'm still in that space covered by those who are describing events of fourty years ago...
Though having dipping my toes into folk waters, I have recently heard one or two things which have struck me as being fecking brilliant!
And err, I've considered giving both a go for myself, even though the chorus on the latter is well tough going...!
The Easter Tree
Blood and Gold
The last was posted on another thread, but deserves to be posted here too.. ;-):
Water Boy

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Betsy
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 12:33 PM

stunned me ....or actaully my daughter ....wept as a 10 / 12 yearold on hearing June Tabor sing the Unicorn at the Redcar Festival about 18 Years ago.
Thanks Bobad for Jimmy Clay and Patrick Sky

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Mark Ross
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 01:23 PM

Rev. Gary Davis singing DEATH DON'T HAVE NO MERCY at an anti-war demonstration in NYC c.'65
Jerry Merrick doing FOLLOW

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: folkypaul
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 02:31 PM

As we attended most of thesame clubs at the time I have to agree with some of Betsy's choice's

Jim Sharp - The Old Man's Song/Tale?
Tony Capstick - But I preferred Captain Grant (Brillient guitar)

Others -
Christy Moore doing most things.
&
The emergent Hedgehog Pie simply enjoying themselves.

PaulO

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 02:46 PM

OK, I was a year out in the age of the character in Old Man's Lament (depends I suppose on whether you think a new century starts at 0 or at 1), but I got the title and author right.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: folkypaul
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 03:00 PM

Old Man's song/tale/lament we'll have to think about that?

But at the turning of the century he was a lad of five.   That's why his father never came back alive.

PaulO

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 03:27 PM

Anne Byrne singing the Croppy Boy..which I think is on You Tube and I will post if I can. Pat's People in Vancouver B.C. singing the Boys of the Old Brigade. The wife of an Army officer heading for Vietnam the next day who sang America the Beautiful. Gordon Quinton playing guitar in Newfoundland...mg

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 03:37 PM

well I tried twice to send the click

click here

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 03:53 PM

When I was fourteen my dad took me to see Gordon Lightfoot. The encore was The Canadian Railroad Trilogy. When I was in college I was on an exchange program and went to a lot of London folk clubs and was floored by Nic Jones singing Annachie Gordon. I also recall being spellbound by the 13 minute version of Calvary Cross that Richard and Linda Thompson performed at the Theatre Royal in November of 1975. Also, hearing Vin Garbutt singing Cissy Lee (I may have the title incorrect) brought tears to my eyes.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 04:02 PM

Oh yeah. I believe the one time Tony Rose played in Chicago in 1982 I liked Young Hunting so much I spent years trying to track it down. Also, around that time seeing Stan Rogers singing almost anything.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: breezy
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 04:04 PM

Just been reminded,

1994 Roy Bailey singing the 'Testamony of Patience Kershaw'

Vin Garbut 'City of Angels'

There are some really great songs out there

June Tabor's version of 'Willie MacBride'

and 'The King of Rome'

shit this is heavy

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: breezy
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 04:05 PM

pre college days '64 Harvey's 'Kid's Colour Bar'

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: breezy
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 04:07 PM

John Denver singing Tom Paxton's '[Get up] Jimmy Newman'

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: breezy
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 04:08 PM

Artisan doing Stan's 'raising of the M E C'

Bogle doing Stans 'Lock-keeper'

Stan 'House of Orange'

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: Folkiedave
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 04:21 PM

There has been a huge number of them - too many to name.

Lal Waterson - Stow Brow on the stage at the Bluebell and every time she sang solo.

Mike Waterson - first time he sang Tam Lin.

Jeanie Robertson, Joe Heaney, Lizzie Higgins, Willie Scott.

Great voices like Roy Bailey, Bob Fox.

Kathryn Roberts (first singer to win BBC Young Folk Award)

Maz O' Connor - Constant Lovers. There is the future.

And finally melodeon and saxophone player Matt Crum.

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: breezy
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 04:28 PM

The correct title is 'The Old Man's Tale'

the subtle change from 'fight ' to 'hunt' was based around the word 'boer' that also sounds like 'boar'. Clever eh?

Night night

Subject: RE: Singers and songs which stunned me .
From: kendall
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 04:40 PM

On the road from Srebrenica by Tom Paxton
The horrors of war and the massacre of unarmed civilians.