I heard a bit of the first one and am looking forward to the second. Blurb:

The Folk Voice

Tuesday 16 January 2007 9:30-9:45 (Radio 4 FM)

What defines an unforgettable voice, and is a great voice born or made? In this series we will not only hear and analyse some of the best voices across the last century, but also inform about music and the context in which they are singing.

We consider the qualities essential to sing traditional English folk songs. In a genre where storytelling ability is paramount, is having a beautiful voice a burden or a blessing?

If it were not for the work of a handful of collectors in the early part of the 20th Century travelling around the country, painstakingly recording the music of the working class, many of the songs which had been orally handed down from generation to generation for hundred of years would have been lost.

Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy, who have been leading figures in the folk revival since the 1960s, discuss the artistry of the folk singer.


sian