Song Thief - play on Radio 4 on Saturday 8 Aug

Subject: Song Thief
From: GUEST,Cath
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 05:25 AM

Excellent play on Radio 4 on Saturday afternoon (yesterday) - included lots of Northumbrian rural and urban songs with music by Alistair Anderson. Well worth a listen on whatever you listen again on.

BBC blurb - Romantic drama by Michael Chaplin. A young composer arrives in Northumberland, looking for an old man reputed to have written a hauntingly beautiful love song. He embarks on a cold-hearted campaign to make the old man's daughter fall in love with him.

Subject: RE: Song Thief
From: peregrina
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 05:40 AM

Not all the music was Northumbrian--it was odd hear Poor Wayfaring Stranger used at least three times when there are plenty of more appropriate alternatives.

Subject: RE: Song Thief
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 05:41 AM

Brilliant - thanks so much for the heads-up, Cath. It's in the BBC Radio 4 Programme Listings as "Saturday Play", and a musician called Sheena Masson is credited. Link here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lxsqw

Subject: RE: Song Thief
From: Leadfingers
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 08:37 AM

Listened to it and enjoyed it ! As I am 'Officially' a Song Thief myself , it was of great interest !

Subject: RE: Song Thief
From: GUEST,Amber
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 09:07 AM

Yes, I enjoyed it too! Especially 'Bonny at Morn'.

Cant believe the length some folkies will go to, to get a song though!

Amber

Subject: RE: Song Thief
From: Folkiedave
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 09:21 AM

Concertina and fiddle were by Sheen Masson (Stocai and Stomp). There was nother musician credited too. Does anyone know if the producer was Kit Bailey? Catherine on the credits.....

Subject: RE: Song Thief
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 09:37 AM

I wondered if they had put it out on Saturday for the benefit of folkies driving back from Sidmouth.

Subject: RE: Song Thief
From: Stower
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 10:54 AM

Thanks, Cath, for putting this on: you have beaten me to it. And yes, Topsie, I heard this on the way back from Sidmouth. Peregrina, I agree, a couple of the song choices were odd; but most were not, and I thought the play underlined some of the ethical debates about song collecting, the meaning of the song to the singer (possibly lost to the collector) and the different worlds inhabited by song collectors and their sources. A play written by a folkie, I'd say, or by someone who has done their homework on the issues.

Subject: RE: Song Thief
From: Folkiedave
Date: 09 Aug 09 - 04:15 PM

I'd agree with those sentiments - someone had done their homework...

Subject: RE: Song Thief - play on Radio 4 on Saturday 8 Aug
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 10:28 AM

I was parked in a car park at Malton listening to this.
Enjoyed muchly

Subject: RE: Song Thief - play on Radio 4 on Saturday 8 Aug
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 11:53 AM

The other musician was Kevin Adams on hammer dulcimer, and Ally Anderson wrote Abel Humble's evocative "The Song Of The Curlew" heard right at the end. Lovely stuff -

Subject: RE: Song Thief - play on Radio 4 on Saturday 8 Aug
From: GUEST,St George
Date: 10 Aug 09 - 02:21 PM

Not another program on Dylan!