|
Subject: Voice of the People From: Wally Macnow Date: 25 Nov 98 - 09:44 AM We've received several inquiries about a new Topic label CD series released in England in October which has been compared to the Folkways Anthology. The series consists of 20 CDs and is entitled "The Voice of the People, A Series of Anthologies of Traditional Music Edited by Reg Hall." Each of the recordings sells for $22.95. We expect to have it in stock in about 2 weeks. Pre-orders will receive a 5% discount. Here's the information that I have about it.
"This series makes available nearly 500 recordings of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh traditional music drawn from the archives of Topic Records and from private collections. Compiled as thematic anthologies, each volume stands on its own, but the series as a whole presents an extensive and varied picture of traditional singing, instrumental music-making and dancing throughout the course of the 20th century. Many of the singers and musicians and their recorded performances presented here are classic, but the inclusion of some of the less-known performers and genres broadens the horizon by offering glimpses at some little-known nooks and crannies of traditional music making..." |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Bert Date: 25 Nov 98 - 10:38 AM That looks like a good collection Wally. Have you talked with Max about distribution through Onstage Media? Bert. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Wally Macnow Date: 04 Jul 99 - 05:27 PM Bert, We have an arrangement with The Mudcat whereby they get a percentage of all sales to customers whe tell us they found us through the mudcat. Our Voice of the People page is here. Wally Camsco Music |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Ruth Archer Date: 04 Nov 07 - 02:49 PM Have just received the entire Voice of the People collection as a belated (but fabulous!) birthday present. So to those of you who have got it (or parts of it), which are your favourite CDs? Which should I listen to first? I'm thinking maybe My Father is the King of the Gypsies is a good one to start with...oh, and I wish I could get more memory for my iPod! |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: mattkeen Date: 04 Nov 07 - 03:04 PM I was goona say go for My father is the King of the Gypses Then any of the others n any order Actually I tend to look and see how many Pop Maynards ther are on each CD as I have become addicyed to his voice |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 04 Nov 07 - 03:08 PM Link to "Voice of the People" doesn't work. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: The Borchester Echo Date: 04 Nov 07 - 03:11 PM Rig-A-Jig-Jig on repeat. Then You Lazy Lot of Boneshakers Then all the rest. Silly question really. Sorry. Just play them. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Ruth Archer Date: 04 Nov 07 - 03:14 PM I'm quite excited by the Mary Ann Haynes and Phoebe Smith stuff - I love them both. It's really exciting to see so many songs that I know through revival singers - I can't wait to hear the source versions. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Ruth Archer Date: 04 Nov 07 - 03:16 PM Indeed, Countess - but I thought it might inspire a discussion about people's favourites, and the series itself... |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: The Borchester Echo Date: 04 Nov 07 - 03:38 PM Oi, I'm a Potiate hese days, having resigned my Contessaship. OK, You Lazy Lot Of Boneshakers, specifically Jinky Wells playing Highland Mary. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Jack Blandiver Date: 04 Nov 07 - 03:56 PM Shame they edited out Felix Doran's spoken intro to his rendering of The Foxhunt; one wonders how many other recordings were similarly dealt with... As fine a collection as VOTP is, one can't help feeling it represents the tip of the iceberg of what presently languishes in Topic's vaults. Methinks they should follow the example of The Max Hunter Archive and get the whole lot on line as an open resource. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: RTim Date: 04 Nov 07 - 04:01 PM They are all VERY GOOD - If I had to pick a favourite it would be the Gyspy CD, but it is really slpitting hairs. The aspect of this set of recordings that is great is that the SINGERS are given more space and prominance than the songs, and that is refreshing. Tim Radford |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: vectis Date: 04 Nov 07 - 06:03 PM I managed to get the whole set when I had a small windfall. Pints of beer etc is my favourite. My favourite subject too as it happens. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Ruth Archer Date: 04 Nov 07 - 06:43 PM yes, there are some great artists on that one - Fred Jordan, Margaret Barry, Micho Russell, Jeannie Robertson... The booklets which accompany each CD are great - you need context when you're listening to this music. The only think that would have made them perfect is if they gave more information about the songs themselves, but I guess space was limited. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: andrewq Date: 04 Nov 07 - 07:01 PM There are additional notes on the recordings in a special section of Musical Traditions website: http://mustrad.org.uk/votp.htm |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Ruth Archer Date: 05 Nov 07 - 02:59 AM fantastic. I've never got into Musical Traditions as much as I should - so much valuable information there, but I've never got to grips with navigating it all! But I've saved the VotP link in my favourites, and look forward to exploring while I listen. Thank you. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: the button Date: 05 Nov 07 - 04:39 AM I've only got the sampler disc, which I got off Amazon for cheap. Maybe if I give up smoking as my New Year's resolution (unlikely, but hey) I could treat myself to the entire set with the money I save. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: GUEST,redmax Date: 05 Nov 07 - 05:08 AM I was listening to the Jolly Fellows farming CD this morning, very good stuff. A read in Michael Brocken's Folk Revival book that the VOTP releases was a big financial drain on Topic. Did they sell poorly? |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: GUEST,Shimrod Date: 05 Nov 07 - 12:59 PM My favourite track of the whole series is of Lizzie Higgins singing 'A Beggar Man' on Vol. 17, 'It fell on a day, a bonny summer day: Ballads'. What a singer! |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Fred McCormick Date: 05 Nov 07 - 01:35 PM redmax: "I was listening to the Jolly Fellows farming CD this morning, very good stuff." "A read in Michael Brocken's Folk Revival book that the VOTP releases was a big financial drain on Topic. Did they sell poorly?" The Folk Revival in Britain was originally written as a phd thesis, and completed round about the time that VOTP came out. So Mike wouldn't have known what the sales figures were likely to be. However, Tony Engle gave me a breakdown of the sales of individual volumes about two years ago. While I can't recall exactly, I think the figures ranged between 1,000 and 2,000 each. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: dick greenhaus Date: 05 Nov 07 - 04:23 PM If anyone is interested in purchasing all or part of what's undoubtedly the best collection of field recordings ever published, check out CAMSCO--we stock 'em all, at $13.98 per (or, in terms of real money, about seven quid). dick@camscomusic.com If you wish to see what's on them, there are complete track listings posted at camscomusic.com |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: GUEST,JohnD Date: 27 Feb 09 - 10:54 PM I've been re-listening to several VotP discs recently, and it remains an exemplary collection in most respects, but one particular thing bothers me about Reg Hall's booklet notes. Since the majority of them were indeed dead at the time of release, why does he not include the year of death in the bios of the performers (where it was available)? I can only assume this was for either sentimental or, less likely, superstitious reasons, i.e. "Well, let's counter the idea that these are just dusty forgotten figures by presenting them as eternally present, emphasising their activities while alive and avoiding all mention of death." While I can understand this logic to a degree, it still strikes me as ridiculous. Since Hall acknowledges that the particular rural oral tradition the series documents is effectively dead or dying out, why not add to the historical evidence by noting the points in the 20th C. when the singers died? If this is intended to be a future historical document, surely the information would have been relevant? If he omitted it as some sort of pseudo-traditional taboo, that would seem ironic given the saturation of the folk song canon with tales of death. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Jim Carroll Date: 28 Feb 09 - 03:28 AM VOP was undoubtedly one of the greatest series of field recordings ever issued. Without wishing to detract from that in any way, one of the flaws in the series lay in the notes - mistakes in these ranged from minor inaccuracies to schoolboy howlers, such as in Coochie, Coochie Coo Go Way: (Keach In The Creel - Child 181) from Disc 15 'As Me And My Love Sat Courting'. "An old man was selling fish, And the cat# was standing by" (# should read clerk) There is a sprinkling of such avoidable mistakes throughout the notes, mainly due, in my opinion, to the fact that the editors chose not to consult the individual collectors on the writing of these notes, rather, choosing to write them unassisted. As somebody who contributed a number of items to the series, I am sure that these mistakes could easily have been avoided by simply submitting the notes to those who had made the recordings beforehand. This would also have provided more accurate and fuller information on the singers. It would also have been good manners to do so. Jim Carroll |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Sleepy Rosie Date: 28 Feb 09 - 06:46 AM Can't see me ever getting all twenty of them, but I may well pick up You Lazy Lot of Bone-Shakers, and My Father's the King of the Gypsies. Thank's to peeps for recommendations. But what a fantastic site The Max Hunter Archive, linked to above is! And yeah, if only an historical and educational resource like that existed on the net, for equivalent recordings from the UK... |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People From: Joe Offer Date: 10 Apr 12 - 01:52 AM Here's a press release from Topic Records about four new volumes of Voice of the People that will be released April 9:
Drawn from recordings made during the 1950s and 60s these four volumes capture the music making of working people. This is the home-spun art and entertainment that enriched the lives of working people in pubs and cottages, in social clubs and village halls and on the street, and was made “by people with dirt under their finger nails.” This is music that has been largely ignored by the vagaries of the commercial recording industry. The emphasis in the presentation of this series has been weighted towards the social lives and values of the performers. Series Editor Reg Hall has chosen individual experts to select and compile these four volumes – Shirley Collins, Steve Roud and Rod Stradling. TSCD671 YOU NEVER HEARD SO SWEET : Songs by Southern English Traditional Singers.
“Topic’s original 20-volume The Voice Of The People series in 1998 provided a plethora of superb material for UK folk’s productive new wave to gorge on. Now, courtesy of another goldmine of 1950s field recordings salvaged largely from the late collector Peter Kennedy’s archive, Reg Hall, Shirley Collins, Steve Roud and Rod Stradling have compiled a cracking new series with detailed, illuminating booklets shining a revelatory light on Britain and Ireland’s ‘old music’. Hopefully it will inspire future generations… Magnificent” ★★★★ Colin Irwin, MOJO “The Voice Of The People is the most important and rewarding series of British folk song recordings ever issued.” fRoots Magazine The Amazon price in the US is $66.85 for the four volumes. Will Camsco have a better price, Dick? |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: Bonzo3legs Date: 10 Apr 12 - 02:38 AM Not forgetting "Vice of the People" - new CD from The Albion Band! |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: ChrisJBrady Date: 11 Apr 12 - 03:49 PM Mike Harding talks to Topic Records' Tony Engle about four new compilations in the label's celebrated Voice Of The People series. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01dfn6p/Mike_Harding_With_Tony_Engle_of_Topic_Records/ Can be downloaded using RadioDownloader or get_iplayer |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: ChrisJBrady Date: 11 Apr 12 - 03:50 PM Mike Harding presents an hour of the very best in folk, roots and acoustic music including news from the world of folk and the latest album releases. This week, Mike talks to Topic Records' Tony Engle about four new compilations in the label's celebrated Voice Of The People series. The series began in 1998 with 20 volumes of recordings of traditional singers in the UK and Ireland. Featuring nearly 500 recordings, it was heralded as the British and Irish equivalent of the Harry Smith or Alan Lomax anthologies in the United States. Four new compilations, consisting of new recordings acquired by Topic Records and the British Library, are released this week. Tony Engle joins Mike to explain why these recordings are valuable and enjoyable to academics and music fans alike. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: Continuity Jones Date: 11 Apr 12 - 05:22 PM Bloody Mike Harding, wasting his time playing this old muck. It's not even really folk music, I bet there's not a single banjo on it. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: Owen Woodson Date: 13 Apr 12 - 11:15 AM The entire set arrived this morning. I haven't had an opportunity to listen to them yet but they look superb and with massive well produced booklets. I think I'm in for quite a treat tonight. Oh and CJ will be glad to know there's not a single ^%^%*&*^**^&ing banjo in there anywhere. Saints be praised. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: Owen Woodson Date: 13 Apr 12 - 11:50 AM I'm just listening to the Sarah Makem now. Absolutely stunning. I think this will be turn out to be the jewel in the crown of the whole series. I've had one of those days which has left me thinking how nice and quiet things would be if the roof just went ahead and fell in. Being able to settle back after all the hassle and listen to such self effacing limpid simplicity is like crawling into a hot bath. Your Ma's apple pie never came any tastier. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: Steve Gardham Date: 13 Apr 12 - 01:40 PM Not got them yet but was at the launch. What was the track they played of the young girl on the Romany Rai CD1? Absolutely stunning. I aim to get this set first and then the ballads. I'll have to compare the SM CD with the MT set to see what overlap there is. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: Owen Woodson Date: 13 Apr 12 - 01:48 PM Steve, Topic have them on special offer at £45-00 (I think)for the set. Oh hell, alright. You can get them eaven cheaper on Amazon. |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: maeve Date: 13 Apr 12 - 01:58 PM I'm hoping to get them from Camsco. Dick, you got 'em there yet? |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: Matthew Edwards Date: 14 Apr 12 - 05:43 AM Its amazing stuff; lovely to hear more of singers like Jean Elvin and Thomas Moran, and Carolyne Hughes is one singer I've wanted to hear more of for a long time, but she still takes a while to grasp. There isn't any overlap between the Topic and Musical Traditions CDs of Sarah Makem; Rod Stradling made the selections in both cases with the "best" ones appearing on the Topic CD, but there are still some gems on the MT set . Well done to everyone involved in producing these. More please!!! Matthew |
|
Subject: RE: Voice of the People - four new volumes April 2012 From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray Date: 14 Apr 12 - 07:49 AM Looking at the on-line Alan Lomax Archive (and other such sites - Max Hunter especially) one can't help but feel 'our' traditional archives would be best served by such complete on-line open access (plenty of UK stuff in the Lomax archive - just been immersing myself in my trad hero Davie Stewart). With VOTP, each song is, of course, pure gold, but the over-arching concept is fraught with limitations and is, in the end, is no way to serve our common heritage. We have the technology; Cultural Equity for all. More please? Let's have it all! |
| Share Thread: |
