Would like help finding English/Welsh/Scots-Irish folk songs.

[Caleb]

I've been searching in vain for some good collections of songs (not tunes) from old England, Wales, Ireland, etc. When searching Amazon I end up finding lots of choirs singing "traditional" songs or collections of instrumentals, but I can never find a CD of someone just singing old songs with, say, a guitar or minimal accompaniment.

My wife and I watch a BBC show called Lark Rise to Candleford, set in England in (I think) the 1880s. Everytime someone starts singing a bit of an old song I always wish I could find a recording of music just like that.

There must be some artists over the years who have sought to preserve the old folk songs in a traditional manner?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Martin Jonas]

There are literally hundreds of albums that meet your description. Try these for starters:


VA: A Selection From The Penguin Book Of English Folk Songs
Nic Jones: Penguin Eggs
Anne Briggs: A Collection
Shirley Collins: The Classic Collection
VA: Voices - English Traditonal Songs
Essential Martin Carthy
The Watersons: Early Days
Frankie Armstrong: Lovely On The Water
Tim Hart & Maddy Prior: Heydays

This barely scratches the surface, but should give you some idea. All of the above sing traditional English folk songs, but you will notice that the styles vary quite a lot. Nic Jones and Martin Carthy are famous for their guitar playing as well as their singing, so the accompaniments are more prominent on their albums. The others listed above have either very minimal instrumental backing or none at all. Note that English folk songs were originally sung all unaccompanied, so that any sort of backing is a relatively modern inventions.

Have fun!

Martin

[Caleb]

Wow, thank you, Martin. And thanks for the history lesson; I wasn't aware of that.

[Steve L]

Robin and Barry Dransfield
Tony Cuffe (Solo and with Ossian)
Jim Malcolm
Ian F. Benzie
Andy M. Stewart (Solo and with Silly Wizard)
Dave Weber and Ani Fentiman
Archie Fisher

[Dagger Gordon]

The Copper Family

Essential listening. http://www.thecopperfamily.com/

[John Kelly]

Have a look for material by Jean Redpath, Sheena Wellington, folk group Malinky, songs of Robert Burns, Dougie McLean, Archie Fisher to name but a few. They are all performers of Scottish songs. The Stewarts of Blair produced some great traditional songs from the Travellers culture - look for Stewarts of Blairgowrie, Belle Stewart and Sheila Stewart (mother and daughter). The Corries Folk Duo also recorded many albums of Scottish material, self-penned and traditional and they played with minimal instrumental backing. As you'll see, my interests are very largely Scottish and the above is just a start and does not touch at all on the very strong Scots Gaelic catalogue which is doing very well here in the past few years.

[Beanzy]

In and around Devon Cyril Tawney used to be really popular, then if you're into sea chanties etc our local group Fishermans Friends ae great.
Becki Driscoll (teaches us fiddle) and her partner Nick Wycke specialise in the music of the SW of England and especially the stuff from the Baring Gould collection, their album A Handful Of Sky was a real treat I'm glad I bought. If you google "The Full English" you'll get a link to the EDFSS collections of songs and tunes and to people who are currently recording them anew.
Down in Cornwall there was Brenda Wootton who was a bit of an international hit on the folk scene back in the day.
I'll have to leave you to do the searches as I've not got time to dig out links just now but I may get time later in the week.

[Caleb]

There are literally hundreds of albums that meet your description. Try these for starters:


VA: A Selection From The Penguin Book Of English Folk Songs
Nic Jones: Penguin Eggs
Anne Briggs: A Collection
Shirley Collins: The Classic Collection
VA: Voices - English Traditonal Songs
Essential Martin Carthy
The Watersons: Early Days
Frankie Armstrong: Lovely On The Water
Tim Hart & Maddy Prior: Heydays

This barely scratches the surface, but should give you some idea. All of the above sing traditional English folk songs, but you will notice that the styles vary quite a lot. Nic Jones and Martin Carthy are famous for their guitar playing as well as their singing, so the accompaniments are more prominent on their albums. The others listed above have either very minimal instrumental backing or none at all. Note that English folk songs were originally sung all unaccompanied, so that any sort of backing is a relatively modern inventions.

Have fun!

Martin

I was able to track down most of these albums on Spotify. I'm really enjoying Shirley Collins in particular. Love the simplicity of her voice and banjo. Sounds a lot like some of the "mountain music" from here in America in style. Or rather it sounds like her. Need to get the order right.

[Martin Jonas]

I was able to track down most of these albums on Spotify. I'm really enjoying Shirley Collins in particular. Love the simplicity of her voice and banjo. Sounds a lot like some of the "mountain music" from here in America in style. Or rather it sounds like her. Need to get the order right.

Glad to be of help. As it happens, Shirley Collins was the girlfriend-cum-research-assistant of Alan Lomax for a while (he was twenty years older than her) and joined him on a five-months field trip in 1959 collecting folk songs in the Southern US, during which many of the old blues and mountain music singers were rediscovered. Much later, she wrote a book about that trip, "American Over The Water".

Martin

[Tim Griffin]

You may want to check out Child Ballads.