I was going through the piles of stuff stacked precariously on my table and ran across my Folk Friday notebook. On leafing through, I realized I haven't done a Folk Friday Blog since my friend Kat died back in July. Oops!
Anyway, here's another installment for you. No theme, stuff's kind of all over the place, but there are ten songs and tunes that I liked on here. Sorry that the first two are Christmas themed, I meant to do a whole entry devoted to Christmas, but obviously that never happened.
Playlist is here.
My friend Jed wrote this one several year ago and it's one of those catchy tunes that gets stuck in your head. Banjos We Have Heard on High - Jed Marum
The other Christmas song is a Scots Gaelic song called Taladh Chriosda that has been translated into English as The Christ Child's Lullaby. Here it's sung in the original Gaelic by Arthur Cormack and the pipes are played by Dougie Pincock.
Turlough O'Carolan was a blind harper who composed a ton of tunes in the early 1700s. Si Bheag Si Mhor is probably one of his more famous tunes. The group, Tumbleweed Trad, isn't one I'm familiar with, but I loved the energy they were raising while playing it.
The Grey Funnel Line is one of my favorite songs. It was written by Cyril Tawney in 1959. The Grey Funnel Line is slang for the British Navy. There's a video of Cyril Tawney singing it on YouTube, but I've always loved this one with Maddy Prior and June Tabor.
And now for something completely different. My friend Matt Brown is an amazing fiddle (and banjo and guitar) player, and he plays Appalachian-style. Here's one of his original tunes: Taylor Girls.
Continuing with disgustingly talented under 30s, we have Meridian (Colin de la Barre and Olivia Gale) singing Unison in Harmony.
My friend Debra Cowan isn't under 30, but she is disgustingly talented. The Night Owl Homeward Turns is one of my favorites that she sings.
A while back, country singer Kathy Mattea put out a CD of songs about coal mining titled Coal. Its a more a folk album and less a country album and it may be one of my top ten albums of all time. Lawrence Jones, written by SI Kahn, who may be one of my favorite contemporary folk music song writers.
Tunnel Tigers was written by Ewan MacColl about the Irish workers who dug the tunnels for the London Underground. Sung here by Sean Keane.
The last song for today is A-begging I will Go sung by George Papavgeris.
Get the folk out! Awesome, I'm going to listen to this right now!!!!!
Hope you enjoy them, Matt.
I liked that Gaelic one. The rest of them I checked out not so much.
Did you listen to all of them? Because I'm betting there's at least one other that you'd like.
Debra has the voice of an angel! Very pretty songs. Modest,truthful,and a little sad. "Tunnel tigers" sung by Sean Keane especially so.
Follow her on Facebook, Ben. Sometimes she has great sales on her music. I have all four of her CDs and highly recommend The Long Grey Line and Fond Desire Farewell.
Just finished listening to all the songs (all of which I thought were pretty good) and I'm reminded of the dearth of Folk music in my music collection.
If you ever want any recommendations, let me know.
Really liked the last two.
I heard Tunnel Tigers on a radio show on public radio called The Thistle and Shamrock coming home from work one night and it blew me away. And George has a lot of really good stuff, I think I might have posted Empty Handed in an earlier Folk Friday blog.
I left your blog for last on my reply list so I could listen to the music, and I enjoyed what I listened to. The one I was surprised with was the Scots Galic song. I usually like bagpipes, but I wasn't feeling this song. Matt Brown's song was REALLY good, easily my favorite out of the bunch.
Thanks for sharing Folk Music with us!
My pleasure, Chris. Matt is an amazing musician and an excellent performer. I've had the pleasure of going to three house concerts that he's given, plus we sometimes end up at the same music retreats. His music is available at cdbaby.com, as are Deb Cowan, George Papavgeris, and Jed Marum.
Matt Brown. Guy makes me want to get up and dance on the first note. He's really nailed that style.
yet here's another blog that reminds me I need to invest in better headphones for home/work. I'm missing out on all these musical options.