Thursday 31 December 2009
New Year's Eve in East London
Thursday 24 December 2009
More on traditional songs - and a Christmas treat
Tuesday 15 December 2009
Izzy Young
Friday 20 November 2009
Josh Beasley
Saturday 14 November 2009
Briggs Award winner
Sunday 8 November 2009
Shortlist for the Briggs Award 2009
Evans, Nicholas, Dying Words: Endangered Languages and What They Have to Tell Us (Wiley-Blackwell)
Fimi, Dimitra, Tolkien, Race and Cultural History (Palgrave Macmillan)
Hutton, Ronald, Blood and Mistletoe (Yale UP)
Marsh, Kathryn, The Musical Playground: Global Tradition and Change in Children's Songs and Games (Oxford UP)
Mees, Bernard, Celtic Curses (Boydell & Brewer)
Newton, Michael, Warriors of the Word: The World of Scottish Highlanders (Birlinn)
Sumpter, Caroline, The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale (Palgrave Macmillan)
Sutherland, Alex, The Brahan Seer: The Making of a Legend (Peter Lang Ltd)
Sunday 1 November 2009
Exploring the Extraordinary
Monday 26 October 2009
Eyam's plague
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Roud 166
Saturday 3 October 2009
Graffito
Sunday 27 September 2009
Das volk dichtet
Friday 25 September 2009
Archive material on the Custom of the Sea
Wednesday 9 September 2009
Ghost hoaxes
Whether or not the visitors were put wise to this wheeze I was not told, but it seems likely that the Lincoln Boots ghost could have entered local folklore. Can anyone tell me if this happened?
In the course of my ongoing research I've come across similar stories of such practical jokes. One hotel night security officer used a remote control to switch a ceiling fan on, creating unexplained spectral effects with the emergency lighting. Like Peter, I've also not come across the evidence of these stories actually entering local tradition.
Tuesday 25 August 2009
Skansen
Monday 17 August 2009
Khaleel Khan
Saturday 15 August 2009
Marking the passing of three greats
Monday 10 August 2009
Folklore in local novels
Monday 13 July 2009
Sexuality of Unborn Male Child
Monday 6 July 2009
The Ghost of Michael Jackson
Thursday 2 July 2009
Bob Lewis CD review
I’m always surprised that so few people seem to listen to recordings of traditional singers. There are some really excellent traditional singers still around, and Bob Lewis from Sussex is amongst the very best.
Like his earlier release, A Sweet Country Life for Veteran, the new CD contains songs that Bob learned from his mother, along with songs picked up from other Sussex singers like George Belton and Cyril Phillips.
Bob Lewis has a wonderfully warm voice. His delivery, too, is an absolute treat – understated and with minimal adornment, he concentrates on getting each song across with maximum clarity. This allows him a huge flexibility with his material. He is, I think, at his best on some of the intense and melancholy pieces he had from his mother (Live All Alone and Spread The Green Branches are standout songs which can only cause regret that Bob’s mother – a shy woman, apparently, but with an astonishing repertoire of great songs – was never recorded herself).
He also handles more rumbustious material well. Although not a barnstormer like Gordon Hall, he puts over comic songs like Farmer Giles or A Trip to Southend with great charm and humour. This fits neatly with Vic Smith’s useful notes describing him finding the intensity and formality of folk clubs as ‘rather strange’.
There are 16 songs (and a recipe!) on this CD. From the wistful to the comical, they are all characterised by Bob’s supreme mastery as a singer. This CD is an utter delight, repaying repeated listening. Go and buy one.