Is it possible to order this RT EP. The most recent release on Bandcamp seems to be Live in London and then there’s an EP from last year. Nothing on his web page either as far as I can see - just an announcement on his blog - no link.
I’m grateful for your advice and happy to end it there.
It’s available on Friday, just visit Bandcamp then and it will be there.
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As Nigel said, last time he just put it up on Bandcamp on the day of launch.
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Irish/ American ‘supergroup’ The Gloaming have four CDs and apparently are wonderful live (there’s a Live at the NCH album). They are fiddle player Martin Hayes, guitarist Dennis Cahill, sean-nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, hardanger fiddle player Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and pianist Thomas Bartlett. Sean-nós means old-style singing in Irish. The hardanger fiddle, originating in Norway, gives a special sound. Martin Hayes is a virtuoso. I picked up my first CD in the HMV folk section. The poet Ian Duhig tells a story of being taught sean-nós by the singer putting his hand on Ian’s head and singing directly into his face. Not sure if this could be done with social distancing…
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Not sure how wide the definition of folk is!
Love albums where artists go back to their roots such as Highway Troubadour by Jesse Colin Young, or the more recent Orpheus and the Mermaids by Anders Osbourne.
Lots of new artists too - other groups or singers I’ve discovered recently and am enjoying include Stables, Will Kimbrough, Herman Düne.
Since upgrading am particularly enjoying revisiting old favourites such as Janis Ian and some Joni Mitchell. I’d have to say that folk, acoustic, singer/songwriter type stuff is much higher up the playlist as I get older and it does seem to be a sweetspot for our system, the level of detail being dug out of recordings is fantastic.
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That’s exactly what I was listening to. Love the live recordings before name change.
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Sam Sweeney played fiddle in Bellowhead, spent some time on a First World war project, which became a stage show and an album The Unfinished Violin. His Unearth Repeat is on Bandcamp. He has his personal site which offers work with Hannah James for download. Hannah James sings, plays the accordion and is a clog dancer. Work with Sweeney includes Catches and Glees and State and Ancientry. Both have extensive performance connections and were previously in Kerfuffle
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Smithsonian Folkways has a wide range of American music in all categories. I had no idea that Bill Monroe had written ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky’ which became famous through Elvis. But I need to listen to some Bluegrass and more Country, so thank you.
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Will Kimbrough deserves to be heard by more people, he’s very talented and a really nice guy.
‘troll
This one:
I have all The Gloaming albums and this is my favourite. It has that special quality I also hear in Martin Hayes’ recordings of live performance.
Roger
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That’s the one, Roger. I see Martin Hayes has a new band Common Ground Ensemble which appears to have played live once in the States, before lockdown. I look forward to seeking out more of his work.
Can’t see anything yet, unless I’m looking in the wrong place…
It’s called Serpent’s Tears had an email at 13.24 from RT on Bandcamp.
Thanks - I did find it, but was disappointed to discover that it was only a download.
I guess these might find their way to a CD eventually? But I download FLAC, save to a memory stick then play on my MUSO. Once downloaded you can stream locally if you have more sophisticated equipment.
For his previous lockdown release (Bloody Noses) he said he might print CDs for sale at gigs. I guess the same here, and I’m fairly sure all the gig-sale CDs have also been available in his website in recent years.
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Jolie Holland, ex-Be Good Tanyas, sings ‘Mad Tom of Bedlam’ on Escondida. As with many folk songs, the words written by the great poet and songwriter Anon, exist in many different forms and the tunes in several versions. Roud V16366 ‘Boys of Bedlam’/ ‘Tom of Bedlam’ was printed in ’ Thomas d’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy, published 1720, where it had the title Mad Maudlin’s Search for Her Tom of Bedlam . It was in the repertoire of The Halliard at the end of the 1960’s with a tune that was “mostly the work of the Halliard’s Dave Moran with some small input from Nic Jones” (according to Julia Jones)[Mainly Norfolk] There are many recorded versions: Steeleye Span, Maddy Prior, Martin and Jessica Simpson, Old Blind Dogs, Heidi Talbot, Stick in the Wheel… The words may well be older than 1720 as Shakespeare refers to Tom 'o Bedlam in King Lear. It remains a powerful and imaginative song.
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