74-1 Spring 2012

The Singer, Song and Source series continues with a young trio who were nominated for the BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award, Pilgrims’ Way. Their song, ‘The Handweaver and the Factory Maid’ comes originally from William Oliver of Widnes, via A.L.Lloyd, and the source article is written by Roy Palmer. (See below for sound and video files).

In the run-up to the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, Peta Webb contributes a feature on songs written about the maritime disaster: ‘The Mighty Ship Titanic’. One of the songs is available to listen to (see below) and there is also an extended list of further recordings and readings available here.

In the second in the brief series, Letter from America, Tim Radford writes about morris dancing in the USA.

William Darling has hitherto been best known as the father of heroine Grace Darling. But William was also a fiddle player, and Bryan Jackson has unearthed his tune book; Bryan writes about the problems of interpreting the tunes.

The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards article includes all the award winners, photographs and a special feature on EFDSS Librarian Malcolm Taylor’s Roots Award.

There’s a feature on Thomas McCarthy and Simon Doyle and family – Irish Travellers settled in England who performed to great acclaim at a couple of folk festivals last year. See video links below.

There is a feature on the current visual arts exhibition in Cecil Sharp House, and news of a forthcoming morris dance photograph exhibition.

Following on from the Folk Dancing – Present and Future article in the last issue, there’s a series of letters on the subject. The original article is now available to read here. Further comments are welcome.

There are two EFDSS Gold Badge award citations, for Johnny Handle and Les Seaman. The Branching Out item features Scots singer Sheila Stewart.

Plus all the regular features – Festive Round-up, EFDSS Matters, Lives Remembered, news, reviews and dance events.

The list of almost 150 folk festivals in England and Wales taking place in 2012, published in the last issue, has now been updated and is available here.