Classic Folk with Mike Norris
Classic Folk is unique.
It mines a rich seam of wonderful folk and roots music and song from around 75 years of recordings.
From the great source singers to the legends of folk rock, the travellers to the protesters, the ballads to the blues, from the far north to the deep south and all around the English speaking world, the songs live again.
And, not forgetting the pick of the new releases and a few cracking tunes, it’s like having a folk festival in the comfort of your own home!
Former English Folk Dance and Song Society Chairman (2006–2011) and long-standing member Mike Norris hosts our weekly folk radio programme.
Mike explores a wide range of folk and acoustic music from the UK and abroad – from rarely heard archive and field recordings to the very latest releases.
Listen now
Monday 28 November 2022
This week’s music
1. Fair Maid Walking / Crucible
2. The Unquiet Grave / Ian Campbell Folk Group
3. A Rich Irish Lady / Naomi Bedford,Paul Simmonds
4. Seeing Double / The Oldham Tinkers
5. To the Begging / Harry Boardman
6. Crooked Jack / Greg Russell
7. Lully Lullay / Daria Kulesh
8. Mill Lane / Rob Harbron
9. Mormond Braes / Findlay Napier and Gillian Frame
10. The Isle Of Eigg / Katherine Priddy
11. Salford Girls / Helen Watson
12. Dockyard Medley / Vic Legg
13. Taking on Men / Jez Lowe
14. Sailortown / John Connoly & Pete Sumner
15. River Days / Johnny Collins
16. Linden Lea / Maggie Boyle
17. Northamptonshire Poacher / Jack Sharp
18. Domino Road [Jutland, Domino Road] / Phillip Henry
19. He Went for a Soldier / Lynne Heraud
20. The Last Tommy / Home Service
21. The Cake Maker's Wife / John McCusker
22. Ox Plough Song / White Hart
23. The Early Days Of A Better Nation / Oysterband
24. Winter Singing / The Imagined Village
25. She Moved Through The Fair / Nicky Hann
26. Fair Annie / Martin Simpson
27. Crossing the Bar / Salvor
The presenter: Mike Norris
Mike’s passion for folk music spans decades; from first learning to play the melodeon and singing shanties at school, to running folk festivals and gigs.
A teenager during the 1960s, Mike was heavily influenced by protest song and folk-rock popularity (Bob Dylan, the Copper Family, Joan Baez, Fairport Convention etc), as well as the tail end of the folk-song revival shaped by The Watersons, Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, Shirley Collins, Woody Guthrie and many more.
Interesting fact: The hospital where Mike was born, in Portsmouth, grew out of the workhouse where George Gardiner collected more than 100 songs in the early 1900s.
