Classic Folk with Mike Norris
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 1 March 2021
This week’s music
1. The Fox / Kit Hawes & Aaron Catlow
2. Sally Brown / Teddy Thompson
3. Listen / Small Town Talk
4. Dear Mr Coventry Herald / Lucy Ward
5. Boomtown / Jez Lowe
6. The Island Of Woods / Liz Carroll & John Doyle
7. Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still / The Teacups
8. Hare Spell / Fay Hield
9. Blackingstone Ravens / Jim Causley
10. No Woman, No Cry / Martha Wainwright
11. The Vigilante / Judee Sill
12. 1845 / Jeff Warner
13. Fly Swift Little Sparrow / Jim Chorley
14. The Exciseman / Lunatraktors
15. Lord Albermarle's Delight / Gadarene
16. The Bleacher Lassie O'Kelvinhaugh / Dave Burland
17. Blackwaterside / Tony Rose
18. Away From The Pits / Barluath
19. Lancashire Factory Girl / Faustus
20. Four Loom Weaver / Stick In The Wheel
21. Fruit Of The Loom/The Shuttle / Keith Hancock
22. Holland Handkerchief / Gemma Khawaja and Adam Rees
23. The Shores of Lough Bran / Michael Walsh
24. Her Mantle so Green / Jacquelyn Hynes
25. The Trees Are Leaving England / Jim Woodland
26. Johnny Todd / Kevin Burke and Ged Foley
27. Boys of Bedlam / Josh Burnell
28. The Beggar Man / Malinky
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.
