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 Chair (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
Tuesday 8 July 2025
This week’s music:
1. Roll The Woodpile Down / Bellowhead
2. The Moorlough Shore / Sinead O'Connor
3. John O Dreams / Bill Caddick
4. From Galway to Graceland / Richard Thompson
5. The Bird That Winds The Spring / Lau
6. The Maids Of Mitchelstown / Carbonhobo
7. Old Neptune / The Rheingans Sisters
8. Nantucket / The Longest Johns Feat
9. Black Mountains / Finn Collinson
10. Interview about FolkEast Festival / John Marshall Potter
11. The Mighty Oak / Honey And The Bear
12. Put the Blood / Sam Grassie
13. Wildwood Flower / Sam Amidon
14. Interview about FolkEast Festival / John Marshall Potter
15. If You'd Been There / Bridget St. John
16. I Really Wanted You / Steve Tilston
17. Little Boy Blue / Ian Anderson’s Country Blues Band
18. Spencer The Rover / Katie Spencer
19. Dublin Serenade / Amelia Coburn
20. Daddy Fox / Peter Knight's Gigspanner Big Band
21. Sprig Of Thyme / Peter & Barbara Snape
22. A Brisk Lad / Alan Fitzsimmons & Peter Wood
23. Vigilante Man / Woody Guthrie
24. Follow Me 'Ome / Peter Bellamy
25. Flandyke Shore / The Albion Band
26. Where Do You Go To My Lovely / Peter Sarstedt
27. Country Life / Show Of Hands
Also available to stream:
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.
