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 11 January 2021
This week’s music
1. Queen of Waters / Nancy Kerr & James Fagan
2. Bold / Kerfuffle
3. Please Dance / Hadrian's Union
4. The Thresher's Daughter / Mossy Christian
5. Farewell Lovely Nancy / Ralf Weihrauch Trio
6. The Duke of Fife's Welcome to Deeside /Belladrum House /The Witch of the Wave / Brian McNeill
7. Will You Go, Lassie, Go? / Frank McPeake & Son With Irish Bagpipes
8. High Barbaree / Bob Roberts
9. The Rain it Raineth Every Day / Jon Bickley and the Invisible Folk Club Band
10. The Rue and Thyme / Christine Kydd
11. Planxty Gan Ainm / John Falkner
12. King Of Kings / Ladysmith Black Mambazo
13. Cypress Grove / Kelly Joe Phelps
14. Cruel Sister / John Renbourn & Jacqui McShee
15. Shan Van Vocht (Poor Old Woman) / Dónal Lunny with Frank Harte
16. The Mouseskin Shoe; Dancing In Allihies / Dónal Lunny
17. Let No Man Steal Your Thyme / Shelagh McDonald
18. Van Diemen's Land / Keith Kendrick & Sylvia Needham
19. The Sledmere Poachers / Jack Rutter
20. Banks of the Bann / John Doyle, John McCusker & Mike McGoldrick
21. Molly & Johnny / Dervish
22. The Riverflow / The Levellers
23. Look Over The Hill And Far Away / Gerry Rafferty
24. Alien Land / Julie Matthews
25. Marching Through The Green Grass / Lucy Ward
26. When We Meet Again / Merry Hell
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.
