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 17 September 2024
This week’s music:
1. The Rout Of The Blues / Robin & Barry Dransfield
2. Finavarra Reverie / Sean Lyons
3. Flowers Of The Forest / The McCalmans
4. Jim Jones / Damien Barber
5. Bonny Light Horseman / Peter & Barbara Snape
6. The Sheffield Grinder/Mavis / Jackie Oates
7. Tune For The Bullfinch / Finn Collinson
8. Oak, Ash And Thorn / Peter Bellamy
9. Farewell, My Own Dear Native Land / Michael Gorman, Margaret Barry
10. Hot Asphalt / Bob Davenport & The Rakes
11. No Telling / Linda Thompson
12. Sunday Morning, St. Denis / Roy Bailey
13. Northern Sky / Nick Drake
14. Song Of The Lower Classes / Sound Tradition
15. We Poor Labouring Men / Waterson:Carthy
16. Devil's Arch / Granny's Attic
17. The Wind That Shakes the Barley / Martin Carthy with Dave Swarrbrick
18. Lonely Waterloo / Sylvia Barnes
19. Leaving London / Tom Paxton
20. The Bridge / Dan and Claudia Zanes
21. Jigs: The Rock on the Clyde/Paidin O Raifeartaigh / Aerialists
22. My Boy Jack/Widowmaker / Debra Cowan
23. Rambleaway / Albion Band
24. The Dalesman's Litany / Jack Rutter
25. The Handsome Cabin Boy / Sweeney's Men
26. Algoma Steel Fires / Kathy Stewart
27. Bonny May / Serious Sam Barrett
28. Green Grows The Laurel / Mary Humphreys & Anahata
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.
