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 05 March 2024
This week’s music:
- Rolling Down the Ryburn / Banter
- Here's The Tender Coming / Johnny Campbell
- 10,000 Miles Away / Flossie Malavialle
- The Young Trooper Cut Down in His Prime / Ewan MacColl
- Arthur McBride / Ewan McLennan
- Friday the 13th / Session A9
- Northern Sunrise / Katherine Priddy
- The Lonesome Track / Richard Trethewey
- Homeless Hotels / John Buckley McQuaid
- Bonny Labouring Boy / Fran Foote & Belinda Kempster
- The Banks Of Sweet Primroses / Blackthorn Band
- Courting Too Slow / Bellowhead
- Down Where The Drunkards Roll / John Smith (Ben Nicholls)
- The Greenland Whale Fisheries / Kris Drever (Ben Nicholls)
- Caravan / Lyatra Quartet
- Generations of Change / Landworker's Alliance
- My Donald / Maureen Brennan
- Lyke Wake Dirge / Martin Green
- Fair Margaret & Sweet William / Mary Humphreys & Anahata
- Bruton Town / Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick
- Black is the Colour / Blair Dunlop
- The Banks Of The Moy / Colm O Donnell
- An Coolin / The McPeake Family
- Tam Lin / Fairport Convention
- Walnut Shell / Katherine Priddy
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.