Just when you thought that the parochial regional-ness of this country was all a big outdated exaggeration, there's all the proof you need: there really is a book called ‘Folksongs of the Upper Thames’. It was published in about 1918 but local folkies still love it, I’m told.
I first heard about it this weekend when local folk heroes John Spiers and Jon Boden (voted best duo in Britain by the BBC last year) took the stage at the Oxford Folk Festival with a joke about it being called “Folk Songs of the Swindon district” until PR got hold of it.
(Melbournites, that’d be like taking songs from Croydon or Ringwood and renaming them ‘Folk songs of the Upper Yarra’).
But I digress – the BBC has a great rap for it here. I confess I didn’t make it to the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, but I wouldn’t have missed Metcalfe, Giles and Woods (aka Graham, Ian and Ian from the pub) for quids, nor Renbourne and Williams (below). The Saturday and Sunday night sessions at the ‘Moon were awesome – sadly, so were the hangovers the next morning…
*progeny of two English folk heroes, Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, and something of a hero to lots of folky women everywhere. NOBODY should be able to sing so beautifully AND play the fiddle like a demon – and never at the same time!!
I first heard about it this weekend when local folk heroes John Spiers and Jon Boden (voted best duo in Britain by the BBC last year) took the stage at the Oxford Folk Festival with a joke about it being called “Folk Songs of the Swindon district” until PR got hold of it.
(Melbournites, that’d be like taking songs from Croydon or Ringwood and renaming them ‘Folk songs of the Upper Yarra’).
But I digress – the BBC has a great rap for it here. I confess I didn’t make it to the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, but I wouldn’t have missed Metcalfe, Giles and Woods (aka Graham, Ian and Ian from the pub) for quids, nor Renbourne and Williams (below). The Saturday and Sunday night sessions at the ‘Moon were awesome – sadly, so were the hangovers the next morning…
*progeny of two English folk heroes, Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, and something of a hero to lots of folky women everywhere. NOBODY should be able to sing so beautifully AND play the fiddle like a demon – and never at the same time!!
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