The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry and other legendary folk ballads  Starring three amazing and very distinct versions of The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry  song, beginning with Barbara Dickson 's version from 1996, the classic cut by Judy Collins from 1962 and concluding with a mighty June Tabor interpretation from 2011. Selkies are mythological shape shifting half seal - half human hybrids from Norse and Celtic traditions. These selkie folk (Scots) who wear seal skin could be benevolent or vengeful in equal measure but could be tricked into marrying humans by the hiding of their precious seal skins. Such unions were usually deemed to have ended in tragedy. Selection of artful & fiddle-heavy folk numbers. ^^stream & download^^ TAP PLAY ONCE THEN TWICE to play here or tap building icon to enter the internet archives page (and our lives) & stream or d/l^^   Barbara Dickson  made a return to singing traditional material in the mid-90'. Tracks from her 1...

A Planxty Circle Session     Cool as Lough Erne celtic folk selection and a hats off to the legendary Irish folk group Planxty and related artists. Also features some very nice Scottish, Northumbrian and English folk songs. Like much Gaelic art, the music here has a comforting cyclical feel to it over the length of the session.   ^^stream & download^^ TAP PLAY ONCE THEN TWICE to play here or tap building icon to enter the internet archives page (and our lives) & stream or d/l^^   Big spotlight on legendary Irish folk supergroup and multi-instrumentalists  Planxty along with some of its esteemed & luminous members. Four tracks here from their classic 1970's albums with Andy and Christy alternating on lead vocals. Really chilled version of The Lakes of Pontchartrain , I just love Moore's vocal phrasing here.  Andy Irvine name his name in the 60's with folk group Sweeney's Men  , who enjoyed success on the London scene, before hooking up wi...

Everyday Folk Too International folk sampler volume two. Once again old blended with contemporary, well-known songs aside more obscure recordings.  Irish, Scottish,  English, American, Jamaican, African and Australian artists. File under Folk/World.   ^^stream & download^^ TAP PLAY ONCE THEN TWICE to play here or tap building icon to enter the internet archives page (and our lives) & stream or d/l^^ Show of Hands lead the way with some stompin' early tracks from late 80's-mid 90's. The Well  still resonates,  especially now in an era of frequent water crises. Tracks from the tremendous Linda Thompson album Won't Be Long Now  (2013). Rough music , an essential 2005 album by Eliza Carthy is pretty much a raucous  recorded jam session. Two atmospheric tracks by Richard Shindell from his 1997 Reunion Hill . Frequent Shindell collaborator Lucy Kaplansky also features with three tracks from her 2007 album Over the Hills , including Johnny Cash c...

Man's Tyrannical Dominion Rocking folk music...  A selection of both old and contemporary broadsides and topical songs as we turn to musing on the state of the world and human development. A critique of the given civilisation  narrative & the key foundations/conclusions upon which that myth was built, that which shapes all our lives today. A dominance hierarchy, a security state that sanctions violence to protect who & what? Divide to rule. Organised and carefully sanitised religion which channels people away from spirituality towards worship of the great, all-powerful, all-seeing, most-unholy, generally patriarchal  God state  and its supreme currency - wealth . How did humanity lose all balance with nature and devalue, turn its back on higher knowledge to become obsessed only with self gratification? Taking a look at historical civilisations and prehistoric creation myths, how mankind seems to have travelled with a celestial procession from darkness to ligh...

Birdsong Here's a fun mix on an ever popular topic; folk songs regarding our feathered friends and their perceived relations with and comparisons to people. Traditional and popular styles. ^^stream & download^^ TAP PLAY ONCE THEN TWICE to play here or tap building icon to enter the internet archives page & stream or d/l^^ Highlights from the blindingly good 2012 concept album A Pocket of Wind Resistance by Karine Polwart & Pippa Murphy . Bert Jansch was a great lover of songs about birds. Featuring tracks from across his career, including a scorching 1978 collaboration with Martin Jenkins & Danny Thompson from the amazing Avocet LP and a 1995 live performance of Kingfish . Another nature lover Chris Brain comes with two thoughtful songs about that mighty & fearful source of life, the sun . A wild, mammoth live recording of  Bonny Birdie by Peter Knight's Gigspanner from 2011. Veteran Tony Capstick performance of The Geese are Flying from 1983. Two...

Ramblin' Round Tribute to a lifestyle & ideal , the unfettered freedom of movement & self-expression, a world where the arts, shared knowledge and spirituality equal the sciences and technology in importance, a society which emphasises community, collaboration, equality & harmonious equilibrium over profit & control from above. What is our reason for living?? A number of us would say to find harmony with nature & the universe... While the act of singing topical broadsides, protest songs and social laments must date back to the very birth of anatomically modern human communities, tens or even hundreds of thousands of years, the 20th century saw the first recorded & mass distributed recordings enabling songs by the likes of The Weavers, Ewan MacColl, Nina Simone and Woody Guthrie to reach wide audiences across both space and time. The Dylan-Baez generation & their understudies, from John Lennon to Arlo Guthrie to Dick Gaughan, kept pushing it further. T...

Elvira Madigan Dickie Lubber and other curious folk ballads An interesting collection of both well known and obscure folk & folk-rock classics, many of traditional origin. Songs that have a tale to tell and, more often than not, an encoded moral to pass on... by the people  about regular people, for the people . Interspersed as usual with some kicking instrumentals, tunes that likewise often held hidden meanings for those who were in the know... English, Irish, Scottish, American and Australian singers & players of instruments.   ^^stream & download^^ TAP PLAY ONCE THEN TWICE to play here or tap building icon to enter the internet archives page & stream or d/l^^     Folk rock legends  Fairport Convention  and their Aussie counterparts  The Bushwackers  feature heavily with some amazing electric-heavy 1970's recordings. Live and studio recordings from  Fairport Convention , including a reunion with Sandy Denny for  J...

Like Big Man Ned Kelly Australian, Irish, English, Scottish & American folk songs.  Celebrating the lives and exploits of popular & legendary heroes has long been a preoccupation in culture & song everywhere. While cleric-anointed, state sanctioned national idols abound (and nobody is more celebrated than Saint George in England) it's the common folk heroes who oft best caught the imagination of the masses - those who stood up in the face of oppression while looking after their own. Often seen as champions & poor people's defenders, these icons belong to the commoners and everyday folks have long been sympathetic to them as is also evident in the popularity of outlaw movies & literature. Ever since domineering minority ' elites ' seized control of grain surpluses (ie. 8-10K years ago) and set us off on this journey that we call ' civilization ' entrenched military/security apparatus has been paramount in order to protect those elites' sur...