72 - 4 Spring 2010

This issue has quite an emphasis on dance, in all its forms, and also focuses on Cecil Sharp, in continuing celebration of the 150th anniversary of his birth.

The Singer, Song and Source feature is Hannah James & Sam Sweeney, whose song is ‘William Taylor’ collected by Sharp in 1903 from sisters, Lucy White and Louie Hooper.

John Messenger of Leominster Morris describes how they celebrated the centenary of Cecil Sharp’s visit to Herefordshire and 2010 is the centenary of Sharp’s first visit to Sheffield’s Grenoside Sword Dancers. The present-day team decided to celebrate in a novel way.

Cecil Sharp’s diaries from his collecting trips to the southern Appalachians of America are now available on the web. Mike Yates introduces this fantastic resource.

There’s a feature on the National Youth Folklore Troupe of England (NYFTE) , and a celebration of Swindon Folksingers’ Club and its organisers, Ted and Ivy Poole.

Jackie Toaduff was a superb clog dancer in the 1950s and 60s. Chris Metherell and Alex Fisher recall his dancing, Ron Smedley remembers his impact then, and Demon Barbers clog dancer, Laura Connolly, talks about his impact today.

Caller Cat Kelly has started a scheme to encourage new dance callers. Roger Nicholls’ Gold Badge citation is published.

The Singer, Song and Source feature is Bella Hardy, whose song is ‘All in the Morning’ from her latest CD, In the Shadow of Mountains. The song is from Derbyshire’s Castleton Carol Tradition, which Ian Russell writes about in The Source.

Continuing the seasonal theme, there’s a feature on The Drayton Wassail song custom from Somerset, and news of the re-publication of Percy Maylam’s book about The Hooden Horse of Kent.

In Never on Sunday in Widecombe, Rollo Woods examines a unique manuscript collection of tunes from the famous village in Dartmoor, Devon and there’s a feature on the remarkable dance and music group, The Fosbrooks, from Stockport in Cheshire: The Fosbrooks Phenomenon.

Fellside Recordings are the latest in our series on independent record labels.

There’s a feature on the EFDSS’s latest publication, The Fallibroome Collection, a new edition, by Nic Broadbridge, of Bernard Bentley’s classic collection of English country dances.

An article focuses on the Take 6 Education Project, written by Education Director, Rachel Elliott.

71 - 4 Winter 2009

71 - 3 Autumn 2009

This issue celebrates the 70th anniversary of Topic Records, with an article, featuring an interview with Topic’s managing director, Tony Engle.

The Singer, Song and Source feature is Brass Monkey, one of Topic’s artists, and their song, ‘Bold Archer’ as sung by John Kirkpatrick of Brass Monkey, and based on the version of the song sung by Harry Cox, whose double CD is on the Topic label.

There’s a brace of features on Cornwall – one on Dance Tunes, and the other on Folk Dances to be found in the Duchy.

An article focuses on the six manuscript collections that have formed the focus of the EFDSS’s Take 6 Project and which are now available on the internet. http://library.efdss.org/archives

The youth activities at Cambridge Folk Festival come under the spotlight.

There’s a feature on The Ballad of Britain – the title of a new book and forthcoming concert at Cecil Sharp House.
And an article on one of Cecil Sharp’s singers, John Short, the Watchet Sailor.
There’s also a report on a new campaign, Folk against Fascism.

Award-winning Bellowhead is the subject of the Singer, Song and Source feature, with the song ‘The Rigs of the Time’– dating from Napoleonic times, the song has a contemporary relevance.

Leaders of the three morris organisations reflect on morris dancing in the twenty-first century, and there’s a feature on the rapper sword competition, DERT.

There’s a double feature on walking and singing – Oysterband’s John Jones’s Feet Don’t Fail Me tour, and Ed, Will and Ginger’s Walk Around Britain.

There’s a selection of dances and tunes from a 1745 manuscript, now known as Kitty Bridges, in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library;
a feature on WildGoose Records; and the EFDSS Gold Badge citations for Beryl Marriott and John Heydon.

There are features on the Flash Company exhibition at Cecil Sharp House and the Singing Histories books, plus future EFDSS initiatives, Cecil Sharp House events, and reports on the recent St George’s Day events.

71 - 2 Summer 2009

71 - 1 Spring 2009

Jim Moray is the subject of the Singer, Song and Source. The song is ‘I’ll Go and List for a Sailor’ with an unusual source – John Kirkpatrick and Morris On.

Morris dancing features in several articles. There’s a resume of the recent media interest – Morris Media Frenzy – and an item on the new film, Morris: A Life with Bells On!
There’s a two page feature on The Mary Neal Project, features on three Tynesiders, Louis Killen, Ray Fisher and Colin Ross, who all received EFDSS Gold Badges recently. And Jane Harland writes about Newcastle's Bridge Folk Club, to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Steve Jordan writes about Paul Hutchinson and his musical influences.
Chris Pitt writes about his school dance group, Essex Longsword Girls, and Martyn Harvey considers some recent ceilidh successes in the north-west of England.
Free Reed Records kicks off a series of features on independent record labels.

Sadly, we also report the deaths of a number of folk music and dance enthusiasts: Francis Shergold and Sonner Townsend from the Bampton Morris traditions, the three guitarists, John Pearse, Davy Graham and John Martyn, the dance caller John Lagden, musician Johnny Conquest, morris dancer and Towersey Festival founder Denis Manners and song collector Ken Stubbs.

We mark the election of Shirley Collins MBE as the new President of the EFDSS.

A theme of this issue is the singer, folklorist, broadcaster and writer A.L. (Bert) Lloyd in the centenary year of his birth. Bert Lloyd was well-known as a great mentor and encourager of younger singers, often re-working songs from the manuscripts and books for performance.
In this spirit, the Singer, Song and Source article features Brian Peters whose recent CD of ballads includes several songs that have been newly adapted. Brian also contributes an article on his approach to working with the ballads, with a number of references to Bert Lloyd.

Continuing the Bert Lloyd theme, there’s a personal memoir by film-maker Barrie Gavin who worked on several projects with Bert, and a report on the Tribute to Bert event held in mid-November.

Gordon Philips has written about his project teaching molly dancing in Fenland schools and there’s a report on October’s Big National Ceilidh.

There’s a feature on an intriguing mummer’s costume, possibly from Bellerby, that has turned up in New York, and Robbie Thomas writes about some new style dance events, Sets in the City.
There’s a report of the RVW event held at Cecil Sharp House in October.

70-4 Winter 2008

70-3 Autumn 2008

This issue marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the composer and folk song collector, Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The Singer, Song and Source article features exciting young singer, Lisa Knapp, written by Joan Crump, and the song Wild and Undaunted Youth. The source is Robert Hurr of Southwold, whom Ralph Vaughan Williams visited to collect songs in 1910, contributed by Katie Howson.

There is a feature on Vaughan Williams’ folk song collecting by editor Derek Schofield, with additional contributions from classical music writer and Vaughan Williams expert Michael Kennedy, author Roy Palmer, singer and author Shirley Collins, film maker Tony Palmer and singer Jim Moray.

Haddenham Ceilidhs celebrate their 35th season, and organiser John Heydon and resident Haddenham caller Hugh Rippon explain the philosophy behind this long-running ceilidh series.
The recent visit to Britain of Australian dance and song band Wongawilli is an opportunity for Jenny Coxon to show the links between the tunes and dances of the two countries.

In The Seeds of Love, EFDSS CEO Katy Spicer previews the visual art exhibition at Cecil Sharp House by David Owen and also writes about the new Education Director, Rachel Elliott.
There is a report on the EFDSS’s Take 6 project event at Redriff School in south London, new developments with London Links and plans for future EFDSS fund-raising.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Lucy Broadwood, folk song collector, singer and editor, the Singer, Song and Source article features the song ‘The Sweet Nightingale’ from Broadwood and Fuller Maitland’s 1893 collection, English County Songs. The singers are Lancashire’s Trio Threlfall – sisters Jane and Amanda Threlfall and instrumentalist Roger Edwards. The source is Lucy Broadwood’s singer, Mr Grantham.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams, his 1948 tribute to Broadwood is re-printed, with an introduction, showing that there was no single view about folk song in the early twentieth century. The issues raised still have relevance today.

Ian Russell on the centenary of Cecil Sharp’s visit to Derbyshire’s Winster Morris Dancers,

Dance and concert band, Boldwood, are featured, revealing the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library as the source of some of their tunes, two of which are printed in the article.

There are 580 more tunes in The Great Northern Tune Book, which has just been published in a new edition by the EFDSS and the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society: Alistair Anderson and Colin Ross give their personal views of this important collection.

70 -2 Summer 2008

70 - 1 Spring 2008

‘Singer, Song and Source’ feature highlights the young female singer, Jackie Oates The song is ‘My Ship Lost Her Rigging’, sung originally by the Traveller singer, Biggun Smith from Gloucestershire.
Geoff Woolfe, compiler of the recently-published tune book, William Winter’s Quantocks Tune Book, writes about the background to the book and the life and music of William Winter.
The Christmas Carolling tradition in England is the subject of a brief feature by Ian Russell, which puts into context the Carols from Glen Rock (USA) article by Dave Eyre.

Joan Crump writes about the Christmas Champions show.
The Grenoside Sword Dancers have some new costumes, thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund. Dancer Joe Dunn explains how and why. And there’s a further feature on longsword dancing, Longswords in Derby, focusing on the recent dance competition.

There is news of the new Heritage Lottery Funded project from the EFDSS: Take Six, and Mike Heaney’s Gold Badge citation.
There is a list of a hundred Folk Festivals in 2008.

69 - 3 Autumn 2007

Alan James on The Imagined Village featuring Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, The Gloworms, The Young Coppers and Chris Wood, as well as Benjamin Zephaniah, Sheila Chandra and Billy Bragg.

‘Singer, Song and Source’ features Ed Rennie, former member of the Bismarcks, now performing with Housewives’ Choice and forging a career as a solo singer. The song is ‘The Trees they are so High’ from the Devon singer James Parsons, known to Sabine Baring-Gould as ‘The Singing Machine’. Martin Graebe writes about James Parsons.

Marilyn Tucker on the Baring-Gould Folk Song School.

This issue’s tunes feature comes from Shropshire, and is entitled ‘The Shropshire Hero’. by Neil Brooke

Cecil Sharp House’s regular Scottish Ceilidh Club by Robbie Thomas
Christine Rogers examines the Dances in Jane Austen’s novels.
Gavin Atkin on folk song, music and dance activities in Lewes, Sussex
Sound Files from Ed Rennie and Neil Brookes & Tony Weatherall

A focus on the music, song and dance of Dorset as well as features on new EFDSS publications.
‘The Gleanings of Mr Sharp’s Harvest’ looks at the song collecting of Henry and Robert Hammond in Dorset in the early 20th century. A selection of the songs was published in 1965 in the EFDSS song book Marrow Bones, now completely revised and published once again.
The regular ‘Singer, Song and Source’ feature focuses on Faustus, with band member Paul Sartin writing about the song ‘I am a Brisk Lad’ collected from a distant relative, Edith Sartin.

The Thomas Hardy family tune books are re-examined by Dave Townsend in an article ‘One Rattling Randy After Another, and there is Dave’s arrangement of the tune ‘The Triumph’.

To round off the Dorset theme, editor Derek Schofield looks again at the county’s best known folk dance, ‘The Dorset Four-Hand Reel’.

Sound files from The Mellstock Band, Faustus and The Gloworms.

69-1 Spring 2007

This issue complements the EFDSS book and CD, Traveller’s Joy, and has a special theme:

The Music, Song and Dance of Gypsies and Travellers

Why Gypsies? Why Travellers? – Mike Yates (compiler of Traveller’s Joy) explains the enduring interest in the folklore of Gypsies and Travellers.

The Singer, Song and Source:
The Singer is Devon Gypsy, Jean Orchard …
the Song is ‘A Wager, A Wager’ …
and the Source is Jean’s mother, Amy Birch.
See sound file.

The Fiddle Tunes of John Locke – a Gypsy fiddler whose tunes were noted by Cecil Sharp, which in turn inspired John Kirkpatrick’s music. Notations of three tunes are included.

Reviews – including Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick, Nic Jones, Waterson:Carthy, Swarb’s Lazarus, The Dartmoor Pixie Band, Jackie Oates, John Kirkpatrick, Mawkin, Pete Cooper, Barry Lister, Robert Harbron & Emma Reid, Paul & Liz Davenport, Jeff Warner, Keith Kendrick, The Albion Band, MidWinter, Bill Whaley & Dave Fletcher, Ron Taylor & Jeff Gillett, Bodega, Belzebub, Matt Norman.

68-3 Autumn 2006

A 48-page summer special featuring:

Iv-diff! – The Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival

The Singers, Song and Source: The Singers (Mary Humphreys and Anahata) … the Song (The Cuckoo and the Nightingale) … and the Source (Charlotte Dann).

The Rakes’ Progress – Fifty years of The Rakes – Sean Goddard

Norfolk to Chester via Michigan and eBay – a newly-discovered Norfolk tune book

The Library goes Live – the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Online

DERT! – the annual rapper competition.

Reviews – including Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, Kathryn Tickell & Corrina Hewat, Alasdair Roberts, Jennifer Cutting’s Ocean Orchestra, Aglo International!, Florida, Jim Moray, Dave Bordewey & Dave Young, Craig; Morgan; Robson, James Ross, Mark Dowding, Graham Metcalfe, Steamchicken, Hughie Jones, The Occasionals, Roy Clinging & Neil Brookes, Finest Kind, Audrey parks, Stomp, Chumbawamba, Shirley Collins & Davy Graham, Dancing Folk DVD, The Day it Daws book, History and the Morris Dance book.

68-2 Summer 2006

68– 1 Spring 2006

The Singers, Song and Source: The Singers (Lauren McCormick & Emily Portman) … the Song (The Seeds of Love) … the Source (George ‘Pop’ Maynard). See sound files.

From Folkworks to Folk Degree – Alistair Anderson
Four Years in Newcastle: An Apprenticeship of Learning – Sandra, Kerr, Vic Gammon, Fay Hield and current under-graduates.

Folk Britannia – a review of the BBC4 series – Derek Schofield
Century-old Folk Song Manuscript Recovered – Gerald Porter

Will Atkinson’s Tune; ‘Ninety Three Not Out – Derek Schofield

Branching Out – BBC Folk Awards

Reviews – including The Anglo Concertina Music of William Kimber by Dan M. Worrall (Vic Gammon), Sara Grey, Pauline Cato, James Raynard, Flook, Catriona McKay & Chris Stout, Brian Peters, Anna Tabbush, Crucible, Davy Graham, Bruce Scott, The Askews, Alan Bell, 422, Jim Causley, CrossCurrent, The Halliard.

67 - 3 Autumn 2005

Autumn 2005

Special in this issue! - Nelson’s Death

The 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson are being marked in the Autumn 2005 issue of English Dance & Song magazine with several features which illustrate the popularity of this British admiral, as seen through folk songs, tunes and dances.

Branching Out – Nettlebed Folk Club; Jabbour & Perlman; Womex; The Copper Archive.
Lives Remembered – including Frank Harte; Leonard Luckwill; Hedy West; Gwen Dilke; Joan Roe; Bob Ross; Joe Scurfield & Keith Morris. Reviews – including New Scorpion Band; Coope, Boyes and Simpson; Whapweasel; Mary Humphreys & Anahata; Barry Dransfield; Chris Bartram; Dr Faustus; Boka Halat; Stephen Baldwin.

Plus sound files.

A Black and White Issue?– Derek Schofield (the custom of blacking up)
Tapatak – Frances Watt
A Young Man’s Lamentation – Dungbeetle
Geoff Rye Gold Badge Citation – Mike Wilson-Jones
Cecil Sharp House – a Celebration– Hazel Miller & Derek Schofield (75th anniversary)
A Toast to Bob– Andrew King (a review of the celebration of Bob Copper’s life)
The Last Waltz – Spectator *The Alan Lomax Archive
Education Update – Diana Campbell Jewitt
Branching Out – Son Townsend of Bampton Morris; Dave Swarbrick; Dirty Old Town; Mitchell and Kenyon films; National Folk Music Festival; Vic Gammon
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Lives Remembered – including Cyril Tawney; Walter Abson; Wendy Knight.
Reviews – including Eliza Carthy; The Bismarcks; Bob Davenport; The Houghton Band; Song Links 2; June Tabor; 3D; Martin Simpson.
Regular Features:
Festive Round-Up; Songs under the Microscope; Letters

67 – 2 Summer 2005

67 - 1 Spring 2005

St George’s Day – Derek Schofield * A Song for Saint George – John Kirkpatrick
Strictly Come Folk Dancing – Spectator * Top Bismarcks! – Gavin Atkin
Steyning Tipteers’ Play – Sean Goddard * John of Hazelgreen – Dungbeetle
Farewell to X – a dance by Maurice Dunnett * Session Tunes from the Newcastle Courant

Branching Out – Norma Waterson Hon DMus; Misdemeanours, Folk Archive, BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards, BBC Folk Awards 2005, Sidmouth Folk Week 2005.

Lives Remembered – including Martyn Bennett, Cathie Stewart, Margaret Fay Shaw, Mikeen McCarthy, Ian Graham, Maurice Courtney, Sid Long

Reviews – including Dear Companion book; Dearman, Gammon & Harrison; Orange & Blue and The Ranchers.
Regular Features:
Festive Round-Up; Songs under the Microscope; Letters

Where available, back copies of the magazines can be bought from
Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 7AY.
priced £2.50 plus £1 postage.

Tel. Sales on 0207 485 2206 or email folkshop@efdss.org