Two Bold Singermen And The English Folk Revival

Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival is the first book to explore in depth the lives and song traditions of two of the most influential English traditional singers: Sam Larner and Harry Cox.Larner and Cox were born in late nineteenth-century Norfolk, within six years and fifteen miles of each other. Both men grew up in large working-class families, started work before their teens, spent their working lives in hard manual labour - Larner as a trawlerman, Cox as a farm labourer - and lived into their eighties. Both men were singers from an early age, amassed large repertoires of songs that are now established in the traditional canon, and became key figures in the "folk revival" of the 1950s and 1960s. They directly influenced performers such as Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins, Peggy Seeger, Young Tradition, and Steeleye Span, while indirectly influencing Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. Their impact extends to the current generation of performers and composers in the folk, Americana, and singer/songwriter fields, as well as to Hollywood.Using extensive primary evidence - including recorded interviews with both men - this book provides the first detailed biographies of these great singers, placing their singing and repertoires within the social and cultural contexts in which they lived. It will appeal equally to lovers of traditional song, to social history enthusiasts, and to any reader keen to know more of the fascinating lives of two outstanding singers whose influence continues to this day.

In Roots of the Revival: American and British Folk Music in the 1950s, Ronald D. Cohen and Rachel Clare Donaldson present a transatlantic history of folk's midcentury resurgence that juxtaposes the related but distinct revivals that took place in the United States and Great Britain. After setting the stage with the work of music collectors in the nineteenth century, the authors explore the so-called recovery of folk music practices and performers by Alan Lomax and others, including journeys to and within the British Isles that allowed artists and folk music advocates to absorb native forms and facilitate the music's transatlantic exchange. Cohen and Donaldson place the musical and cultural connections of the twin revivals within the decade's social and musical milieu and grapple with the performers' leftist political agendas and artistic challenges, including the fierce debates over "authenticity" in practice and repertoire that erupted when artists like Harry Belafonte and the Kingston Trio carried folk into the popular music mainstream. From work songs to skiffle, from the Weavers in Greenwich Village to Burl Ives on the BBC, Roots of the Revival offers a frank and wide-ranging consideration of a time, a movement, and a transformative period in American and British pop culture.

Ivor Cutler: A Life Outside the Sitting Room is the first biography of one of post-war Britain's most recognisable authors, poets and performers. Mr Cutler (as he preferred to be known) wrote and recorded some of the most unusual and memorable songs and poems in British popular culture, including the hilarious and unsettling 'Life in a Scotch Sitting Room' series. Described by fans and commentators as an outsider because of his eccentric behaviour on and off stage, in many ways he was an insider, working for thirty years as a primary school teacher, gathering a body of fans from the heart of the cultural and social establishment, and regularly appearing on mainstream media. He was one of the first - if not the first - performers to appear on BBC radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 and famously recorded more John Peel sessions than any other act except The Fall.This book is based on evidence from official documents, print and broadcast media; archive interviews with Ivor Cutler, his close friends and family, fans and collaborators; and new interviews with fans, friends and fellow performers. Contributors include musical and acting collaborators who have never been interviewed about their experiences with Mr Cutler.

'Shellac and Swing!' tells the story of the gramophone's 'golden age,' from 1900-1955, when it helped to shape Britain's culture from the arts to warfare. The story focuses on the gramophone, the invention of Emile Berliner in the 1880s, but begins with a brief outline of the first attempts to record the human voice and of Edison's invention of the cylinder and the phonograph. It uses primary evidence, images and interviews with DJs, fans, musicians and historians to explore this fascinating and often eccentric tale. Each chapter ends with 'On the Record,' a discussion of a record that relates to the chapter's themes. Although the gramophone and its fragile shellac discs were vital to Britain's music scene-opera and music hall, the Jazz Age, the crooners, early rock'n'roll-its impact was far more extensive. Its place in British history encompasses advertising and design, fraud and piracy, phallic symbols, talking books, the threat from radio and TV, the contrasting worlds of the Salvation Army and adult 'party' discs, the creation of a parliamentary insult, new political strategies and the seditious activity of the Mau Mau. From the establishment of the Gramophone Company in London in the late 1890s to the end of shellac record production in the 1950s, the British public bought the machines and the discs in their millions and the record labels made stars of performers like Caruso, Harry Lauder, Al Bowlly and Dame Nellie Melba. 'Shellac and Swing!' explores the ways in which the gramophone helped these singers to achieve stardom but it also explores in detail and for the first time many other stories of not-so-famous performers, of the gramophone in political electioneering and of forgotten technology: the first pirate radio broadcasters, the soldiers who took their 'Trench Decca' portables to the Western Front, the invention of the Flame-O-Phone, the People's Budget recordings and the pioneering label owner and producer of 'blue' discs. The gramophone's heyday ended with the rise of rock 'n 'roll, teenagers, the 45 rpm single, the LP and the record player, but it survives today as part of a vibrant contemporary music, fashion and lifestyle scene.

In Victorian times, England was famously dubbed the land without music - but one of the great musical discoveries of the early twentieth century was that England had a vital heritage of folk song and music which was easily good enough to stand comparison with those of other parts of Britain and overseas. Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Percy Grainger, and a number of other enthusiasts gathered a huge harvest of songs and tunes which we can study and enjoy at our leisure. But after over a century of collection and discussion, publication and performance, there are still many things we don't know about traditional song - Where did the songs come from? Who sang them, where, when and why? What part did singing play in the lives of the communities in which the songs thrived? More importantly, have the pioneer collectors' restricted definitions and narrow focus hindered or helped our understanding? This is the first book for many years to investigate the wider social history of traditional song in England, and draws on a wide range of sources to answer these questions and many more.

(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Songbook). This collection features over 20 popular modern Christmas songs by today's top artists arranged for piano and voice with guitar chord frames. Includes: Christmas Lights (Coldplay) * Christmas Saves the Year (Twenty One Pilots) * Christmas Tree Farm (Taylor Swift) * Cozy Little Christmas (Katy Perry) * Everyday Is Christmas (Sia) * Glittery (Kacey Musgraves) * Hallelujah (Carrie Underwood & John Legend) * He Shall Reign Forevermore (Chris Tomlin) * I Need You Christmas (Jonas Brothers) * Light of the World (Lauren Daigle) * Mistletoe (Justin Bieber) * Santa Tell Me (Ariana Grande) * Underneath the Tree (Kelly Clarkson) * and more.