Thread: English Folk Music

I heard that Frank Turner is going to release an album of traditional English folk music and it got me thinking that I don't know any traditional music from England.

Anybody know of any artists or songs in this genre? I'm sure I must have come across it but I can't think of anything.

Hi CMB 1888

I did a bit of research on this to find out what what Frank might mean by this and have come to the conclusion that he means traditional English Foll music.....this dates back to the middle ages and is still practiced by bands such as

Steeleye Span
Pentangle


There is an excellent band who attempt to play this kind of music on original instruments called " Gryphon" ( Of whom I'm a great fan !!!!!

Albums here to try are Gryphon by Gryphon

The central band are Fairport Convention

I can give one other reference.......in my youth I used to go to a local folk club in Grimsby( In English folk terms this was a special place....even Paul Simon has played there!!) and there was an excellent band who played traditional English folk music called "The Broadside" .......however albums by them are hard to find.

Close to this and in my eyes rooted in English Folk music among other things are my personal favourites Magna Carta ( Who have links to Fairport Convention through one of their members Matt Barnhoorn who used to play with Fairport!) although they do not actually play Traditional English Folk music as such much of their work carries on the traditions into this century)

hope this helps

Gryphon

Wow! Thanks for this - I'll go listen.

Hi.

I hadn't heard of Gryphon but a quick audition is tempting me to save my euros for a copy of Anthology on Amazon!

You might want to give Blowzabella a listen. They borrow from a wider range of Genres and maybe have a more contemporary style. ( a bit more Jiggy/hornpipey!) I saw them at Towersey in Buckinghamshire in the Early 90's and it was a really powerful sound.

I'd say Pentangle & the Fairports are more Folk-Rock than traditional English Folk.

Eliza Carthy is a current singer that focuses on the traditional side of Folk music - although she does venture into more contemporary music on occasion - which you can usually tell from other stuff, because the songs tend to be bundled in threes ( My Bonnie Lassie Has Haemorrhoids/I've Mislaid my Favourite Cow/Catrina's Jig sort of thing).

Eliza is the daughter of Martin Carthy & Norma Waterson, who are central figures in this genre, but I haven't ventured into their music yet...

And for instrumental Trad Folk, Kathryn Tickell is worth checking out. She comes from the North-East of England, and specialises in Northumbrian taraditional music. She plays Northumbrian Pipes, which aren't too far from Uillean Pipes, and the Fiddle, as these Folkie types refer to the Violin...

Try Sting's 'Songs from the Labyrinth' - VERY different.

Hi , Thanks for nice sharing. A particular rhythmic pattern, or a characteristic instrument, is enough to give a traditional feel to music, even when it has been composed recently.

Originally Posted by Jerome

Try Sting's 'Songs from the Labyrinth' - VERY different.

I second this! I lot of these tunes are Sting's take on pieces of music from the European Renassaince and mostly are songs written by composer and master Lutenist, John Dowland.

I just love Dowland's music.. So warm and mellow..