SPRING/SUMMER 2013 No. 101 - Devon Folk

and Barbara Brown, currently involved in the
Short Sharp Shanties Project (John Short lived
just over the border on the North Somerset coast);
and great song-writers like Cyril Tawney, many
of whose powerful songs have now become
part of the ‘tradition’ of Devon. And we have
many small venues, such as The George at South
Molton, where big names like Martin Carthy and
Dick Gaughan are happy to come and play.
We have some ‘big names’ in Devon too: Seth
Lakeman comes from a family rooted in the
traditions of Dartmoor, and the songs he writes
stem from that tradition; Show of Hands (based
in Topsham) perform traditional songs as well as
their own, including Steve Knightley’s haunting
version of Widecombe Fair in which a young man
is murdered for courting a girl already spoken for
‘on the Whiddon Down Road’. ‘Roots’, Show
of Hands’ riposte to a politician who said that his
idea of hell was ‘three folk singers in a pub near
Wells’ reclaimed and re-asserted the importance
of the traditional songs, music and customs of
England, but as their example shows, folk song is
not a dead tradition: it needs to be re-thought, reworked
and enjoyed again by every generation.
Jim Causley is a ne example of this practice:
his recent CD, Dumnonia, is a fresh and lively
collection of mostly traditional songs from the
county, some recently revived from the singing of
John Shepherd, the ‘mayor’ of Whimple. Honiton
Lace, written by Martin Graebe (also strongly
connected to Wren Music) uses the words of
a Honiton lacemaker from a letter dated 1897
which he found in the Rougemont Museum, and
Royal Comrade is a version of Young Leonard
which Jim learned from the west country Romany
singer Amy Birch.
But just as important as all of this are the many
informal folk clubs, singarounds and sessions
held in Devon pubs most days of the week, where
those of us who love singing and listening to
traditional song can nd a home and a welcome.
In this column I will be interpreting the term
‘traditional’ quite loosely, and reecting on the
ways in which songs become ‘traditional’ through
their informal performance in the pubs and clubs
of our lovely muddy county.
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