Simply Folk Music Magazine

SFM
MAGAZINE
SIMPLY FOLK
Music Magazine
Bi - Monthly Issue: 02
Also Inside:
HARRY
CHAPIN
Folk Radio
UK Stations
Folk News
History Of Folk
Focus On
The Bodhran
Woodstock
1969
Mike
harding
TALKS
FOLK
SPONSORED BY: MUSIC FOR
WORLD PEACE
RECORDS

SFM
MAGAZINE
Laurence Venne
Kelowna, British Columbia
Music is in my blood, a singer,
songwriter with an extensive
collection of original songs in my
repertoire. If you are interested
in purchasing an original tune,
message me. Meanwhile, enjoy
my tunes. Cheers from Canada.
Link to: Born Of The Water
| 02

WELCOME TO
SIMPLY FOLK
very warm welcome to issue 2 of
A Simply Folk Music Magazine, your
bi-monthly online magazine featuring folk
music and artists from around the world.
This month I’ve had the greatest of
pleasures in meeting and interviewing Mike
Harding. It was a fantastic day for me, and
I thoroughly enjoyed each minute. He’s an
incredibly talented man, with a fantastic
sense of humor, which I witnessed first
hand as he relayed his answers to me. A big
thank you goes out to Mike for allowing me
to take up some of his precious time.
I would also like to thank Peggy Strella,
Licensing Administrator and Music
Services, Chapin Offices, USA for her
assistance in supplying permission &
information about the late Harry Chapin
and the legacy of charities he set up which
still support people in need today.
I’ve had some wonderful feedbak from
many people over the past few months
telling me how much they enjoyed issue 1,
and I thank you all from the bottom of my
heart.
I’d like to reach out to all my readers and
invite anyone who’d like to write for this
magazine to please contact me via email
with your suggestion for relevant additions.
My email address is at the bottom of each
page, so please do get in touch if you have
an interest in writing about any aspect
of Folk music. I’m particularly interested
in people who are keen to write about
folk festivals they attend/have attended,
although I’d also like to hear any ideas for
future articles.
We attended Hartlepool Folk festival on
Friday 4th October, and I have to say it
was a wonderful experience for us. We
witnessed singarounds in The Fishermans
Welcome
MUSIC MAGAZINE
Arms with some amazingly talented folk
artists in attendance. The Wilson’s called
in late Friday evening and their singing
raised the roof on The Fishermans Arms.
Many other artists were in attendance, and
I was privileged to meet several of them
and introduce them to Simply Folk Music
Magazine. They were all extremely nice and
gave me lots of feedback and praise for my
first effort. I’m pretty sure some of them will
be in touch and appear over the next few
months.
Macdara Yeates I met on Sunday afternoon,
and it was a pleasure to purchase his album
as I was so impressed with his singing.
I even managed to get my copy signed,
which is great. I think it’s always nice to
be able to help support artists at events by
purchasing some of their merchandise. You
will find out more about Macdara on pages
52/53 of this issue. I can assure you, if you
contact him to buy his album you will not
be disappointed. His vocals are powerful
yet exquisite. Wonderful music from a very
talented artist.
I’d like to give a shout out to all the many
festival organisers and their teams of helpers
around the country who give up so much
of their time, usually for free, to ensure
festivals run smoothly. Here in Hartlepool
Joanie Crump & Jonny Mohun did an
exceptional job with this years folk festival,
as did the team of helpers who ensured the
safety and security as well as the enjoyment
of all who attended each of the many events.
I’d also like to thank everyone who took the
time to read issue 1 of Simply Folk Music
Magazine. I was not certain when I released
it how well it might be received, but it has
exceeded all my expectations and issue 1
has to date been read by over 13,500 people
around the world. Thank you all so much
for your support. Jane xx
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
03 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
CONTENTS
* * * November/December 2024 * * *
MFWPR
OUR MISSION IS TO
PROMOTE A WORLD OF
PEACE.
We are a profit sharing
label. We are not motivated
by profit, but we do believe
that everyone who worked
on a project should get a fair
share of any profit made by
that project. It helps support
and motivate the teams that
are working hard to bring
us world peace through the
influence of music and the
internet. It helps the label
to grow and spread that
influence throughout the
world.
MEDIA
Cover
Artist
32 MIKE
HARDING
TALKS
FOLK
32
Featured
Articles
06 Folk Events
UK
08 UK Folk Radio
09 Folk News In Brief
10 Harry Chapin
Biography J Shields
14 The Bodhran
History
10
18 Woodstock 1969
Festival
24 English Folk Music
28 Field Recorders
Collective
| 04
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

50
Featured
Artists
Are you a Folk artist
seeking a new way to
promote your music?
44 Sam Lee
Gregynog
46 Taylor Sappe
MFWPR
50 Macdara
Yeates
Traditional
Singing From
Dublin Album
54 Jenny M
Thomas &
Bush Gothic
60 David Philip
Ireland
60 Years On...
64 Charlotte
Grayson
One To Watch
68 We Mavericks
Introducing
72 Advertisments
74 Louise &
Chris Rogan
Dad & Daughter
78 Tom Campbell
Trio Introduction
84 Bobby Fire
London Folk
88 Kete Bowers
Birkenhead Folk
92 The Vykyng
Who Is He?
96 Chris Cleavley
Christmas EP
100 Enda McCabe
Introduction
102 Malin Hill EP
104 Jim Moginie
Album Launch Tour
105 Xmas Cracker
Glasgow gig
106 Skinner & Twitch
Leeds Gig
107 Beer & Carols
Hucknall
Do you have a monthly gig
list you’d like to share?
Would you consider
advertising within a future
issue?
Would you like to become
a regular folk music writer
in this magazine?
Are you taking part in a
charity event involving folk
music?
Drop me an email and let
me see what I can do to
help you.
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.
com
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
05 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
UK
FOLK
EVENTS
NOV/DEC 2024
ENGLAND
GRACE PETRI THE NEW ADELPHI CLUB
HULL Saturday December 7th - 8.30pm
SKINNY LISTER THE RESCUE ROOMS
NOTTINGHAM SUNDAY December 8th - 6.30pm
KATE RUSBY ST GEORGES HALL BRADFORD
Friday December 6th - 7.30pm
THE UNTHANKS ALBERT HALL
NOTTINGHAM Tuesday 10th Dec ember - 7pm
JOEY THE LIPS THE WHARF TAVISTOCK
DEVON Saturday December 7th 8.30pm
THE UNTHANKS EPIC STUDIOS NORFOLK
Wednesday December 11th- 7pm
KATEY BROOKS GREEN NOTE LONDON
Wednesday December 11th - 8.30pm
SKINNY LISTER EDGE OF THE WEDGE
PORTSMOUTH Thursday December 12th - 7.30pm
GRACIE PETRI THE JOINERS
SOUTHAMPTON Friday December 13th - 8pm
STICK IN THE WHEEL THEKLA BRISTOL
Sunday November 3rd - 7pm
OLD SEA BRIGADE THE CLUNY NEWCASTLE
UPON TYNE Sunday November 3rd - 7.30pm
SNIFF ’N THE TEARS GREEN NOTE LONDON
Sunday November 3rd - 8.30pm
GAELFORCE THE MUSICIAN LEICESTER
Monday November 3rd - 7.30pm
RÃ OGHNACH CONNOLLY & HONEYFEET THE
BROOK SOUTHAMPTON Monday November 3rd -
8.30pm
ROSALI FULFORD ARMS YORK Monday
November 4th - 8pm
SAINT BOY GREEN NOTE LONDON Tuesday
November 5th - 8.30pm
OLD SEA BRIGATE STRANGE BREW BRISTOL
Tuesday November 5th - 7pm
TROUBADOUR PRESENTS BOCI THE
TROUBADOUR LONDON Wednesday November
6th - 8pm
KATIE SPENCER GREEN NOTE LONDON
Wednesday November 6th - 8.30pm
BLACK WATER COUNTY THE JOINERS
SOUTHAMPTON Wednesday November 6th - 7.30pm
FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS CAMBRIDGE CORN
EXCHANGE Thursday November 7th - 7pm
LEWIS BARFOOT GREEN NOTE LONDON
Thursday November 7th - 8pm
BLACK WATER COUNTY THE CAMDEN ASSEMBLY
LONDON Thursday November 7th - 7pm
BELLOWHEAD BRIGHTON DOME E SUSSEX
Friday November 8th - 7pm
FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS YORK BARBICAN YORK
Friday November 8th - 6pm
MAN THE LIFEBOATS THE GARAGE LONDON
Friday November 8th - 7pm
AMBLE ARTS CLUB LIVERPOOL Saturday
November 9th - 7pm
BLACK WATER COUNTY THEKLA BRISTOL Sunday
November 10th - 7pm
| 06
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

UK Folk Events Nov/Dec 2024
SCOTLAND
SKINNY LISTER THE MASH HOUSE,
EDINBUGH Saturday December 7th - 8pm
AMBLE COTTIERS THEATRE GLASGOW
Thursday November 7th - 7pm
AMBLE THE CABARET VOLTAIRE
EDINBURGH Friday November 8th - 7pm
FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS QUEENS HALL EDINBURGH
Saturday November 9th - 7pm
GRACE PETRIE THE GLOBE CARDIFF
Tuesday December 10th - 8pm
WALES
JOHN FRANCIS FLYNN ROYL WELSH COLLEGE
CARDIFF Saturday November 2nd 7pm
DAN MCCABE CANAL COURT BELFAST
Friday November 8th - 8pm
IRELAND
KINGFISHR
TELEFAST BUILDING BELFAST
Saturday November 9th - 7pm
07 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
UK Folk Radio Stations
NASHVILLE
WORLDWIDE
Listen here
VIP RADIO
GLASGOW
Listen here
INTAMIXX
DESI RADIO
Listen here
WYLDWOOD
RADIO
Listen here
MYSTERY TRAIN
RADIO
Listen here
SHETLAND
INTERNATIONAL
RADIO
Listen here
FOLK FRIDAY
RADIO
Listen here
PARROT RADIO
UK
Listen here
SCOTLANDER
RADIO
Listen here
SUNSHINE MUSIC
IRADIO
listen here
SOUNDART RADIO
102.5
Listen here
WEIR FM
ROSSENDALE
Listen here
MKB INDEPENDANT
RADIO
Listen here
RADIO
TROUBADOUR
Listen here
| 08
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Folk Radio Stations/Folk News
An experimental folk band
which blends traditional
Irish music with electronic
sounds will represent Northern
Ireland at a global music industry
event in Manchester.
The Coras Trio will play the
Horizons Stage at WOMEX 24.
The event, which takes place for
three nights from October 24,
brings together 2,600 delegates
from 90 countries and features
more than 50 live acts.
The Horizons Stage in the Albert
Hall provides UK and Irish
artists with an opportunity to
gain international recognition
and to meet leading industry
professionals and secure touring
opportunities.
On Sept. 25, 2012, the world
of Turkish music lost a
monumental figure, Neşet
Ertaş, known affectionately
as the “Bozkırın Tezenesi,” or
“Voice of the Prairie.” As the
12th anniversary of his passing
arrived, both the Turkish and
global music communities
continued to celebrate his
profound impact on folk music,
characterized by his heartfelt
performances and unique
interpretations of traditional
ballads.
Neşet Ertaş was born in 1938 in
the village of Abdallar, located
in the Çiçekdağı district of
Kırşehir in central Türkiye. His
early years were spent in a rural
environment rich with cultural
Folk News In Brief
traditions that would deeply
shape his artistic expression. He
lived in Abdallar until the age of
8, after which his family relocated
to Ibikli village. It was here,
under the influence of his father,
Muharrem Ertaş – a master of
the saz, a traditional Turkish
string instrument – that Neşet’s
musical journey began.
The Champaign-Urbana Folk
and Roots Festival held
its yearly festivities from Oct.
3-5, with events ranging from
performances and jam sessions to
interactive workshops. Multiple
locations around the C-U area
hosted events throughout the
three-day festival.
There were various hands-on
opportunities to learn new skills,
by dancing or learning how to
play instruments. These included
beginner-level harmonica,
banjo, cello and guitar. Dance
workshops included swing,
contra, clogging and Cajun twostep.
Matt Turino is a member of
the Turino Family Band, and
was the instructor at the Cajun
Two-Step workshop on Oct.
5. He was raised in the folk
music community and has been
a frequent performer at past
festivals.
The folk tradition is facing a
reckoning, and artists like
Suthering are leading the charge
The duo’s latest single, Maggie is
a rallying cry for women’s rights
and features footage of protests as
well as the first Tavistock Pride,
which the pair organised.
Heg Brignall and Julu Irvine
believe the time is ripe for a new
approach to folk. “The English
folk scene is grappling with deepseated
misogyny, and we’ve faced
sexism, invasions of privacy, and
even sexual assaults while gigging
ourselves,” said Brignall..
Emerging Irish artist Marr Not
Meeger aka Rowan Meagher
has released her new song, Yellow
Car, which is taken from her
debut EP The Boy In The Tree.
Having grown up outside Ireland,
mainly in Geneva, and then
moving to Paris at 17 to pursue
her music career, she found
herself having to explain the
pronunciation of her last name to
foreigners, hence the name, Marr
Not Meeger.
On The Boy in The Tree, she
“navigates the transition from
adolescence to adulthood,
relationships, and insecurity
through a blend of 90s grunge,
indie pop and delicate folk
sounds”.
Speaking about her musical taste
and the artists that influenced
her, Rowan says: “I’m going
through a future soul phase at the
moment, but growing up in the
streaming era, my playlists are
always as eclectic as I am.
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
09 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
HARRY
CHAPIN
Biography
| 10 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Harry Chapin
Harry Chapin was born December 7th 1942
into a family of artists in Greenwich Village,
New York City. His paternal grandfather,
James Chapin, was an important portrait
and muralist painter in the mid 20th
Century. His maternal grandfather, Kenneth Burke, was
a renowned philosopher and literary critic. The son of
Jim Chapin, a well know jazz drummer who played with
Tommy Dorsey and Woody Herman, Jim was a talented
drummer who had also performed with the Tony Pastor
and Casa Loma Orchestra Big Bands. His uncle, Richard
Leacock, was the famed cinema verité filmmaker, for whom
Harry worked before making his 1968 Oscar nominated
film ‘Legendary Champions.’
All of these influences can be found in his urban folk,
miniature movie story songs of blue collar Americans. The
influences can be felt in the diversity of his interests: a series
of documentary films, twelve albums over ten years, three
Broadway shows, an Emmy award winning children’s TV
series, ‘Make A Wish,’ a film score for a TV special ‘Mother
and Daughter, the Loving War,’ earning Oscar, Grammy,
Peabody, Emmy and Tony nominations and awards.
Harry, with two of his brothers Tom and Steve, followed
their father’s musical interests and the brothers sang in the
Grace Episcopal Church Boys Choir in the ‘50s in Brooklyn
Heights. Harry’s first instrument was the trumpet, later he
took up banjo and guitar. At 15, he formed his first band,
‘The Chapin Brothers’ with his brothers, who both figured
into Harry’s later career as backing performers and musical
collaborators. Their father, Jim, sometimes sat in with
them when they were young and later in the ‘70’s, he often
opened Harry’s shows with his jazz group.
Harry found further inspiration in the folk boom of the
‘60s. He learned the folk hits of the day and played for his
own pleasure or for friends while studying architecture and
philosophy at Cornell University. During the summers,
Harry would join brothers Tom and Steve and his father as
the ‘Chapin Brothers’, playing clubs in Greenwich Village
and the occasional paying gig. The group recorded one
album, ‘Chapin Music,’ on Rockland Records in 1964. After
flunking out of school, Harry tried his hand at film, first
working as a packer loading reels into crates, then moving
into editing. By the late ‘60s, he was making some of his
own documentaries. He directed, and along with Jim Jacobs
produced the documentary about boxing, ‘Legendary
Champions’, which was nominated for an Academy Award
in 1969 and he received prizes at the New York and Atlanta
film festivals.
Throughout the ‘60’s Harry continued to write original
material, gradually moving toward creating film-like
narratives that he called ‘story songs,’ which become his
trademark. In 1970, his brothers formed their own band
called ‘The Chapin’s’ and recorded a number of singles for
the Epic label. Harry provided some of the songs, among
them ‘Greyhound’ and ‘Any Old Kind of Day,’ both of
which he later re-recorded himself. The following year,
‘The Chapins’ hit on the idea of renting the ‘Village Gate’
in New York for a summer run instead of seeking out club
dates. Harry, playing guitar and singing solo, became their
opening act.
After the first week Harry, feeling that he needed more
musical voices to ‘color’ his new songs, advertised in the
‘Village Voice’ to find members for a new band. He hired
a jazz guitarist, a cellist, and contacted an old choir friend,
John Wallace, to play bass. Harry and his group earned
critical praise, won over a crowd of local fans and soon,
record-company executives came calling. In late 1971, after
a bidding war between Columbia Records’ Clive Davis and
Elektra’s Jac Holzman, Harry signed with Elektra. Soon
thereafter Harry had a single and album released that made
the national charts.
The single, ‘Taxi,’ (a bittersweet story of two young lovers
meeting years later in a cab,) received considerable air play
-- rising to No. 24 -- despite its unconventional length of six
minutes, and it was this record that made Harry’s career.
‘Heads and Tales,’ his album containing the song, was
released in early 1972. Harry continued to build up a
following with the songs and albums that followed. From
‘Short Stories’ came the single ‘W.O.L.D.,’ a devastatingly
accurate picture of the AM radio world as seen through the
eyes of an aging disc jockey. The song rose to number thirty
four and the LP remained on the charts for twenty three
weeks.
On his fourth album, ’Verities and Balderdash,’ Harry
recorded ‘Cats in the Cradle,’ a song written with his wife,
Sandy. The song tells the story of a father who was more
concerned about becoming a success in business than
helping his son grow up. It was to become Harry’s first and
only number one single, and still remains a classic. The
album also turned gold, topping at number four in the
charts.
He built on that success in the mid-1970s, recording two
LPs, ‘Portrait Gallery’ and ‘Greatest Stories Live,’ the latter
went gold after its release in 1976 and has remained a
bestseller. From the beginning, Harry found his greatest
joy and success on the concert stage. During the ‘70s,
he averaged 200 concerts a year, making lifelong fans of
audiences everywhere.
Harry was one of America’s best loved troubadours. He
toured the small towns and cities and worked tirelessly to
benefit hungry and impoverished people in those towns
and cities, in intimate settings that often inspired his
songs of simple people in ordinary circumstances: the
disc jockey, fireman, taxi driver, factory worker, pretzel
vendor, children, wives, and lovers – the real people from
Gloucester, San Francisco, Austin, Scranton, Dayton, Boise
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
11 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
- from the Plains to the Pocono’s, all over this land.
Harry communicated with his audiences on a very personal
level. By creating the texture, he put the listeners inside the
experience to reveal the inner feelings and sensitivities of
the lonely, the alienated, the indifferent, the frustrated and
the fearful to find small certainties and quiet victories for
themselves.
Posthumously, Harry was awarded the Congressional
Medal of Honor. He moved beyond the singer-songwriter
who enchanted audiences with stories in song to become a
public advocate, educator and fund-raiser.
“Our lives are to be used and thus to be
lived as fully as possible,” he once told an
interviewer. “And truly it seems that we are
never so alive as when we concern ourselves
with other people.”
By 1979 when Harry completed his contract with Elektra
Records and signed with Boardwalk Records, his songs
in the album, ‘Sequel’ were more introspective, reflective
of personal passages and nostalgia as in ‘Story Of A Life.’
Harry’s music was dedicated to his activist heroes, Allard
Lowenstein, Phil Ochs and John Lennon.
‘The Last Protest Singer,’ which would be Harry’s last
album, was intended to be a film score for a composite
protest singer like Woody Guthrie or Victor Jara. It was
a tribute to all those whom Harry admired and tried to
emulate, to those who had been compelled, even in the face
of failure and fear, to stand up and be counted.
Harry’s last stage musical was ‘Cotton Patch Gospel’ based
on the book, “The Cotton Patch Version of Matthew and
John,’ by Georgia preacher/activist Clarence Jordan. It
retells the Gospel of Matthew as if Jesus were born in the
1930s in Gainesville, Georgia.
Rolling Stone writer Dave Marsh called the
combination of spiritual,
gospel & bluegrass
‘Some of the best songs Harry Chapin
ever wrote.’
The musical production has been staged in regional theatre,
colleges and churches all over the United States and is as
relevant today as the day when Harry originally wrote it.
Harry had begun to branch out. He was the star of a
multimedia show that opened on Broadway Feb. 26, 1975.
“The Night That Made America Famous,” which received
critical praise and earned two Tony nominations.
He also began doing more and more benefit concerts,
calling them, jokingly, his ‘benefits of the week,’ which
eventually led him to the realization that isolated concerts,
no matter how large or profitable, were not enough in
themselves. What was needed to really effect change
on a National or International level were organizations
committed to following through on particular issues --
organizations that would be here next year, in ten years,
in twenty years. So Harry began to focus his energy
specifically on the issues of hunger and food distribution,
which in turn led to his creation of ‘WHY’ and ‘Long Island
Cares’, two hunger organizations that have outlived him.
Thanks to Harry, ‘WHY’ raised more than $350,000 in its
first year, and Harry used his influence to enlist other artists
to perform for charity and lobby lawmakers to create a
government commission on world hunger. That last goal
was finally realized in 1979, when President Jimmy Carter
appointed a Presidential Commission on World Hunger.
Harry became the only delegate to make every meeting.
He kept writing and recording as well, after his 1976 LP,
‘On the Road to Kingdom Come,’ he released a two-album
set in August 1977, ‘Dance Band on the Titanic.’ His next
offering, ‘Living Room Suite,’ was issued in June 1978. In
December 1980, he issued his ‘Sequel’ single which reached
No. 23 on the charts. His Boardwalk LP of the same title,
his most popular record in several years, charted at No. 58
and remained on the charts well into 1981. ‘Sequel’ was
a follow up to ‘Taxi,’ in which the man and woman meet
again after 10 years with their roles reversed. The one-time
taxi driver has now become successful in music; the woman
who had married for money is now divorced and working
for a living.
Harry was on his way to a business meeting in New York
City, before heading back to Long Island to perform a free
outdoor concert at Eisenhower Park, when his car was
struck by a tractor-trailer. Harry was killed instantly in that
crash on New York’s Long Island Expressway on July 16th,
1981.
Harry Chapin’s humanitarian legacy has extended long
after his death. Ken Kragen and Harry Belafonte named
Harry as one of the inspirations for the ‘Hands Across
America’ Campaign, and for the series of Concerts for
Africa.
Shows in the Astrodome in Houston, Los Angeles Forum,
and Madison Square Garden helped raise more than $6
million. In 1986 he was only the fourth songwriter ever
awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (the others
being Irving Berlin and George and Ira Gershwin). Years
later the organizations that he helped found, ‘World Hunger
Year’ and ‘Long Island Cares’, continue to do the work that
he envisioned -- helping hungry people feed and better
themselves.
| 12
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Harry Chapin
DISCOGRAPHY
“Heads & Tales” (1972)
“Sniper & Other Love Songs” (1972)
“Cat’s In The Cradle” (1974)
“Short Stories” (1974)
“Verities & Balderdash” (1974)
“Portrait Gallery” (1975)
“Greatest Stories Live” (1976)
“On the Road to Kingdom Come” (1976)
“Dance Band on the Titanic” (1977)
“Living Room Suite” (1978)
“Legends of the Lost & Found” (1979)
“Sequel” (1980)
“Anthology of Harry Chapin” (1985)
“Remember When the Music” (1987)
“Gold Medal Collection” (1988)
“Last Protest Singer” (1989)
“Bottom Line Encore Collection” (1998)
“Story of a Life” (1999)
(Sources: AMG All Music Guide Biography by Steven
Thomas Erlewine, www.allmusic.com; The Faber
Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, Phil
Hardy and Dave Laing, eds., 1990, Faber & Faber; Harry
Chapin Biography by Jason C. Mayans,
www.littlejason.com; Long Island Cares, “Harry Chapin
(1942-1981),” www.licares.org; “Music and a message,”
by Karin Lipson, staff writer, July 16, 2001, Long Island
Newsday; Oxford Companion to Popular Music, Peter
Gammond, ed., 1991, Oxford University Press; Penguin
Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Donald Clark, ed., 1990,
Penguin Books. Special thanks to Tom Chapin for insight,
advice and revision.) (Special thanks to Pegge Strella,
Licensing Administrator and Music Services, Chapin
Offices, 16 Gerard Street Huntington, NY 11743)
Remember When The Music
***
Remember when the music
Came from wooden boxes strung with silver wire
And as we sang the words,
it would set our minds on fire,
For we believed in things, and so we’d sing.
***
Remember when the music
Brought us all together to stand inside the rain
And as we’d join our hands, we’d meet in the refrain,
For we had dreams to live, we had hopes to give.
***
Remember when the music
Was the best of what we dreamed of
for our children’s time
And as we sang we worked, for time was just a line,
It was a gift we saved, a gift the future gave.
***
Remember when the music
Was a rock that we could cling to so we’d not despair,
And as we sang we knew we’d hear an echo fill the air
We’d be smiling then, we would smile again.
***
Oh all the times I’ve listened, and all the times I’ve heard
All the melodies I’m missing, and all the magic words,
And all those potent voices,
and the choices we had then,
How I’d love to find we had that kind of choice again.
***
Remember when the music
Was a glow on the horizon of every newborn day
And as we sang, the sun came up to chase the dark away,
And life was good, for we knew we could.
***
Remember when the music
Brought the night across the valley
as the day went down
And as we’d hum the melody,
we’d be safe inside the sound,
And so we’d sleep, we had dreams to keep.
***
And I feel that something’s coming,
and it’s not just in the wind.
It’s more than just tomorrow,
it’s more than where we’ve been,
It offers me a promise, it’s telling me “Begin”,
I know we’re needing something worth believing in.
***
Remember when the music
Came from wooden boxes strung with silver wire
And as we sang the words,
it would set our minds on fire,
For we believed in things, and so we’d sing.
***
© Harry Chapin
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
13 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
THE
BODHRÁN
THE BODHRÁN
The bodhrán is one
of Ireland’s oldest
traditional musical
instruments. The
bodhrán is the iconic Irish drum,
one of a small select family of
Celtic instruments that is stated to
pre-date Christianity.
Ireland has a deep-rooted and rich
musical heritage. But how much
do we really know about this
distinctive Irish drum?
Despite existing for thousands of
years, the first early appearances
of the bodhrán drum were
featured in paintings from the
early nineteenth century, whilst in
contemporary culture, the earliest
recordings began to appear on the
music scene in the 1960s.
The name bodhrán comes from
Gaelic and is believed to translate
to the words ‘skin tray’. This is
probably accurate, given the Celtic
instruments’ use in its earliest
incarnations.
HISTORY OF THE
BODHRÁN
The first mentions and uses of
the bodhrán drum make it clear
that the bodhrán was a tool first,
musical instrument second.
Originally a flat wide vessel, the
bodhrán has been used to carry
peat.
It has also been cited as being a
winnowing basket in its original
purpose. Winnowing is what is
done to wheat to separate out the
hard, spikey coverings from the
soft kernels. Winnowing baskets
and peat carriers were useful
tools found in most houses at the
time, and it is believed that people
discovered that these tools made a
pleasant sound when turned over
and tapped!
The traditional bodhrán in Ireland
was not so much a musical
instrument for pleasure and
entertainment but instead, it was
used as a tool in certain rituals
and holy days.
Throughout history, the bodhrán
was employed by Irish clans as a
battle drum in attempts to strike
fear in the hearts of enemies. The
drum was likely used to provide a
steady rhythm for Celtic warriors
to march to.
It was only in the 1960s that the
bodhrán drum began to emerge
on the music scene.
SEAN
Ó RIADA
Sean Ó Riada popularised the
bodhrán drum in his exploration
| 14 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

The Bodhran
of his musical culture and
background. Ó Riada’s work led
to a resurgence for the bodhrán as
a piece of Irish musical heritage.
This has led to the famous saying
that “the bodhrán is an old drum
but a new musical instrument.”
WHAT IS A BODHRÁN
MADE OF?
A bodhrán is essentially a cross
between a tambourine and a
drum, and there are studies
into the resemblances between
the tabor, tambourine, and the
bodhrán as they all have very
similar designs.
A bodhrán consists of a circular
frame with a skin stretched over
one face. The traditional bodhrán
drum featured wooden frames
that were made from green wood.
The drums tend to be just over
a foot in diameter, and they can
be as shallow as three inches, or
as deep as eight or more. Each
musician will generally have a
preferred size bodhrán.
The skin was traditionally
goatskin, but sheepskin was also
used. Today, entirely artificial
synthetic skins are commonly
used.
Modern instruments have tuning
features by which the bodhrán
drum’s skin can be tightened in
order to produce a more musical
note. These are generally made
from metal and are tightened or
loosened using a hex key.
HOW IS THE BODHRÁN
DRUM PLAYED?
Following the popularisation of
the bodhrán as part of Ireland’s
culture, the Irish drum has an
important part to play in modern
Irish music, adding a nostalgic
authenticity for those who have a
strong sense of their heritage.
The bodhrán drum can be played
in different ways. The bodhrán
is most commonly played with
a ‘tipper’- a small double-ended
drumstick. The tipper is very
small compared to traditional
drumsticks, and this gives the
bodhrán player lots of versatility
and freedom in order to create a
wide array of musical sounds.
KERRY STYLE: with the Kerry
style of play both ends of the
tipper are used. The player holds
the drum securely on his or her
knee and holds the tipper with the
dominant hand. By fluttering and
twisting their hand, the person is
able to play a dazzling sequence of
beats.
WEST LIMERICK: with this
style, only one end of the tipper
is used, and the sound is more
reminiscent of traditional
drumstick use.
HAND: the hand is used to strike
the bodhrán, with the heel of the
hand creating a sharp, loud beat,
whilst the flat of the palm creates
softer sounds. The fingers come
into play too, with gentle taps,
slides, and hard rapping all taking
their place in the pantheon of
sound produced by the humble
bodhrán drum.
It’s important to note that the
drum does not only benefit from
the dominant hand that is holding
the tipper or being used instead
of one - the performer is required
to utilize the remaining hand to
assist with the creation of sounds.
The bodhrán itself is supported on
the player’s knees, held loosely in
the circle of his or her arms, while
the other hand is free to hold the
edge of the bodhrán or even be
pressed to the underside of the
skin to mute, muffle or otherwise
transform the sound produced by
the Irish drum.
The ability to use the ‘spare’ hand
on the underside of the drum is
almost magical, transforming the
sound of the drum from sharp
urgent taps to more melodious
ringing beats. The amount of
pressure used on the underside
of the skin allows the player to
produce a whole range of notes
– in the hands of a skilled player
the bodhrán can convey a sob,
merriness, or even a martial call to
action.
The entirety of the drum is used
whilst playing the bodhrán.
Traditional drums require
only the skin to be struck, and
hitting the edge is considered an
embarrassing rookie mistake. But
with bodhrán playing the edge is a
perfectly legitimate target for your
tipper – it is used to add emphasis
to the beat and to change up the
sounds.
In this way, using tipper and hand,
edge and skin, the bodhrán can be
made to produce sounds far more
sophisticated and intricate than
might be expected from a mere
drum!
WHY LEARN TO PLAY THE
BODHRÁN?
Learning to play a new musical
instrument awakens pathways
in your brain, enabling you to
literally think and react quicker
than before. The more of your
brain that you use, the better it
gets at making connections and
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
15 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
(CONTINUED FROM
PREVIOUS PAGE)
forging neural pathways. In short,
learning to play drums could
make you think better and faster!
Playing musical instruments,
especially drums of any sort,
can improve your coordination,
making your hand-eye focus
pinpoint perfect while the rest
of your body learns to move in
all the different ways needed to
drum correctly. The Irish drum is
no different, leaving practitioners
with quick reflexes, good balance
and an excellent sense of rhythm.
https://youtu.be/b9HyB5yNS1A
Perhaps the best reason for
learning to play the Irish drum
is to get in touch with your Irish
antecedents. If you have Irish
ancestors, no matter how distant
they are, you can help yourself
get in touch with your cultural
heritage by learning to syncopate
along to traditional Irish music!
Playing instruments that have
been used by your great-greatgrandfather
and learning music
that he would have recognized can
help you connect with your Irish
roots.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Do not assume the bodhrán is
easy to play! There is a lot to learn
from watching bodhrán players
in action, especially live, but
there are videos online ranging
from absolute beginner lessons to
virtuoso masterly performances.
Most of all, you will obtain a sense
of the atmosphere that comes
about with bodhrán playing,
especially in an Irish setting, such
as an Irish pub or actually in
Ireland itself.
Try out a few different sizes of
these Celtic instruments before
you pick the one that you will
learn to play on. It should be
comfortable for you to hold
without dropping, just the
right size that you can play and
maneuver it without any issues,
and you should feel right holding
it. The good news is, there are a
lot of options when it comes to
bodhráns!
Finally, enjoy the art of making
music: sink into the experience.
After all, as Plato said: “Music gives
a soul to the universe, wings to the
mind, flight to the imagination,
and life to everything.”
Article by Rachel Brown
Contributor@IrishCentral
Apr 12, 2023
TOMMY
HAYES
| 16 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com 17 |
aaa

WOODSTOCK
196
SFM
MAGAZINE
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair,
commonly referred to as Woodstock,
was a music festival held from August
15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur’s dairy
farm in Bethel, New York. 40 miles (65
km) southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as
“an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music”
and alternatively referred to as the Woodstock
Rock Festival, it attracted an audience of more
than 460,000. Thirty-two acts performed outdoors
despite overcast conditions and sporadic rain. It
was one of the largest music festivals in history and
became synonymous with the counterculture of the
1960s.
The festival has become widely regarded as a
pivotal moment in popular music history, as well
as a defining event for the silent and baby boomer
generations. The event’s significance was reinforced
by a 1970 documentary film,an accompanying
soundtrack album, and a song written by Joni
Mitchell that became a major hit for both Crosby,
Stills, Nash & Young and Matthews Southern
Comfort. Musical events bearing the Woodstock
name were planned for anniversaries, including the
tenth, twentieth, twenty-fifth, thirtieth, fortieth, and
fiftieth. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine listed it as
number 19 of the 50 Moments That Changed the
History of Rock and Roll. In 2017, the festival site
became listed on the National Register of Historic
Places.
PLANNING AND PREPARATION
Woodstock was initiated through the efforts of
Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, Joel Rosenman,
and John P. Roberts. Roberts and Rosenman
financed the project. Lang had some experience as
a promoter, having co-organized the Miami Pop
Festival on the East Coast the previous year, where
an estimated 25,000 people attended the two-day
event.
Early in 1969, Roberts and Rosenman were New
York City entrepreneurs who were in the process
of building Mediasound, a recording studio
complex in Manhattan. Lang and Kornfeld’s
lawyer, Miles Lourie, who had done legal work
on the Mediasound project, suggested that they
contact Roberts and Rosenman about financing
a similar but much smaller studio, Kornfeld,
that Lang hoped to build in Woodstock, New
York. Unpersuaded by this Studio-in-the-Woods
proposal, Roberts and Rosenman counter-proposed
| 18
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

aaa
FESTIVAL
9
a concert featuring the kind of artists known to
frequent the Woodstock area, such as Bob Dylan
and the Band. Kornfeld and Lang agreed to the
new plan, and Woodstock Ventures was formed in
January 1969.[ The company offices were located
in an oddly decorated floor of 47 West 57th Street
in Manhattan. Burt Cohen and his design group,
Curtain Call Productions, oversaw the psychedelic
transformation of the office.
From the start there were differences in approach
among the four. Roberts was disciplined and
knew what was needed for the venture to succeed,
while the laid-back Lang saw Woodstock as a new,
“relaxed” way of bringing entrepreneurs together.
When Lang was unable to find a site for the concert,
Roberts and Rosenman, growing increasingly
concerned, took to the road and found a venue.
Similar differences about financial discipline made
Roberts and Rosenman wonder whether to pull
the plug or to continue pumping money into the
project.
In April 1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival
became the first act to sign a contract for the event,
agreeing to play for $10,000 (equivalent to $83,000
in 2023). The promoters had experienced difficulty
in landing big-name groups until Creedence
committed to play. Creedence drummer Doug
Clifford later commented: “Once Creedence signed,
everyone else jumped in line and all the other big
acts came on.” Given their 12:30am start time and
omission from the Woodstock film (at Creedence
frontman John Fogerty’s insistence), Creedence
members have expressed bitterness over their
experiences regarding the festival.
Woodstock was conceived as a profit-making
venture. It became a “free concert” when
circumstances prevented the organizers from
installing fences and ticket booths before opening
day.Tickets for the three-day event cost US $18 in
advance and $24 at the gate (equivalent to about
$150 and $200 in 1923. Ticket sales were limited
to record stores in the greater New York City area,
or by mail via a post office box at the Radio City
Station Post Office located in Midtown Manhattan.
Around 186,000 advance tickets were sold. The
organizers had anticipated that approximately
50,000 festival-goers would turn up.
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com 19 21 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
SELECTION OF VENUE
The original plan was for the festival to take place
in the town of Woodstock on a site owned by
Alexander Tapooz. After local residents rejected that
idea, Lang and Kornfeld thought they had found
another possible location at the Winston Farm in
Saugerties, New York. But they were mistaken, as the
landowner’s attorney made clear in a brief meeting
with Roberts and Rosenman. Growing alarmed at
the lack of progress, Roberts and Rosenman took
over the search for a venue, and discovered the 300-
acre Mills Industrial Park (41.47823341524296°N
74.3641474°W) in the town of Wallkill, New York,
which Woodstock Ventures leased for US$10,000
(equivalent to $83,000 in 2023) in the Spring of
1969. Town officials were assured that no more than
50,000 would attend. Town residents immediately
opposed the project. In early July, the Town Board
passed a law requiring a permit for any gathering
of over 5,000 people. The conditions upon which a
permit would be issued made it impossible for the
promoters to continue construction at the Wallkill
site. Reports of the ban, however, turned out to be a
publicity bonanza for the festival
In his 2007 book Taking Woodstock, Elliot Tiber
relates that he offered to host the event on his 15-
acre motel grounds, and had a permit for such an
event. He claims to have introduced the promoters
to dairy farmer Max Yasgur. Lang, however, disputes
Tiber’s account and says that Tiber introduced
him to a realtor, who drove him to Yasgur’s farm
without Tiber. Sam Yasgur, Max’s son, agrees with
Lang’s account.Yasgur’s land formed a natural bowl
sloping down to Filippini Pond on the land’s north
side. The stage would be set up at the bottom of the
hill with Filippini Pond forming a backdrop. The
pond became a popular skinny dipping destination.
Filippini was the only landowner who refused
to sign a lease for the use of his property. The
organizers again told Bethel authorities that they
expected no more than 50,000 people.
Despite opposition from the residents and signs
proclaiming, “Buy No Milk. Stop Max’s Hippy Music
Festival”, Bethel Town Attorney Frederick W. V.
Schadt, building inspector Donald Clark and Town
Supervisor Daniel Amatucci approved the festival
permits, although the Bethel Town Board refused
to issue the permits formally. Clark was ordered to
post stop-work orders.Rosenman recalls meeting
| 20
Don Clark and discussing with him how unethical it
was for him to withhold permits which had already
been authorized, and which he had in his pocket. At
the end of the meeting, Inspector Clark gave him the
permits. The Stop Work Order was lifted, allowing
the festival to proceed pending backing by the
Department of Health and Agriculture, and removal
of all structures by September 1, 1969.
The late change in venue did not give the festival
organizers enough time to prepare. At a meeting
three days before the event, Rosenman was asked
by the construction foremen to choose between
option A, completing the fencing and ticket
booths, without which Roberts and Rosenman
would be facing almost certain bankruptcy after
the festival, or option B trying to complete the
stage, without which it would be a weekend of
half a million concert-goers with no concerts. The
next morning, on Wednesday, it became clear that
option A had disappeared. Overnight, 50,000 “early
birds” had arrived and had planted themselves in
front of the half-finished stage. For the rest of the
weekend, concert-goers simply walked on to the
site with or without tickets. The festival left Roberts
and Rosenman close to financial ruin, but their
ownership of the film and recording rights turned
their finances around when the Academy Awardwinning
documentary film Woodstock was released
in March 1970.
FESTIVAL
The influx of people to the rural concert site in
Bethel created a huge traffic jam. The town of Bethel
did not enforce its codes, fearing chaos as crowds
flowed to the site. Radio and television descriptions
of the traffic jams eventually discouraged people
from setting off to the festival. Arlo Guthrie made
an announcement that was included in the film
saying that the New York State Thruway was closed,
although the director of the Woodstock museum
said that this did not happen. To add to the problems
and difficulty in dealing with the large crowds,
recent rain had created muddy roads and fields. The
facilities were not adequate to provide sanitation
or first aid for the number of people attending,
and hundreds of thousands found themselves in a
struggle against bad weather, food shortages and
poor sanitation.
On the morning of Sunday, August 17, New York
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Woodstock Festival 1969
Governor Nelson Rockefeller called festival organizer
John P. Roberts and told him that he was thinking of
ordering 10,000 National Guard troops to the festival
site, but Roberts persuaded him not to. Sullivan
County declared a state of emergency. During the
festival, personnel from nearby Stewart Air Force
Base helped to ensure order and air-lifted performers
in and out of the site.
Jimi Hendrix was the last to perform at the
festival, taking the stage at 8:30 Monday morning
after delays caused by the rain. By that point the
audience numbers had fallen to about 30,000 from
an estimated peak of 450,000. Many left during
Hendrix’s performance, having waited to catch
a glimpse of him. Hendrix and his new band
Gypsy Sun and Rainbows were introduced as the
Experience, but he corrected this and added: “You
could call us a Band of Gypsies”. They performed a
two-hour set, including his psychedelic rendition
of the national anthem, which became “part of
the sixties Zeitgeist” after it was captured in the
Woodstock film.
“We were ready to rock out and we waited and waited
and finally it was our turn ... there were a half million
people asleep. These people were out. It was sort of like
a painting of a Dante scene, just bodies from hell, all
intertwined and asleep, covered with mud.
And this is the moment I will never forget as long as I
live: A quarter mile away in the darkness, on the other
edge of this bowl, there was some guy flicking his Bic,
and in the night I hear, ‘Don’t worry about it, John.
We’re with you.’ I played the rest of the show for that
guy.”
—John Fogerty recalling Creedence Clearwater
Revival’s 12:30 a.m. start time at Woodstock
The festival was remarkably peaceful given the
number of people and the conditions involved,
although there were three recorded fatalities: two
drug overdoses and another caused when a tractor
ran over a 17-year-old sleeping in a nearby hayfield.
Births were claimed to have occurred, one in a
car caught in traffic and another in hospital after
an airlift by helicopter, but extensive research by a
book author could not confirm any births. Several
miscarriages were reported (sources range from four
to eight) and over the course of the three days there
were 742 drug overdoses.
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
Max Yasgur, who owned the site, spoke of how nearly
half a million people had spent the three days with
music and peace on their minds. He stated, “If we
join them, we can turn those adversities that are the
problems of America today into a hope for a brighter
and more peaceful future”.
SOUND
Sound for the concert was engineered by sound
engineer Bill Hanley. “It worked very well”, he said
of the event. “I built special speaker columns on
the hills and had 16 loudspeaker arrays in a square
platform going up to the hill on 70-foot (21 m)
towers. We set it up for 150,000 to 200,000 people.
Of course, 500,000 showed up.” ALTEC designed
marine plywood cabinets that weighed half a ton
apiece and stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall, almost 4 feet
(1.2 m) deep, and 3 feet (0.91 m) wide. Each of these
enclosures carried four 15-inch (380 mm) JBL D140
loudspeakers. The tweeters consisted of 4×2-Cell &
2×10-Cell Altec Horns. Behind the stage were three
transformers providing 2,000 amperes of current to
power the amplification setup. For many years this
system was collectively referred to as the Woodstock
Bins. The live performances were captured on two
8-track Scully recorders in a tractor trailer backstage
by Edwin Kramer and Lee Osbourne on 1-inch
Scotch recording tape at 15 ips, then mixed at the
Record Plant studio in New York.
LIGHTING
Lighting for the concert was engineered by lighting
designer and technical director E.H. Beresford
“Chip” Monck. Monck was hired to plan and build
the staging and lighting, ten weeks of work for
which he was paid $7,000 (equivalent to $58,000
2023). Much of his plan had to be scrapped when
the promoters were not allowed to use the original
location in Wallkill, New York. The stage roof that
was constructed in the shorter time available was
not able to support the lighting that had been rented,
which wound up sitting unused underneath the
stage. The only light on the stage was from spotlights.
Monck used twelve 1300 Watt Super Trouper follow
spots rigged on four towers around the stage. The
follow spots weighed 600 pounds (270 kg) each
and were operated by spotlight operators who had
to climb up on the top of the 60-foot-high (18 m)
lighting towers.
21 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
ARTISTS
List of performances and events at Woodstock Festival. Thirtytwo
acts performed over the course of the four days:
FRIDAY, AUGUST 15 – SATURDAY, AUGUST 16
RICHIE HAVENS 5:07 pm – 5:54 pm
Was moved up to the opening performance slot after
Sweetwater were stopped by police en route to the festival and
other artists were delayed on the freeway.
SWAMI SATCHIDANANDA 5:55 pm – 6:10 pm
Gave the opening speech/invocation for the festival.
SWEETWATER 6:15 pm – 7:20 pm
BERT SOMMER 7:35 pm – 8:15 pm
Received the festival’s first standing ovation after his
performance of Simon and Garfunkel’s “America”.
TIM HARDIN
8:30 pm – 9:35 pm
RAVI SHANKAR 12:00 am – 12:40 am
Played through the rain.
MELANIE 1:00 am – 1:25 am
Sent onstage for an unscheduled performance after the
INCREDIBLE STRING BAND
declined to perform during the rainstorm. Called back for two
encores.
ARLO GUTHRIE 1:45 am – 2:25 am
JOAN BAEZ 3:00 am – 4:00 am
Was six months pregnant at the time.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 – SUNDAY, AUGUST 17
QUILL 12:15 pm – 1:00 pm
COUNTRY JOE MCDONALD 1:00 pm – 1:30pm
Brought in for an unscheduled emergency solo performance
when SANTANA was not yet ready to take the stage. JOE
performed again with THE FISH the following day.
SANTANA 2:00 pm – 2:45 pm
Carlos Santana claimed he was hallucinating on mescaline
throughout most of the performance.
JOHN SEBASTIAN 3:30 pm – 3:55 pm
Sebastian was not on the bill, but rather was attending the
festival, and was recruited to perform while the promoters
waited for many of the scheduled performers to arrive.
KEEF HARTLEY BAND 4:45 pm – 5:30 pm
THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND 6:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Originally slated to perform on the first day following Ravi
Shankar; declined to perform during the rainstorm and were
moved to the second day.
CANNED HEAT 7:30 pm – 8:45 pm
MOUNTAIN 9:00 pm – 10:00 pm
This performance was only their third gig as a band
GRATEFUL DEAD 10:30 pm – 11:50 pm
Their set ended after a 36-minute version of “Turn On Your
Love Light”.
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL 12:30 am – 1:20 am
JANIS JOPLIN WITH THE KOZMIC BLUES BAND 2:00 am
– 3:00 am
SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE 3:30 am – 4:20 am
THE WHO 5:00 am – 6:05 am
Briefly interrupted by Abbie Hoffman.
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE 8:00 am – 9:40 am
Joined onstage on piano by NICKY HOPKINS.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 17 – MONDAY, AUGUST 18
JOE COCKER AND THE GREASE BAND 2:00 pm – 3:25 pm
Played “With a Little Help From My Friends”.
After Joe Cocker’s set, a thunderstorm disrupted the events for
several hours.
COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
COUNTRY JOE MCDONALD’s second performance.
TEN YEARS AFTER 8:15 pm – 9:15 pm
THE BAND 10:00 pm – 10:50 pm
Called back for an encore.
JOHNNY WINTER 12:00 am – 1:05 am
Winter’s brother, EDGAR WINTER, is featured on three songs.
Called back for an encore.
BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS 1:30 am – 2:30 am
Declined to participate in documentary film or soundtrack
album because of dissatisfaction with the sound quality of their
performance.
CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG 3:00 am – 4:00 am
An acoustic and electric set were played. NEIL YOUNG
skipped most of the acoustic set.
PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND 6:00 am – 7:10 am
SHA NA NA 7:30 am – 8:00 am
Guitarist HENRY GROSS was the youngest musician
performing at the festival
JIMI HENDRIX / GYPSY SUN & RAINBOWS 9:00 am
– 11:00 am
Performed to a last-day crowd of about 200,000 people.
| 22 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Woodstock Festival 1969
DECLINED INVITATIONS OR MISSED
CONNECTIONS
• THE BEATLES were recording Abbey Road at the time and on
the verge of breaking up. Promoter Michael Lang, realizing the
Beatles were not an option, invited JOHN LENNON AND THE
PLASTIC ONO BAND. Due to Lennon’s position on Vietnam and
1968 drug bust in England, Richard Nixon and the U.S. government
reportedly did not want him in the country. Apple Corps sent a
letter to the promoters offering THE PLASTIC ONO BAND, but
the letter arrived as promoters were losing the location in Wallkill,
so distractions did not allow arrangements to be finalized.
• THE JEFF BECK GROUP disbanded prior to Woodstock. “I
deliberately broke the group up before Woodstock,” Beck said. “I
didn’t want it to be preserved.” Beck’s piano player Nicky Hopkins
performed with Jefferson Airplane.
• BLUES IMAGE agreed to appear at the Woodstock festival,
according to a 2011 interview with percussionist Joe Lala. Their
manager did not want them to go and said, “There’s only one road
in and it’s going to be raining, you don’t want to be there”. The band
instead took a gig at Binghamton.
• THE BYRDS were invited but chose not to participate, believing
that Woodstock would be no different from any of the other music
festivals that summer. There were also concerns about money.
Bassist John York later said, “We had no idea what it was going to
be. We were burned out and tired of the festival scene.”
• CHICAGO had initially been signed to play at Woodstock, but
they had a contract with concert promoter Bill Graham which
allowed him to move their concerts at the Fillmore West. He
rescheduled some of their dates to August 17, thus forcing them
to back out of the concert. Graham did so to ensure that Santana
would take their slot at the festival, as he managed them as well.
• THE DOORS were considered but canceled at the last moment.
According to guitarist Robby Krieger, they turned it down because
they thought that it would be a “second class repeat of Monterey Pop
Festival” and later regretted that decision.Other sources claim that
lead singer Jim Morrison “hated playing large outdoor concerts and
feared he might be assassinated.” Krieger and Doors drummer John
Densmore did attend Woodstock, “though they did not perform.
The Doors would later appear at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.
• BOB DYLAN lived in the town of Woodstock but never seriously
negotiated to appear. Instead, he signed in mid-July to play the
1969 Isle of Wight Festival on August 31. He intended to travel
to England on Queen Elizabeth 2 on August 15, the day that the
Woodstock Festival started, but his son was injured by a cabin
door and the family disembarked. Dylan and his wife Sara flew to
England the following week. The Band accompanied him during his
Isle of Wight appearance.
• FREE was asked to perform and declined, although they did
perform at the Isle of Wight Festival a week later.
• THE GUESS WHO were invited to perform and declined.
• IRON BUTTERFLY was booked to appear, and is listed on
the Woodstock poster for a Sunday performance, but could not
perform because they were stuck at LaGuardia Airport. According
to Production Coordinator John Morris, “They sent me a telegram
saying, ‘We will arrive at LaGuardia. You will have helicopters
pick us up. We will fly straight to the show. We will perform
immediately, and then we will be flown out.’ And I picked up the
phone and called Western Union ... And my telegram said: For
reasons I can’t go into / Until you are here / Clarifying your situation
/ Knowing you are having problems / You will have to find /Other
transportation /Unless you plan not to come.’”
• IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY had a verbal agreement with Michael
Lang to perform at the festival. Violinist and band leader David
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
LaFlamme said their manager Bill Graham wanted Santana, who he
also managed to play the festival instead. Lang and Graham agreed
to flip a coin to decide which band would play, Graham won, and
Santana performed instead.
• TOMMY JAMES AND THE SHONDELLS claimed to have
declined an invitation. James stated: “We could have just kicked
ourselves. We were in Hawaii, and my secretary called and said,
‘Yeah, listen, there’s this pig farmer in upstate New York that wants
you to play in his field.’ That’s how it was put to me. So we passed,
and we realized what we’d missed a couple of days later.”
• JETHRO TULL also declined. According to Ian Anderson,
he knew that it would be a big event, but he did not want to go
because he did not like hippies and had other concerns, including
inappropriate nudity, heavy drinking, and drug use.
• LED ZEPPELIN were asked to perform. Their manager Peter
Grant stated: “I said no because at Woodstock we’d have just been
another band on the bill.”
• LIGHTHOUSE declined to perform at Woodstock.
• ARTHUR LEE AND LOVE declined an invitation, in part due to
turmoil within the band.
• MIND GARAGE declined because they thought that the festival
would be a minor event, and they had a higher paying gig elsewhere.
• JONI MITCHELL was originally slated to perform, but cancelled
at the urging of her manager to avoid missing a scheduled
appearance on The Dick Cavett Show. She later composed the song
“Woodstock” inspired by what she saw on television.
• ESSRA MOHAWK was scheduled to perform at the festival, but
her driver took a wrong turn on the way. “We got there in time to
see the last verse of the last song of the last act of the first night, and
then the stage went dark before we got to it from the parking lot,”
she recalled in a 2009 video interview.
• THE MOODY BLUES were included on the original Wallkill
poster as performers, but they backed out after being booked in
Paris the same weekend.
• POCO were offered a chance to perform at the festival, but their
manager turned it down for a concert at a Los Angeles school
gymnasium.
• PROCOL HARUM were invited, but refused because Woodstock
fell at the end of a long tour and also coincided with the due date of
guitarist Robin Trower’s baby.
• THE RASCALS were invited to play, but declined because they
were in the middle of recording a new album.
• RAVEN turned down an invitation to play because they played at
one of the Woodstock Sound-Outs the year before and it did not go
well.
• ROY ROGERS was asked to close the festival with “Happy Trails”,
but he declined.
• THE ROLLING STONES were invited, but declined because
Mick Jagger was in Australia filming Ned Kelly, and Keith Richards’
girlfriend Anita Pallenberg had just given birth to their son Marlon.
• SIMON & GARFUNKEL declined the invitation, as they were
working on their new album.
• SPIRIT also declined an invitation to play, as they already had
shows planned and wanted to play those instead, not knowing how
big Woodstock would be.
• BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S band, STEEL MILL, was reportedly
offered a slot but was already booked.
• STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK declined an invitation because
they did not think Woodstock would be “that big of a deal”.
Zager and Evans were invited to play Woodstock and appear on
• FRANK ZAPPA was then with The Mothers of Invention; he said,
“A lot of mud at Woodstock ... We were invited to play there, we
turned it down.”
Source of article Wikipedia
23 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
English
Folk
Music
The folk music of England is a traditionbased
music which has existed since the
later medieval period. It is often contrasted
with courtly, classical and later commercial
music. Folk music traditionally was preserved and
passed on orally within communities, but print and
subsequently audio recordings have since become
the primary means of transmission. The term is used
to refer both to English traditional music and music
composed or delivered in a traditional style.
There are distinct regional and local variations
in content and style, particularly in areas more
removed from the most prominent English cities,
as in Northumbria, or the West Country. Cultural
interchange and processes of migration mean
that English folk music, although in many ways
distinctive, has significant crossovers with the
music of Scotland. When English communities
migrated to the United States, Canada and Australia,
they brought their folk traditions with them, and
many of the songs were preserved by immigrant
communities.
English folk music has produced or contributed to
several cultural phenomena, including sea shanties,
jigs, hornpipes and the music for Morris dancing.
It has also interacted with other musical traditions,
particularly classical and rock music, influencing
musical styles and producing musical fusions, such
as British folk rock, folk punk and folk metal. There
remains a flourishing sub-culture of English folk
music, which continues to influence other genres and
occasionally gains mainstream attention.
ORIGINS
In the strictest sense, English folk music has existed
since the arrival of the Anglo-Saxon people in Britain
after 400 AD. The Venerable Bede’s story of the
| 24
cattleman and later ecclesiastical musician Cædmon
indicates that in the early medieval period it was
normal at feasts to pass around the harp and sing
vain and idle songs. Since this type of music was
rarely notated, we have little knowledge of its form or
content. Some later tunes, like those used for Morris
dance, may have their origins in this period, but it
is impossible to be certain of these relationships.
We know from a reference in William Langland’s
‘Piers Plowman’, that ballads about Robin Hood were
being sung from at least the late 14th century and
the oldest detailed material we have is Wynkyn de
Worde’s collection of Robin Hood ballads printed
about 1495
16th CENTURY TO THE 18th
CENTURY
While there was distinct court music, members of
the social elite into the 16th century also seem to
have enjoyed, and even to have contributed to the
music of the people, as Henry VIII perhaps did with
the tavern song “Pastime with Good Company”. Peter
Burke argued that late medieval social elites had their
own culture, but were culturally ‘amphibious’, able to
participate in and affect popular traditions.
In the 16th century the changes in the wealth and
culture of the upper social orders caused tastes in
music to diverge. There was an internationalisation
of courtly music in terms of both instruments,
such as the lute, dulcimer and early forms of the
harpsichord, and in form with the development of
madrigals, pavanes and galliards. For other social
orders, instruments like the pipe, tabor, bagpipe,
shawm, hurdy-gurdy, and crumhorn accompanied
traditional music and community dance. The fiddle,
well established in England by the 1660s, was
unusual in being a key element in both the art music
that developed in the baroque, and in popular song
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

English Folk Music
and dance.
By the mid-17th century, the music of the lower
social orders was sufficiently alien to the aristocracy
and “middling sort” for a process of rediscovery
to be needed in order to understand it, along with
other aspects of popular culture such as festivals,
folklore and dance. This led to a number of early
collections of printed material, including those
published by John Playford as ‘The English Dancing
Master’ (1651), and the private collections of Samuel
Pepys (1633–1703) and the ‘Roxburghe Ballads’
collected by Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and
Mortimer (1661–1724). Pepys notably mentioned in
his famous diary singing the ballad ‘Barbara Allen’
on New Year’s Eve, 1665, a ballad that survived in
the oral tradition well into the twentieth century.
In the 18th century there were increasing numbers
of collections of what was now beginning to be
defined as “folk” music, strongly influenced by the
Romantic movement, including Thomas D’Urfey’s
‘Wit and Mirth’: or, ‘Pills To Purge Melancholy’
(1719–20) and Bishop Thomas Percy’s ‘Reliques
of Ancient English Poetry’ (1765). The last of these
also contained some oral material and by the end
of the 18th century this was becoming increasingly
common, with collections including Joseph Ritson’s,
‘The Bishopric Garland’ (1784), which paralleled the
work of figures like Robert Burns and Walter Scott
in Scotland.
It was in this period, too, that English folk music
traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and became one
of the foundations of American traditional music. In
the colonies, it mixed with styles of music brought
by other immigrant groups to create a host of new
genres. For instance, English ballads, along with
Irish, Scottish, and German musical traditions when
combined with the African banjo, Afro-American
rhythmic traditions and the Afro-American jazz
and blues aesthetic led in part to the development of
bluegrass and country music.
EARLY 19TH CENTURY
With the Industrial Revolution the themes of the
music of the labouring classes began to change from
rural and agrarian life to include industrial work
songs. Awareness that older kinds of song were
being abandoned prompted renewed interest in
collecting folk songs during the 1830s and 1840s,
including the work of William Sandys’ ‘Christmas
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
Carols Ancient and Modern’ (1833), William
Chappell, ‘A Collection of National English Airs’
(1838) and Robert Bell’s Ancient Poems, ‘Ballads
and Songs of the Peasantry of England’ (1846).
Technological change made new instruments
available and led to the development of silver and
brass bands, particularly in industrial centres in
the north. The shift to urban centres also began to
create new types of music, including from the 1850s
the Music hall, which developed from performances
in ale houses into theatres and became the
dominant focus of English popular music for over
a century. This combined with increased literacy
and print to allow the creation of new songs that
initially built on, but began to differ from traditional
music as composers like Lionel Monckton and
Sidney Jones created music that reflected new social
circumstances.
FOLK REVIVALS 1890–1969
From the late 19th century there were a series
of movements that attempted to collect, record,
preserve and later to perform, English folk music
and dance. These are usually separated into two folk
revivals.
The first, in the later 19th and early 20th centuries,
involved figures including collectors Sabine Baring-
Gould (1834–1924), Frank Kidson (1855–1926),
Lucy Broadwood (1858–1939), and Anne Gilchrist
(1863–1954), centred around the Folk Song Society,
founded in 1911. Francis James Child’s (1825–96)
eight-volume collection The English and Scottish
Popular Ballads (1882–92) became the most
influential in defining the repertoire of subsequent
performers, and Cecil Sharp (1859–1924), founder
of the English Folk Dance Society, was probably
the most important figure in understanding of the
nature of folk song.[4] The revival was part of a
wider national movement in the period around the
First World War, and contributed to the creation of
the English Pastoral School of classical music which
incorporated traditional songs or motifs, as can be
seen in the compositions of Percy Grainger (1882–
1961), Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1951),
George Butterworth (1885–1916), Gustav Holst
(1874–1934) and Frederick Delius (1862–1934).
(Continued from previous page)
In 1932 the Folk-Song Society and the English
Folk Dance Society merged to become the English
25 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). Some of these
revivalists recorded folk songs on wax cylinders, and
many of the recordings, including Percy Grainger’s
collection, are available online courtesy of the Vaughan
Williams Memorial Library and the British Library
Sound Archive.
The second revival gained momentum after the Second
World War, following on from the American folk
music revival as new forms of media and American
commercial music appeared to pose another threat to
traditional music. The key figures were Ewan MacColl
and A. L. Lloyd. The second revival was generally left
wing in politics and emphasised the work music of
the 19th century and previously neglected forms like
erotic folk songs.
Topic Records, founded in 1939, provided a major
source of folk recordings. The revival resulted in
the foundation of a network of folk clubs in major
towns, from the 1950s. Major traditional performers
included The Watersons, the Ian Campbell Folk
Group, and Shirley Collins. The fusing of various styles
of American music with English folk also helped to
create a distinctive form of guitar fingerstyle known as
‘folk baroque’, which was pioneered by Davy Graham,
Martin Carthy, John Renbourn and Bert Jansch.
Several individuals emerged who had learnt the old
songs in the oral tradition from their communities
and therefore preserved the authentic versions. These
people, including Sam Larner, Harry Cox, Fred Jordan,
Walter Pardon, Frank Hinchliffe and the Copper
Family, released albums of their own and were revered
by folk revivalists. Popular folk revival musicians based
their works on songs sung by these traditional singers
and those collected during the first folk revival.
There are various databases and collections of English
folk songs collected during the first and second folk
revivals, such as the ‘Roud Folk Song Index’, which
contains references to 25,000 English language folk
songs, and the ‘Vaughan Williams Memorial Library’,
a multimedia archive of folk-related resources. The
‘British Library Sound Archive’ contains thousands of
recordings of traditional English folk music, including
340 wax cylinder recordings made by Percy Grainger
in the early 1900s.
PROGRESSIVE FOLK
The process of fusion between American musical
styles and English folk can also be seen as the origin
| 26
of British progressive folk music, which attempted
to elevate folk music through greater musicianship,
or compositional and arrangement skills. Many
progressive folk performers continued to retain a
traditional element in their music, including Jansch
and Renbourn, who with Jacqui McShee, Danny
Thompson, and Terry Cox, formed ‘Pentangle’ in 1967.
Others totally abandoned the traditional element and
in this area particularly influential were the Scottish
artists ‘Donovan,’ who was most influenced by
emerging progressive folk musicians in America like
‘Bob Dylan’, and the I’ncredible String Band’, who from
1967 incorporated a range of influences including
medieval and eastern music into their compositions.
Some of this, particularly the Incredible String Band,
has been seen as developing into the further subgenre
of psych or psychedelic folk and had a considerable
impact on progressive and psychedelic rock.
There was a brief flowering of English progressive
folk in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with groups
like the ‘Third Ear Band’ and ‘Quintessence’ following
the eastern Indian musical and more abstract work
by group such as ‘Comus,’ ‘Dando Shaft’, ‘The Trees’’,
Spirogyra’, ‘Forest’, and Jan Dukes ‘De Grey’, but
commercial success was elusive for these bands
and most had broken up or moved in very different
directions by about 1973.
Perhaps the finest individual work in the genre was
from artists early 1970s artists like ‘Nick Drake’ and
‘John Martyn’, but these can also be considered the
first among the English ‘folk troubadours’ or ‘singersongwriters’,
individual performers who remained
largely acoustic but who relied mostly on their own
individual compositions. The most successful of these
was ‘Ralph McTell,’ whose ‘Streets of London’ reached
number 2 in the UK Single Charts in 1974, and whose
music is clearly folk, but without much reliance on
tradition, virtuosity, or much evidence of attempts at
fusion with other genres.
BRITISH FOLK ROCK
British folk rock developed in Britain during the mid
to late 1960s by the bands ‘Fairport Convention’, and
‘Pentangle’ which built on elements of American folk
rock, and on the second British folk revival.It uses
traditional music, and compositions in a traditional
style, played on a combination of rock and traditional
instruments. It was most significant in the 1970s, when
it was taken up by groups such as ‘Pentangle’, ‘Steeleye
Span’ and the ‘Albion Band’. It was rapidly adopted
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

English Folk Music
and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures
of Brittany, where it was pioneered by ‘Alan Stivell’
and bands like ‘Malicorne’; in Ireland by groups such
as ‘Horslips’; in Canada by groups such as ‘Barde’;
and also in Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man and
Cornwall, to produce Celtic rock and its derivatives.
It has been influential in those parts of the world
with close cultural connections to Britain, such as
the US and Canada and gave rise to the subgenre
of Medieval folk rock and the fusion genres of folk
punk and folk metal. By the 1980s the genre was in
steep decline in popularity, but has survived and
revived in significance as part of a more general folk
resurgence since the 1990s.
FOLK PUNK
In the mid-1980s a new rebirth of English folk
began, this time fusing folk with energy and political
aggression derived from punk rock. Leaders included
‘The Pogues’, ‘The Men They Couldn’t Hang’, ‘Oyster
Band’ and ‘Billy Bragg’. Folk dance music also
became popular in the 80s, with acts like the ‘English
Country Blues Band’ and ‘Tiger Moth’. The decade
later saw the use of reggae with English folk music by
the band ‘Edward II & the Red Hot Polkas’, especially
on their seminal ‘Let’s Polkasteady’ from 1987.
FOLK METAL
In a process strikingly similar to the origins of British
folk rock in the 1960s, the English thrash metal band
‘Skyclad’ added violins from a session musician
on several tracks for their 1990 debut album ‘The
Wayward Sons of Mother Earth’. When this was well
received they adopted a full-time fiddle player and
moved towards a signature folk and jig style leading
them to be credited as the pioneers of folk metal,
which has spread to Ireland, the Baltic and Germany.
TRADITIONAL FOLK RESURGENCE
1990–PRESENT
The peak of traditional English folk, like progressive
and electric folk, was the mid- to late-1970s, when,
for a time it threatened to break through into the
mainstream. By the end of the decade, however,
it was in decline. The attendance at, and numbers
of folk clubs began to decrease, probably as new
musical and social trends, including punk rock,
new wave and electronic music began to dominate.
Although many acts like ‘Martin Carthy and the
Watersons’ continued to perform successfully,
there were very few significant new acts pursuing
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
traditional forms in the 1980s. This began to change
with a new generation in the 1990s. The arrival and
sometimes mainstream success of acts like ‘Kate
Rusby’, ‘Bellowhead’, ‘Nancy Kerr’, ‘Kathryn Tickell’,
‘Jim Moray’, ‘Spiers and Boden’, ‘Seth Lakeman’,
‘Frank Turner,’ ‘Laura Marling’ and ‘Eliza Carthy,’
all largely concerned with acoustic performance of
traditional material, marked a radical turn around in
the fortunes of the tradition. This was reflected in the
adoption creation of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
in 2000, which gave the music a much needed status
and focus and the profile of folk music is as high in
England today as it has been for over thirty years.
FOLK CLUBS
Although there were a handful of clubs that allowed
space for the performance of traditional folk music
by the early 1950s, its major boost came from the
short-lived British skiffle craze, from about 1956–8.
New clubs included the ‘Ballad and Blues’ club in
a pub in Soho, co-founded by Ewan MacColl. As
the craze subsided from the mid-1950s many of
these clubs began to shift towards the performance
of English traditional folk material. Many became
strict ‘policy clubs’, that pursued a pure and
traditional form of music. By the mid-1960s there
were probably over 300 in Britain. Most clubs were
simply a regular gathering, usually in the back or
upstairs room of a public house on a weekly basis.
They were largely a phenomenon of the urbanised
middle classes and known for the amateur nature
of many performances. There were also ‘residents’,
who performed regular short sets of songs. Many
of these later emerged as major performers in their
own right, including ‘A. L. Lloyd’, ‘Martin Carthy’,
and ‘Shirley Collins’. A later generation of performers
used the folk club circuit for highly successful
mainstream careers, including ‘Billy Connolly’,
J’asper Carrott’, ‘Ian Dury’ and ‘Barbara Dickson’. The
number of clubs began to decline in the 1980s, in
the face of changing musical and social trends. But
the decline began to stabilize in the mid-1990s with
the resurgence of interest in folk music and there
are now over 160 folk clubs in the United Kingdom,
including many that can trace their origins back to
the 1950s.
Article sourced from Wikipedia.
Jane Shields
27 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
Over a span of nearly four
decades, a small group of
friends, the North American
Traditions Group, traveled
over large swaths of the Appalachians, the
Canadian Maritimes, the Ozarks, and the
American West, recording many hundreds
of hours of traditional music. Styles
heard in the NAT collection range from
unaccompanied ballads to vocal quartets;
virtuoso fiddle solos to string bands; blues
to gospel to topical songs.
This is the first box set of three and includes
the first five CDs of this monumental
collection: From British Tradition, A
Musical Melting Pot, Songs of Melancholy
and Sorrow, The Anglo-African Exchange,
and Grown on American Soil
DOWNLOAD
HERE
FRC 801: From British Tradition – Volume 1
concentrates upon the older songs and ballads
that originated within the British Isles but have
often assumed markedly different musical
personalities as they have adapted to the
American experience. Some of the musicians
sampled here are comparatively well known,
whereas others have never appeared on disc
before.
| 28 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Name aaa
Over a span of nearly four
decades, a small group of
friends, the North American
Traditions Group, traveled
over large swaths of the Appalachians, the
Canadian Maritimes, the Ozarks, and the
American West, recording many hundreds
of hours of traditional music. Styles
heard in the NAT collection range from
unaccompanied ballads to vocal quartets;
virtuoso fiddle solos to string bands; blues
to gospel to topical songs.
This is the second box set of three and
includes Volumes 6-10 of this monumental
collection: Between City and Country;
Songs of Labor and Recreation; Under
Western Skies; Religious Experience; and
Songs that Children Like.FRC Gift Cards
DOWNLOAD
HERE
FRC802: A Musical Melting Pot – This volume
focuses upon the rich blending of cultures
that lies in the background of our traditional
forms of instrumental music. Several versions
of a common tune are placed alongside one
another, as a means of illustrating how diverse
a melody can become as it settles into different
communities across our broad continent.
FRC GIFT CARDS
NOW AVAILABLE
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
29 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
Announcing the Release of the Beginner Tin
Whistle Book! Are you ready to embark on a
musical journey with one of the world’s most
accessible and enchanting instruments?
We are thrilled to announce the release of
the Beginner Tin Whistle Book, designed
specifically for both new and intermediate
learners!
| 30 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Start from the very basics, including how to hold the whistle,
proper breathing techniques, and finger placement.
Clear Illustrations: Visual aids to help you master each note,
making learning fun and straightforward.
Variety of Songs: A diverse collection of traditional and
contemporary tunes, ensuring there’s something for everyone to
enjoy and learn.
Practice Tips: Helpful strategies for developing your skills,
including warm-up exercises and practice routines tailored for
beginners and those looking to enhance their technique.
Play-Along Tracks: Access to online audio resources that allow you
to play along with music, enhancing your learning experience!
Cultural Insights: Discover the rich history and cultural
significance behind the tin whistle and the melodies you’ll be
playing.
Who is this Book For? Whether you’re picking up the tin whistle
for the first time or looking to refine your skills, this book is your
perfect companion.
Designed for both beginners and intermediate players, it offers a
comprehensive approach to learning that will inspire and uplift
your musical journey.
Get Started Today! Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to
learn the tin whistle! Happy Whistling!
Please visit my website to order your copy
https://mattdeanmusic.ie/
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
31 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
MIKE HARDING
TALKS FOLK
| 32 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Monday September 16th
2024, a day unlike any
other for me in my
life. I felt extremely
humbled and not just a little bit
nervous as Paul & I travelled to Settle
in the Yorkshire Dales on route to
meeting one of Englands finest Folk
artists, Mike Harding.
The sun shone brightly as our car
meandered through the hills and
dales, and we drank in the wonderful
scenery as the miles rolled gently by.
As we approached Settle we
came upon the heavenly sight of
Ribbleshead viaduct in the distance.
This impressive structure which is
a part of the Settle-Carlisle Railway,
features 24 massive stone arches and
stands 104 feet above the moor. If
you’ve never seen it then I urge you
to go take a look when out on your
travels.
We arrived in a quaint little market
place in Settle, parked the car and
located the small cafe where we were
to meet Mike. We spotted him and
he welcomed us warmly, and we
walked back to our car and drove him
the short distance to his home, where
we were made to feel extremely
welcome.
Below is the interview, (my first
face to face) which Mike had kindly
agreed to, so please sit back with
your favorite tipple and have a good
read, discover for yourself what a
wonderfully talented man Mike
Harding really is. One of Englands
finest gentlemen, you simply couldn’t
find a nicer bloke. Please take a listen
to the podcast Mike sent to me, of
particular interest for those from the
County Durham & Hartlepool area,
amongst lots of others. Here’s the full
interview over the next few pages.
INTERVIEW:
SFM Hi Mike, when you first
began your writing career, was it
poetry, lyrics or short stories that
came first?
MH Well, it was poetry, yeah, to
be honest, I started writing when
I was about sort of fifteen, sixteen,
writing poems and little short stories
and stuff, and at the same time I was
playing rock and roll in the pubs in
Manchester, and they never crossed
one song I wrote, not one song, we
sang as a band, but it was not very
good, and I wrote a tune called
‘Camel Train’, which was just basically
an E minor chord that went dum–didi-dum-di-dum,
it was terrible!!
But we were playing all the Shadows
covers and things like that, and the
rock and roll we did was Chuck
Berry, I can’t write like Chuck Berry,
how can I write like somebody from
Mississippi or wherever he’s from? So
the stuff I was writing was very sort
of about me and about the streets and
things like that.
So yes, the first writing I did was
during the rock and roll years or
before, pre-eighteen sort of thing,
when I was sort of sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen. It was very much teenage
poetry. And then I got involved in the
folk world.
I went to a pub in Manchester called
‘The Wagon and Horses’, I think that
was the one, and a guy called Harry
Boardman was singing songs, and
his songs were all about Lancashire
and all about the cotton mills and
all about people and the canals, and
I thought ‘Bloody Hell’, because I’d
been used to Joan Baez and Peter,
Paul and Mary and stuff like that,
and the Clancy Brothers, and all of
a sudden here’s a guy singing songs
about real things that I knew about.
So I really immersed myself then in
the sort of Lancashire folk tradition,
and that’s when I started doing folk
clubs.
I’d been playing in a little jug band,
in a little jug band called ‘The Edison
Bell Spasm Band’ before that, and we
played loads of sort of American jug
band music and blues. And then I left
that band and went out on my own,
Mike Harding
doing singing and doing a couple
of monologues, like ‘Albert and the
Lion’ and things like that.
And eventually I thought, well why
not write some, so I started writing
some of my own material, and I
wrote ‘King Cotton’, I think that was
the first song I ever wrote really, then
a comic song called ‘The 81 Bus’
about this bus that vanishes. And that
just grew and grew, because I realized
that going on the folk clubs, it ate
your material up, so you always had
to have new material coming along
all the time, because you go back to
a folk club in a couple of months,
three or four months, I used to get
booked every three or four months in
places like Barnsley, Doncaster, and
Redcar and what have you, so you’re
constantly renewing your material.
So yeah, the answer is poetry first
and foremost, as a spotty teenager,
and then in the folk world it was
all Lancashire type folk songs,
monologues, that I was writing.
My own monologues, like the one,
‘Napoleon’s Retreat from Wigan’
(Link to listen to Napoleans Retreat
From Wigan ) and stuff like that.
They were all written in the folk
clubs, and then, stardom hit in the
case of ‘Rochdale Cowboy’ and
transformed everything. But yes, so
it was poetry first and foremost, and
then folk music.
SFM Next question you’ve
probably already answered, but who
was your major influence? Who led
you into the folk music scene?
MH Well it was, it was Harry
Boardman, and he was sort of an
inspiration to me, and then once I
got involved in that, I looked at other
people, like Ewan McCall and his
songs and what he’d done, Bert Lloyd,
A.L. Lloyd and some stuff he’d done
and collected.
And the interesting thing about
Bert Lloyd, well two very interesting
things, first and foremost, he actually
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
33 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
served on a whaling ship, he actually
went out and was whaling down in
South Georgia, round the Antarctic
area, the Falklands, South Atlantic,
and so he, when he was singing
songs about whaling and collecting
them, he knew what he was talking
about, you know, and of course
he’d also worked as a cattle hand in
Australia, and so he’d worked, and he
got the medals and the scars to prove
it, so great respect for Bert Lloyd, “
But the second thing about him
was that he was a communist,
Now I am not a communist, I’m a
socialist, social democrat, but Bert
was a communist because he’d come
through the 30s, he’d come through
the terrible hunger marches and all
the rest of it, so he went, you know,
right to the left, and I agree with
almost everything that he came out
with, but he worked for the BBC,
and somebody there came along and
said:
“We have a chap here called
A.L. Lloyd, Albert Lloyd,
yes we have, well I’ve just
discovered from MI6 or MI5,
or MI4 and three quarters,
that your man is a bloody
commie!! We can’t have him
on the radio four!!”
I said okay, so they moved him to
schools broadcasting, and he did
Singing Today for years, and he was
able to introduce children to folk
music, so you’d given him the ideal,
you know, that anybody would want,
because these are songs of hardship
and, you know, joy, and common
people, and he was, he did a great
job with singing together, he was a
producer for years.
He also worked with a guy called
Bert Hardy on The Picture Post, and
that collaboration has been, there’s
a wonderful documentary film,
‘Bert and Bert’ I think it’s called,
and they went out together, they
went out on the fishing fleets, they
went interviewing prostitutes in
Whitechapel, they went around the
factories, they talked to real people,
and Bert Hardy, (there’s two of his
photographs on my wall as you’re
going down the stairs), Bert Hardy
was the photographer, and Bert
Lloyd was the writer, and the stuff
they produced was just phenomenal,
phenomenal, so he was one of my big
heroes, and the other was McColl.
Harry Boardman, Bert Lloyd, and
then McColl, and I mean, McColl,
he lost his accent because I think he
felt he had to, so he speaks in a very,
almost rigid, fine kind of English,
but his real language was Scottish,
Lallans, because his mum was not a
Gaelic speaker, but a Lallan speaker,
and he himself was born in Salford,
oh no, he came very early to Salford.
I think he was off Regent’s Road, in
those, you know. ‘The Classic Slum’
was the book written by Robert
Roberts about it, about those very
streets, and about what went on
there, and the closeness of the people
in the neighbor hoods, and a pub on
the end of every terrace, you know,
both ends of the pub, so he grew up
in a very working-class tradition,
and very working-class area, and
produced, I think, some of the finest
songs, some of the finest songs ever
written.
SFM Right, next one I’m going
to ask you, what was the first music
concert you ever attended, and can
you remember who performed?
MH We were all taken to watch
the Hallé Orchestra when I was
seven, from school, and that was
quite good because they played
some stuff we could sort of relate to,
like the carnival, the animals, and
stuff like that, but the first concert
I ever went to, of my own volition,
was at King’s Hall, Bellevue, and it
was a brass band concert, because
the fellow who used to look after
me when my mum was at work,
a couple, were Mr and Mrs Edgar
across the back, and Auntie Guy we
called her, because she was born on
Guy Fawkes Night, so even though
she was called Sissy or something
like that, everybody called her Guy,
Auntie Guy, and it was like you
called Auntie and Uncle in the street,
and they weren’t your aunties and
uncles, but you called them that,
and Daddy Edgar, she called him
Daddy, he was a great brass player,
CWS Cheetham Hill Silver Band,
and he was at a competition there,
and we got taken down, and we saw,
- wonderful you know, - three hours
of brass band music, which even me
as a kid, I loved.
And then the first theatre thing I
ever saw was, I think it was Harry
Secombe in Aladdin. At the Palace
Theatre Manchester. I loved it. I’ll
never forget, when the curtains
opened, and you know the way that
the spotlights hit the stage, and
all the colors are vibrant, because
they’ve been freshly painted on the
flats and everything, and all the
people, and it was like all of a sudden
the world had gone from black and
white to this, well, Oz, it was the
Wizard of Oz.
It was great, and then I suppose
rock and roll, it would have been
going to see people like the Beatles,
while playing at the same bill as
the Beatles, but yeah, and well,
everybody did, because you all
played little clubs, you know, little
tiny coffee bars and things, and the
Hollies, when they were JJ, JJ and the
hair lights, but anyway, Norah King,
Dane Young, and there’s something,
they were from Stockport, the
Hollies, and then we did Liverpool,
we played with the Big Three,
and like I say the Beatles, and the
Mindbenders, Wayne Fontana and
the Mindbenders, not the Rolling
Stones, never worked with them,
but worked with Paul Jones, what
was Paul Jones, Manfred Man, and
things like that, so we were all on
the circuit together in the rock and
roll days, playing, we weren’t a great
band, but because we played mostly
cover versions, but we used to get
| 34 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Mike Harding
bookings, and that did for us.
SFM Would you say the skill sets
of musicians have changed much
over the years?
MH I suppose one answer has
got to be yes, because if you can’t
record your own stuff for demos or
whatever, if you’re not IT conversant,
it makes it quite difficult, you really
need to be up there or down there
with the kids in the hood when it
comes to the technical side of stuff,
the ability to record and things like
that, but the skill set is still going to
be, can you stand up and entertain an
audience, and you know, too many
people in the folk clubs, (Ask me in a
bit about Folk Britannia, remember
that).
The thing is, too many people in
the folk clubs forgot that the main
function of anybody, folk singer, folk
dancer, folk musician, whatever, is
to entertain people, not to educate
them. You can do that through your
entertainment. But the number of
people that would stand and lecture
the audience, and I mean a lot of us
were teachers that went into the folk
thing, The Spinners were teachers,
it was the wrong way to go about
it. We used to get castigated for
entertaining them and making them
laugh, well that’s something. What’s
wrong with laughing? I don’t get
it, if there’s something wrong with
laughing I’m in the wrong business,
you know, so I tried to combine
storytelling, monologues, serious
folk songs, comic folk songs, all in
one. You know, I didn’t see there was
any problem with that, and one of
my heroes is Bob Davenport.
I didn’t meet Bob till later on in my
folk life, but we became really good
friends, and Bob’s, god he must be
late 80s now, a Geordie, he just said
to me once, and he’s a great singer of
Irish songs, Geordie songs, and his
knowledge of folk music is second to
none, Bob said to me once, he said,
“Mike, if I had to get their
attention I would tear a
telephone directory in half,
just to get it all. You know,
to get them with you and
bring them in rather than
leave them out there and start
lecturing them”.
And he’s right. If you’re going to get
there and tear a telephone directory
in half, do it, and then sing your
songs.
SFM Of all the different musical
instruments that you can play, which
one’s your favourite, which is your
go-to one?
MH Do you mean in types
of instrument or a particular
instrument?
SFM Type of instrument.
MH Yeah, well I suppose blues
harmonica and the mandolin. I play
guitar still, but not all that much,
because over the years I’ve just got to,
I still want to, play music.
I don’t necessarily want to stand up
with a microphone and entertain a
room full of people, so now I play
a lot in the Irish sessions, which
is a great communal thing, you all
play ensemble, you start and finish
together, hopefully, and yeah, so that
and like, I go up to Manchester and I
play up there, and I got to Clitherall,
there’s a session there, another one in
Preston, and I go to wherever I can
find a session and play a few tunes,
and the thing is you all play together.
And in Manchester, in the pub that I
go to all the time, if somebody’s not
there for a couple of weeks, people
sort of say, is he all right? is she all
right? so it becomes a social thing
as well, and the social thing about
music is tremendously important,
you know. It’s hugely important, it’s
okay for the stars with the 15,000
people in the auditorium, that’s fine,
but the good thing about folk music
and people’s music is that they’re
making it for themselves, whether
it’s at an open mic or whatever it
is, is that eventually you find that
people do come together, and they
care about each other and ask, where
are they? and how they’re doing,
you know how they’re going on, and
certainly in the case of this pub in
Manchester, you know, everybody
takes care of everybody else.
SFM What’s the toughest
challenge that you’ve encountered in
your songwriting career?
MH I always wanted to write a
song about my dad, who was killed
on the 23rd of September, it’s coming
up to his 80th anniversary now,
coming back from a bombing raid
in Munster, they were bombing a
German night fighter aerodrome.
What they didn’t know was that the
Germans knew they were coming,
and had moved in, or at least thought
that that was going to be the next
one, not sure whether there was any
info that got through to them, but
so they pulled back 40 miles into
Germany, so that when my dad went
over, they bombed pretty much an
empty aerodrome.
But what they didn’t know was this
guy called Schnaufer, Von Schnaufer,
he was a night fighter ace pilot, and
they had developed this system, it
was called Schrager music, and they
put the cannons in the wings and
tilted them up, so they didn’t need to
attack from above, but they just flew
underneath the Lancasters, and as
they went under, they just fired the
cannons, and of course the fuel tanks
were in the wings, so you just take a
fuel tank out and that’s it you know,
virtually because there were shells
that exploded obviously, and set
fire to the wings, and the fuel tanks
burnt.
Anyway, the plane landed in a
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
35 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
place called Holten, just outside
Maastricht in Holland, and all the
lads in the crew, bar the bomb aimer
called Landley, he got out when it
was hit, whether the blast blew him
out from the bomb, because he was
in his little bubble at the front, so
it could well have blown him out, I
think it did, and he used his chute,
and he got down okay, spent the rest
of the war being looked after by the
Dutch underground, so he survived
to VE day, but that meant that they
were short of one body when the
plane crashed. They all had tags, you
know, so they knew, even though the
remains would have been a mess, so
they were a body short.
But what had happened was that
some other poor bugger had
parachuted out of a plane, really,
really badly wounded the story went,
because we found out later that they’d
thrown him out, virtually put a chute
on him and said get out, you know,
you’ve no chance of getting back
home, see if you get picked up, you’ll
get medical treatment there, anyway
the plane landed on top of him, so it
was shit luck on that day wasn’t it for
him?
So the plane had a full complement
of seven when the Germans came, so
they buried them.
I’ve pitched these things, but my
mother wouldn’t talk about it. In
one of my books, I wrote a poem
called ‘Photo Father’, which is about
trying to relate to your father through
photographs.
Nobody talked about it, obviously
my mother was just 19 when she got
married, she became a bride, a widow
and a mother in 13 months, and she
never stopped loving him, she just
never, never ever stopped.
So, I was trying to write about this
and I just.... it didn’t happen, it just
wouldn’t happen, and you can’t force
a song, you can’t force it, and then
one day I was sat at the piano, we
were living down in Manchester at
the time, and I just got, (and I can’t
play the piano all that well, you know,
knock a few chords out, C, F and G
and A minor) and I just went ‘da-dada-da
44 in Bomber County’, and it
came, and I just sat at the piano and
I wrote it in one hit, the whole story,
everything was down in one melody
and everything, and that was at the
beginning of a tour, I was a while,
about a month away from a tour, and
I toured it, I put it in the show. And
so really, yeah, I suppose that was the
one that took the longest coming.
SFM Mike, when you write your
songs, do you normally write the
lyrics first or the music first or do you
do them both at the same time?
MH Very often it happens both
at the same time. Because I know all
musicians are different, aren’t they?
Yeah, I just find they happen at the
same time that the tune will suggest
lyrics or lyrics will come into my
head and I’ll just get a tune to it.
Like the ‘Wild Geese,’ that song about
the Irish emigrants, that came from
an expression, ‘the wild geese are
flying’, you know. The way it goes, you
get that little melody in your head
and then the rest of the words come
in.
SFM Of all the songs you’ve ever
written yourself, which one means
the most to you?
MH
Well, Bomber’s Moon.
SFM Bomber’s Moon, I can totally
understand why.
MH And of all the songs that I’ve
sung of other people’s, I think one
that stands out above all others to
me is the ‘January Man’, which is a
wonderful, wonderful song. And he
was touched by the songwriting fairy
when he wrote that, because it’s just
everything, it’s all of life, it’s all of the
year and yeah, that song...
And a girl called Mary Asquith, not
many people know Mary Asquith or
know of her, but I played her on the
show quite a bit. A Manchester girl,
and a great little, (she was little, littler
than me), that takes some doing.
And she used to smoke Rollies, Old
Holborn and drink whisky, which
gave her a voice that was, you know,
Old Holborn and whisky.
And she made an album called
‘Closing Time’ and it’s a bloody
brilliant album, absolutely brilliant.
And she’s very under-known and
undervalued.
But I sang ‘Closing Time’ on one of
my albums and I’m just trying to
learn another one, ‘When Marilyn
Monroe Died’, which has got a great
refrain. So I’m still learning some.
I learnt a song, a traditional song,
which I just can’t stop singing, called
’One Starry Night’. It’s about an Irish
traveller who wakes up, he hears:
‘One starry night as I lay sleeping,
One starry night as I lay in bed.
I thought I heard wagon wheels
creaking,
And when I woke my true love had
fled’.
It’s got great lines in it, like:
‘I’ll go across the sea to England
And follow all the travelling fares,
And look amongst 10,000 faces
To see where I find my true love there’.
Bloody marvellous stuff, you know.
| 36 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Mike Harding
SFM Thinking about folk songs
from other artists past or present,
who are the artists that you currently
enjoy listening to?
MH Karine Polwart is always
a source of joy to me, she’s a great
songwriter, great singer, a great
traditional singer. Kristy Moore, he’s
got a new album coming out, he’s
an old pal, he used to live with us in
Manchester. Katherine Roberts and
Sean Lakeman, I think they’re terrific.
Who did I last go and see? Peter
Knight from Steeleye Span, he does
a big band show with a load of great
folk musicians. I had a fabulous night
when I saw them last. And then, you
know, when I go to Ireland I always
look up people who are like, what’s
she called? Maureen McAuliffe,
who used to sing with a band called
Danu. And Eleanor Shanley, Niamh
Parsons, great, great singers.
SFM Have you got any plans to
release new songs or albums in the
near future?
MH Yeah, I’m working on
something at the moment, which is,
I don’t know whether people will like
it or not, it’s an instrumental album.
And it’s just, I mean I’ll sell it dead
cheap, you know, Mandolin tunes,
and I’m playing all the instruments
on it. Bass harmonica, Jew’s harp,
mandolin, mandolin banjo, eight
string banjo.
SFM You’re a very talented man,
aren’t you?
MH I mean, once you play a
string instrument, you can play
almost, like a guitar, you can play a
mandolin, you know, stuff like that.
And blues harmonica is only like an
ordinary harmonica upside down, if
you see what I mean.
SFM In which ways are you
still involved with the folk music
industry?
MH Well, I go to, though I didn’t
go to any this year, but I used to go
to quite a lot of folk festivals. Even
though I stopped doing the podcast,
two years ago. So I was going to the
folk festivals, oh, I must remember
‘The Young Un’s’ in that, my heroes,
my modern day heroes. Fantastic,
great songwriter, great songwriter,
great trio. And that Johnny Longstaff,
have you seen it? They’ve done a live
show, these lads are from Hartlepool,
and they’ve done a live show called
The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff.
Johnny Longstaff was a Hartlepool
fella who went off to fight in Spain.
And the story of his life was recorded.
He told it to his son, I think his son
recorded it. And they took the words
and the story of his life, and he wrote
16 songs around it, Cooney. And
they’re bloody marvellous songs. And
they use back projection and all sorts,
it’s a fabulous show. Brilliant.
SFM I just want to ask you, if you
were able to offer one piece of advice
to the young folk artists of today,
what would that be?
MH Don’t sell your publishing.
Don’t sign publishing with anybody.
You can publish your own music.
People will lie to you, like they lied
to me, and told me I couldn’t get
anywhere in the world if I didn’t
have a publisher. So I signed with
Francis Day and Hunter, EMI Music,
whatever.
And then I discovered that I can
actually copyright my own material.
It’s easily done, you just put it in a
sealed envelope, or give it a lawyer
or whatever, you can do it yourself.
You set your own little company up
for 100 quid, and you register your
product with that company. And
it’s yours then. I signed with this
company, they did nothing. Nothing
with any of my music at all. Not one
single solitary bloody thing. And
then I wrote ‘Danger Mouse’, and
‘Count Duckula’ wrote the theme
music for that. And they got 50% of
it. 50% of everything I made from the
Danger Mouse theme tunes and from
the music, incidental music, they got
for doing f*** nothing.
And eventually I got out of that
contract, but they still own it. They
still own 50%, for my life, for my
grandchildren, for another 70 years
after I’m gone. For what? So they
lied!!
Now in the old days, in the 20s, in
the 1915’s, 20’s 30’s what a publishing
firm did was took your song that
you’d written and went and punted it
around the country. They took it into
recording studios, took it to agents,
took it to George Formby’s manager,
you know, ‘Jane’s written this song,
see what you think of this.’ And they
would be able to play it on the piano.
If you watch that thing ‘Pennies from
Heaven’, that series, it’s a great series,
about a fellow going around selling
sheet music. He used to go with the
sheet music and put it in the music
shop and play it. This is going to be a
hit, you know. He’s take it to the very
best friend, the milkman, the right
daddy, you know.
They would sell copies of sheet music
or get people to record it. So they
worked. They worked for their artists.
But they didn’t have to work once
tape came along and stuff like that.
But they were still taking the 50%.
For doing naff all!! I hate that. I really
do. I hate it. So that’s what I would
say to any kid, anybody starting off.
And the second thing I would say,
and it goes without saying really, be
true to yourself. Be true to yourself.
Just write what is in your heart.
Just write it. And what happens?
You’ll write a load of shit. And then
eventually it’ll get good, and you’ll
be derivative. People say this is
derivative. That’s derivative. Well, of
course it is. Everybody starts aping
somebody else. I wrote like Dylan
Thomas for a long while, even though
I can’t speak any Welsh. A lot of it
was like that semi-mystical type
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
37 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
of stuff that he used to write. And
eventually, you know, I found my
own voice. And you’ll do that.
And people, you know, it’s a hard
road. I would say it was a hard road.
I would say it was a road that you’ve
got to travel, that you know you’ve
got to travel. And you do it because
you can’t do anything else. That’s the
old shape of things. How can I keep
from singing? It’s right, you know, I’d
be doing what I was doing in a pub
on a Friday night if I was a printer or
a welder or whatever. I’d still be doing
it.
And one last thing I’ll say, people
who say I did it my way. You know,
I did it all my.... B******S!! I had two
elements of luck, without which I
would probably be just coming to the
end of it all. I’d recently come to the
end of a career as a teacher because I
went and took a degree in education
after I’d been working on the buses
and boiler scaling and steel erecting
and all sorts of stuff. Two things
happened in my life.
I was in Germany and I was doing
Monchengladbach, Rheindahlen
somewhere, with the McAllmans.
And I’d been driving over to
Yorkshire a couple of weeks before
and I’d heard this guy on BBC radio,
Sheffield or radio, Blackburn, I’m not
sure which, talking about this cowboy
and Indian association that used
to meet on the moors and re-enact
battles, like the Battle of the Little
Bighorn or whatever, on Saddleworth
Moor, dressed as Indians and some
dressed as cowboys. And they all had
names. Yes, name’s like Fred Jenkins,
yeah, but I am ‘Chief Running Water’
or whatever, that’s my real name. And
I was driving along and I just got this
picture of all these people dressed as
cowboys and Indians in the pissing
rain in November, running around
Saddleworth Moor.
‘You’re dead,’ ‘I’m not dead, you
missed me’, ‘I didn’t f*****g miss you’,
like that, and all that crap. (Laughter
all around from all three of us) And I
had to pull over and I got,
‘it’s hard being a cowboy in Rochdale
because the spurs don’t fit right on
me clogs’.
Not many people were still wearing
clogs in Rochdale in those days, some
were, but not many.
‘It’s hard being a cowboy in Rochdale
because people laugh when I ride past
an RL station dog’,
That’ll do! So I got in the club that
night and I stood up and I said,
‘this is a country music song’, and
I preceded it with a bit of, ‘one day
during the North Africa campaign’,
It was that Game of Cards, Deck of
Cards song, which is about the soldier
who’s found with cards in church.
‘What are you doing?’
Well, the ace reminds me of the God,
that there is one God.
The tree reminds me of the three
people of the God,
The queen reminds me of the blessed
virgin, and all the rest of it.
So he gets off the charge, because they
are the deck of cards.
So I did a Mickey take on that.
One private went into a church to
pray,
One private, one card took out
his privates and spread them on
the bench in front of me. (Lots of
laughter)
And then I went
‘It’s hard being a cowboy in
Rochdale’
So I used to open my act with that
and I was doing it for the troops, for
the mob over in Germany. And this,
Ian said afterwards, he said, that is
the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard
in my life. He said, but it’s funny, he
said, you should write some words
around it. I said, no, it’s only a tease,
it’s like a one verse thing. But that was
actually the chorus.
So anyway, I sat down as he said and
I wrote this song and I sang it for a
couple of weeks. And then I noticed
in the clause of my contract with
Rubber Records in Newcastle that I
was supposed to make a single every
year, one single, one album. And I
thought, I’m upset. I’ve not done a
single. Well, have you got one? ‘Yeah.’
So I went up and I recorded that and
the Cowboys were coming back from
a tour of Denmark, they did a lot of
work, in fact they married two of
them, married Danish girls.
So it starts with the Red River Valley,
you know that, and, Hamish has got a
gum boil, his face is hanging out like
this, (Mike does a great impersonation
of a man with toothache) he’s on
antibiotics and brandy and in
between takes he’s lying on the floor
in the studio in agony, and then Ian’s
saying, ‘come on girl, it’s hard being a
Cowboy,’ then he lay down again. So
we recorded it above a chip shop in
Wall’s End, I think it was. And it got
released that summer and somehow
it became a hit.
Well, why it became a hit was the
second luckiest thing that happened
to me in my life. The first one was
Ian saying, do it, and the second one
was a guy called Ray Cooper who
worked for Transatlantic Records,
and Transatlantic used to handle
rubber records, just take them round
the shops, and he heard it and he
said, ‘This is really funny.’ And he
said ‘We should get behind this’ and
that’s it, ‘But it’s not one of ours, why
would we do that?’ And he said, ‘Oh
come on Foxy, we’ve got nothing,
we’ve not got anything, we’re not
doing anything, we’ll take it round’.
So they went and just punted it to
Wogan and Pete Murray and all the
Radio 2s and things like that, because
they were dealing with people like the
Dubliners and Transatlantic Records.
So that was the summer of 75....
Now that was two pieces of luck. You
know, when people say, oh I did it
all my way, all the hard work in the
world wouldn’t have got me those
two little breaks. But the funny thing
| 38 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

is, years later, about eight years ago,
I’m going fly fishing on Benbecula,
I remember there was a base up on
Benbecula, that was the first time I
went up there, it was for the army,
so there we were fly fishing and I’m
staying in this little bungalow down
the hill run by a bloke called Wegg
and he said, ‘You’ve got to go up the
road, I’ll take you up the road in
the car,’ he said ‘It’s eight miles, you
can’t walk’, I said ‘What have I got to
lose?’ He said ‘The post office, there’s
a woman there who wants to see
you,’ and I’m thinking, ‘Hang on, I
didn’t do anything when I was over
here last time,.. I definitely didn’t’,
she said ‘You!! you caused nearly a
divorce, you nearly caused a divorce
in this house’, and I said ‘me? I was
only on the base’, I said ‘there wasn’t
anything else’, ‘No, nothing to do with
that’, Her husband said, ‘I was going
to Glasgow to see my mother and
my husband said, you’re getting this
record while you were over there, and
he gave me a piece of paper, I lost the
paper, but I remembered it,.’ she said,
‘I got the Rochdale cowboy, it was the
Rhinestone Cowboy I was meant to
get!! I don’t know what you want to
do with it, what do you want to do
with it?’ Oh well!! (Paul & I were in
stitches with laughter as Mike told this
story)
Folk Britannia, now this is why I’m
always very careful about talking to
journalists and doing things, Folk
Britannia, there was Jazz Britannia
and I think there was Blues Britannia
and it was Channel 4 So they’re
doing folk, and they’ve got like
Martin Carthy, they’ve got Peggy
Seeger, they’ve got all the big names
and things, you know, Franklin
Burton, and people like that. Would
I go down to London and do an
interview? Yeah, I said, sure.
So I got on the train, went to London
from here all the way down, and I
went down and met them, and we
went on the Thames somewhere, I
can’t remember where it was. It was a
lovely day like this, beautiful summer
afternoon, walking up and down.
Went to the pub, sat down, had a
couple of beers, then we talked and
interviewed.
Camera was going all the time, and
I talked, very much as I’ve talked
to you today about the pluses and
minuses and things I love. And it
was a madly, if you like, affectionate
diatribe almost, because I genuinely
do love folk music. I love all kinds
of folk music. In particular I love
traditional folk music, and the
performers. And I went on and
on, ‘But there must be something
you don’t like about it’ chirrped the
interviewer. And I said, ‘No, there’s
not anything I don’t like about it. You
know, it’s been my life for so long, I
love it’. ‘There must be something you
don’t like about it.’ he repeated. I said,
‘There are some people who think
that, you know, we avoid dialect, they
are teaching us, but there are some
people who believe it’s their duty to
teach us, and I believe that there are
some people who think that they’re
plowboys and milkmaids’.
THAT’S THE ONLY LINE THEY
USED. All f*****g afternoon, I spoke
about my love for folk music, folk
songs, the tradition, and the only
thing they used was, ‘There are
some people who think that they’re
plowboys and milkmaids!!!. I’ll
NEVER forgive you, you b******s!!!!!
SFM Mike sure knows how to tell
a story, Paul & I were thoroughly
entertained, it was a wonderful
afternoon for us, even the weather
was glorious., the drive over was
pituresque, and Mike’s open honesty
and wit made for a truly memorable
experience for us both. It felt like
we were in the company of our best
friend. Thank you so much Mike
Harding for sharing your afternoon
with us. It was an afternoon that will
stay with me for a very long time. xx
PODCAST 305 PLAYLIST:
1 Plains Of Kildare – Andy Irvine &
Paul Brady
2 Song Of The Fishgutters – Janice
Burns & Jon Doran
Mike Harding
3 The Chemical Worker’s Song – The
Teesside Fettlers
4 Thomond Bridge/The Jug Of
Punch/Trip To Durrow – Angela
Usher
5 Ships – Hannah Sanders & Ben
Savage
6 The Hartlepool Monkey – The
Teesside Fettlers
7 The Blarney Stone – Bob Davenport
8 No Road Across Mousehold – The
Shackleton Trio
9 What Kind Of An Eegit Are Ya? –
John Devine
10 My Old Man – Garva
11 Róisín Dubh – Muireann Nic
Amhlaoibh
12 Van Diemen’s Land – Dom Prag
13 This Land Is Your Land – Woody
Guthrie / Will Geer
14 The Witch Of The Westmorelands
– Linda Adams
15 The Early Morning Rain – The
Woods
16 Arthur McBride – Andy Irvine &
Paul Brady
17 Lord Gregory – Ye Vagabonds
18 Do Re Mi – Woody Guthrie / Will
Geer
19 Follow The Heron – Hò-Rò
20 The Well Below The Valley –
Pauline Scanlon
21 1964 Catholic Total Instution
Blues – David Metcalfe
22 Glasgow Peggy – Janice Burns &
Jon Doran
23 Eleanor Of Usan – Tim Edey
24 An Tseanbhean Bhocht –
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
25 The Stone Outside Dan Murphy’s
Door – Bob Davenport
26 Do Re Me – John Mellencamp – A
Vision Shared / The Songs Of Woody
Guthrie And Leadbelly
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
39 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
PHOTOFATHER
+++
Beside the bowl of shrinking, puckered fruit
And the cracked jug that holds the rent book,
My teeth and hair and eyes look
Forward from twenty-three years of death,
Begun when parachutes burnt over Holland.
Four weeks later to the day, I wailed my way,
On points, into the all clear Anderson-world,
And began immediately to build, from your braid and bible,
A pattern of fathers. So I made you out
Of cuttings from the Eagle and the Hotspur and the Lion
And rode you up and down the German-clotted sky
Until you must have been nearly sick to death.
This way I made something, but it was like
A pub piano, alright to vamp for sing-songs
Near the fire by night, but tuneless
And nerve-jangling in the morning’s cold: a wax man
Whose wings fell off in the sun.
We rarely talked of you. I could not ask
What you were like, or felt or said –
Bits trickled through the net of pain: your motorbike,
The way you waltzed my mother through the rain
Waiting for the bus back from the Ritz.
They say that I’m your spit, and yet we know
The closeness of our common grief would be
Too much. We dust your picture smile and,
Saying nothing, we construct our truths.
We have a picture of a cross somewhere
In Holland: a green hump covers up
The bits of you they found. I clutch it still,
Sensing only mystery and loss, and hold
The little that I have to make you up again,
Cast now perennial, in different, stranger moulds.
+++
© MIKE HARDING
| 40 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

DISCOVER MORE ABOUT MIKE:
Mike Harding Folk Show
Podcast Link
Mike Harding’s Books, Poetry, Poems
Link
Mike Harding Website
Link
Mike Harding Youtube
Link
Shop Mike Harding Books
Link
Mike Harding Tv Appearances
Link
Mike Harding Stand Up Comedy
Link
Mike Harding Folk Shows
Link
Mike Harding Monologues
Ink
Mike Harding Facebook
Link
Mike Harding
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com 41 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
DISCOGRAPHY
& LIBRARY
| 42 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

ALBUMS
A Lancashire Lad link (1972, Trailer LER 2039)
There Was This Bloke link (1974 Rubber Records RUB 010) with
Tony Capstick, Derek Brimstone and Bill Barclay
Mrs ‘Ardin’s Kid link (1975, Rubber Records RUB 011)
The Rochdale Cowboy Rides Again link (1975, Rubber Records
RUB 015/016)
One Man Show link (1976, Philips 6625 022)
Old Four Eyes is Back link (1977, Philips 6308 290)
Captain Paralytic & The Brown Ale Cowboys link (1978, Philips
6641 798)
On The Touchline link (1979, Philips 9109 230)
Komic Kutz link (1979, Philips 6625 041)
Red Specs Album link (1981, Polydor 2383 601)
Take Your Fingers Off It link (1982, Moonraker MOO1)
Rooted! link (1983, Moonraker MOO2)
Flat Dogs and Shaky Pudden link (1983, BBC Records REH 468)
Bomber’s Moon link (1984, Moonraker MOO3)
Roll Over Cecil Sharpe link (1985, Moonraker MOO7)
Foo Foo Shufflewick & Her Exotic Banana link (1986,
Moonraker MOO8)
The Best of Mike Harding link (1986, Rubber Records RUB 047)
Plutonium Alley link (1989, Moonraker MOO9)
God’s Own Drunk link (1989, Moonraker MOO10)
Footloose in the Himalaya link (1990, Moonraker MOOC11)
Chinese Takeaway Blues link (1992, Moonraker MOO11)
The Bubbly Snot Monster link (1994, Moonraker MOO14)
Classic Tracks link (1995, Moonraker CD MOO13)
SINGLES
“Rochdale Cowboy” / “Strangeways Hotel” link (1975, Rubber
Records ADUB 3)
“My Brother Sylveste” / “Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls” link (1976, Rubber
Records ADUB 4)
“Talking Blackpool Blues” / “Bogey Man” link (1976, Rubber
Records ADUB 10)
Guilty, But Insane (EP): includes “Born Bad” / “Jimmy Spoons” /
“Manuel” link (1977, Philips CLOG 1)
“Christmas 1914” / “P.S. God” link (1977, Philips 6006 585)
“Disco Vampire” / “For Carlo” link (1977, Philips CLOG 2)
BOOKS
1976 Napoleons Retreat From Wigan Poems
1979 The Unluckiest Man in the World Short Stories
1979 The Singing Street Poems
1979 The Witch That Nicked Christmas Play
1980 Folk Songs of Lancashire Songs
1980 Fur Coat and No Knickers Play
1980 Barnaby Barnaby Boy Wonder Childrens
1980 The 14 lb Budgie Short stories
1980 Up The Boo Aye Shooting Pookakis Childrens
1981 The Armchair Anarchist’s Almanac Short stories
1981 One Night Stand Play
1981 Hell Bent Play
1982 Dead Ernest Play
1983 Not With A Bang Play
1983 Killer Budgies Comedy
1984 When The Martians Land in Huddersfield
Comedy
1985 You Can See The Angel’s Bum, Miss Worswick
Biographical
1986 Rambling On Comedy
1987 Walking The Dales Outdoors
1987 Bomber’s Moon Songs
1988 Cooking One’s Corgi Comedy
1989 Footloose in the Himalaya Outdoors
1990 Last Tango in Whitby Play
1992 A Free Man on Sunday Play
1992 Daddy Edgar’s Pools Poems
1992 Walking the Peak and Pennine Outdoors
1992 Tales from the Towpath: Canalside Ramble Through
Central Manchester
Outdoors
1993 The Virgin of the Discos Short Stories
1995 Hypnotising the Cat Comedy
1995 Buns For The Elephants Poems
1996 Footloose in the West of Ireland Outdoors
1997 Crystal Set Dreams Poems
1997 Comfort and Joy Play
1998 A Little Book of the Green Man
1998 A Little Book of Gargoyles
1998 A Little Book of Stained Glasss
1998 A Little Book of Misericords
2005 Yorkshire Transvestite Found Dead On Everest
Short Stories
2008 A Little Book of Angels
2008 A Little Book of Devils & Demons
2008 A Little Book of Miracles & Marvels
2008 A Little Book of Tombs & Monuments
2009 Strange Lights over Bexleyheath Poems
2009 A Guide to North Country Flies Outdoors
2013 The VW Camper Van Biography
2013 The Connemara Cantos Poems
2015 The Adventures Of The Crumpsall Kid
Memoirs
2017 Fishing For Ghosts Poems
2021 The Night Tram
2023 The Lonely Zoroastrian Poems
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com 43 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
Mercury Prize Nominated Folk Singer,
Conservationist, Song Collector And
Activist Sam Lee At Gregynog Hall
Gregynog Hall near Newtown in Mid Wales is excited
to welcome Mercury Prize nominated Sam Lee,
whose singular interpretations of folk songs and
themes break down the barriers between traditional
and contemporary music. Lee is also known for his love of
wilderness and nature, making him a perfect match for a
historic house set in 750 acres of stunning nature reserve.
Gregynog has played a leading role in the development of Wales
classical music scene when it was the home of the Davies sisters
in the 1930s. Music festivals were held at Gregynog, attended by
famous musicians such as Sir Adrian Boult, Walford Davies and
Gustav Holst.
Gwen and Margaret Davies were always passionate about the
arts. Prior to the Great War they had begun collecting paintings
and other works of art, notably French Impressionists and post-
Impressionists – we’re talking Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Pisarro,
Sisley, Morisot – and we mustn’t forget this was very daring stuff
for the times.
Their adviser was a man called Hugh Blaker who was the
brother of the sisters’ governess. Gwen was also a talented
musician, and music was very important to both sisters.They
converted the Billiard Room in their home into a Music Room
continues to host concerts including a free programme of
chamber music on Saturday mornings.
Now Gregynog is looking beyond its traditional classical remit
and to host contemporary interpretations of traditional music.
Gregynog’s Autumn 2024 Folk Series concludes on Sunday
November 24th with a performance by Sam Lee and his band.
Lee’s most recent album ‘Songdreaming’ was a Mojo Album of
the Month earlier this year and is the recipient of 5-star reviews.
With a lyrical focus on the perilous state of the natural world
that has informed Sam’s work since his debut, ‘Songdreaming’
represents the most expansive and fully realised Sam Lee album
to date, capable of switching from the beautiful balladry of
‘Sweet Girl McRee’ to the gospel tinges of ‘Leaves Of Life’ and
the whiteout noise close of album opener ‘Bushes and Briars’. It
is a full expression of Lee as an artist and of his relationship to
his muse, the natural world. As Lee himself notes:
“I wanted to sing a vision of what a conversation between
us and the land could be, to restore and inspire a practice
of songful immersion in nature that brings with it
healing, something we need now more than ever”
Gregynog Hall offers a range of accommodation so why not
make a weekend of it and explore the estate’s amazing 750-acre
estate. Gregynog’s woodland is part of Wales’ national forest
with miles of paths to explore so pack your boots as well! Early
tickets cost £22.50 including booking fee (£27.50 full price).
Details are available at www.gregynog.org and you can book
accommodation by calling the Hall on 01686 650224 or email
enquiries@gregynog.org.
Travel notes: Gregynog is located close to the village of
Tregynon near Newtown in Powys, about 50 minutes west of
Shrewsbury by car.
The nearest railway station is at Newtown on the Birmingham
International – Aberystwyth line. The nearby A483 leads to the
motorway network.
For satellite navigation use the postcode SY16 3PL, which
brings you to the Hall along the main drive through the estate.
If approaching from the Berriew direction, continue to Bettws
Cedewain ignoring any signs to Brooks.
| 44
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Jez Lowe
Sam Lee’s latest album ‘Songdreaming’ has been variously described as ‘A
dazzling fusion of nature and song’ (The Observer) and a ‘sublime album that
demands to be heard in the 21st century’ (The Daily Telegraph) amidst a host of
critical acclaim. Sam’s music has grown from its roots in traditional folk song to
a new way of imagining and performing these old songs, making them relevant
for a modern audience.
The historic Music Room, which formerly hosted great composers such as
Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams, is a fabulous setting for folk performances
and B and B is available for the intrepid traveller wishing to avail themselves of
a historic country house set in 700 acres of woodland and parkland (call 01686
6650224).
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
45 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
COPENHAGEN
DENMARK
MUSIC FOR WORLD PEACE
RECORDS
| 46
Artist: TAYLOR SAPPE
Label President
Baltimore Maryland USA
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Taylor Sappe
Taylor Sappe is a multi-genre songwriter and
producer. Born in Baltimore, MD, when
Taylor was 5 years old his older sister Julie
was taking piano lessons and was learning
to play by numbers. She taught Taylor how to play
“London Bridge” using the numbers 5654345 234
345 5654345 2531. Taylor quickly figured out that
moving to the right raised the pitch and moving to
the left decreases it, and began figuring out melodies
to hit songs on his own. His first one was “Tammy’s
In Love” from the movie Tammy And The Bachelor.
His parents were separated and his mother was
taking care of 4 kids as a single parent with no child
support. Her place of work went on strike and she
had to give up one of her kids to be able to provide
for the other 3. She sent Taylor to temporarily live
with his aunt in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. They
bought him a table-top organ and he began playing
the melody from the movie mentioned above. His
aunt took him to a store downtown to buy him a
better organ. They had one on display that was
plugged in and ready to play. Taylor went over to it
and played “Tammy’s in Love” and drew a crowd.
His Aunt and Grandfather were poor and couldn’t
afford piano lessons, but Taylor was determined to
learn and he taught himself.
As time went on, Taylor’s interest in music grew. He
began composing his own melodies. His grandfather
wanted him to learn to play violin and somehow
came up with the money for violin lessons. That
didn’t last long. It wasn’t Taylor’s instrument.
They had him take an instrument in elementary
school so he could play in the school band. The
only instrument they had available was trombone.
Although he marginally learned to play it, it just
wasn’t his instrument.
At age 15 his uncle Ralph gave him an acoustic
guitar. That was his instrument. He taught himself
how to play and had friends and relatives who played
it show him some things to help.
Fast forward to age 20, Taylor was drafted and did
a 14 month tour of duty in Vietnam. He loved the
fingerpicking style of two folk singers, Andy White
and Greg Hargrave in his unit and had them show
him how to fingerpick. The platoon would gather on
the bunker at night after work, smoke weed and sing
anti-war folk songs. Taylor connected with a guy in
his unit who sang professionally and they formed a
folk duo. The duo played for troops in their unit and
traveled to other locations to perform.
By the time his tour was over, Taylor had enough
experience to perform professionally as a soloist. He
made a living playing 5 nights a week from 1970 to
1975. Up until 1972, Taylor was working a day job at
JFK airport in New York and playing nights in clubs
around the city and Long Island. In 1972 he moved
back to Hazleton and began playing solo gigs around
the coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
He was intrigued by a suggestion from one of his fans
to study music theory, and found a correspondence
course in Music Theory offered by The Applied
Music School in Tampa, Florida. His instructor was
a former instructor at Berklee College of Music.
In 1975 all of the clubs were getting disco systems put
in and were hiring Djs in place of live entertainment
and Taylor’s livelihood came to a screeching hault.
He didn’t know how to do anything but self-taught
Folk music and didn’t know how to earn a living
from there. He knew that he needed to learn how
to make music that’s current in a changing market
to continue doing what he loves. With the help of
his theory teacher Ron Delp, he attended Berklee, in
a degree program majoring in music composition.
Due to financial constraints he fell short of a degree
by one semester.
Taylor is currently the label President for ‘Music
For World Peace Records and currently resides in
Pennsylvania, USA.
Taylor is founder and president of our label, which
began in June of 2020.
Taylor is a multi-genre composer, songwriter,
producer and audio engineer, with more than 50
years of experience under his belt.
Taylor is also the founder of Captain Blue Records,
which was established in 1980 and has numerous
releases, many of which have not yet been uploaded
to the Captain Blue page on the website:
https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/
Please take a visit to MFWEPR website & discover
the many artists Taylor has worked with to help them
reach their own personal recording dreams.
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
47 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
TAYLOR SAPPE
MFWPR Performed Songs:
SO FAR AWAY
Co-written with Jane Shields (SFMM editor)
Website: https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/sofar-away
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3MrzkXv
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3W2KAMY
CAPTAIN BLUE RELEASES
GREEN RIVER
Website: https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/
green-river
YouTube: https://bit.ly/45KPRMO
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/47KMUhl
STILL IN THE GAME:
Co-written with David Decosmo
Website: https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/
still-in-the-game
YouTube: http://bit.ly/3hmziTH
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3DMGArs
I REST MY CASE:
Website: https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/irest-my-case
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3EDhZWK
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/463QuRY
IN HARM’S WAY:
Co-written with Mike Turner
Website: https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/inharm-s-way
YouTube: TBA
Spotify: TBA
COLORADO:
Website: https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/
colorado
When they legalized cannabis for recreational use in
Colorado, Taylor and a friend took a trip from
Pennsylvania to Colorado to see what effect it had
on the population and what it was like to consume it
legally. The experience of the journey to and from was
interesting and humorous at times. Taylor is in the
process of documenting the story. If you would like to
receive a copy when it’s ready, click here.
YouTube: https://spoti.fi/3wfFDaO
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3wfFDaO
| 48
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Taylor Sappe
Listen to other genres by Taylor
https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/taylor-sappe
All Spotify releases Taylor wrote and cowrote https://
open.spotify.com/playlist/6KVsUBT9kQFdeT8wre-
OyJF
MFWP RELEASES
Performed by others
HOW CHRISTMAS CAME TO BE:
Co-written with David DeCosmo and sung by Steve
Nyhoff. Its intention to remind us that Christma
was intended for reasons other than decorations and
gifts.
Website: https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/
how-christmas-came-to-be
YouTube: https://bit.ly/40S1uR4
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Gfx2GU
LOVE WILL SAVE THE WORLD:
Co-written with Mike Turner and sung by TaNayha.
Website: https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/
love-will-save-the-world
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3znB9MT
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3eII5uG
REALIZE THE REASON:
Written by Taylor and sung by TaNayha
Website: https://musicforworldpeacerecords.com/
realize-the-reason
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3KEnpC0
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
COLLABORATION PREFERENCES
GEAR
When working via internet I prefer to work with artists,
producers and co-writers who own a DAW and know
how to record, themselves, export stems and convert to
various file formats.
LYRICISTS
If you create lyrics and have a preconcieved idea for a
melody that you prefer to use, be capable of singing on
pitch or playing it on an instrument. Knowing the exact
notes you intended will help me to put music to it.
Anyone missing those skills must allow me to create a
new melody. A well crafted melody can support the mood
of the lyrics by using specific scales and rhythms.
Be flexible and allow for changes in your lyric when
suggested by a co-writer. Input from others who posess
the same skillset is a great way to polish your lyrics to
perfection. It is also a great way to transform them into
something totally different but more powerful. Lyric input
from a music co-writer will help you shape your lyrics
from a musical perspective.
EDUCATION
Music: My best collaborations are with others who have
a formal education in music. When colloborating with
someone who is giving musical input I need to be able to
discuss chord & scale structure, song structure,
progressions, hooks, rhythms and dynamics. Anyone who
doesn’t have this education, but is willing to learn, will
also make a good collaboration.
AUDIO:
A knowledge of acoustics of music and audio engineering
will allow me to communicate well with co-producers and
engineers.
PERSONALITY PREFERENCES
I prefer to work only with people who posess these
qualities:
Dependable.
Respects the skills and talents being brought to the table
by others,
Welcomes input from everyone who is working together
on a project,
Team player, always keeping in mind that we are all
working for the team’s common goal and not just ourselves.
49 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
DUBLIN
IRELAND
UPCOMIN GIGS:
1st November - Skibbereen Singers Club
3rd November - The Night Before Larry Got
Stretched - Dublin
9th November - Ancient Voices @ Kells Priory
Co Kilkenny
14th December - The Four Provinces
Dubln
| 50
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Name
MACDARA
YEATES
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
51 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
MACDARA YEATES
Dublin Ireland
Dublin has always been a
stronghold for folk music.
From the days blind Zozimus
hawking song-sheets in the
shadow of Christchurch, to the 1960s
folk revival, when a fiery-headed Luke
Kelly was crooning up a storm around
Baggotonia, the Irish capital has never
lacked for balladeers. And indeed, today,
when acts like Lankum, Ye Vagabonds,
and Lisa O’Neill scoop up Choice prizes
or write-ups in The New York Times, the
Dublin folk scene boasts an ever-spotless
bill of health. What few realise, however,
is that lurking beneath these waves of
critical acclaim lies an unsung network
of pipers, dancers, and rann-men, each
tending to the hive like a steadfast rabble
of worker bees.
Macdara Yeates is a folk singer from
Dublin, self-described on his Instagram
profile as a “singer of auld songs, doer
of projects, and part to blame for ‘The
Night Before Larry Got Stretched.” Folk
scholars may recognise the latter as
the name of an 18th-century execution
ballad, but as Yeates explains, it has come
to mean something else: “It’s probably
a bit of a mouthful in hindsight—most
people just call it ‘Larry’—but it’s the
name of our singing session in The
Cobblestone.”
The Cobblestone is, of course, Dublin’s
home for traditional music, a pub
recently under threat of demolition
and famed for fostering folk talent. “It
was about 2012,” Macdara explains,
“and Sinéad Lynch [now a member of
harmony folk group Landless] had been
singing in the Cobblestone, and Tom
[the owner] encouraged her to set up a
session… It was good timing. Around
then, there was a few of us, younger
singers like Ian Lynch [now of Lankum],
Ruth Clinton [now of Landless], and
myself, that just so happened to be
lurking around singing sessions… At that
time, there weren’t many younger singers
on the scene. The average age of a singing
session was around sixty-five… Sinéad
had the vision we should have a space of
our own. And ‘Larry was born.”
And, as Macdara explains, it didn’t take
long to catch on: “We formed a little
committee to make sandwiches and
call singers, and, within a few months,
the place was packed… I’d love to take
credit for it all, but we were just in the
right place at the right time. It seemed
like there was swathes of young people
waiting in the wings for an event like
this… And it wasn’t long before some
of the older singers from neighbouring
sessions started to come, and it became a
really beautiful, inter-generational thing.”
A few short years later, ‘Larry was going
strong, and the wider Dublin folk scene
was preparing for take-off. In March
2014, Landless released their first EP. In
May, Lankum released their debut album,
Cold Old Fire. And in the autumn, two
brothers, recently landed to Dublin
from Carlow and performing under the
moniker ‘Ye Vagabonds’, went semi-viral
with their rendition of the Scottish ballad
Willie O’Winsbury. Ten years on, the
fruits are plain to see. Lankum, when not
earning Choice Prize wins and Mercury
nominations, have become one of the
nation’s best-loved bands. Ye Vagabonds
and Landless are established acts, the
former scooping up RTÉ Folk Awards on
the regular and the latter quietly gaining
five-star reviews from the Guardian.
Throw in a Lisa O’Neill, a John Francis
Flynn, an OXN—you get the idea.
This autumn, Macdara Yeates throws
his hat in the ring with an album of folk
songs simply titled Traditional Singing
from Dublin. When asked what took him
so long, Yeates explains, “It took me a
while to get out of my own way. I’ve been
pretty active on the scene, running ‘Larry
and other community folk projects, but
I was always a bit crippled by self-doubt
when it came to releasing something on
my own… But I’m older now. The songs
have had a few more years to bed in, and
it just feels like time… cheesy as that
sounds.”
And time it most certainly is. The
humble title, coupled with Yeates’
unassuming demeanour, would give
no indication that he is the owner of
a fog-horn voice that would be better
suited to the mountain top than the pub
corner. His power and projection are
matched only by a rich, leathery tone,
with each note seemingly conjured from
deep in his boots before cascading out
into the world. Throughout Traditional
Singing from Dublin, Yeates lends his
stentorian voice to ten songs, ranging
from the epic and historical to the local
and nonsensical. Fans of the classics will
be pleasantly surprised by the dissonant
guitar arrangement of Johnny I Hardly
Knew Ye, the 19th-century anti-war
ballad, sounding ever-relevant in
today’s geopolitical climate. And more
discerning folkies are sure to be charmed
by The Herrin’, a Dublin version of a
comic song detailing the dismemberment
of a large fish.
What is most striking about the record,
however, is its sparseness. Half of the
tracks are served neat, featuring nothing
other than Macdara’s raw, unadorned
voice, with the other half accompanied
sparingly on guitar or bodhrán. This,
Macdara explains, was a point of
principle: “I am no purist… But I believe
in starting with a blank slate, creating a
sort of musical ground zero, and building
from there. Lord knows what my future
records will sound like, but I always knew
I wanted the first one to be just as it is—
uncluttered, unadorned, just the songs
as they’re sung in the pubs and house
parties where I learned them. There’s
plenty of time for everything else down
the line.”
Words by Niall Ó Lochlainn, released
September 19, 2024. Recorded at Sonic
Studios, Dublin, June 2024. Produced by
Daniel Fox, Mastered by Jamie Hyland
Cover Image by Colm Keating, Design by
Dan MacDonald
| 52 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Macdara Yeates
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
53 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
MELBOURNE
AUSTRALIA
JENNY M
THOMAS
AND
BUSH
GOTHIC
| 54
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Dan Walsh Banjo
Photo Credit
Michelle Jarni
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
55 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
JENNY M THOMAS
BUSH GOTHIC
Melbourne Australia
Born into a family that played folk music
around campfires, Jenny graduated
from the Victorian College of The Arts/
Melbourne University in 1992 with viola
as her principal instrument. Working with the
Australian Philharmonic Orchestra until her passion
for alternative violin techniques took over, she then
studied at the Indian Academy of Music Melbourne,
Willy Clancy Summer School Ireland and private
tuition in Finland with Aarto Jarvela (Sibelius Folk
Academy Helsinki).
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and
Symphony Symphony have engaged her as a
Norwegian Hardanger/Irish fiddle soloist whilst
her exploration of Indian, Celtic & Scandinavian
violin styles gained her invitations to perform at the
Rudolstadt Tanz & Volk Festival Germany, Summer
Viva Festival Italy and Sidmouth Folk Festival UK.
With worl music ensemble AKIN she produced and
composed an albums that earned them an ARIA
award nomination. Establishing her own record
company, Fydle Records in 2003, she released solo
albums which were chosen for Melbourne Herald-
Sun’s top 10 CD picks of 2006, top five albums for
airplay on community stations by AMRAP 2007, a
Golden Fiddle Award and inclusion on ABC Classic
Drive CD 2011. When Grammy award winning
music producer and composer François Tétaz
(Gotye, Wolf Creek) wanted an improvising violinist
to play on his film score for the feature film Rogue
(2007) it was Jenny he called. She has also worked
with Lior, Tim Rogers, Bryony Marks, Andrew
Ford, Husky, Mark Seymour and many more as a
composer/violinist.
AWARDS
• Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, 2021
• Best Band Australian Folk Music Awards 2022
• Golden Fiddle Award 2009
| 56
COMPOSITION CREDITS INCLUDE:
• 1996 SBS/Albert Street Productions Add Religion
and Stir documentary film score
• 1998 ABC TV The Business of Making Saints
documentary film score
• 2005 ABC TV/Albert Street Productions
Hazaribag documentary film score
• 2009 Australian War Memorial film commission
No Dramas film score
• 2018 Ami Williamson album The Quilt, string
quartet composition
• 2020 Sydney Festival Rapture (Paul Capsis & Iota),
string quartet composition
• 2022 Melbourne Symphony Chamber copresentation:
A suite of 5 new song arrangements
performed at Deakin Edge, Melbourne.
• 2022 New work composition for the Musica Viva
• 2021 Future Makers, Partridge String Quartet
presented at the Melbourne Recital Centre
• 2022 ABC TV/Reckless Eye Productions Close To
The Bone documentary film score.
Jenny’s theatre career began in 1998 as a composer/
musician with Circus Oz and has included the
Melbourne Workers Theatre and the Womens
Circus. In 2019/20 she toured Melbourne Festival,
Sydney Festival and Perth Festival in the cast of
Anthem.
Establishing the music ensemble Bush Gothic in
2009, she challenged the traditional Australian
folk canon by using folk songs as her source
material, then re-arranging these old ballads to
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Jenny M Thomas
reflect Australia’s shifting cultural identity. A postmodern
bush band, Bush Gothic have performed at
Rajasthan International Folk Festival, MonaFoma,
Taurunga Arts Festival (NZ) Festival No. 6 (Wales)
and Shambala Festival (UK). The addition of string
quartet arrangements for Bush Gothic’s Victorian
Heartbreak project took the repertoire into the fine
music realm with performances at the Port Fairy
Fine Music Festival, Melbourne Recital Centre and
Ukaria Cultural Centre.
AWARDS INCLUDE:
SBS Radio, BBC World on 3, Regional BBC Radio
and community stations across Australia, USA & the
UK.
‘Jenny M Thomas’ music really gets under
the listeners skin. And frankly imagining
life without her music and it’s suprises is too
bleak to think about. Jenny M. Thomas is
that transformative an artist. She is earth
and ether. Big words but true’. - fRoots UK
• fRoots UK Best of 2012 worldwide
• BBC Music Magazine’s Best World Music Albums
of 2016
• fRoots Album of the Year 2016 - Runner Up
• Adelaide Fringe Best Music Award 2018/2019
• Australian Folk Music Awards, Best Band Finalist
2021
Invited to represent Australia at the 2020 Welsh
National Eisteddfod online, Jenny coordinated a
team of ten artists across two hemispheres and
four homes who collaboratively composed and
recorded new arrangements of old Welsh songs and
made accompanying film clips. As the Eisteddfod
prohibited the English language Jenny began to learn
her ancestral tongue of Welsh. Now a Welsh speaker,
in 2022 the Welsh National Eisteddfod presented
Jenny performing live with Bush Gothic and Welsh
artist Angharad Jenkins, forming part of Bush
Gothic’s fourth international tour.
Jenny has been invited to write for The Irish Times,
Yr Enfys (Wales International Magazine) and her
creative output during Melbourne’s 2019 lockdown
was analysed in a feature article in The Sydney
Morning Herald and The Age. Rhythms Magazine,
BBC Music Magazine, The Guardian, Roots World,
fRoots and Songlines have also written features
on her work and along with the members of Bush
Gothic she has been interviewed and performed live
on ABC Radio National’s The Music Show, Triple
J, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio Wales, RTÉ (National
Broadcaster of Ireland) and Radio New Zealand. Her
work has also received airplay on ABC Classic FM,
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
BUSH GOTHIC
With a 5 Star review in BBC Music
Magazine and fRoots Album of the
Year Runner Up, this daring trio have
toured their modern imaginings
of traditional Australian songs across the world.
Band leader Jenny M. Thomas began her career
as a classical violist before taking up touring as a
fiddle-singer and Indian Karnatic violinist. Exposure
to Australian folk music on the festival circuit
compelled her to begin a bush band of her own, but
one that would shake up the folkocracy by focusing
on the female story and including a defiantly modern
aesthetic to these achingly old songs.
It was 2009 when fiddle-singer and composer Jenny
M. Thomas began a series of urban bush band
sessions – gigs where every week a new crop of
musicians would join her ‘bush band’ and improvise
through a playlist of traditional Australian songs.
Out of this series she picked only the bravest
musicians to form her band, named after the genre
of Victorian-era literature titled ‘Bush Gothic’. Their
first gig was a live-to-air broadcast on ABC Radio
National’s ‘The Music Show’.
The individual members of the band, Jenny M.
Thomas (fiddle-singer, piano, spoons) Chris Lewis
(drumkit) and Dan Witton (double bass), have
worked as composers, instrumental soloists and
theatre performers across the globe with companies
including Circus Oz, Sydney Symphony Orchestra,
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, The
Australian Opera, Strange Fruit, Meow Meow and
Chamber Made Opera.
57 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
The release of their debut album, Bush Gothic (2011),
saw the band perform in historic gaols, concert halls
and goldfields across Australia. With the addition of
The Lonely String Quartet, Bush Gothic presented
their Victorian Heartbreak Project at The Melbourne
Recital Centre and the repertoire was then further
developed to form their internationally critically
acclaimed album The Natural Selection Australian
Songbook (2014). This album was first conceived
when the band were artists in residence at the
historic Fryerstown School in Victoria, site of the
1853 gold rush.
In 2016 Bush Gothic made their international
debut, taking these old Australian songs back to the
motherland of the United Kingdom in celebration
of the release of their second album The Natural
Selection Australian Songbook. The album was
awarded one of the BBC Music Magazine’s Best
World Music Albums 2016 and English folk stars
‘The Unthanks’ invited Bush Gothic to return to
England to perform at Homegathering Festival in
2017 when they also added New Zealand and Ireland
to their touring schedule.
The British National Rural Touring Forum invited
the band to tour English Village Halls in 2018 which
they then followed up with a performance at the
Rajasthan International Folk Festival in India. To
celebrate the release of their third album Beyond The
Pale, Bush Gothic embarked on an Australia wide
tour including their debut at Ukaria Cultural Centre.
When unable to tour in 2020 the band embarked on
a new collaboration with Welsh fiddler & composer
Angharad Jenkins. The largest festival of competitive
music and poetry in Europe, the Welsh National
Eisteddfod had invited them to present at their
online festival but, on the day of their film shoot,
lockdown was announced for Melbourne. There
was three weeks to come up with another plan and
deliver the presentation. Jenny M. Thomas began
learning Welsh, her 16 year old son turned his clay
animation studio over to film clip production and a
team of ten artists across two hemispheres and four
homes collaboratively composed and recorded new
arrangements of old Welsh songs with accompanying
art films. The result was hailed as ‘Brilliant’ by BBC
Radio Cymru and ‘Bringing a new sound to old
Welsh ballads…something I have been desperate to
play.’ from BBC Radio 3, Music Planet.
The collaboration continues in 2022 with the release
| 58
of their debut EP I Fyw I Fôd and live performances
at the Welsh National Eisteddfod.
RECENT
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chamber
Players perform the music of Bush Gothic with guest
artist Jenny M. Thomas.
The Melbourne Recital Centre commisioned
composer Chris Pickering to choose an ensemble to
write for as part of the 2022 Local Heroes season. He
chose Bush Gothic with the Partridge String Quartet
and the world premiere of the work presented at the
MRC in June.
Bush Gothic have been interviewed and played on
major public broadcasters including BBC World
on 3, BBC Radio 2, RTE (National Broadcaster
of Ireland), Radio New Zealand and ABC Radio
National.
FESTIVAL APPEARANCES:
• MonaFoma (Aus)
• Festival No.6 (Wales)
• Shambala Festival (England)
• Off The Tracks Festival (England)
• Tauranga Arts Festival (New Zealand)
• Rajasthan International Folk Festival (India)
• National Folk Festival (Aus)
• Port Fairy Folk Festival (Aus)
• Brunswick Music Festival (Aus)
• Castlemaine State Festival (Aus)
• Adelaide Fringe Festival (Aus)
• Cygnet Folk Festival (Aus)
• National Celtic Festival Portarlington (Aus)
• Womadelaide (Aus)
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Jenny M Thomas/Bush Gothis
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
59 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
GLOUCESTER
ENGLAND
| 60
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Lola Brown
DAVID
PHILIP
IRELAND
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
61 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
SIX DECADES OF CREATIVITY
AND COUNTING
At 75 years old, David Philip Ireland is a living
embodiment of artistic passion and perseverance.
With a career spanning six decades, David’s work as
a musician, writer, poet, and visual artist has touched
countless lives and continues to evolve in ways that resonate
with both his long-time fans and new listeners alike. As he
prepares for the December release of his latest collection—
featuring new songs, a lyric book, and a CD—David reflects on
a life devoted to art, creativity, and a tireless quest for meaning
in a chaotic world.
A STORIED CAREER ON STAGE AND BEYOND
David’s musical journey began in the late 1960s, and by the
early 1970s, he was sharing stages with some of the biggest
names in rock. One of the defining moments of his early career
came when he opened for the legendary English progressive
rock band ‘Yes’ during their first European tour, performing
across the Benelux region. Shortly afterward, David joined
forces with ‘Doctor Feelgood’, a seminal British pub rock
band, on their first foray into the Netherlands. These tours
helped establish him as a notable figure in the live music scene,
renowned for his dynamic performances and unique musical
style.
In the years that followed, David continued to tour extensively,
with one of his most memorable experiences being a fourmonth
stint in Germany during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
This period was pivotal in shaping his artistic outlook, exposing
him to diverse audiences and new influences that would enrich
his songwriting for decades to come.
Beyond his time on stage, David has made significant
contributions to the arts through his work in other creative
fields. His novels ‘Slow Poison’ and ‘Bloodstones’—both
written under the pen name ‘Casimir Greenfield’—are
atmospheric crime thrillers rooted in the English countryside
around the Cotswolds, capturing the tension between
rural beauty and hidden darkness. These novels showcase
David’s ability to craft stories that are both introspective
and suspenseful, offering readers a glimpse into his intricate
understanding of human nature.
David’s two poetry collections, Splinters & Sparks and
Rattlesnake Jar, offer a more personal window into his inner
world. Spanning decades of work, these collections explore
themes of love, loss, conflict, and hope, reflecting the emotional
depth that defines much of his music. Whether he’s writing
about the enduring power of memory or the fragility of peace in
a tumultuous world, David’s poetry is a testament to his lifelong
commitment to exploring the human condition through art.
PEACE IS HARD TO FIND—A TIMELY REFLECTION ON
THE WORLD TODAY
The highlight of David’s upcoming release is the song ‘Peace Is
Hard To Find’, a poignant and introspective track that speaks
to the current state of global affairs. In a world increasingly
fraught with political unrest, environmental crises, and
social inequality, David uses his music to confront the harsh
realities we face while holding onto the hope that peace is still
achievable.
“When I wrote Peace Is Hard To Find, I
wanted to capture that feeling of searching for
something that seems so distant, yet still worth
striving for,” David says. “It’s about the struggle
we all go through—both on a personal and
collective level—to find peace within ourselves
and in the world around us.”
The song’s haunting melody and evocative lyrics reflect David’s
maturity as both a songwriter and a storyteller. His voice,
seasoned by years of experience, carries a weight of wisdom that
resonates deeply with listeners, making ‘Peace Is Hard To Find’
a powerful anthem for these troubled times. It’s the kind of song
that lingers in the mind long after the last note fades, urging us
to reflect on our own lives and the role we play in the world’s
ongoing quest for peace.
MORE THAN JUST MUSIC: A LIFE OF ART,
SUSTAINABILITY, AND COMMUNITY
While music has always been David’s primary passion, his
creative spirit extends far beyond the realm of sound. Over
the years, he has cultivated a multifaceted career that includes
visual art, theatre, and photography. This breadth of experience
is reflected in his work, which often blurs the lines between
different art forms, creating a unique fusion of expression.
One of the most significant aspects of David’s life today is his
commitment to sustainability. Alongside his wife, Sandra, he
co-founded ‘Time After Time,’ an award-winning vintage store
in Stroud, Gloucestershire. The store, which has been a fixture
in the community for 15 years, promotes responsible retail
through the sale of pre-loved and vintage items. For David,
this venture is not just a business but a way of life, rooted in his
belief that sustainability and ethical consumption are essential
in preserving the planet’s resources for future generations.
“Our entire business is built on the ethos of
sustainability—selling pieces that already exist,
without the need for manufacturing or using precious
resources,” David explains. “We believe in responsible
retail, and that ethic runs through every aspect of
my life, whether it’s the music I create or the words I
write.”
David and Sandra also host weekly music and poetry evenings,
which moved to a virtual format through Zoom in recent years,
and now back in the real world at a 1000 year old mill in the
Gloucestershire countryside. These gatherings provide a space
for artists and audiences alike to come together and share
their work, fostering a sense of community. It’s this sense of
connection and collaboration that has always been at the heart
of David’s creative practice, and it continues to drive him as he
| 62 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

David Philip Ireland
looks toward the future.
LOOKING AHEAD: WHAT’S NEXT FOR DAVID PHILIP
IRELAND?
With the release of his forthcoming CD and lyric book on the
horizon, David shows no signs of slowing down. In addition to
‘Peace Is Hard To Find’, the collection will feature several other
new tracks that explore a range of themes—from love and loss
to hope and redemption—each imbued with David’s signature
blend of introspection and emotional depth.
As he reflects on his long and varied career, David remains
grateful for the opportunity to continue creating and sharing
his work with the world. “I’ve been fortunate to spend my life
doing what I love,” he says. “And as long as there’s something to
say, I’ll keep writing, performing, and creating.”
For those who wish to explore David’s extensive back catalogue
or stay updated on his latest projects, you can visit his official
page at linktr.ee/davidirelandmusic.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: A LIFE OF PURPOSE AND
CREATIVITY
At 75, David Philip Ireland is living proof that creativity knows
no age limit. Whether he’s penning a new song, crafting a
poem, or promoting sustainability through his vintage store,
his passion for making a positive impact on the world remains
undiminished. As he prepares for his upcoming release this
December, one thing is clear: David’s work will continue to
inspire, provoke, and engage audiences for years to come.
In a world where peace may indeed be hard to find, David
Philip Ireland’s voice remains a vital reminder that the search is
always worth the effort.
SFMM - David Philip
Ireland is a very skilled
and experienced artist,
I’ve know him for several
years through MFWPR,
and am always impressed
at his songwriting and
performance skills. If he’s
ever playing at a venue
near you then I urge you
to go and see him. You
will not be disappointed.
Jane Shields
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
63 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
HARTLEPOOL
ENGLAND
CHARLOTTE
GRAYSON
| 64 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Gaelforce
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
65 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
INTRODUCING
CHARLOTTE GRAYSON
Charlotte Grayson is a Singer Songwriter
from Hartlepool, on the North East coast
of England. She started gigging at 14,
initially performing on the local open mic
circuit, with her mother as chaperone so she was
allowed into the Pubs to play. Armed with just her
trusty Ukulele and a handful of disparate covers,
from Britney to System of a Down. She quickly
gathered a reputation and played her first official
gig at 16 for PinDrop Events (a renowned acoustic
Promoter from the area).
That same year she completed (which was, at the
time) a half finished Melanie Martinez song called
‘Where Do Babies Come From’. It was her first
tentative step into songwriting and was captured on
video during the recording session with a couple
of static cameras. The video of this session has over
500K views on YouTube and continues to steadily
grow. This was also the beginning of Shy Bairn
Records.
Charlotte shared a few songs with ‘Edwin’ (who was
living in London at the time) and he immediately
booked a studio to get the tracks recorded. He
booked White Wolf Studio’s in Durham for a few
days and they set about getting the ideas down to
see what they had. They pulled in a few favours for
the sessions, which included backing vocals from
‘The Woven Projects’ Brian Batey, and Slide guitar
from Charlotte’s Father, John. The result was a set of
gorgeously LoFi Americana Ballads which just had
to be released. Edwin promptly set up Shy Bairn
Records in 2018 and released the tracks as 2 digital
singles (‘Maybe’ & ‘Something To Miss’). First single
‘Maybe’ was awarded ‘BBC Intro Track of the Week’
and she performed her first BBC Introducing Session
that same year.
In March 2019 Charlotte (aged 18) decamped into
the studio with her newly recruited band (made up
of members of The Warrens and Label boss Edwin
on Bass) to record her first album. They recorded
14 tracks in an intensive 5 day session. Again she
pulled in friends and family to add their talents.
Her Grandfather ‘Kenny Layton’ played Harmonica
on a few tracks and local vocal group ‘The Jades’
added backing vocals. This was also the start of
her relationship with Producer Mark Aubrey, who
Mixed and Post Produced the album.
The album ‘Grow’ is a fine collection of songs that
| 66 66 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Charlotte Grayson
takes in several influences while staying true to
Charlotte’s core sound. From country ballads (Old
Flame, Grow Old, Goodbye), Indie Jangle Pop (Tip
Toe, All You Had To Do), 50’s Rock’n’Roll ballads
(Love You Anymore), Indie Rock (Sorry) and a nod
towards Motown (People). All of which showcase
Charlotte’s melodic pop sensibilities and smart,
storytelling lyrical style.
The album delivered 4 singles (2 of which received
‘BBC Intro Track of the Week awards) and a host of
incredible reviews.
The recording of second album ‘Sugar Coat’ was
done remotely due to lockdown restrictions. With
Charlotte, Edwin and Mark sharing files back and
forth and utilising Mark’s contact book of musicians
to create the songs. Despite the obvious restrictions
recording this way, it did allow time for the songs to
develop their own sounds and feels. It also allowed
Charlotte to really lean into her influences. First
single from the album ‘Coffee’ achieved’ BBC
Introducing Track of Week’ and was playlistsed by
Amazing Radio UK and US,
She formed a band ‘The Shame Areas’ to promote
the album once the world re-opened. They played
a handful of shows including ‘This Feeling’ nights
at Stocktons Ku Bar and The Tall Ships Festival in
Hartlepool. She developed a few songs with the band
who agreed to record the songs so she could capture
the energy the tracks had live. The tracks are due for
release early January 2025.
01 GROW
02 ALL YOU HAD TO DO
03 Drunk Girls
04 GOODBYE
05 GROW OLD
06 WHAT I MEAN
07 MY SIDE OF THE STREET
08 PEOPLE
09 OLD FLAME
10 SORRY
11 FLAT
12 LOVE YOU ANYMORE
13 PARTY OF A LIFE
14 AGREE TO DISAGREE
01 COFFEE
02 MUG
03 SUGAR COAT
04 ME WITHOUT YOU
05 DON’T DATE
06 FRIENDS
07 FAR TOO SHORT
08 BEST OF YOU
SFMM - Having seen several live
performances from Charlotte, I have to say
this girl deserves to go a long way in the music
industry. Her original lyrics and vocals are
amazing. Jane Shields
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
67 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
15 - 17 NOV - Mt Roland
MUSIC Festival, TAS
Heart of Silver Album Release
Sheffield Town Hall
TICKET LINK:
https://www.mountrolandfolkfest.org/
| 68
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Bird In The Belly
WE
MAVERICKS
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
69 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
N.S.W.
AUSTRALIA
LINDSAY MARTIN
AUCKLAND
NEW ZEALAND
VICTORIA VIGENSER
| 70 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

We Mavericks
WE
MAVERICKS
We Mavericks are masters in the art
of connection; Lindsay Martin
(AU) and Victoria Vigenser (NZ)
interweave effortless strings, soulful
vocals and driving rhythms to form a singular,
intense musical voice. The duo have been called
contemp-folk, alt-country and acoustic-pop, but no
words capture their unbelievable musical kinship,
or the deeply heartfelt way they relate to their
audiences.
This troubadour duo have an inexplicable appeal
that has seen them on a steep rise to countless
festival billings throughout Australia and New
Zealand, nominated New Zealand’s “Best Folk
Artist” and “Artist of the Year” in the Australian
Folk Music Awards, plus selection as showcase
artists at Folk Alliance International. This year sees
them touring Australia, New Zealand, the United
Kingdom and much of Europe with their highly
anticipated sophomore release “Heart of Silver”.
EUROPE TOUR (Germany/Austria/Switzerland):
23rd JANUARY - 16th FEBRUARY 2025
DATES TBA
(Agent: ROLA Music. Supported by Creative
Australia)
ALBUM DISCOGRAPHY:
We’ve Been Here Before
30th October2020
We’re In Here EP 24th July 2020
The Gap 10th November 2021
Grief ’s A Gardener 20th June 2021
Heart Of Silver 1 8th October 2024
HEART OF SILVER (album): release 18th Oct 2024
Unlike the stripped-bare, skin and bone songs of
their debut “Grief ’s a Gardener”, “Heart of Silver”
offers a more complex, layered side of We Mavericks’
songcraft. The album sits somewhere between folk
and alt-country, with hints of acoustic pop and
musical theatre where the pair have leaned further
into their diverse musical influences. Each track is
an emotional rollercoaster; built on a foundation of
great lyric, with guitars, violin, mandolin, sensitive
but driving percussion and heart-wrenching string
sections. It all comes together to produce songs
that are incredibly listenable, while maintaining We
Mavericks’ trademark “folk” intensity.
“...an undoubted masterclass in music delivery
and songwriting from two classy musicians coming
together in perfect harmony.” Fatea Magazine, UK
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
71 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
NE GUITARS
MAGAZINE
www.neguitarsmagazine.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/neguitars
SUBSCRIBE
FOR FREE
HERE
| 72 70 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Name
NEW INVENT I O N S !
S P R ING-LOADED
T HUMB PICK
A STE ROI D
PICK
SLIDE
R ING
V OLUME
PEDAL
FUL L
SLIDE
UPCOMING GIG:
SATURDAY 21ST
SEPTEMBER
BEEHIVE HONITON -
20.00
S PECIAL OFFER
SimplyFolk10%Off
S IMPL Y ENT E R THE DIS C O UNT C O DE A T
b lack m o unt ainpicks.c o m
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
73 71 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
MANCHESTER
ENGLAND
LOUISE
&
CHRIS
ROGAN
| 74
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

FOS Brothers
UPCOMING GIGS 2025
April 25 to May 1
Costa Festival, Ibiza
May 14
Irvine Folk Club, Scotland
May 29 28
Clydesdale Folk Club, Scotland
June 4
Over Hulton Folk Club
June 20
Woodmand Folk Club
July 5
Kimpton Folk Festival
September 2
The English Folk Music Club,
Spain
September 11
Cambridge Folk Club
October 13
Glenfarg Folk Club, Scotland
November 9
South Shields Folk Club
November 10
The Bridge Folk Club,
Newcastle
November 14
The Squire Performing Arts
Centre, Nottingham
July 6
Readifolk
July 8
St.Neots Folk Club
July 9
Redbourne Folk Club
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
75 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
LOUISE AND CHRIS ROGAN
MANCHESTER ENGLAND
Louise Rogan is currently making her mark
across the country being described as:
‘**a voice unrivalleed on the current
folk music scene.*** - John Owen,
Folk North West Magazine
Growing up in a musical household, it is no
suprise to see her performing regularly with her
Dad, Chris Rogan. The dou are enjoying much
success across the folk scene as:
**Highly respected... flawless
as performers** Tim Fox FATEA
Magazine.
**Classically trained, Louise always
found herself returning to her
musical roots in traditional folk
music and songwriting. Her voice
is at the forefront of all her musical
endeavours** Damian Liptrott At The
Barrier, **Louise is blessed with a
voice of beauty and power**
Chris grew up having songs passed down
through the family and although there will
always be traditional songs he holds dear, he
has become an accomplished singer-songwriter
in his own right releasing solo albums over
the years such as ‘Fateful Belle’ and ‘Where
Fantasy Flies’.
In 2023 Louise and Chris released their
debut album as a duo, ‘Things That Matter’ to
official acclaim. The album is a reflection of
their signature performances of original and
traditional songs.
| 76
Bob Leslie of FATEA Magazine
pronounced **One of the best
releases in the traditional genre I
have heard.***
Recent highlights for Louise and Chris have
included being winners of ‘The Audience’ at
‘The Great British Folk Festival’, being invited to
step in at the eleventh hour for an unavailable
Cara Dillon and demonstrating their pedigree
on the main stage of the UK West Coast
Folk Festival, and Louise joining McGoldrick,
McCusker and Doyle on their UK tour in Sale
and york.
Following a hugely successful 2024 UK Tour,
2025 is shaping up to be another exciting year
for Louise and Chris, with performance dates
being announced at both new and familiar
venues.
Louise is currently recording her debut solo
album of original and traditional songs being
produced by Mike McGoldrick and is looking
forwards to its release later in the year. A mix
of original and traditional songs, with a stellar
line up of musicians adding their talents to the
project. Stay tuned to see the results from an
artist already described as:
**Simply captivating - lifting
melodies, like a breath of fresh air**
from Teresa and Mark Bowden, Milk
And Honey.
SFMM - Having listened to all three albums, I
have to say I adore Chris and Louise’s vocals
and look forwards to seeing them live someday.
Their harmonies are indeed exquisite.
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Louise And Chris Rogan
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
77 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
GLASGOW
SCOTLAND
TOM
CAMPBELL
TRIO
| 78
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Sheridan Rúitín
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
79 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
TOM CAMPBELL TRIO
GLASGOW SCOTLAND
The Tom Campbell Trio is a collective of
three Scottish musicians with Tom on
Flute, Callum Convoy on Bodhran and
Gillie O’Flaherty on Guitar. All three are
immersed in the Glasgow traditional music scene.
The trio’s sound comes from a blend of tastes, ideas
and experiences formed from Scottish and Irish musical
traditions. A lot of the band’s music is original,
although inspired by trad. However, contemporary
ideas are also included in the new compositions and
arrangements.
THE INDIVIDUALS:
Tom Campbell - Flute, Whistles
Tom Campbell was raised immersed in music and
creativity. He moved to the Isle of Lismore at the age
of seven, where he later spent some years competing
in the Oban High School Pipe Band. At age fourteen,
Tom studied whistle, flute, pipes, and bodhran at
Plockton Music School before spending time on the
Isle of South Uist, completing an HNC in traditional
music. He then moved to Glasgow, where he has
been a part of the traditional music scene for several
years.
Tom Campbell Trio was formed in 2018 and was a
finalist in the BBC Folk Awards 2019 and winner of
the Battle of the Folk Bands in 2021. Tom has also
recorded on the album ‘Far Flung Corners’ by the Far
Flung Collective and for artists such as Jack Calum
Richardson, Zazim and Dan Brown, amongst others.
He is also a passionate composer and enjoys writing
original music. Artists such as Kevin Meehan, 3 on
the Bund and Tiernan Courell have recorded some of
Tom’s recent compositions. Tom is a dynamic player
and composer who strives to contribute original and
exciting works to the evergrowing repertoire of fresh
music produced by Scotland’s current artists.
| 80
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Tom Campbell Trio
Gillie O’Flaherty - Guitar
Multi-instrumentalist Gillie O’Flaherty comes from
Ullapool in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland.
His involvement in Scottish traditional music started
early with Feis Rois, with whom he works closely to
this day.
Gillie thrives on small ensemble playing. He honed
his skills at the National Centre of Excellence in
Traditional Music in Plockton, played at the Cambridge
Folk Festival with the Feis Rois Ceilidh Trail
and performed solo at the prestigious Ullapool Guitar
Festival in 2018, where he met Rodger Bucknell of
Fylde Guitars, who has supported him over the years.
Gillie has recently been performing with some of the
most sought-after names in the trad music scene,
such as Hannah Rarity and Ryan Young. Gillie is
also a founder member of the new trad ‘supergroup’
Astro bloc.
Gillie recently graduated from the Royal Conservatoire
of Scotland in Glasgow, where he studied
traditional music.
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
81 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
CALLUM CONVOY - Bodhran
Callum Convoy is a celebrated emerging
percussionist hailing from the small hamlet of
Balquhidder. Balquhidder played an important part
in forging Callum’s musical passions as he grew up
being mentored by poets, musicians, and tradition
bearers such as Margaret Bennett. A recent first-class
graduate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland,
Callum was the first student on the course to study
Bodrhan as a first instrument. Callum’s knowledge
of traditional percussion has earned him a place as
one of the most sought-after percussionists on the
Scottish music scene, both live and in the studio.
Aside from his work touring in The Canny Band
in the past year, Callum has taken part in many
projects, including playing with Project Smok,
playing as part of Young Traditional Musician of
the Year 2023 Amy Laurenson’s band, and recording
sampling work for traditional percussion musical
libraries.
Callum’s musical influences are not confined to folk.
His interest in a diverse range of music from across
the world can be heard through his use of intricate,
unusual, and highly melodic bodhran rhythms.
Convoy’s percussion helps punctuate the unique
sound that The Canny Band, alongside Sam and
Michael, has established.
More recently, Callum has expanded his live work
to include accompanying and arranging percussion
with singers. Working with The Paul McKenna Band,
and Beth Malcolm, Callum’s interest in working with
song has led to his playing in more diverse lineups.
This is something that the band are keen to develop
through further collaborations with singers on their
second album.
| 82 22 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Tom Campbell Trio
ALBUM AVAILABLE NOW
ON BANDCAMP.
FEATURING:
1. Billy Connolly’s
2. O’Donnelly’s
3. Archie Grey Campbell’s
4. Graham The Sheep
5. The Beluga Whale
6. Malkies
Available as digital album and
Compact Disc
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
83 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
LONDON
ENGLAND
| 84 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Name aaa
BOBBY
FIRE
UPCOMING GIGS
ANTIFOLK FESTIVAL 2024
AT THE WINDMILL BRIXTON,
SUNDAY 3RD OF NOVEMBER
AT 15:00
THE SHIP INN - GILLINGHAM
,WEDNESDAY 27TH OF
NOVEMBER AT 8PM
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
85 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
BOBBY FIRE
London England
From London England, Bobby Fire is a folk
singer and songwriter, taking inspiration
from his time spent loitering planet Earth,
Bobby has carved out his own style of raw
and honest folk music through storytelling and song.
Blending Apocalyptic Folk and Americana with the
mood and angst of 90’s alternative,Bobby perfectly
exemplifies the intensity and rawness of one man, a
guitar and his voice.
Jangly chord progressions, paired with playful and
often pained prose, Bobby Fire’s sound closely
resembles and atmospheric feel, of sorrowful
heartbreak Folk.
When asked about musical influences Bobby feels
there are far too many to list, as he takes influence
and inspiration from not only musicians, but from
many elements of life and experiences, but to
mention a few artists that have impacted him , Bobby
Fire cites Roky Erickson, Edward Ka-Spel, Leonard
Cohen and Jackson C. Frank as people who have
influenced and shaped his style of guitar playing and
songwriting.
In previous years Bobby has been in a few garage
bands, mainly on rhythm guitar and vocals, playing
Punk and Psychedelic Rock, and after the last bands
journey ended in 2018, Bobby chose to go down
the solo acoustic road of folk music. Writing and
recording DIY , Lo-fi songs, producing everything
from his home studio and delving into the genres of
Apocalyptic Folk, Antifolk, and Psychedelic Folk.
He also has a side project which he keeps anonymous
and continues to release these songs into the
bottomless pit of the internet, he feels anonymity
helps fuel ones creative freedom.
Ep’s . With the album “Christine” being his debut.
Featuring Doves and the song Birds of Prey which
received air play on the Folk Club Show. The album
touches on war, lament, religion and social decline,
seemingly fitting for the modern world.
With 6 albums and 5 singles released on bandcamp,
Bobby has put together a repertoire of songs
that touch on many topics, some from personal
experience and others from how Bobby perceives life
through his own eyes.
In 2024 Bobby Fire released 2 singles, The Clown and
Matchsticks In My Eyes, both different in direction
showing his versatility in songwriting.
The Clown offering an acoustic vintage carny feel
and Matchsticks In My Eyes with an Americana edge
to it. This diversity makes Bobby Fire’s live shows
captivating and rather fun.
Using simplistic finger picking styles and chord
progressions, Bobby’s guitar playing is reminiscent of
60’s Folk Music,and as Lou Reed said,
“One chord is fine, two chords are pushing
it, three chords you are into Jazz.”
By which Reed means to keep it simple and don’t
overdo.
These words ring true to Bobby Fire’s approach to
music , recording almost all of his songs in one take,
embracing any imperfections.
Also do check out his other albums (Ivory Doll,
Hypodermic, The Last of The Love Songs)
After releasing his first DIY recorded single “Doves”
in 2019, Bobby has set out and recorded over 40
songs which he has compiled into Albums and
| 86
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Bobby Fire
MATCHSTICKS IN
MY EYES
THE
CLOWN
CHRISTINE
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
87 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
MERSEYSIDE
ENGLAND
| 88 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

aaa
KETE
BOWERS
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
89 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
KETE BOWERS
Birkenhead England
Kete Bowers is a singer songwriter from
Birkenhead, Merseyside. He has recently
released two new songs in 2023 recorded
at his small home studio “BlackWater”
and “Holy Night” he is working on songs for a new
album.
Kete Bowers new critically acclaimed album
‘Paper Ships’ was recorded in Toronto, Canada in
September 2018 at The Cowboy Junkies Studio
“The Hanger” produced by Michael Timmins and
mastered by Peter J Moore. All songs written by Kete
Bowers. “Paper Ships” released on 28/06/2019.
“Like Cohen before him, Bowers is
magnificent proof that melancholy and
torment can produce great music and
resonant lyrics, there may be ghosts behind
us but Paper Ships encourages us to take
their hands and walk with them towards
the light.” Mike Davies, folking.com
The stone-cold beauty of this collection of
songs is the combination of Bowers’ heartfelt
and often gut-wrenching song writing with
a distinctively rich voice and Timmins
trademark crisp production that forces the
listener to listen intently to every damn word
and chord progression.
https://rockingmagpie.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/
kete-bowers-paper-ships/
Current Record ‘Paper Ships’
Post-Industrial Northern Folk With a Hue of Blues.
I don’t know where to start. Kete Bowers’ back-story
I presume; as being born on the banks of the river
Mersey and leaving home when the last ‘years of
austerity’ in the North bit hard; and subsequently
marrying and divorcing color his songwriting like a
very fine black permanent marker.
Even getting this album recorded was fraught with
despair as a financial backer disappeared without
trace days before the original recordings were to
start. But being the dogged character he is, Bowers
sent out even more e-mails and a Canadian record
label picked up the challenge alongside Michael
Timmins from Cowboy Junkies who agreed to be
Producer too.
So; hopefully you’re not expecting a happy go-lucky
collection of dance tracks after that are you?
The stone-cold beauty of this collection of songs
is the combination of Bowers’ heartfelt and often
gut-wrenching songwriting with a distinctively rich
voice and Timmins trademark crisp production that
forces the listener to listen intently to every damn
word and chord progression.
Northern Town which starts the album and sets
the mono-tone was originally conceived as a
commentary about living in and eventually leaving
Birkenhead between 1976 and 81; but sadly could
have been written any time in the last 5 years as it’s
just as pertinent and observational today in 2019.
It’s no surprise at all to find each and every song is
desperately personal in tone, word and deed with
each and every one being tragically beautiful too;
with ‘A Place By The River’ and ‘Ghosts’ visiting
themes many others have attempted to capture;
but never in such an extraordinary manner as how
Bowers uses his words and Timmins his magic
touch on the emotional dashboard.
It’s a long time since I heard anyone use their voice
in this deeply sensitive way to convey their feelings
from the very pits of their soul, as Kete does on
‘A Fine Day To Leave’ and later on ‘You Stole My
| 90
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Kete Bowers
Joy,’ which uses imagery in a way I would normally
associate with film directors Ken Loach and Shane
Meadows.
As this is only Bowers second ever album, and
nine years after the first it’s unlikely you will ever
have heard of him before this review; but I will
throw a couple of names into the ring as to whom
he reminds me of; Canadian Stephen Fearing and
legendary English Folk Singer Ralph McTell; a
strange combination, I agree …… but listen and tell
me I’m wrong....
Normally I would avoid a ‘single’ as my Favorite
Track; but ‘Winner’ is such an emotional and
heartbreaking narrative; sung with raw passion how
could I select anything else?
We all know talent isn’t enough on its own to
become successful these days; but Kete Bowers just
needs a smidgen of good luck and a couple of TV
appearances to make this album into some kind of
chart hit for this exceptional singer-songwriter.
The Rocking Magpie.
https://rockingmagpie.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/
kete-bowers-paper-ships/
PAPER
SHIPS
ISOBEL
HOLY
NIGHT
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
91 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
ISLE OF LEWIS
OUTER HEBRIDES
| 92
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

The Vykyng
LINKS
The Debut album ‘Music from the soul’ is available WORLDWIDE
on all the major streaming sites including Spotify and iTunes.
Music by The Vykyng
ALBUM & ARTIST INFO
Download a high-quality version of this album from: Amazon,
Apple music, Spotify & all major streaming sites
Amazon: https://music.amazon.in/albums/B07XPF6KTZ?-
force=true
Apple music: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/1479000287
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1XRkZY7Jb65mkzBLOfr0Pn?nd=1
FOLLOW ‘THE VYKYNG’ @
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vykyngmusicuk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vykyngmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vykyngmusic
You tube: http://www.youtube.com/c/thevykyngmusic.uk
ARTIST: THE VYKYNG
ALBUM: MUSIC FROM THE SOUL (2017)
© 2017 M.ANDERSON
LABEL: VIKING PROMOTIONS UK
INDEPENDENT RECORD LABEL & FILM
PRODUCTION COMPANY
enquiries: viking_promo_music.uk@aol.com
You tube: https://www.youtube.com/@vikingpromotionsuk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VikingPromotionsUK/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vikingpromotionsuk/
WHITE WOLF RECORDING STUDIO
enquiries: john@white-wolf.studio
Website: https://www.white-wolf.studio/
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
93 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
THE VYKYNG
Outer Hebrides
From the parade grounds of the military to
the streets of Italy, through the valleys and
mountains of Europe, and to the seas and
islands of the Highlands comes The Vykyng.
Guided by the voices of ancestors and the calling of
spirits from the Standing Stones, The Vykyng has
journeyed into the hands of the Universe, living a
strenuous and eventful life. Throughout his personal
trials and tribulations, a passion for music and
history has always endured. Inspired by an eclectic
mix of music and his travels, The Vykyng has crafted
a range of cathartic songs that form an emotional
roller coaster, expressing true stories of rooted angst
while embracing various musical styles along the
way.
The 2019 debut album, Music from the Soul,
showcased a range of emotions from the
Northumbrian singer-songwriter. Upon its release,
RnR Magazine highlighted the album’s blend of:
“Americana, gritty blues, and infectious
driving rhythm.” Tracks like More Than
This Town capture his down-to-earth
and sombre songwriting, while Heavenly
Eyes delights with its lush strings and
harmonies. The album also features the
road-worn dark country-folk jangle of
Echo’s and Lost My Soul, along with the
gritty Devil Woman. In contrast, Me &
You swoons with tenderness, and Out
of the Blue ends the record on a raw,
stripped-back note.
With honesty and humility at the core of his
songwriting, The Vykyng hopes listeners will find
hope and comfort in his music.
More recently, Viking Promotions have been
working with The Vykyng on his new alternative folk
album, Dark Heart, alongsideWhite Wolf Recording
Studio, hidden away in the small Durham pit village
of Wheatley Hill. The album is set for worldwide
release in 2025 and will include songs inspired by his
experiences on the road throughout the British Isles,
Scandinavia, and Europe.
The Vykyng also features on the British independent
record label and film production company Viking
Promotions’ YouTube TV channel, The Sabbat
Series. Embracing his spiritual side, he performs
Pagan rituals in honour of ancient traditions and the
Sabbats. “The Pagan wheel of the year illustrates the
different Sabbats that are connected to the changing
of the seasons,” explains The Vykyng. “These holidays
celebrate the gifts each season brings. Modern
Pagans still use the wheel of the year to celebrate the
Sabbats, showing gratitude for all that the seasons
provide, even though we no longer rely on them for
survival.”
As 2024 comes to a close and 2025 begins, The
Vykyng’s productivity is set to continue. In addition
to relaunching his online shows, The Skald Sessions
and The Sabbat Series, he will be releasing new music
and short films, including his YouTube TV series, A
Brief History of the British Isles, where The Vykyng
explores historical sites throughout the islands.
“The Vykyng was born after a soul-searching
journey and a spiritual awakening at the Callanish
Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer
Hebrides,” says the singer-songwriter. The Vykyng’s
blend of humble, introspective songwriting and
unique content creation make him an intriguing and
captivating talent.
Subscribe to his YouTube channel, follow him on
social media, and download his music from all major
streaming platforms worldwide for announcements
and updates.
By Viking Promotions 2024
| 94
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

The Vykyng
MUSIC FROM THE SOUL ALBUM
1. Drinking With The Devil 7. Start Again
2. Me & You 8. Heavenly Eyes
3. Echos 9. Monday Morning Blues
4. More Than This Town 10. Daylight Snobbery
5. Face To Face 11. Devil Woman
6. Lost My Soul 12. Out Of The Blue
LINK TO ALBUM: https://open.spotify.com/album/17ffFe-
JlYfY6f6DvfSORTj
THE SKALD SESSIONS EP
1. The Road To Skye “Me & You”
2. Drinking With The Devil
3. Echos
4. Heavenly Eyes
5. Lost My Soul
6. Daylight Snobbery ‘Fur Coats No Knickers’
LINK TO EP: https://vykyngmusic.bandcamp.com/album/
the-skald-sessions-wolf-moon-gathering-2021-live-unplugged
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com 95 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
BIRMINGHAM
ENGLAND
Photo Credit
Alan Bowman Clarke
| 96 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

aaa
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
97 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
CHRIS CLEVERLEY
Birmingham UK
In The Shadow Of John Divine - Chris Cleverley
RELEASE DATE: FRIDAY 6TH DECEMBER 2024
LABEL:
OPIATE RECORDS (OP1005)
TRACK LISTING:
1. The Ringing of Bells (03:36)
2. For a Winter Angel (04:35)
3. Vespers (04:48)
4. Snowfall, My Evergreen (03:27)
5. Sister Winter (05:36)
Recorded & Produced by Chris Cleverley at Liminal Space Studios
Mixed & Mastered by John Patrick Elliott
“Impressive” - Telegraph “Haunting” - Sunday Times “Lovely Electro-Folk” - BBC6 Music
Dream-Folk songwriter Chris Cleverley returns as you’ve never heard him before, with a new collection of
ambient acoustic Christmas songs.
The Indie-Folk songwriting of Chris Cleverley has been likened to Lo-fi American greats Sufjan Stevens
& Elliott Smith (Scottish National Express). This December sees the release of ‘In the Shadow of John the
Divine’, a 5 track Winter E.P, named after the iconic Manhattan Cathedral; his first new music in two years.
In Cleverley’s characteristically experimental style, this vibrant new body of work promises to flip the wellexplored
seasonal genre on its head, offering a fresh, innovative departure from your standard Christmas
playlist:
“Christmas is a curious time; this odd blend of joy and wistfulness. Here we are each
December, swimming through a pool of contradictions; gratitude, regret, warmth,
loneliness, love, grief. We’re surrounded by a twinkling, celebratory charm, but it doesn’t
always reflect our mindset at the close of the year, right?”
‘In the Shadow of John the Divine’ is a treasure chest of curiosities, for those who can’t quite wrap their head
round it all this Christmas. A selection box of songs for the misfits; for those struggling to find belonging,
for those yet to stumble upon their place in this head-spinning modern world; Refreshingly tarnished and
undoubtedly human. Within this context, Cleverley confronts the disparate 21st Century male identity. As
| 98
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Chris Cleverley
worn-out tropes of masculinity continue to unravel, these songs explore a meaningful sense of self for the
kind and curious, the saturnine and shy.
With a fresh, experimental production style, this new release sees Cleverley’s vocal and instrumental
techniques reach new heights of accomplishment, with ever-more adventurous, layered guitar and choral
arrangements. His renowned fingerstyle acoustic technique collides with shimmering, atmospheric synths
& electric guitars. The result? Lush, ambient sonic worlds, borrowing as much from the Folk/Americana
Revivals as Dream-Pop, Post-Rock and Electronic music. A diverse cast of guest musicians further adds
to this symphonic mix, including appearances from songwriters Kelly Oliver & Minnie Birch. Here is a
record to defy our expectations of ‘Christmas music’! Perhaps you’re sick of switching on the radio by Mid-
December, just to hear the same songs over and over? ‘In the Shadow of John the Divine’ might just be the
antidote you’ve been after, to help you reconnect with this magical season, as we greet it in all its complex
but wondrous ambiguity.
ABOUT CHRIS:
Chris Cleverley was born under a solstice moon, in the honeysuckle mysticism of a late 80s Midsummer. As
his fledgling days unfurled, the symbolic sounds of ‘Hunky Dory’, ‘Graceland’ and ‘Ladies of The Canyon’
echoed from the woodchip walls of the South Birmingham terrace where he was raised. Here, the soul
of a young artist was shaped. Fast-forward three decades with four critically acclaimed albums under his
belt, Cleverley has cemented his reputation as a cutting-edge songwriter & fingerstyle guitar master, with
appearances at top UK events like Cambridge Folk Festival and the English Folk Expo. Twice recipient of
FATEA Magazine’s ‘Male-Artist-Of-The-Year’ Award, his elaborate guitar flows beneath visceral lyricism; a
curious tapestry weaved from the hazy psychedelia of the 60s folk revival and the soulful oblivion of the 90s
Pacific Northwest.
NOTES ON THE SONGS
1. The Ringing of Bells (feat. Kelly Oliver)
Inspired by the hermitcal, isolated festive season of 2020, this song offers a safe space to embrace the
wistfulness we often feel as Christmas comes around. It invites us to remember that nothing is permanent;
or in the ancient words of the Sufi mystics, “This too shall pass”.
2. For a Winter Angel
On the experience of supporting a loved one through a period of declining mental health, drawing strength
from the ideas of love, optimism and human connection that are so intertwined with the festive season.
It’s a tough time to be down and out when all around are celebrating, but however you need to be is alright
with us!
3. Vespers
Two ex-lovers meet on Christmas Eve at New York’s Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, to say their
goodbyes in the low, ambient candlelight, as the choir sings the hymns of the Midnight Mass. There’s
something of the spiritual enduring through the consumerist excess and 21st Century cosmic loneliness.
4. Snowfall, My Evergreen
The story of this snowman offers a bittersweet allegory for the ambiguities of love, in which we bring out
both the very best and the very worst in one another, in cycles that follow the path of the seasons.
5. Sister Winter
A rearrangement of Sufjan Stevens’ Christmas masterpiece, with a curious collision of melancholy and
whimsy, as plaintive as it is uproarious.
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
99 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
DUBLIN
IRELAND
ENDA
MCCABE
| 100
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

Enda McCabe
ENDA MCCABE
Dublin Ireland
Enda’s song “The Ballad of Con Dever” has
just been nominated for an RTE Radio
1 Folk Award in his native Ireland. This
demonstrates his resilience and persistence
through the years. He has overcome health problems,
domestic disruption and a myriad of other
issues and continues to perform his songs and stories
throughout Ireland and Britain.
A Dubliner, Enda comes from a singing household.
His aunts never failed to remind him that he would
sing “The Elizabethan Serenade” when only four
years old. It is little wonder that he ended up singing
in Folk Clubs and festivals the length and breadth of
these islands and further afield.
Enda left Ireland for England in 1974 and it was in
London and later in Kent where he started attending
and performing in folk clubs. This had a profound
affect on his musical experience. He began exploring
the songs and tunes of his homeland was heavily
influenced by the singing of Frank Hart, the wonderful
singer and song collector from Chapelizod,
on the edge of Dublin city. Starting in 1959, Frank
visited all parts, recording songs and singers, thus
preserving them for generations to come. “Deams of
Carrickfergus”, Enda’s first album, released in 1989
was heavily influenced by Frank.
At the end of 2014, Enda suffered kidney failure
and received dialysis treatment three times weekly
for seven years. This meant that he could not tour
as before. It did not stop him pleying music and in
2016 he released his third album Bin Éadair go Both
Loiscthe (Howth to Spiddal), made with the wonderful
Howth fiddler Colly Moore.
However in 2021, miracle of miracles, he received a
kidney transplant. He has his life back and is back
on the road. His show is better than ever.
Long may he continue.
For bookings workshops further information contact
Enda and his team:
Enda McCabe
Baile an tSagairt
An Spidéal
Co na Gaillimhe
H91V08P
e-mail: enda@endamccabe.com
Website: Http://www.endamccabe.com
Fón: 00353 (0) 89499 6756
Illness caused Enda to lose his job in 1989. He decided
to work full time as a musician and performing
in folk clubs and at festivals. He built up a reputation
as a fine singer/musician and spread his wings and
played further afield in France, Belgium, Norway and
Austria as well as the USA.
He returned to Ireland in 1998. He played music in
Conamara and immersed himself in his native language
and clture. His album “Ceol sa Chistin (Music
in the Kitchen)” was released in 2010. He continued
to tour England from time to time.
BALLAD OF CON DEVER
Enda McCabe
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
101 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
Malin Hill are ian indie/folk duo from
Nottingham UK.Jenny Beaumont on
vocals and violin, and Gary Barwell on
vocals and guitar. We recently recorded
our first EP which we would love you to listen to it.
It is called “Four Track Trad Folk” and features four
traditional folk songs that we have arranged.
The tracklisting is as follows:
1. The Fisher Lad Of Whitby
2. Prickle-Eye Bush
3. Salcombe Sailors’ Flaunt
4. Leave Her Johnny
The idea and ethos of the EP was to produce an
“honest” record. Only four tracks were used - two
vocals, one guitar, and one violin - and each track
used on each song was the single best complete take
with no digital editing/effects in order to represent
what Malin Hill sounds like live. The songs were
recorded at Procsound Studios and were produced by
Andy Proctor.
The EP will be available to stream and download on
Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes etc from 30th September
2024 and will also be available as a CD to order
from our website.
https://malinhillmusic.uk/
Our website has further links to social media and
music platforms
| 102
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

TangleJack Band
A Very
MerryChristmas
To Everyone
And A Wonderful
New Year
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com
101 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
| 98 janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

TangleJack Band
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com 99 |

SFM
MAGAZINE
| 98
janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com

janeshieldsmedia@gmail.com 99 |
aaa

www.neguitarsmagazine.co.uk 25
With over 60 years of music industry experience, and a passion to use that to provide
a platform for talent to bring their music to the world, Conquest Music was born.
Not restricted by specific genre, our releases range from Classical to Blues, Folk to
Psychedelic, Jazz to Hard Rock, and anything else that tickles our fancy.
Conquest Music has partnered with Sony/ATV and Albam Songs to provide a song
publishing vehicle with the power of a major and the personal touch of an indie.
Conquest Music are also partnered with Absolute Label Services and Proper Distribution.
Bernie Marsden Luke Morley Hillbilly Vegas Mickey Jupp
Paul Di’Anno Willie Dowling Book of Revalations The Ugly Guys
www.conquestmusic.co.uk