Just a bit of fun!
This is Clifton Hicks two finger arrangment of “Old Blue” played on my circa 1890 flush fret minstrel banjo.
I didn’t really video it with a view to making it public so the quality isn’t that great, but it’s a fun tune and I added a verse of my own to bring it up to date.
Clifton is a wonderful banjo player and historian and you can see his stuff here – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0fRKB_T-2yrNajqoz9VWAg
I like to introduce this song by saying I find most of my tunes on old records but in this case rather than a crumbly old 78 the old record in this case the old record was called “Revolver”..!
It’s a really simple arrangement of an under-regarded classic.
Written in the Vilna ghetto by Hirsh Glick it was the experience of hearing this song sung by a group of Jewish socialists led by David Rosenberg over one of the ruined Crematoria at Auschwitz which inspired me to try putting it on banjo. David and I changed the …
One of the pleasures of the folk music scene is the occasional unsolicited packet landing on ones doorstep from the legendary John Foreman. John is known as one of the great champions of the Music Hall tradition, and the Broadsheet King. He’s also a tireless archivist and letter writer. It …
The Traditions Festival was a special event of workshops, dance, music and talks based on cultural ritual and its effects on our sense of self. I gave a presentation called The Banjo’s tracing the history of the banjo from it’s roots in Africa up to how I am using it …
Wednesday October 22nd 2014 ~ Cecil Sharp House, London The evening of October 22nd 2014 saw a really extraordinary concert of music at Cecil Sharp House in Camden, London. “Classic” Fingerstyle banjo was the sound of the Edwardian Britain. Played with an intricate and demanding technique similar to that …
Taken from a Topic 78 (No. TRC28 – Topic was at that point part of the Workers Music Association) featuring Paul Robeson, Howard Fast Pete Seeger and the Weavers these two sides document the Peekskill riots.
I’ve recently come across the Howard Fast book that’s shown in my little photo montage and it’s really quite remarkable so I may well return to this topic soon.
Cosmotheka predates my time on the folk scene, although I have seen Dave Sealey on lots of occasions, and we ran the rebooted version of the band featuring Dave and his son at Walthamstow Folk Club a couple of years back.
They inspire real love from the people who remember them. They have a website at http://www.cosmotheka.co.uk
This is an episode of the BBC radio show “Double Tops” recorded off-air in 1988 by my friend Jamie Rowan who sent it to me and which I digitised.
The Two Leslies were a popular British double act of the 1930’s and 1940’s featuring Leslie Sarony and Leslie Holmes. The first part of the opening track is missing.
I was delighted when I came across this gem.
In Leslie Sarony and Gus Elen we have two of my favourite music hall artists on one disc.
It was recorded on 16th October 1931.
I came across the title of this song in Michael Kilgarriff’s book “Sing us some of the old songs, A guide to popular song 1860 – 1920” and had to dig it out at the British Library. Disappointingly, but not really surprisingly it turned out to be very anti Bolshevik, …
