Bradford Women Singers, New CD, HIGH HOPES

Our friends and neighbours, the Bradford Women Singers,

http://bradfordwomensingers.org.uk/

have issued a new CD, High Hopes.  You can listen to some track samples on their web site, and you can download the song lyrics as a pdf file.

There are tracks from an earlier CD on My Space

http://www.myspace.com/bradfordwomensingers

Below, the invitation to the launch of the new CD.

Bradford Women Singers

warmly invite you to join us for the launch of our new CD ‘High Hopes’

High Hopes, High Tea

Saturday 21st July, 2012

2 to 4 pm

in the garden

Park Cottage, Randall Place, Bradford, BD9 4AE

hear the songs, live! buy

the CD enjoy

tea and cakes

with guest performers

Bradford Women Singers

www.bradfrordwomensingers.org.uk

singers@bradfordwomensingers.org.uk

07951776278

Autoharp Day at The American Museum, Bath, 7 July

To Bath, this coming weekend, for the UK Autoharp Association day at the American Museum...
http://www.americanmuseum.org/

The autoharpers are to be part of the Americana Festival
http://www.americanmuseum.org/default.cfm/loadindex.295

July 7
'Courses & Workshops: Autoharp Workshops with Mike Fenton

12noon-5pm Drop-in workshops and performances will be offered throughout the afternoon on this uniquely American instrument. If you've ever wanted to play an autoharp - or even just wondered what one is - then come along and give it a try. No registration required.'

Of course the autoharp is not an 'uniquely American' instrument.  But it has become a sort of folk instrument in the USA, partly because of its association with the Carter family.


Our slow jam organiser Bob Ebdon has created a Carter family songbook for the occasion.

For more on Bob Ebdon see
www.bobebdon.co.uk

For more on Mike Fenton see
http://www.harperscraft.com/

For more on the UK Autoharp Association see
http://www.ukautoharps.org.uk/

I seem to have signed myself up for a little display.  I am a bit worried.  I am not a natural soloist.  This damnable shyness of mine...

Might try to do some Woody Guthrie - Americana, surely?
http://www.woodyguthrie.org/

It's the 100th anniversary of his birth - 1912-2012
http://www.woody100.com/

Here is Wilco's version of The Jolly Banker
http://wilcoworld.net/#!/roadcase/the-jolly-banker/

Sarah Makem: The Heart is True

Listening to a new CD, Sarah Makem:  The Heart is True.

'The first complete CD devoted to the influential Northern Irish Traditional singer Sarah Makem.

 The Heart Is True is selected and presented by Rod Stradling from classic recordings made in the 1950s and 1960s...'

http://www.topicrecords.co.uk/?p=2716

It is part of Topic Records The Voice of the People series, choreographed by Reg Hall.

The CD comes with a little booklet, which includes Rod Stradling's notes, and A General Introduction to the Series by Reg Hall.  I'll see if I can find this General Introduction somewhere on the web - it makes good points about the changing shapes of our traditions.  (So many of Reg Hall's comments on music can be found only in sleeve notes - I sometimes think we need a little book, The Collected Sleeve Notes of Reg Hall.)

Remember to have a look at Rod Stradling's Musical Traditions Internet Magazine.
http://www.mustrad.org.uk/

Sarah Makem, austere, accurate, emotional, controlled.  Rod Stradling quotes A L Lloyd on Sarah Makem's repertoire, which included Irish, English and Scots songs - but he adds that she also had a number of American songs.  The first track I listened to was, of course, It Was in the Month of January - Rod Stradling calls it her finest song.

Discussion of the song and Sarah Makem's influence can be found on Reinhard Zierke's English Folk Music web site:
http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/folk/

http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/frankie.armstrong/songs/itwasinthemonthofjanuary.html

And after listening to Sarah Makem I immediately put that original alongside Bradford's own Stephanie Hladowski, singing that song.

Stephanie Hladowski - It was in the month of January

You can hear the tradition.

Patrick O'Sullivan

Fiddler's Dog