Martin Last November the Irish World Academy invited Steve Roud, Grace Toland and me to take part in a seminar about the use of archives in traditional song research. The video of that seminar has now been added to the TSF YouTube Channel and you can watch it HERE.
News from Julia Lane of a book that has just been published, “Bygone Ballads from Maine Vol.1-Songs of Ships & Sailors”, compiled by her and Fred Gosbee. It is over 300 pages and contains 163 songs with both lyrics and tunes plus relevant historic information and lore. Both soft and hardcover editions are available from … Read more
George Frampton has published a new book, Throw Out the Lifeline, which details the 80-year history of the Cullercoats Fisher choir from 1886, complete with photos and examples of their songs, hymns and carols. The book costs £18 plus £2,50 p&p from George at 42 Gerrard Road, Whitley Bay, NE26 4NL. Cheques should be made payable … Read more
I have received a message from Peter Mitton about a new project that he thought TSF members would be interested in: Some of your members may be interested in the outcome of some work I’ve been doing to re-typeset William Chappell’s Popular Music of Olden Times. I’ve got Volume 1 to a state where it … Read more
A new book, The Secret Stream, has just been published by Francis Boutle. It is the first of two volumes dedicated to songs collected from English Gypsies. It brings together over a hundred mostly unpublished folksongs, tunes, and carols, as well as songs in the Anglo-Romany tongue, collected from English Gypsies by Victorian and Edwardian collectors … Read more
The publication of The Forgotten Songs of the Upper Thames, Songs from the Alfred Williams Collection, was announced last month (see below). It is not possible to have a conventional ‘wine and sign’ launch party, so The Ballad Partners are putting on an online event hosted by Steve Roud. Martin Graebe will be on hand to talk … Read more
The Ballad Partners are pleased to announce the publication of a new book, The Forgotten Songs of the Upper Thames, Folk Songs from the Alfred Williams Collection edited by Martin Graebe. Between 1914 and 1916 the writer and poet, Alfred Williams, cycled 13,000 miles around the Upper Thames Valley to collect the words of nearly 800 songs from … Read more
The 2021 Roy Palmer Lecture will be given by Jeremy Harte on 2 November as a live event at the Conway Hall in London, organised in association with the Folklore Society. The title of Jeremy’s talk, which was originally scheduled to be delivered in 2020, is ‘Brother Workmen: Solidarity in Trade Folklore’. Jeremy’s description of … Read more
The Folk Song Subject Index on the VWML website has just announced that the team on indexers have now added 1000 titles to the database – an important milestone. You can read a little piece in celebration HERE. But, if you haven’t tried using the index yet, do have a go with the whole thing HERE where all … Read more
Julia Bishop has written to share information about a project that she is involved in – ‘A National Observatory of Children’s Play Experiences During COVID-19’, about materials available online and opportunities for participation. Dear Colleagues and Friends,We are excited to announce the availability of our resource packs for the Play Observatory. As you may recall from … Read more