The latest volume from TSF’s companion organisation, The Ballad Partners, is a collection of 12 chapters, based on presentations given at Traditional Song Forum Zoom meetings over the past couple of years, and is a particularly strong set of papers, including topics from England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the USA. It is called Thirsty Work and … Read more
The full title of Caroline Davison’s new book is The Captain’s Apprentice, Ralph Vaughan Williams and the Story of a Folk Song and is a detailed account of the song. There is a lot of new information about Vaughan Williams’ visit to King’s Lynn, where he met the singer, Duggie Carter as well as ….. well, lots … Read more
Our conference at Limerick University, As I Roved Out, was a great occasion and some excellent papers were presented. It was wonderful to be out with colleagues and able to talk and sing together. The recordings of the papers from the conference will be sent out to conference delegates shortly and will be made available … Read more
The Ballad Partners have issued the third volume in their series on Cheap Print and Street Literature, based on papers presented at the annual BROADSIDE DAY conferences. The new title is A Notorious Chaunter in B Flat and Other Characters in Street Literature, edited by David Atkinson & Steve Roud (Pbk. 193pp., ISBN 978-1-9161424-4-2) £13 (plus … Read more
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 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