One of those quirky little experiences that made me what I am - a quivering wreck on the touchline of life, always swimming against the tide and spending far too much time glued to some type of screen or another, though those weren’t the deputy headmaster’s exact words - happened on a trip to the Morden Co-op in my early teens. Giddy with excitement, I stood in the listening booth (remember them?) and revelled in the wonders of the Young Tradition’s latest LP “Galleries”. Imagine my dismay when only a few tracks into the album the assistant apparently put what sounded like a scratchy old blues record on instead. I had nothing against the blues, of course, but I was in English Traditional mode at the time, not to mention lacking in self-confidence to such an extent that this simple act of discourtesy caused deep-rooted anxiety from which I have never fully recovered. All this despite the fact that I soon discovered that the blues track was actually one of Peter Bellamy’s little jokes. A beautifully-reconstructed slice of Robert Johnson’s ‘Stones In My Passway’ nestled in among the trad. arr. songs, Sacred Harp hymns and medieval music which would have been way ahead of its time if only “Sergeant Pepper” hadn’t been released the year before.
I went on to buy the album soon after this traumatic experience and was of course delighted when it became available last year on CD, along with the rest of the Young Tradition back catalogue. Even more delightful was the release on CD of albums by the Watersons that until then I was convinced were myth rather than reality. Which brings me to my point. Within the past five years the amount of traditional material available on CD has surpassed the wildest dreams of any fledgling singer or musician wishing to build up a decent repertoire. At one end of the clapometer the release of works such as Harry Smith’s “Anthology of American Folk Music” and the “Alan Lomax Collection” is about as important as it gets, while on a smaller scale the work John Howson does on his Veteran label provides a fine complement to the Topic and Transatlantic back catalogues.
These ramblings were sparked off by a visit to a Web site devoted to the Watersons, run by an Australian, Garry Gillard, which beautifully illustrates what can be done with the fanzine style of site. Discographies of the group, individual members and offshoots, track-listings and biographies add up to a lot more information than you could ever have gleaned 10 years ago even with a trip to Cecil Sharp House. The site is well worth a look. You will also find there a link to the official Waterson:Carthy Web site. As you would hope, this is quite a bit more than a “buy our records” site, being an extension of the family’s newsletter, so it gives information about what the individual members have been up to as well as tour dates and mail order info.
Chris Sherburn and Denny Bartley have a similar site, which includes reviews of their recordings and gigs and would be useful to visit if you were wondering whether to book them or go along and see them. Mike Silver’s "Heartland" site, dedicated to his latest album, is a little too commercially orientated for my liking, but does have quite a bit of information about Mike and his collaborators. A bit of constructive criticism though. The picture takes too long to download and it would serve Mike’s record company right if no one could be bothered to wait for it to finish before clicking off to another site. Which isn’t a good way of selling records.
On the newsgroup front, David Harley, who asked in one of his recent posts the immortal question: “I suppose it's an indication of how little contact I have with the scene outside this group, but what and where is Folk on Tap?” has masterminded a very useful guide to floorsinging for beginners. Among the contributors are Jacey Bedford of Artisan, Neil Corbett of Bracknell Folk Club and Pete Coe. Ian Anderson has asked permission to rework this into a feature for the July issue of “Folk Roots”, so apart from directing you towards David’s site, where the tiplist is available to download for free, I will just give you a flavour of the sensible advice on offer: “When you choose a chorus song, make sure your version is the one the club usually sings, it's very unnerving to have the audience bugger off into their own version if you're a novice and if you are you won't get them back.” I can vouch for this one, having had the unfortunate experience, while singing ‘The Lowlands of Holland’ to the assembled throng at a Four Fools folk festival, of the throng singing both a different tune and words to my carefully-learned-from-Anne Briggs version.
As Neil Corbett posed the original question that gave rise to the tiplist, I should perhaps mention his site for Bracknell Folk Club. Basically an unassuming and informal site for an unassuming and informal club, it does however have a quiz which includes questions such as how many strings on a 5-string banjo? Enough said. It skips the definition of perfect pitch. Throwing the banjo into the toilet without touching the sides. The important thing is the site serves its purpose: wherever you are in the country, or the world, you can find out where the club is, when it meets and who is on the bill.
Ian Austen is making a similarly good job of Westhoughton's club Web site. I know because when he saw we had the Albion Band on at the Ram he emailed me to tell me about his Albion Band page. They don’t have a site, but he has written a page of up-to-date information on this band of many colours, along with many other folk circuit favourites, which would obviously be of help to the Press if it was previewing a gig, or potential punters who prefer the Web to the local paper.
Another excellent and apparently all-done-for-love site is "The Blues Highway", a tribute to “20 great bluesmakers”. Cleverly illustrated with small pictures so they don’t take a long time to download, the site contains biographies of a score of fine musicians, including W C Handy, Willie Dixon and Robert Johnson. Which is where I came in. Sort of.