Something of a departure for my column this time, and I can think of no other issue more appropriate than the 21st anniversary edition of “Folk on Tap” to celebrate the work of someone who has long been - and will clearly continue to be - an inspiration to me, along with I am sure many readers of this magazine. I am not moving too far off-topic though, because the labour of love I am focusing on, the CD-Rom part of Free Reed’s new triple-CD boxed set devoted to Peter Bellamy, is in fact a “mirror” of a Web site devoted to Peter which is already substantial but which is intended to grow as more information, recordings or tributes become available.
So what happens when you slip the CD out of your CD player and into the CD-Rom drive of your PC? In big red letters on the “home page” of “Wake the Vaulted Echoes” are the words “a celebration” - but they are barely needed, as the feeling of celebration leaps out from every page, every .gif picture, every RealAudio sound bite. “Wake The Vaulted Echoes” is the latest in a long line of projects of passion by Neil Wayne, who was responsible for the original recording of Peter’s “The Transports”, as well recent retrospectives of the Dransfields and The Old Swan Band. I believe the three-CD set is reviewed elsewhere in this issue, so I will not dwell on how indispensable the collection is to any self-respecting folk music enthusiast - instead, understandably, I will focus my attention on the third CD in the set, known as an enhanced CD or a CD extra.
Because the CD-Rom part of the disc is written in hypertext mark-up language, or html, the language used on the World Wide Web, you don’t need a particularly high-spec system to run it, in fact all you need is a Mac or a PC running Windows, with a Web browser. And even if you don’t have RealAudio, to listen the sound files, it’s there on the CD for you to install. The set concentrates on Peter’s post-YT years, so Kipling is a feature here, and anyone who wants to take issue with that has the opportunity to hear Peter’s views on the subject, for as well as songs, there are also speeches and interviews. If you have access to the Internet, you can even click your way to the Kipling Society’s Web site.
A curious effect of the programming of the CD-Rom is that quite often, if you click on a page, a song or a speech will begin which you have no way of stopping. Click on one of the audio files at this point and you will hear both playing at the same time, which can be a little confusing. I have overcome this shortcoming by turning it into a virtue, and instead of clicking all over the place, tempted by the opportunity to surf willy-nilly, I stop and listen to the discussion, savour the song, read the text and look at the pictures, and only when I have finished, move on to something else. All highly civilised and, until we in the UK enjoy free local calls, a good reason to enjoy this wealth of material on CD rather than over the Internet.
The songs on the CD-Rom are not always the same as those on the CD - some are even extras - so the project scores well on my value-for-money-ometer. A prime example is found in the section on “The Transports”, which includes a bonus track of Peter’s reworking, in darker vein, of ‘The Robber’s Song’. Or go to the sources section. Click on Sam Larner and you can hear Larner singing ‘Butter’n’cheese’n’all’. But you can also click on to a file where you hear Larner’s version mixed with two versions by Peter, recorded four years apart. The sources section also has information, pictures and sounds from Ewan MacColl, A L Lloyd, Harry Cox, Walter Pardon, Paddy Tunney and the Coppers. Some pages have extra songs by these singers, and some have recordings of Peter talking about their importance.
And if you ever fall into the trap of thinking Peter took himself or his music too seriously, listen to him talking about collecting folk song in Norfolk, where he gives my good friend and fellow FoT contributor Sid Kipper a run for his money. I will not spoil it for you by telling you how.
As well as being able to read several newspaper obituaries, you can listen to excerpts from Martin Carthy’s tribute which he recorded for “Folk on Two” shortly after Peter’s death. It is punctuated by Peter singing - with the indisputable passion of which Martin speaks - ‘The Santa Fe Trail’. Other tributes include Steve Ashley’s ‘Over There in Paradise’ and Grace Notes’ ‘Down Falls The Day’. But perhaps the most telling is Peter’s own.
“My soul will take part in that jubilation,
When I die, I’ll live again.”
He certainly does. If you don’t believe me, try the CD or visit the Web site.