The Bothy Band – The Kesh Jig

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6YJAFbJPrA]

Dan Walsh – Every Day Is A Better Day

A few weeks ago Dan Walsh played at the Hare and Hounds on one of @moseleyfolk‘s Lunar Society events.  I heard he was great but I missed it as I was at Symphony Hall for the excellent Transatlantic Sessions.

Last night though I caught some of his fine banjo playing, accompanied by Will Pound on harmonica on Moseley’s own, Janice Long’s, Radio 2 show.  It’s available on iPlayer for a week the next week.
During the show they let slip that they will be playing at the Moseley Folk Festival in September.  Hardly surprising, but good news.   First sneak peak at any of the line-up I’ve been able to glean.

This is my favourite track from his quite excellent album, Tomorrow’s Still To Come.

Julie Fowlis with Jenna Reid & Donal Lunny – Biodh An Deoch Seo ‘N Làimh Mo Rùin

I’m a big fan of BBC’s the Transatlantic Sessions.  This one features Julie Fowlis singing in Gaelic and also Donal Lunny (of Planxty and the Bothy Band) on bouzouki.  I attended the BMG (Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar) Rally today and in one of the workshops had a go on a bouzouki.  Good fun.

5 Years Time – Noah and The Whale

Listening to last night’s Radcliffe and Maconie Radio 2 show I heard this for the first time.  It’s a pleasant uke based tune.

Embedding’s disabled so you’ll have to go off to YouTube for a listen.  Hurry on back after and have a look around.

The eagled eyed may notice a huge gap between this post and the previous one.  I can’t guarantee that I’ll post something every day but I’ll try to be more frequent.

Down on Penny’s Farm – The Bently Boys

Been a day for American Folk.  Was listening to Anthology of American Folk Music again today.  It’s a great box set.  Each time I listen to it I get more and more from it.  This song was later “adapted” by Dylan as Maggie’s Farm.

Then, this evening BBC4 have been having an American Folk night.  Episode 1: Birth of a Nation from the Folk America documentary featured a lot of tracks that I know from various sources, although a lot do come from Anthology of American Folk Music.  Penny’s Farm was one of those songs.  I don’t think it is the best song on either the album or the show but it is one I recognised.

This Land is Your Land – Woody Guthrie

Obvious choice for the Inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States really.  I’ve seen the pictures of Bruce Springsteen performing this with Pete Seeger on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, although the video clips have been pulled from YouTube for copyright reasons.

So here’s Woody Guthrie’s original version.

After 8 years of the last bloke it’s got to better hasn’t it?

Matty Groves – Fairport Convention

A few days back I mentioned this track when I posted about Shady Grove by Jerry Garcia and David Grisman.  Today I’m posting the English version, Matty Groves, which featured on Fairport Conventions 1969 album, Liege and Lief.  I didn’t go to Cropredy Festival in 2007 but a mate of mine did.  As well as the usual extensive Fairport set they also reformed the 1969 line up, apart from the late Sandy Denny, to perform the album in it’s entitity.

I came across the FM audio of the Cropredy 2007 performance on Friday evening which is available (at the time of writing anyway) and well worth a download at Big O.  The quality is much better than the video clip below

Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues – Bob Dylan

A talkin blues from Bob here.  You’ll have to go over to his site to hear it providing you can get the player or real audio to work over there.  Hit play top left.  You’ll find the words there too.  As this is a talking blues, it’s very much about the words with Dylan being in a dark and witty mood on this tale of a picnic gone wrong with lives lost on a sinking boat.  Be warned though if you’re expecting bears you will be disappointed.

Heartbeats – José González

Now this really surprised me today.   José González was one of the headline acts at Moseley Folk Festival in 2008 and to be honest I thought he was shit.  He just sat there hunched over his guitar meandering away at his tunes.  Between songs he took ages to tune his guitar and did not engage with the audience at all at any point during the so-called performance.  I will admit that I had had a couple of tankards of ale, but felt justified in heckling “Buy a guitar tuner”.  We gave him about five songs before all agreeing that he was over-rated and went for a curry instead.

This evening, I was doing that internet thing of distractly following links more and more tangential from the original thing I’d been looking for, when I came across an interesting video on the Graffiti Research Labs site.  The track on it was lovely and fitted the video perfectly.  There was no credit but on firing up the rather clever Midomi on my iPhone(an app that identifies music by hearing it)  imagine my surprise to find it was by the previously dismissed José González.  Think I might need to go back and have another listen.

So go check out the video I was talking about.  It is quite nice.

The photo is one of mine.  Reminds me I need to get the rest of the photos from Moseley Folk Festival processed and uploaded.

I’d Rather Be The Devil – John Martyn

Earlier today I read a rumour about New Year Honours suggesting a surprising award for a folkie.
Just been checking my Twitter stream before sleep to see Tom Watson, MP for West Brom, posting that it’s John Martyn, MBE.

As promised in my quick post last night here’s a cracking performance of I’d Rather BeThe Devil from the Old Grey Whistle Test back in 1973.  Do you reckon The Edge nicked his trademark sound from here?