Tinful of Niagara

Attila The Stockbroker - My poetic Licence

2007-09-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

"The oral tradition of sedition." I'll sign up for some of that.

Attila the Stockbroker - Age of the Spirit

2007-09-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

The mighty Attila spits it out

Alistair Hulett and Jimmy Gregory - The Internationale

2007-09-16T21:53:00.000-07:00

Not heard this one for a while...

Roaring Jack (including Alistair Hulett) - The Old Divide and Rule

2007-09-16T21:40:00.000-07:00

Punk-folk, Scottish and political. What more do you want?

Alistair Hulett and Jimmy Gregory - Buy Us a Drink

2007-09-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

New political songwriting from Scotland.

Alistair Hulett and Jimmy Gregory - Victor Jara of Chile

2007-09-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

Word by the British poet Ardian Mitchell, music by Arlo Guthrie.

Sixteen Tons written by Merle Travis

2007-09-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

Written by son-of-a-coal-miner and master guitarist Merle Travis and made popular by Tennessee Ernie Ford, Sixteen Tons continues to have appear across the folk-country-jazz spectrum. Here are some contrasting versions gathered in from YouTube.

Johnny Cash music video mixes the Man in Black with mining footage (embed not available)

The Flat Cats (who I know nothing about) jazz it up:

Country-rockers The Catus Brothers have a go:

I like this country punk version by Back Porch Mary:

Can any one name this man? On a ukulele, and my favourite so far:

Tennessee Ernie Ford looking much slicker than I'd expected:

Old Crow Medicine Show - Gospel Plow

2007-09-04T15:35:00.001-07:00

Up-tempo version of gospel standard

Gillian Welch and Old Crow Medicine Show` - The Weight

2007-09-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

Very nice cover of The Band classic

Neil Young - Let's Impeach The President

2007-09-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

Bet they're not playing this music video on MTV.

Greg Brown - I Want My Country Back

2007-09-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

Excellent song

Greg Brown - Canned Good

2007-09-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

Economy, ecology and his granny's preserves - execellent

Guy Clark - Dark as a Dungeon

2007-09-04T14:37:00.000-07:00

Supported by Scottish folk luminaries including Aly Bain and the wonderful Rod Paterson, Clark offers this Merle Travis classic.

Karine Polwart, Chris Wood - Moving On Song

2007-09-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

Korine Polwart, Chris Wood and Ewan MacColl's sons sing MacColl's song of traveller persecution.

Christy Moore - North And South - Live at The Point 2006

2007-09-04T14:24:00.001-07:00

Powerful song of Irish reconciliation

Christy Moore and Shane MacGowan - Dirty Old Town

2007-09-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

Moore and MacGowan sing MacColl

Christy Moore & Shane MacGowan - A Pair Of Brown Eyes

2007-09-04T14:17:00.001-07:00

Moore and his songwriting hero with a MacGowan song

Christy Moore - Sweet Thames Flow Softly

2007-09-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

Lovely version of Ewan MacColl's song with Neil MacColl (Ewan's son) and Sinead O'Connor.

Christy Moore - Fairytale Of New York - Later 1996

2007-09-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

Moore's interpretation of MacGowan's celebration of love, language and Irish-American culture.

John Martyn - May You Never (Now)

2007-09-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

Another, rougher-at-the-edges, deeper-voiced version of the Martyn classic.

John Martyn - May You Never (Then)

2007-09-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

From 1973. Requires little introduction.

The Be Good Tanyas - The Littlest Birds

2007-09-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

Classy music video of Toronto's Be Good Tanyas most-loved track (by me anyway)

Isaac Guillory - Blues is Just a Bad Dream / Swinging Little Guitar Man

2007-09-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

Watch him go. Amazing guitar work.

Isaac Guillory - Wayfaring Stranger

2007-09-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

Live in Berkeley 1989

Isaac Guillory - Somewhere Tonight

2007-09-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

The late great Isaac Guillory - a truly fantastic guitarist. I saw him live twice in obscure Edinburgh church halls; he should have been so much better known.

Koerner, Ray & Glover - Blues, Rags & Hollers

2007-09-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

Documentary extract on the 1960s blues revivalists.

Kate Rusby & Laura Cantrell - "Our Town"

2007-09-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

Informal session with these two wonderful singers.

Dick Gaughan - John MacLean March

2007-08-31T23:13:00.000-07:00

Gaughan's version of Hamish Henderson's song behind images relating to the Scottish radical socialist John MacLean.

Ernie Payne - Ancient Eyes

2007-08-31T22:48:00.000-07:00

Another live cut from the one-man folk / blues / souls / gospel melting pot.

Ernie Payne - Coercion Street

2007-08-31T22:40:00.000-07:00

Live performance of title track of Ernie's remarkable CD. Kershaw favourite.

Ernie Payne - Curse of Hamm

2007-08-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

Chillingly powerful indictment of the racist logic of the slave-holding mentality, in mny opinion one of the best political songs of recent years.

English Country Blues Band - Lovin' Henry

2007-08-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

"The English Country Blues Band live at Sussex Folk Festival 1982 - Maggie Holland on bass guitar, Rod Stradling on melodeon, Ian Anderson on guitar and vocal."

YouTube (embed not available)

Big Bill Broonzy in Belgium, 1956.

2007-08-31T17:31:00.000-07:00

Utterly fantastic long clip of Big Bill (15 mins+). Very very atmospheric.

YouTube (embed not available)

Odetta - House of the Rising Sun

2007-08-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

"On 7/7/07 in her 77th year, (she's 76) folk blues legend Odetta performed a free hour and a half set at Governors Island, NYC, kicking off the Folks on the Island four concert series."

Richard Thompson - 1952 Vincent Black Lightning

2007-08-31T17:15:00.001-07:00

Another remarkably crafted RT song, radically updating the life and death themes and repetitive devices of the old ballads into postwar Britain.

Richard Thompson - Beeswing

2007-08-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

One of my very favourite Richard Thompson's song - one of my favourite songs full stop. Remarkably well-crafted, not a spare word in it.

Phil Ochs - I aint marching anymore

2007-08-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

Very rare footage of Ochs in 1969. Compare the sense of directed anger in this song to Blowin' in the Wind. We need Ochs today.

Oysterband and June Tabor - Mississippi Summer

2007-08-31T16:52:00.000-07:00

Live at Big Session festival 2006 with the Si Khan song

Hamish Imlach

2007-08-31T16:47:00.001-07:00

Rare footage of the Big Man of Scottish Folk. Documentry extract.

YouTube (embed not available)

Pete Seeger - Bring Them Home

2007-08-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

Absolutely remarkable, absolutely relevant for today. When will we ever learn...

Archie Fisher and Garnet Rogers - My Name is Jock Stewart

2007-08-31T16:34:00.002-07:00

Scotland's Archie Fisher has a reputation well beyond his recent recorded output as one of the finest singers around. Here he is with the traditional drinking song which has become a folk club standard, ablely supported on fiddle by Garnet Rogers.

Martin Simpson - Easy Money

2007-08-31T16:28:00.000-07:00

Martin Simpson's tale of wasted youth with, of course, virtuoso guitar.

Odetta at Newport Festival

2007-08-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

short clip of vintage Odetta

Odetta - You Don't Know My Mind

2007-08-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

Brilliantly intense performance of Leadbelly song.

Dick Gaughan, Emmylou Harris, Kate & Anna Mcgarrigle - Wild Mountain Thyme

2007-08-31T15:57:00.000-07:00

Wild Mountain Thyme? Hackneyed? Not in the hands of this line-up!

Jez Lowe & The Bad Pennies - Another Man's Wife

2007-08-31T15:50:00.000-07:00

A Jez Lowe classic, from the brilliant Bad Penny album. Lowe has spent years crafting songs with the same intensity, sense of drama and attention to language as good short story writers.

Michael Marra - General Grant's visit to Dundee

2007-08-31T15:38:00.000-07:00

Michael Marra returns with his usual wit to one of his favourite subject: Dundee, his hometown. "What a mighty long bridge for such a mighty little old town." Brilliant.

Michael Marra - Schenectady calling Peerie Willie Johnson

2007-08-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

Michael Marra on the remarkable Shetland guitarist Perrie Willie Johnson who brought a jazz sensibility to Scottish Jazz. "Smashing down those foolish walls" - that's definitely part of my musical mission here.

Karine Polwart - I'm Gonna Do It All

2007-08-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

Fantastic songwriter - who has written a better song than 'The sun's coming over the hill' in the last ten years? - and a very well put together, witty film. Very satisfying.

Bob Wills and his Texas Playboy - Ida Red

2007-08-31T15:14:00.000-07:00

Mixing country, blues, big band and swing twenty years before Elvis, Bob Will is one of my all time heros - and wonderfully camp to boot.

Robert Plant - Girl From the North Country

2007-08-31T15:08:00.000-07:00

Plant, hugely influenced not only by blues but by North African music, is become something of a roots hero in recent years and brings something genuinely fresh to this Dylan/trad classic.

Richard Thompson - Hots for the Smarts

2007-08-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

Thompson may be better known for the darkness rather than the humour of his songs, but this one is genuinely hilarious.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Down By the Riverside

2007-08-31T14:56:00.000-07:00

Remarkable. Somewhere between Mahalia Jackson and Joe Strummer - this woman is my definition of cool.

You Tube (embed not available)

Michael Marra - Scribbled Down Drunk But Posted Sober

2007-08-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

Scotland's Michael Marra is one of the most cognitively original songwriters around. This powerful song, as usual with Marra, refuses to give up all its layers of meaning on first, second or even twentieth listen.