fRoots

[AndyTurner]

In the November Mojo, the “How to buy” feature focussed on Topic Records. Their top ten, supposedly voted for by the readership, is as follows:

1. Nic Jones – Penguin Eggs
2. The Watersons – Frost and Fire
3. Dick Gaughan – Handful of Earth
4. Voice of the People single CD selection
5. June Tabor – Aqaba
6. Ewan Maccoll & Peggy Seeger – The Ballad of John Axon
7. Martin Simpson – Prodigal Son
8. Shirley Collins – Sweet Primeroses
9. Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight – Once in a Blue Moon
10. Anne Briggs – A Collection

It’s a perfectly respectable list, but inevitably we’d all produce a different one.
Mine would be something like this (not necessarily in order)

1. Nic Jones – Penguin Eggs
2. Brass Monkey – Complete Brass Monkey
3. Waterson:Carthy – Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man
4. Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick – Prince Heathen
5. The Watersons – For Pence & Spicy Ale
6. Sam Larner – Now is the time for fishing
7. Rantin’ and Reelin’ (Voice of the People Northumbrian CD)
8. Dick Gaughan – Handful of Earth
9. June Tabor – Abyssinians
10. Martin Carthy – Crown of Horn

Note that “How to buy” only deals with records which you can actually buy – so excludes a whole lot of brilliant but unreleased 70s vinyl. In some ways this is just as well. If forced to choose from the entire Topic back catalogue selecting just 10 would be much harder.
I’d have to try to squeeze in these as well:

John Kirkpatrick & Sue Harris – Sheds & Patches
The Willett Family – The Roving Journeymen
The Art of William Kimber
Travellers
The Earl Soham Slog

So what would be on your list?

[matt milton]

Mine would change all the time - as I'm still investigating the Topic list.

But toppermost of the Topic poppermost would currently be A Wild Bee's Nest by Paddy Tunney. A 1960s album, solo vocal. I've been listening to this non-stop for the last 6 weeks.

(Currently available as download-only on iTunes, emusic and other places.)

I think he might just be my favourite folk singer. Very laidback, never bellowy, singing with just a hint of an ironical detachment, as if a part of him is always somewhere else.

His choice of material, and his translations from Gaelic are charmingly fusty - he really appreciates the arcane and the effusive in a lyric. Listening to him sing those words you can hear how Joyce and Beckett have a good few twisted roots in the folk tradition. He's also one of the few 'lilters' who doesn't sound twee.

[matt milton]

...but I digress:

1. A Wild Bee's Nest - Paddy Tunney

2. A Collection - Anne Briggs

3. Wild Mountain Thyme - The McPeake Family
(I defy anyone to tell me this is not a psych-folk album)

4. Sweet England - Shirley Collins

5. English Drinking Songs - A.L. Lloyd
(Bert's delivery is a bit of a challenge for me at times, but he sounds very relaxed and at home in the pub, foaming tankard in hand, with his raucous mates on concertina and banjo)

6. The Road from Connemara – Joe Heaney

7. Old Times and Hard Times - Hedy West
(Ballads and songs from the Appalachians – this is turning into quite a banjo-centric list!)

8. Now is the time for Fishing - Sam Larner
(the album cover is one of my favorite pieces of graphic design - like prime Saul Bass. Punningly appropriate, when you think about it)

Can't think of anymore of the top of my head - the VOTP comps ought to be in there.

It's well worth looking on iTunes or emusic for Topic releases at the moment, because they've made lots of out-of-print back catalogue available again as digital-only. But not told anyone! So there's albums by Jesse Fuller, Dominic Behan, Phoebe Smith and others up there for download... I think the plan might be to have that entire elusive back-catalogue available to buy, albeit in MP3-only format, at some point.

See:
http://www.emusic.com/browse/l/a/a/0/30-0/1400137257/0.html

[ian]

For Topic explorers, might I give a little plug to the two compilations I had a hand in which survey some fairly wide fields:

Hidden English (TSCD 600) is an English traditional "greatest hits" featuring many of the great names and celebrated songs/ tunes. Released in 1994, it pre-dated VOTP but due to the timeless nature of its content is still, I think, is a very good cross-section with decent notes too.

1 Joseph Taylor : Brigg Fair
2 Bob & Ron Copper : The Sweet Primroses
3 Walter Bulwer, Billy Cooper, Reg Hall, Daisy Bulwer, Mervyn Plunkett & Russell Wortley : Red Wing Polka
4 Walter Pardon : Broomfield Hill
5 William Kimber : Getting Upstairs / Blue-Eyed Stranger
6 Louise Fuller : Hopping Down in Kent
7 George 'Pop' Maynard : Polly On the Shore
8 Billy Bennington : The Pony Trot Polka
9 Cyril Poacher : The Nutting Girl
10 Billy Pigg : The Morpeth Rant
11 Phoebe Smith : Higher Germany
12 Jasper Smith : Died for Love
13 Scan Tester, Reg Hall & Daisy Sherlock : Jenny Lind Polka
14 Bob Hart : Australia
15 Johnny Doughty : The Golden Vanity
16 Oscar Woods : Oh, Joe the Boat is Going Over
17 Harry Cox : The Maid of Australia
18 Fred Jordan : The Outlandish Knight
19 Tintagel & Boscastle Players : Boscastle Breakdown
20 Tom Willett : While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping
21 Eely Whent : Two Step
22 Bob Roberts : The Candlelight Fisherman
23 Sam Larner : The Bold Princess Royal
24 Bob Cann : Hot Punch / Uncle's Jug
25 Joseph Taylor : Lord Bateman


Stepping Up (TSCD752) is the history of the new wave of English country dance bands, a greatly expanded version (2004) of the '80s fRoots vinyl album Tap Roots and a sort of "what came after the VOTP" in English ceilidh land. Lengthy notes too.

1 The Morris Motors Band: Speed The Plough
2 Walter & Daisy Bulwer, Billy Cooper: Jenny Lind / The Girl I Left Behind Me
3 Oak: New Rigged Ship / Rig-A-Jig-Jig
4 The Leeds Band: When There Isn't A Girl About/Peggy Wood / Looking For A Partner
5 Webb's Wonders: Herbert Smith's Polka
6 The Old Swan Band: Walter Bulwer's Polkas Nos 2 & 1
7 Flowers & Frolics: Down The Road / See Me Dance The Polka
8 Ashley Hutchings w Bob Cann & Jimmy Cooper: High Level Hornpipe / Uncle George's
9 The New Victory Band Harper's: Frolic / Bonny Kate
10 Umps And Dumps: Marmalade Polka
11 The English Country Blues Band: The Italian Job / Lodge Road
12 Oysterband: Kentish Cricketers / Galopede
13 The Cock And Bull Band: One For Dan
14 Gas Mark 5: Johnny O'Leary's / Mrs O'Dwyers
15 Tiger Moth: Sloe Benga
16 The Old Hat Dance Band: The Flying Pieman / Ripple Of The Teign / Gipping Jig
17 The Geckoes: The Old John Peel / Tom Cave's
18 The Posh Band: Duke Of Cornwall's Reel
19 Mark Bazeley & Jason Rice: When It's Night Time In Italy / Climbing Up The Golden Stairs / The Thaxted Square
20 Dr Faustus: May Reel No 1 / Bacca Pipes Jig
21 Grand Union: Queen Of The May / Watson's Hornpipe
22 Eliza Carthy Band: No Man's Jig / Hanoverian Dance / Three Jolly Sheepskins
23 Whapweasel: The Final Last Banana / The Sleeve In The Cheese

(Both are available in the fRoots subscription bribe free CDs list, b.t.w.)

[AndyTurner]

I almost wish you hadn't posted that link to eMusic.

Just a quick look and I see favourites which I own on vinyl - like Umps & Dumps, and The Rose of Britain's Isle - and even better, vinyl LPs I never owned - e.g. the Phoebe Smith, and Ye Subjects Of England by George Maynard.

oh no.

Going to have to spend some money!

[matt milton]

well if you were canny, you could take out an emusic sub and then just cancel it once you've downloaded the particular ones you wanted.

but I'm personally a big fan of emusic. It has a lot of the Smithsonian Folkways catalogue and a lot of good blues stuff too. I force myself to stick to the cheapest available subscription and resist the temptation to upgrade. If it means only downloading only half of a (double) album one month then so be it...

that said, I think iTunes has them all too, and they might offer better deals - emusic is strictly by-number-of-tracks, whereas I think iTunes sometimes quotes prices for the whole album.

[Vic Smith]

[AndyTurner]

I'd second the recommendation of eMusic.com

I'm not currently a member, but may well rejoin for a while, if only to get some of these download-only Topic tracks (on past experience, they don't bombard you with emails if you leave - or indeed while you're a member - which raises them in my estimation a great deal).

Previously I used the service to fill gaps in my collection: records which I'd heard on vinyl but never owned, and where I didn't feel the need / couldn't afford to buy a physical reissue; records which I own on vinyl, but had played to death and worn out my original copy. Topic is far from being the only folk/roots label on there - you'll also find Fellside, Shanachie, Smithsonian Folkways etc.

I also found it an affordable way to try out artists who I didn't really know, and would have been reluctant to fork out for a full-price CD. Stuff which I downloaded on that basis included some really good stuff - Laura Cantrell, Pete Molinari, Sharon Jones & The Daptones, Eli Paperboy Reed. Also Mavis Staples' We'll never turn back - except I like that one so much that I really wish I had a physical CD copy. Afraid a collection of MP3s still doesn't feel as good to me as "hard copy". It's not really the sound quality, just that I still like to own an artifact.

And with records of source singers, the liner notes are really important. If you downloaded all the Voice of the People CDs, you'd be missing out on the booklets which add so much to the overall experience. Also not economically sound - you can order the whole 20 CD set from Topic at the moment for just £137.70

Returning to these Topic download-only tracks, I wonder if Topic would consider making the original sleevenotes available online, since they can't be obtained any other way. Perhaps they could come to some arrangement with Musical Traditions.

Finally, I had a look at both iTunes and Amazon for these downloads. Both are useless unless you know what you're looking for - no label search on either. The iTunes search facility, I have to say, seems particularly poor. And you'd never find them by browsing - I think it was George Maynard who was categorised under Singer/Songwriters!

[matt milton]

Willie Clancy's Topic album 'The Minstrel from Clare' has just turned up on iTunes and Amazon as a download, but not on emusic for some reason.

[matt milton]

just checked on emusic to find something to download for my subscription and there are some great (unanounced!) Topic reissues up there that are not part of the 70th anniversary.

Standouts for me:

Songs from the Irish Tradition - Mary Ann Carolan
Very very pleased to see this there, & I downloaded it immediately. As far as I'm aware there simply aren't any other albums of hers commercially available.

Bundock Ballads - Ewan MacColl
Collection of wartime songs. He's singing mostly - note I say mostly - in his RP English voice, which I find is his least contrived, most appealing guise. It's quite music-hall-ish. Among the more convincing MacColl albums I've heard (there's perhaps a debatable irony there...)

Milltown Lass - Rose Murphy
A new (old) name to me, and a charming album of unaccompanied Irish tunes on fiddle and accordion. I have a pet hate of too much accompaniment to Irish fiddle (especially nursery-rhyme, clumpy piano) and this sounds like one to file next to other terrific solo classics by John Doherty or Tommy Potts, if perhaps not quite so sui generis.

[diane easby]

Well, I got Oak's Welcome To Our Fair on Topic download for next to nothing the other day. I imagine that nice Mr Engel did it because I'd pestered him for years about a re-release. I know Mustrad put it out a while ago and he tried to divert me to it but it was in very annoying, odd-shaped packaging. I'm very happy to have it again, albeit floating around in iTunes.

[AndyTurner]

Topic's announcements always lag slightly behind, I find. have just got this by email:

We're adding another ten wonderful albums from the archive to the Topic Digital Download catalogue on July 13th 2010

* A L LLOYD First Person [TSDL118]
* EWAN MacCOLL Bundook Ballads [TSDL130]
* BOB CANN West Country Melodeon [TSDL275]
* JIMMY POWER Irish Fiddle Player [TSDL306]
* ROSE MURPHY Milltown Lass [TSDL316]
* TOMMY HEALY & JOHN DUFFY Memories Of Sligo [TSDL335]
* BOB ROBERTS Songs From The Sailing Barges [TSDL361]
* MARY ANN CAROLAN Songs From The Irish Tradition [TSDL362]
* DAN SULLIVAN’S SHAMROCK BAND [TSDL366]
* WALTER PARDON A Country Life [TSDL392]

Only own 2 of those, so plenty more to explore.

If any dance musicians out there (especially squeezebox players) have never heard the Bob Cann LP, it's essential - crisp, rhythmic, incredibly danceable. And by no means all the tracks are available on Voice of the People or Veteran's Bob Cann CD.

[Kev Boyd]

Andy, those ten albums are already available on iTunes at a very reasonable £5.99 each so no need to wait until July.

[matt milton]

Having held forth against plunky piano accompaniment to Irish fiddle, I'm going to backpedal a little, as I'm enjoying the Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Band album.

It sounds a bit ragtime almost; the whole thing's like the Irish music equivalent of the Memphis Jug Band. The fact that the sound quality is so abysmal improves it no end too.