Do We Get A Fair Deal From The Radio?

[Alan Day]

No Paul,the one before that.

Just after the gaslamps period.

Al

[wes williams]

To my mind, in England at least, the problem is the BBC run a mile from the F word as they are obsessed with youth listener figures (It doesn't matter that their audience invariably aren't at home so can't be listeners).

Although BBC radio, national and local, is abysmal in its coverage, I think we have to give a big thank you to whoever runs BBC 4 TV. I've seen music, not necessarily folk, but always quality stuff, almost every Friday night for the past two years. Last week and tonight its Brecon Jazz festival - last week was the Cuban female singer from Buena Vista Social Club - and we had a Bob Copper documentary a few weeks back, Cambridge FF, Waterson-Carthy, Aly Bain & friends, John Martyn, etc, etc. All pretty much under the Jazz and Roots category,

and hardly a whisper of anything 'country'.

 

For around £50 for a Freeview box, its well worth it - if you can get it in your area!

[Jim Besser]

>Some of the presenters love the sound of their own voice,

> or are they just cutting costs on royalties?

 

In the case of Washington's sadly deficient folk music show, it's that the host feels a misguided need to serve as an audio directory of folk music activities in the area. A huge part of each show is her reading -- slowly -- long lists of who's playing where for every night of the week. Now, apparently in response to complaints, she plays music in the background as she drones on -- which, to my way of thinking, is even worse.

 

Put the info on a Web site, lady, and let us hear music!

[John Wild]

Sometimes there are amazing surprises. Last night (Thursday) I tuned in to BBC Radio 2 for the Paul Jones Program at 8:00, because I got fed up with the program on radio 4. This is mostly a blues program. Last night when I tuned in, I heard a woman talking and thought it was a familiar voice but could not place it immediately. After some discussion between her and Paul Jones (Ex-Manfred Mann singer from the 1960's), I discovered it was Shirley Collins, and they were talking about her time in America with Alan Lomax and the music they "discovered" and recorded at that time.

 

Sorry this is not directly related to concertinas but I thought I would share the moment with you.

 

- John Wild

[Robin Madge]

I'd have to add the cost of a licence to the cost of a set-top box Wes!

Can't see me going back to having a television in the near future. We gave up when the science programs became so dumbed down that they took 90 minutes to give you 2 minutes worth of information.

I get much more value for money from having broadband, and yes I would like to have a new source of radio Folk via the PC.

 

Robin Madge.

[Alan Day]

John is Shirley singing again? I spent at least two hours trying to persuade her to get back to singing and from your comments it sounds as if she is.

I did a peculiar interview with Shirley on Folk on Two I did my bit from questions that we thought she would ask and had to call the presenter Shirley, who was male and Shirley did her bit a week later in a different studio,adding her questions to my answers.They did a good job with the mixing it sounded as though we were opposite one another.She is very close to the Copper family and is a lovely lady.

Al

[John Wild]

John is Shirley singing again? I spent at least two hours trying to persuade her to get back to singing and from your comments it sounds as if she is.

In the program she was mainly talking about the field trips with Alan Lomax and introducing the selected records played. There was one song by Shirley at the end which I think was quite an old recording. I would expect her still to be singing to some extent, but i have not seen any recent announcements. sorry I cannot be of more help.

 

Regards.

 

John

[bellowbelle]

Speaking of radio, I just happened to catch part of today's live concert on my car radio, from http://www.wicn.org/Event%20Listings/brown_bag.htm

 

'Straight from Dublin, Ireland, harpist Michael Rooney and flutist June McCormick'

 

They were great, and I even heard some concertina playing, too.

 

I'ts possible to listen online to these concerts, either as they are broadcast or maybe from the Archives, too.

 

Today was the first in a series of six, I guess.

 

Well-worth catching, I think!

[Guest]

Although predominately a harp player, Michael does play concertina too, and I am looking forward to having lesson with him when he is in Melbourne (Australia) next year.

 

I had harp lessons with him about four or five years ago (back in my former incarnation) and he was a great player and a hell of a nice guy, so if you ever get a chance to see him play (regardless of whether its harp or concertina) I highly recommend it

 

Cheers

Morgana

[Guest Peter Laban]

re music on th e web,

 

www.clarefm.ie webcasts it's regular program. Every weekday between 7 and 9 local time it has traditional music programs, some presented by concertina player Claire keville. Art other times (sunday morning and on a late night show) Eoin O Neill plays interesting stuff, including recordings of female Clare concertinaplayers, some recorded specially for the program.

 

Lyric FM, the national classical music broadcaster, has at times very interesting programs on trad music, which can be heard through the RTE website, which itself has interesting stuff again.

[Alan Miller]

For those interested, Michael Rooney and June McCormack (they recently got married), are touring New England. I caught their concert at the Ireland House at NYU a couple of nights ago, and strongly recommend that you hear them if you have the chance. Michael played the harp primarily but did play a couple of sets on the concertina. They played mostly their own compositions. The music was rhythmic and lyrical at a tempo a bit less hectic than a lot of performances. You can see the dates of their concerts at their web site: http://homepage.eircom.net/~michaelandjune/1024_768/

 

Alan Miller