Dick Gaughan, Handful of Earth

Another 'Essential' for the CD rack......!

Back in January I started digging around in my CD stash for good (in my view) building blocks to start a folkie collection with. Or it could be ones that slipped through the net the first (and second) time round. For no particular reason I can think of, I started with a real good un, 'Penguin Eggs' by Nic Jones. I hope you have got your 'mitts' on a copy and are enjoying it?
Well here we go with album two. It is still available, so no excuses. I have chosen 'Handful of Earth' by the great Dick Gaughan. First out on 'plastic' in 1981, then onto CD in 1989 on (what would we do without them?) Topic records (TSCD 419). This is a MUST of an album. Dick is a 'big' guy with a 'big' voice and even bigger guitar style. He just has the voice that suits all we enjoy in folk music. From the 'brash' 'Erin-Go-Bragh' and 'Workers' Song' to near lament 'Song for Ireland' and Both Sides the Tweed'. The whole album is stuffed to the gunwales with goodies. For the muso's among us he gives a masterclass in the use of the 'triplet'. A device often (far too!) overdone, he pulls them off one after the other. I can think of no other musician who gets away with it quite like Mr Gaughan!

If you have not had the pleasure of a live 'listening', please go out of your way to do so, you will not regret a minute. Have had a look on his website ( www.dickgaughan.co.uk) and he seems to be performing all over the shop, so no excuses.
Next month I have another 'DG' delight but that's for then.

I hope you all rec'd flowers, chocs and tickets to see Vin Garbutt for St Valentines Day? As I mentioned on Twitter, tonight I will be mostly eating my M&S meal for ONE and drinking my wine for ONE and reading the card I sent to myself (I'm going for the sympathy vote!). Mind you, I have Mike Harding on Radio 2. He will have to do.

If you have any suggestions (clean ones please) for the 'essential albums' slot let me know, as usual, it's,
Email: folktalkinfolk@gmail.com, Twitter: @folktalkinfolk, Moan Line: 07526 504285.

Do you change YOURS often enough.......?

STRINGS, what did you think I meant?

If, like me, you are not 'gigging' every other day or just playing for your own enjoyment (and frustration) your strings have a tendency to be forgotten. I got quite a surprise at the weekend when I was giving 'Nellie' (my tenor banjo) a good seeing to. While introducing her to a new jig to take to festivals she sounded a touch under the weather. G & D were very dull, the plain strings were not quite so bad, but poor performances all round. I even recorded a snippet on my phone and it was terrible! Now just to back track a wee bit. I am so 'anal' that I jot down in my diary when I change strings and oil fingerboards etc. And you guessed it, it was seven months since my last new set! A quick tip to new string players. Always change the full set. It can be very expensive if your a fiddle player but it's worth it in the long run. I also change them about a week or so before a session or festival. It gives them time to settle down. And never forget the spare set. It's 'sods-law' one will break in Whitby, nearest music shop Scarborough! Make a note of when you changed them also if you liked the make and gauge etc. If you can manage it, buy them in batches of ten and ask for a discount, that way you end up with a free set, always handy. Tommy a good guitaring friend of mine is known as Mr Tight, Tight Cottage, The Village of Tight, Tightshire. He says (I cannot vouch for this or encourage it in any way) that if you boil the wound strings for ten to fifteen mins with a drop of wash-up it brings then back to life!! If you fancy trying this please do not trim your strings when you fit them, or you will never get them back on after treatment. To be honest it's not worth it, is it?
Well, that's strings for you. Bet you never thought they would be so interesting did ya?

I have some ***David Hope News***
He (www.davidhope.ie) is joining The Henry Girls (http://thehenrygirls.com) for a couple of dates over on his home turf.
Thurs 16th Feb at 9pm, Monroes, Galway.
Sun 26th Feb at 8.30pm, The Half Moon Theatre, @ The Cork Opera House, Cork

Mixed Fortunes at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards!

Your opinions welcome.................

As you know I enjoy playing traditional music on a variety of GDAE tuned instruments. But when push comes to shove I'm 'just' a fan of our kind of music. So, is it me or were the awards just a touch bland? Now don't get me wrong all the winners are super and well deserve recognition for their performances, but....You know what I mean! I'm sure it cannot be me when 'The Home Service' beat 'Bellowhead' to 'Best Live Act', summat is wrong!. Don McKlean's 'guitar tech' needs shooting. Please do not shoot Don McLean, he's an all round 'good egg' but not overly good on the singing front. When it came to Best Original Song and the Young Folk Award, I'm glad it was not me who had to choose. All of them fantastic. If you had a listen at 'half time' I'm sure you will agree the 'kids' sounded great.
This is a bit 'cat among pigeons' or 'food for thought', I enjoyed them all the same. Roll on next year when I will be nominated for 'Biggest Prat', will you be on the list with me?

Contact, Email: folktalkinfolk@gmail.com, Twitter: @folktalkinfolk, Moan Line: 07526 504285.

BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards - Results

Hi all! Hope your all well?

Here, hot from the Folk Awards Show are the winners for 2012 (a few suprises too!)

Folk Singer of the Year - June Tabor

Best Duo - Tim Edey & Brendan Power

Best Group - June Tabor & Oysterband

Best Album - June Tabor & Oysterband

Best Original Song - (Joint Winners!!!) Bella Hardy & Steve Tilston

Best Traditional Track - June Tabor & Oysterband (Bonny Bunch of Roses)

Horizon Award - Lucy Ward

Musician of the Year - Tim Edey

Best Live Act - The Home Service

BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award - Ioscaid

How on earth the judges pick a winner, (who are they by the way?) is beyond me! They are all worthy 'folkists'. And very, very good luck to them for the future.
Just had a quick glance at the competition entries and it looks like we have FIVE winners ('clever Dicks'), which is great. Will email them in the morning and be sending them a super mug posthaste! I was glad not to have twenty one winners as I only have twenty mugs!! I will now think up another competition for March as your response was super and many thanks (and laughs).

It will soon be congrats' to Kate (Rusby) and Damien on the arrival of young folkie No2. I think she is giving performance a rest for a while but working hard for us at home. See you all in Sep/Oct 2012.

Just before I go a mention for 'Folk Radio UK', (http://www.folkradio.co.uk/). Found them by accident on the 'interweb'. Looks like a good site and 'listen'. Will check them out and report back soon. TTFN, Phil.

Email: folktalkinfolk@gmail.com, Twitter: @folktalkinfolk, 'Moan Line': 07526 504285.

It's Competition Time

Be the envy of your friends..............!

Yes, be the envy of all your friends and win an exclusive, (never seen on Ebay) Folktalkinfolk mug! Read on. This blog is fast becoming an episode of 'all our yesterdays'. But the kids have to learn what we had to live with before oral contraception, don't they? Next week it's the annual BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. So next Wed (8th Feb 2012), if your reading this later you have missed it)) I would like you all to gather around the 'wireless' (that's the thing we used to listen to before we contacted 'Radio Rentals' to hire a telly) at 7.30pm for an good two and a half hours or so of folkie goodness. It should be good, I hear that The Dubliners ("come on 'Banjo' Barney") and Seth Lakeman (calm down girls) are doing a turn and with Mr Harding and Julie Fowlis at the helm, all should be well?
I hear you crying "what about the mug Phil"! All you have to do to win one is go to the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards website, take a look at the list of nominees , jot down the winner in each category, email them to the usual address. Then sit back and wait. Anyone getting three or more correct will get the famous drinking vessel (I would now like to show you a picture of one, but as yet, they have not arrived). Her are my picks anyway:

Folk Singer of the Year, June Tabor.
Best Duo, Spiers and Boden.
Best Album, Ragged Kingdom (June Tabor and Oysterband).
Best Original Song, 'On Moracambe Bay'  by Ken Littlewood (performed by Christy Moore). *****
Best Traditional Track, 'Bonny Bunch of Roses', June Tabor and Oysterband.
Best Live Act, Bellowhead.*****
Horizon Award, Pilgrims Way.

The two *****'s are (I think), 'dead certs'!

Good luck to you all, bye for now, Phil

Email: folktalkinfolk@gmail.com, Twitter: @folktalkinfolk, Tel: 07526 504285.

LATE NEWS, you can watch it (forget the 'wireless') by pressing the red button!

To festival or not to festival, that is the question?

It's an expensive job being a 'folkie'...........

Folk music fans are a tough lot. Weathering the storms of winter with nowt but 'singarounds' and 'sessions' to keep our 'hands in', while looking forward to the long lazy festival days to come. I think festivals are our 'wages' in payment for all the money spent on Kate Rusby and Seth Lakeman CD's. Or the set of 'olive label' fiddle strings you bought that cost more than the instrument! As I mentioned in a previous post, I want to make 2012 a festival going year and was looking forward to every 'folkie' minute of it. Being a Yorkshireman and of limited means, I thought doing some sums was the order of the day. Well bu*?er me you could have knocked me over with a 14lb lump hammer! My 'wish list' was Beverley in June, Rothbury in July, Whitby Folk Week in Aug and Otley in Sept. Quite a lot, but it's not every year, is it? Not taking money for pints of the 'black stuff' and eating into consideration and camping (I'm still daft enough to do it), I still have a dilemma, on the one hand I have 15 days of 'folking' goodness and the other, 14 nights 'all in', in sunny Mexico and change!! Now don't forget, I'm single and no kids. If I had, I would be hard pressed to justify even Whitby. It would be thank goodness for Saltburn (no offence). The reason for these ramblings? I thank my lucky stars I'm single, have a few bob and not bothered about a suntan! I do have some good news...... David Hope has an EP ("Hell or High Water") available for download.

Our association is all I find good about the 'Twitter' age. Without it I would never have found this super chap with such a talent. He has just returned from entertaining the Germans and is working on an album for release later in the year. As soon as I get wind of it I will bring you the news. For now at least the EP will have to do!You can find him along with the 'Henchmen' on MySpace and at www.davidhope.ie.

Late news...the Wilson Family are confirmed for Rothbury festival on the 14th July.

This weeks 'pet hate', kids that say "innit" at every verse end!! Byeeee.

Email: folktalkinfolk@gmail.com, Twitter: @folktalkinfolk, Phone: 07526 504285.

A big "thank you to Black Diamond Accordions"

I bet Samuel Johnson would be proud..........?

It's time for a big 'thank you' to Juliet Doyle. She is one of the 'squeezers' down at Black Diamond Accordions who I gave a mention to in my last post. I had tried to nick some pictures from their site to show you how super dooper these instruments are. Anyroad, I failed (as usual) but Juliet came to my rescue, so here we have them, mmmmm.

These give you a good idea of what goes on down at http://blackdiamondaccordions.com/ at lunchtime!

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours" and "the flautists cardigan is very orange"!

I (more than most) enjoy a bit of silliness to help the day along, but  very serious selling and marketing are possible through the likes of Twitter. I have my doubts when it comes to that Facepamphlet thing. A very poor relation if you ask me.

Oh, the Samuel Johnson reference.......I have invented a new word! People go on about making so called 'friends' on one social networking site or another. I think if you make one of these 'friends' on Twitter you could say "I have made a Twiffer, you never know, it could catch on, the wheel did! See Ya.

Email: folktalkinfolk@gmail.com, Twitter: (and become a 'Twiffer') @folktalkinfolk, Tel:07526 504285.

ps, thinking about building a website as an 'all in one place', free resource for everything 'folkie', please let me know what you think.