Tag Archives: English Folk

Folk Music from the British Isles: Spell Songs II

Today, Weds Decem­ber 15, we present a pro­gramme of folk music from the British Isles (well near­ly — there are a cou­ple of North Amer­i­can artists in there if truth be told), cov­er­ing the last 50 years or so.

In par­tic­u­lar, we are cel­e­brat­ing the new album from Spell Songs, “Spell Songs II — Let The Light In” by play­ing a track every hour.

Spell Songs is a musi­cal evo­lu­tion of both The Lost Words and The Lost Spells books by acclaimed author Robert Mac­far­lane and award-win­ning illus­tra­tor Jack­ie Mor­ris; cre­at­ing a lis­ten­ing expe­ri­ence that inter­sects music, lit­er­a­ture, lan­guage and art, as a call to reawak­en our love of the wild.

Folk Music from the UK

Today we present a pro­gramme of folk music from the UK (well near­ly — there are a cou­ple of North Amer­i­can artists in there if truth be told), cov­er­ing the last 50 years or so.

This time we are also fea­tur­ing a clas­sic album from 1979, The Pea­cock Par­ty, by vir­tu­oso gui­tarist Gor­don Giltrap. Amongst a tal­ent­ed group of musi­cians, it fea­tures Gryphon’s Richard Har­vey on recorders and crumhorn. The tunes are inspired by char­ac­ters from the book The Pea­cock Par­ty writ­ten by George E Ryder and illus­trat­ed by Alan Aldridge — a sequel to the some­what bet­ter known The But­ter­fly Ball and the Grasshop­per’s Feast.