Sam Lee: 'There is a difference in the songs Gypsies sing'
Sam Lee didn't want to find out about folk music from archives. Instead he has trawled traveller sites, learning from families who have passed these songs down the genera...
→ 28 October 2012 12.11am — Comment on this
Readers recommend: songs about clothes – results
From handbags and gladrags to white socks and flip flops, here are your sartorial soundsLast week's call for songs about clothes prompted some winning styles, after a lot...
→ 19 July 2012 3.05pm — Comment on this
Sleeve notes: Sixty years of No 1 singles
Catch up on the last seven days in the world of musicSixty years of No 1 singlesTo celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UK singles charts, Guardian writers and celebriti...
→ 1 June 2012 2.28pm — Comment on this
REALLY DON'T
Fairport Convention - "Both Sides Now" [buy] Carly Rae Jepsen - "Both Sides Now" [buy] It don't change: we really don't know clouds at all. Or love. Or life. We are dizzi...
→ 29 May 2012 5.42am — Comment on this
Old music: Matthews Southern Comfort – Woodstock
The second best Fairport Convention singer secured a UK No 1 only to move on, leaving solo success behindWas it for only three weeks in autumn 1970 that Matthews Southern...
→ 17 January 2012 11.37am — Comment on this
Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention Live in '71 on a Beach
Really ace footage of these two bands playing on Ainsdale beach in 1971 near Southport, England. More at this youtube channel, but I chose this particular clip for the ja...
→ 24 October 2011 6.15am — Comment on this
Cool culture in the country
You don't have to head to Britain's cities to find a clued-up crowd – there are some unlikely pockets of cool, from Anstruther to Frome and Nettlebed to Barrow-in-F...
→ 5 August 2011 10.45pm — Comment on this
Hedy West: Ballads and Songs from the Appalachians – review
(Fellside) Hedy West was one of the great American stars of the 60s folk revival. Born in Georgia, the daughter of a union organiser who worked with mining communities, s...
→ 4 August 2011 10.46pm — Comment on this
Richard Thompson announces tour (dates)
British folk troubadour Richard Thompson, an original member of the pivotal folk rock group Fairport Convention, one half of a more intimate duo with his now-ex-wife Lind...
→ 1 August 2011 9.07pm — Comment on this
Cambridge folk festival – review
Cherry Hinton Hall, Cambridge"I don't know if sex is allowed at Cambridge. Is it?" Thousands of fans in foldable chairs and floral headbands cheer their reply."Oh good," ...
→ 1 August 2011 12.53pm — Comment on this
Battlefield Band: Line-Up – review
(Temple Records)Founded over 40 years ago in the Glasgow suburb of Battlefield, this band is one of the great institutions of the Scottish music scene. They are famous fo...
→ 14 July 2011 10.00pm — Comment on this
Hell, Bell and evangelism | Andrew Brown
A controversial American preacher, accused of denying the truth of eternal damnation, turns out to be a wonderful performerThe last time I had been to the Cambridge Corn...
→ 28 April 2011 11.47am — Comment on this
Fairport Convention: Festival Bell, CD review
English folk stalwarts demonstrate their class again. Rating * * *
→ 13 April 2011 8.46am — Comment on this
