Steve Black, Jim Almand, Radio Britfolk, ezFolk, Sacred Harp and the Old Rope String Band

Originally published in FoT Issue 105: Oct-Dec 2005

Due back from my annual sojourn at the foot of Golden Cap (see “FoT” issue 93) only two days before the deadline for this issue’s ‘Folk on Line’, I decided to take my laptop with me. I could spend the week sitting in my caravan, listening to the rain on the roof drowning out the sound of my tears, and Sam could get his copy on time. But did I? Did I heck. The sun shone all week, except at night of course, when spectacular meteorite displays would entertain us. I’m afraid the beach, the sea, the rolling hills and the Palmer’s ales all took their toll on my time. After all, it was my holiday. However, on the Wednesday night, at a little known hub of the Dorset folk scene called The George in Chideock, my old friend Steve Black put on a display of stars to rival the night sky. As well as Steve’s finely wrought songs, we had Paul Downes to perform a short set, The Amazing Mr Smith in the audience to watch Viva Smith harmonise, but the star of the show was undoubtedly Jim Almand, from Memphis via Santa Fe. His amazing vocal style and percussive guitar were put to good effect on a range of material, some his own, some Steve’s, and classics such as ‘Tobacco Road’ and ‘Summertime’. Jim has spent 20-odd years on the road in the States in a variety of guises, playing jazz, r&b and country and western, and this experience pays off. He really knows how to work an audience. With a voice at times gruff and gravelly, but then heart-rendingly poignant, and a guitar style one moment rock’n’roll, the next jazzy and lyrical, he had the packed pub audience eating out of his hand. Jim has been over here from his native America seven or eight times and told me he loves it here, but it is time he played to a wider audience. For now though it is worth looking out for his next intimate venue performance in our own deep south. Though he does have his own website, the best place to look for information about UK gigs is the what’s on section of Steve’s site for the i.e. Theatre, a marvellous little performance space that he runs in Axminster. A highlight for the venue (for the folk world at least -- he puts on plays as well) is an appearance by Martin Carthy MBE in November. [Online update 260308: alas the i.e. Theatre is no more, but Steve Black's website is here.]

When I first heard about FolkWISE I thought: "Goody, a new folk website I will be able to check out and write about for "Folk on Tap"." So you can imagine my dismay when I found that folkWISE calls itself “a proactive development organisation run by performers for the benefit of performers” -- which doesn’t sound too promising to the amateurs or audience members among us. But hold on a minute. Since July it has been producing Radio Britfolk, an online radio website, which is where we come in. Pete Coe had the original idea, which was then picked up and run with by 30 or so musicians on the BritFolk Yahoo newsgroup. But as well as discussing it, they put together a business plan, raised funds from among themselves and then went ahead and broadcast the finished article.

There are listings pages, an online shop/links page, a message board, reviews and more, and they promise to add ideas as they occur to them. But the most exciting thing is the 10-20 hours a day of music and speech devoted to British folk music. It’s free to listen, but if you want to access the programme archives there is a small monthly membership fee of £2, for which you can also enter the discussion forum. For £5 a month you can add listings or reviews and post small ads or links to your website. You can even make your own programme. There is a section on the site devoted to what is expected and how to submit a programme proposal. There is a new schedule every week. It likens itself to a festival, with a concert on the main stage, backed up by smaller gigs, sessions and workshops. The stuff on offer when I visited was first class. Presenters of shows and documentaries included Jez Lowe, Jacey Bedford and Brian Peters, so you get a good spread of people from the folk scene. They devote most of their airplay to the music of Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England (which is why the W, I, S and E in folkWISE are in capitals) and actively encourage musicians of these islands to send in CDs for the library. And let’s face it, with people like Jacey involved, you don’t just get passion, you also get efficiency. She told me: “The really great thing about this is that it’s folk democracy in action. As long as it’s the right quality, anyone can make programmes for Radio Britfolk. So if you’ve got a bee in your bonnet about Songs of Sail or whatever, all you do is submit a programme proposal and talk to us about making your own programme.” A licensed trial site has been running since July and as long as it is successful, a permanent site should be launched in the autumn. Though their initial licence only ran for three months, Tom Bliss told me they were “optimistic” about running into 2006 and beyond. Do check the site out -- and join up!

The ezFolk website is a useful resource. Its lyrics and tabs for folk songs are mainly of the campfire singsong variety, but it has good tutorial sections for guitar, ukulele, harmonica and various banjo styles. Its tutorial pages include downloadable pdf (ie you need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to read them) editions of “A Book of Five Strings”,“The How and Tao of Old Time Banjo” and “The How and Tao of Folk Guitar”, books packed with tunes and information on techniques for banjo and guitar.

I once spent an enjoyable couple of hours in a Sacred Harp workshop at the Bracknell Folk Festival. Though the Manhattan Sacred Harp Singing website, with its “information on Sacred Harp singing in New York City including the Manhattan Sacred Harp Sing, the Brooklyn Sacred Harp Sing, and the Lower East Side singing”, is not much use if you live in Surrey, it has a couple of links to fascinating articles and a pdf introduction to Sacred Harp singing. Just hit the information button.

Well, Golden Cap is now a dim and distant blur, it being three days since I got back -- so I’m only a day overdue -- but I can’t sign off without a few words about the Old Rope String Band website, which has come into its own since Joe Scurfield’s untimely death. There are an overwhelming number of tributes both from people who worked with Joe and people who were entertained by him, pictures of his funerals in Newcastle and Lochem and the good news that Tim Dalling and Pete Challoner are putting on special shows in Joe’s memory. He will live on long in ours.