English Music - an introduction to this site.

This site aims to promote and support interest in English traditional music.

With American culture taking over the world, the British isles are no exception. In Britain, since the 1950's, American music, blues, soul etc. has dominated popular music and British performers have either used American material or re-created the style.

Traditional music of the British Isles is mainly upheld in the celtic fringes, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In fact much of Irish and Scottish music originated in England, as did much of American music, especially old-time, bluegrass and appalachian music which is largely music from the British Isles which has become modified through time.

Fortunately there are still a few dedicated musicians maintaining and developing the English music tradition, especially in the folk world. There are some are big names such as Fairport Convention, the Albion Band, and Steeleye Span and their illustrious members over the years. These include Ashley Hutchings, Maddy Prior, Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick, Simon Nichol, Sandy Denny and others. There are other musicians, perhaps even more 'purist' for English music, but who are not well known in the pop world or on radio and television, but nevertheless highly respected by those 'in the know' on the folk scene. The Old Swan Band in the 70's gave English folk dance music 'a good kick up the arse' (a quote).

Traditional English instrumental music most easily encountered in morris dancing, and this provides the largest pool of instrumentalists. The principal instruments used are the melodeon and the violin, which always work well together.

Contents

Please click one of the links below:

Fairport Convention

Dave Swarbrick

Steeleye Span

Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band

Ashley Hutchings and the Albion Band

The Old Swan Band and related musicians - includes The English Country Dance Band, Token Women, Rod Stradling, Jo Freya.

Other Major Performers of English Folk Music - an unsorted list with brief details.

Morris Dancing

Original pictures and descriptions of morris sides. Links.

Folk Music in the South

The view from Portsmouth. Folk festivals, folk clubs and links to other related sites.

Throughout these pages these icons indicate links to pictures or sound. When they appear, click the icon.

Pictures. Mostly original photographs by the author of this site. Please enquire if you wish to use copies of these.

Sound clip. Indicates a short MP3 sound clip. Typical download and playing times are both 1 minute. Note that these are all original recordings by the author and traditional compositions, hence do not break any copyright. The sound quality does not represent that on artists' own C.Ds.

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