Skip to main content

Al compas del mundo, programa #63 - Music of the British Isles: England, Ireland and Scotland

 Sorry if I’ve raised any hackles by lumping Ireland into the association of “British” Isles. Those of Northern Ireland would likely approve but the remaining population may end up trolling me on Twitter, Facebook, and every other social media forum…none of which I frequent, fortunately. Be that as it may, I’m all for a rousing good musical time and a cessation of divisive politics. That’s the here and now of this program and that’s all I’ll say about that. 

My father was a fisherman,
my mother a fisherman's friend.

We Americans find the Brits’ accent engaging and somehow, still, with a suggestion of diffident superiority (methinks). But let Stick In the Wheel’s lead singer sport her Cockney accent and it’s love at first hearing – I want to sit in a pub and have a pint with her!  And then how is it that The High Kings, an Irish band, sound more Midwestern USA than sons of the sod? Another example of international commodities finding that sensible middle ground, maybe? There’s beauty, grace,  challenge, good fellowship, songs of the sea, and sadness to be heard here. True folk music expresses the reality of true folks. And yes, what will we do when we have no money? - J.H.


Play list for Music of the British Isles: England, Ireland and Scotland - First broadcast Feb 2, 2023

01 Silly Wizard - Donald McGillavry – O’Neill’s Cavalry March (Scotland)

02 Stick In the Wheel - Over Again (England)

03 Martin Carthy and Eliza Carthy - Died For Love (England)

04 Old Blind Dogs - Edward (Scotland)

05 Steeleye span - Lowlands of Holland (England)

06 The Imagined Village - Washing Song (England)

07 The Elizabethan Session - The Monnington Pavane-Ortiz Ground (England)

08 Martin Carthy - The Mermaid (England)

09 Fisherman’s Friends - Silver Darlins (England))

10 Beoga - The Bonny Ship, the Diamond (Ireland)

11 Linda Nicleoid - Fill-Iu Oro Hu O (Ireland)

12 The High Kings - Galway Girl (Ireland)

13 Johnny Óg Connolly, Clíodhna Costello & Pádraig Ó Dubhghaill - Slí na mBeaglaoich (Ireland)

14 Lankum - What Will We Do When We Have No Money? (Ireland)

15 Stick In The Wheel - Common Ground (England)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'ark 'ark the lark at 'eaven's gates is callin'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

British Invasion - 1960s

I wanted to declare “Kick out the jams, mo’fos!” as a signpost towards the message in this week’s Al compás del mundo radio show, but that actually came about a little later. As humanity descended ever deeper into the Cro-Magnon state, Iggy Pop and the punks claimed that honor. What we have here instead, is a post-WWII let’s shake up the political order a bit, and no, not everyone has signed up to be an unconscious consumer attitude. There’s something afoot with these lads. Not exactly revolutionary fervor, but most certainly promoting a change in the general way of things. Recalling Che Guevara’s famous quote “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, the Animals, Yardbirds, Rolling Stones et. al. pouted and preened – some more than others – in a way that hadn’t quite been done before. Youthful vigor ensued. These groups pushed the evolutionary chain of popular music a step further and we’re all better off for it.  Set list Al compás del mundo programa #183, 6-5-25 - The British Invasion, 1960s 01 Yar...

India y Nepal y Tibet

W here a human voice is heard in today’s program it’s often starkly different from what most Westerners might find pleasing and melodic.  But I must remind my listeners that the West probably did not invent the concept of vocalizing as accompaniment to plucked/blown/percussed musical instruments. Why do we sing in the style that we do? I imagine there are knowledgeable tomes wrestling with that idea. I ’ve read that vocals were meant to imitate the sounds made by instruments...or vice versa? The chicken or the egg? I’m not here to answer that question, in spite of the college course I had taken of “Music Cultures of the World” decades ago. What I offer is the opportunity to pay attention to and digest musical expressions performed by people steeped in the traditional ways of their culture.  T here is a geographic component to lumping together India, Nepal and Tibet as the Himalayas served to isolate and circumscribe the peoples of those northern regions. But here’s where I fud...

Guitarras del mundo

  Choosing music and writing about “the guitar” opens many doors. I could have gone off in any number of directions and with a singular narrow focus - but I didn’t. Instead, I threw a whole bunch of varied tunes against a wall to see which ones stuck. Sometimes there’s a continuity and other times none: just two aesthetically pleasing pieces that worked well in tandem and, hopefully, were preceded and followed with similar morsels. Usually, that is how these programs come together. I receive a divinely inspired revelation for a certain theme, region, or style of music and build it from there. Baden Powell, Brazilian beatnik poet and guitar master, seemed to me an obvious choice to begin the program. From there (as you can well see) we stick around Latin America a bit; segue into Spain, notorious as a guitar hotbed; head South to North Africa for the venerable Bombino (yes, again!) and more of that desert blues ilk; logically morph into a short blues set and settle at the bottom sid...