Cecil Sharp Project

about

This was a tough brief. Eight folk musicians spent a week in the countryside writing a concept work about the folk-song collector Cecil Sharp. He may have played a crucial role in the revival of the genre in the early 20th century, but he's hardly a likable figure ("a bit of an anorak," said Steve Knightley), and little is known about his personal life. A performance at the headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society added pressure. But it worked because the songs were unexpectedly varied and the mood bravely and cheerfully non-reverential. Cecil Sharp Project At Shrewsbury Folk festival on 28 August Details It was a Who's Who of the new British folk scene, with steve Knightley joined by Kathryn Roberts, Jim Moray and his sister Jackie Oates, Patsy Reid from the Scottish band Breabach, and the squeeze-box star Andy Cutting, along with the funny and furious Canadian banjo player Leonard Podolak and the fine American singer Caroline Herring, the discovery of the evening. Amazingly, they sounded like a band rather than a collection of talented individuals, with singers and instrumentalists interacting and swapping solos. Part of the set consisted of songs that Sharp collected, with Oates and Roberts providing exquisite harmonies on Barbara Allen, and Oates swapping vocals with Herring on different versions of Lover's Lament. The new songs ranged from the poignant to the critical. Ghost of Songs was a moving tribute to those who gave Sharp their songs, the jaunty D

top songs

albums

Cecil Sharp Project

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Beginners Guide To English Folk

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Songlines CD #78 (August/September 2011)

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Beginners Guide TO English Folk [Disc 1]

Beginner's Guide to English Folk

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Cecil Sharp Project 2011: Shrewsbury Folk Festival

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Cecil Sharp Project 2011

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Cecil Sharp Project 2011 Disc 1

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Beginner's Guide to English Folk [2012] Disc 1

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Music For The World

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Songlines CD78

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Beginner's Guide To English Folk (Disc 1)

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