Fred Jordan

about

Fred Jordan (5 January 1922 – 30 July 2002) was a farm worker from Ludlow, Shropshire, and is noted as one of the great musically untutored traditional English singers. He was first recorded in the 1940s by folk music researcher Alan Lomax and, over subsequent decades endeared himself to the English folk-song revival movement. Jordan was awarded the English Folk Dance and Song Society's highest honour, the Gold Badge, "for distinguished and unique contributions to the folk performing arts" in 1995. Jordan was born in Ludlow, the youngest of 5 children. His date of birth has been given in various sources as 16 October 1922 but this is an error arising from Peter Kennedy’s inaccurate date of birth published in an old EDFSS magazine and repeated also on Fred’s first LP sleeve. At the age of 6 he won a £1 prize for his singing of “The Gypsy’s Warning”. At the age of 14 he left school to work as a farm labourer for three shillings (£0.15) per week. He learnt his songs from his father and mother, fellow farm workers and travelling families, supplemented with some from printed sources. His repertoire included songs which had been handed-down by the oral tradition from as far back as the era of Samuel Pepys and from the music halls of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He mainly sang these songs in pubs. Following the war Jordan was working for a blacksmith who heard that Alan Lomax was in the area, searching for songs in the way that Cecil Sharp had some 50 years earlier, and

top songs

albums

Songs of a Shropshire Farm Worker

When the frost is on the pumpkin

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Voice of the People 13: They Ordered Their Pints of Beer & Bottles of Sherry

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Hidden English

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Voice of the People 03: O'er His Grave The Grass Grew Green (Tragic Ballads)

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Three Score And Ten: A Voice To The People

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Voice of the People 02: My Ship Shall Sail the Ocean - Songs of Tempest & Sea Battles, Sailor Lads & Fishermen

A Shropshire Lad

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Voice of the People 20: There Is A Man Upon The Farm

Classic Ballads Of Britain And Ireland 1

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Voice Of The People 07: First I'm Going To Sing You A Ditty

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Voice of the People 05: Come All My Lads that Follow the Plough

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