This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #102 (October / November 2002). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

Up in the North, Down in the South, and out to the East and West
Traditional Music of Great Britain on Musical Traditions Records
By Steve Winick

Musical Traditions, the U.K.-based internet magazine-turned-on-demand-CDR-publisher, offers some of the best collections available of traditional music from Britain. Alongside Topic Records' "Voice of the People" series, and a few scattered releases from labels like Veteran Tapes, Musical Traditions offers true aficionados of this somewhat rarified genre top-quality field recordings.

We'll begin with two double-CD sets of folk music from various artists. Chronologically, the earlier of the two is Just Another Saturday Night [MTCD 309-10]; it was recorded way back in 1959 and 1960 in five Sussex pubs. As the notes tell it, it was 1999 when Musical Traditions executive Rod Stradling was contacted by a reader named Steve Pennells. Pennells had recently located an old friend, Brian Matthews, who had been a folksong enthusiast in the late 50s and 60s and had recorded many traditional singers in that era. Pennells didn't know if the tapes still existed, but he suggested Stradling get in touch directly with Matthews and find out. Stradling did, and the result was an influx of unusual recordings to the Musical Traditions headquarters in Gloucestershire. The label already released some of Matthews' hoard on their George Townshend double-CD of 1999. Just Another Saturday Night is thus the second double-CD set in the Brian Matthews collection.

You must take into account a few factors to understand how extraordinary this set is. First of all, the recordings were made by an amateur with fairly primitive equipment. Second, they were made in pubs, which are notoriously difficult environments in which to record properly. The result of this is that, first, these are not sparkling studio-quality tracks, and second, they sometimes fade in a few words or even a couple of verses into a song, since Matthews needed a moment to orient the microphone and start recording. So if technical perfection is what you're after, you may be disappointed. But if you're at all interested in traditional singing, you can't buy a more interesting document than this one. For one thing, it contains otherwise unrecorded gems from the repertoires of well-known singers, people like George "Pop" Maynard, George "Spike" Spicer, Cyril Phillips and Jim "Brick" Harber, all of whom recorded LPs or LP tracks that are now long out of print. This is thus one of the few ways to find their singing on CD. With songs like Spicer's unusual version of "The Cunning Cobbler" (a singularly unforgiving song), Maynard's "Pride of Kildare" (a lovely and forgiving one), Phillips' "The Rest of the Day's Your Own," (a silly but entertaining music-hall number), and Harber's "The Cabin Boy and the Lady Gay" (a very rare, and quite serious, ballad), enthusiasts of the genre will not want to miss this set. Add to these other finds like Maynard's beautiful "The Week Before Easter," Jim Porter's chestnuts "Brianey O'Lynn" and "Spencer the Rover," Harry Holman's fractional but heartfelt "Sailor Cut Down in His Prime," and Scan Tester's version of "Lakes of Coldflynn," unusual if only because Tester is much better known as an instrumentalist, and you have a set that many collectors would want, even without its most significant quality.

What's that quality, you ask? It's the presence of Sarah Porter, a Traveller, whose singing was, as far as I know, never recorded except by Matthews. Porter sings in the Traveller style, slowly, in a dramatic, declarative voice. Her texts of older songs like "The Outlandish Knight" and "The Bitter Withy" are fragmentary and scrambled, but her tunes are affecting nonetheless. Her more complete texts of broadside songs like "Down by the Deep River Side" and "Died for Love" combine with her musical abilities to make tracks of great interest and pathos. A singer of Mrs. Porter's quality is a rare find indeed, and to find her on 40-year-old tapes is all the more surprising. Another nice touch is the notes, which are largely made up of reminiscences from Matthews, Pennells, Reg Hall (who played melodeon and collected songs and tunes in the same area and era) and, especially, Sussex singer Bob Lewis, who remembers the times from a singer's perspective: "Singing was as normal as breathing. We sang up the woods, we sang anywhere. You sang when you felt in the mood — you'd be in the pub and someone would start a song and all of a sudden the whole place lit up. It was never, 'Well, let's have a sing' — it either happened or it didn't."
Another double-CD compilation of traditional music, Up in the North and Down in the South [MTCD 311-12] is made up of songs and tunes recorded by in Britain by Mike Yates between 1964 and 2000. These were recorded mostly in the singers' homes, and this has allowed for complete songs with good sound quality and no background noise, a true luxury in this genre! Yates is one of Britain's most prolific collectors, and since this represents his favorites from a vast and varied collection, it's made up pretty much exclusively of excellent versions, unusual songs and tunes, and strong singers. It's hard to pick out favorites from such a collection, but I'll give it a try.
George Spicer's "Blackberry Fold" is a strange combination of the broken-token and murder-ballad genres, and his "The Lily-White Hand" is a combination of the "love her and leave her" and murder genres; both are smart texts and stately tunes. Freda Palmer"As I Was a-Walking" is a song I'd never heard before with a standard plot and a cute gimmick of spelling out some of the words. Bill Whiting's "The Broken Down Gentleman" was likewise unknown to me, and Whiting's somewhat raspy delivery makes it charming. Bob Blake's four songs are all unusual in one way or another, and his gentle tenor is most pleasant on the ear. His rendition of the unusual broadside "The Basket of Eggs" is particularly sweet and measured, and his version of the celebratory seasonal song "Our Sheep shearing's Done" seems to be the only one ever recorded. Johnny Doughty's songs, including a sparkling version of "The Sailor's Alphabet," suggest the singer's great good humor and commanding presence. Jacquey Gabriel's unusually complete rendering of the rare old ballad "Giles Collins" is quite moving. Gabriel's voice reminds me most of all of revivalist Frankie Armstrong's, and I find myself wishing there were more than just one song from her. Probably my favorite of all the singers here is Frank Hinchliffe, and his versions of "The Golden Glove" and "The Green Mossy Banks of the Lee" are near to sublime. His sweet ditty "It Hails, It Rains," essentially a version of "Cold Haily Windy Night," in which the young man marries the girl in the end, is a tenderhearted variation on a common theme. All of these, and more, make Up in the North an essential collection.
There are 4 more recordings discussed in this column from Dirty Linen #102 (Oct./Nov. '02). Read the full text in the magazine, available via subscription or on newsstands and in bookstores.