No, this is not a sneaky way of reopening the Song of the Day series, though it may, as I have said elsewhere, become Song of the Week/Month/Millennium as the mood takes.
But the message from Janet, published here as a comment yesterday, and another from my old electronic acquaintance "Sir Robert Peel", at Talkawhile, made it clear that the hit rate for the series, and indeed this site generally, is a little higher than I feared.
Sandy Denny, Fairport Convention, Albon Band, Dave Swarbrick, Dervish, Damien Dempsey, Eliza Carthy, Tony Capstick, High Level Ranters, Doonan Family Band, Jez lowe and the Bad Pennies, Republica, Capercaillie, Show of Hands, Jackson C Frank, Simon Mayor and Hilary James, Martin Simpson, David Campbell, Tom Paxton, Paul Brady, Sharon Shannon/Kirsty MacColl, Danu, Tommy Sands, Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman, The Cottars, Flossie Malavialle, De Dannan with Dolores Keane, Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman, Vin Garbutt, Joan Osborne, Touchstone, Bothy Band, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Bob Dylan, Linda Thompson, Oysterband, Altan, Mary Black, Nic Jones, Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick, Françoise Hardy, Richard Thompson, June Tabor, Kate Rusby, The Watersons, Bob Fox & Stu Luckley, Del Shannon, Christy Moore, Eric Clapton, Sharon Shannon/Dessie O'Halloran, Joan Baez, Luke Kelly and The Dubliners, Steeleye Span, The Unthanks ...
... have all figured in the Song of the Day series at Salut Live which began on June 24, immediately before I discovered Jon Boden had been doing something remarkably similar for a year and had just finished.
I pressed on despite this inconvenient reminder of how far out of the loop I am these days ... Sandy Denny's wonderful song, Who Knows Where The Times Goes?, one of the Fairport versions of which appeared here yesterday, was essentially the closing clip, though I have added a bonus from Mary Coughlan above.
Well, I did refuse to rule out more from Fairport Convention before the end of Song of the Day and the series cries out for this. For the last but one edition - the final one will go back over the ground covered - I have duly returned to Fairport and the irreplaceable Sandy Denny.
Despite the inverted snobbery that makes some of us smugly content that folk music is not for everyone - and I am as guilty as Kate Rusby in that respect - there is still room. paradoxically, for a sense of satisfaction when others recognise a truly great song, performance or tune.
In our discussions of folk-rock, we have tended to overlook the Albion Band.
This grossly unfair oversight is put right today by the inclusion in our Song of the Day series of the power mining disaster song (commemorating one of Britain's worst such tragedies) the band performed so well.
One occasional problem in running a Song of the Day series based on YouTube links is, as we have seen more than once, that is it not always possible to find the clip that really does justice to a performer.
I was never going to let the series end, as it will within days, without including something from Dervish, who have given me as much pleasure as most Irish bands.
Reviewing Damien Dempsey's album Seize the Day, I wrote in 2004: "If Bob Marley had been Irish, he might easily have sounded something like Damien Dempsey." Add more obvious influences - Luke Kelly, Christy Moore - and you begin to explain his striking treatment of this song, presented here by my friend and occasional contributor Pete Sixsmith in the only guest slot of the Song of the Day series ...
Damien Dempsey meets Ewan MacColl in this great version of a great song.
It reeks of times when a boy would leave school at 14 on a Friday night and, 48 hours later, accompany his dad, his brothers, his uncles and his schoolmates down the pit, or into the factory or steelworks.
So Salut! Sunderland gets 17,000 hits over a grim weekend (doubtless a clear majority from gloating Newcastle supporters), and Eliza's sparkling music will struggle to get into three figures. For folk's sake, has anyone got an answer? ...
Eliza Carthy has achieved so much in music that it may seem odd to choose a track on which we have to wait an awful long time for her voice to appear.
But it such a wonderful piece of music that I could not resist it.
Here, as far as I am concerned, is a real treat to end another week of Song of the Day.
Tony Capstick was a man with a magical sense of humour, a heart of gold, a great fund of songs and wonderful stagecraft. He was much sought-after in the folk clubs but also made an impact as a local radio broadcaster.
The High Level Ranters were the earliest folk supergroup known to me.
Each member was well-known and successful, in as much as folk singers and musicians can be, in solo work or for other music-related activites, and when they came together it was considered something special. And, for a small folk club like those I ran, probably out of reach, though I booked individual members often enough.
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