Salut! Live

In 2008, I introduced the feature as the first in a proposed series of playlists. "Try to imagine I am hopping from one island to another in my attempt to escape and therefore qualify for a new list each time," I wrote. "The body's needs, I trust, would be catered for by my luxury items: limitless supply of champagne, red wine and Guinness, to wash down as much French, Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine as I could eat."

That plan went the way of so many when it comes to Salut! Live. Good intentions can come to nought when I become discouraged by low levels of readership (things have picked up quite a lot in recent weeks, the result of a renewed burst of activity on my part). There was one follow-up list, which I shall also update and reproduce in due course, and I did begin to write a third.

Read on for my first list. The picture of Maddy Prior, lead singer of Steeleye Span and the band's public face, is used with the kind permission of Roger Liptrot of the Folk Images site.

A clever chap at YouTube came up with this delicious slice of Steeleye.

Long Lankin........................Steeleye Span

Who Knows Where the Time Goes? ....Sandy Denny

Fareweel Regality..................Rachel Unthank and the Winterset

From Clare to Here............................Bob Fox

Ned of the Hill...................... Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts

Never Any Good................................Martin Simpson

Raglan Road..................................... Dubliners

Lady Dillon.......................... Chris Newman and Maire Ni Chathasaigh

Anachie Gordon....................Mary Black (or Sinead O'Connor)

Farewell Farewell............................... Fairport Convention (with Sandy Denny)

So what changes do I have in mind? For a start, I am happy to forego the champagne. I can also live without Guinness so will make do with the red wine, maybe with the odd glass of dry rose. An internet stream to torture myself with Sunderland games would also be handy and since I intend to be the island's ruler (I have in mind a benign left-of-centre dictatorship), it will not be illegal to watch them.

As for the music, I cannot believe I omitted Paul Brady's Arthur McBride from my list. This is not only the finest example I know of the many press gang songs within the folk tradition, but probably the piece of music I regard more highly than any other.

Looking at the 10 original choices, I will relegate Fairport's Farewell Farewell. There is already a Sandy Denny entry so, of the various versions that exist, her Who Knows ... can be one of those recorded by her with the band.

Otherwise, I shall keep the titles as listed, though I might allow myself one more luxury: alternative interpretations, for example Joan Osborne's Raglan Road or the Wainwright Sisters' Long Lankin, Cheating or not, I'd still want to hear Luke Kelly and Steeleye from time to time.

There is much more music I would wish to take with me. The second instalment deals with political song. Thereafter, further selections - American music, maybe, or folk in a foreign language (pipe down the man who said American music already covers that) - may or may not appear. I am making no promises ... but readers are naturally invited to suggest their own choices.