Béla Bartók's portrait on 1,000 Hungarian forint banknote (printed between 1983 and 1992)

Anne Briggs – Anne Briggs (Topic Treasures Series Deluxe CD Reissue)

Topic Records – 22nd March 2019 (Vinyl release – 12 April)

It may not have escaped your notice that Topic Records are celebrating their 80th birthday (as reported here). Part of the celebrations includes the re-issue of classic Topic albums with extra sleeve notes, new photographs and original artwork, and if Topic is important to the history and documentation of traditional music, then the long-overdue reissue of Anne Briggs’ eponymous album is one of their most important releases.

Nigh on sixty years ago, the music world was almost awash with revivals, discoveries and appropriations. This melting pot was all to the good but some were more superficial than others and even within musical genres and sub-genres, there were plenty of examples of people jumping on the next bandwagon for but a short distance ‘til the next one swerved around the corner.

For traditional and folk music the story was much the same except perhaps for a sense of political attachment not seen in commercially-driven popular culture. Traditional and folk music of the British Isles has a long history and is vast in its scope – bucolic and industrial, love and death, justice and injustice. In that period from the mid-fifties through to the early seventies, against, or rather as part of the melting pot of popular (and not-so-popular) music, British folk shifted, from the industrial to the rural, and in different ways from rock-based rhythms to pure, unadorned solo voices.

Of course, this is all easy to see from the distance of half a century or more, but if a student of traditional music was looking to capture the essence of the unadorned, some may say ‘true’ forms, then there are only a small number you can turn to. And top of that list would be Anne Briggs and Shirley Collins.

The importance of Anne Briggs, along with others pursuing the traditional path at the time, is that they were picking up strands from here, parts of ballads from there and the tunes from elsewhere. It was also a period when the versions learned in one region may be more readily compared with that of another by listening to the songs being released on Topic Records, and not by comparing the notations of Cecil Sharp and others in the then-lofty heights of the EFDSS. Anne noted that what she and her fellow singers were doing was picking ‘up the threads of the tradition – but’ she says ‘other than a few old recordings we’ve not got anything else to go on’.

Many will know these songs as they have since passed into what may be termed, at the risk of sounding pretentious, the repertoire. Perhaps you owned the original album and need little introduction? For those of you to whom Anne Briggs is an unknown, then this is the way in. The voice is unadorned in technique, the story left to tell itself and from the very start of the opening number, Blackwater Side, you know this is special.

At times an instrument offers simple accompaniment, a light foil to the power of the voice, a device to imply the momentum, or simply a backdrop against which to tell the tale. There is, of course, the guitar on Blackwater Side and Go Your Way, but Willie O’Winsbury is the first of three tracks that feature the bouzouki, played on here by both Anne and Johnny Moynihan. 

The bouzouki was a rare occurrence particularly in folk music of the time but given the interest in traditions and instruments from other parts of the world at the time, this should not be too much of a surprise in retrospect.

If there is a tour-de-force amongst this very fine collection, it is Young Tambling. This ballad-story is well-known now but at the time of recording was only known in fragments. AL Lloyd, who produced the album, said that he ‘cobbled this set together, in part from Child, in part from recent collection’. 

But listen to it. It is over ten minutes long. It is not sung at a whisper. It is the same voice that sings The Snow It Melts the Soonest at nearly two and a half minutes, but Tambling is a full-length narrative, without loss, without variance. Ten minutes. 

The other major aspect of Anne Briggs’ work that cannot be ignored but is not clear at the point of this recording, is the connection with Bert Jansch. Anne’s recorded output was not prolific – a few tracks on a couple of albums and a solo EP between 1963 and 1966 and then nothing until this album in 1971. But – written in capitals perhaps – as Rob Young describes in Electric Eden (2010) ‘she seemed content to act as an invisible catalyst, sprinkling traditional songs and her own compositions among more prominent artists like gold dust’.

And to Bert Jansch, friend and one-time lover, she gave/taught/wrote/co-wrote Go Your Way, Reynardine and Blackwater Side.

All-in-all, this is one of the most significant recordings of the period. A tribute to the recording techniques of Sean Davies and the production of AL Lloyd, a tribute to the work of Topic Records and a tribute to Anne Briggs. This is an important album documenting an important time in the cycle of traditional music. Nearly fifty years on, Anne is still being discovered, listened to and learned from. This is music to pass on to the next generations.

Order Anne Briggs: http://smarturl.it/annebriggs

Anne Briggs – Signed Test Pressing Giveaway

Courtesy of Topic Records, we have a rare test pressing of the Topic Treasure forthcoming re-issue of Anne Briggs’ eponymous classic debut solo album, signed by Anne herself. 

The limited edition 180gm gold vinyl version is out on April 12th. Pre-order here: https://www.propermusic.com/shop/TopicRecords/view/262831-anne-briggs-anne-briggs-lp

To enter simply email us here: info@folkradio.co.uk. In your email include “Topic” in the subject along with your name and address in the body of the message. Last entries by 10 am on Friday 12 April 2019.

Béla Bartók's portrait on 1,000 Hungarian forint banknote (printed between 1983 and 1992)

Corbyn – Today, youth climate strikers demanding action on climate change

Published: 22:45 Friday, 15 March 2019



Jeremy Corbyn, Labour: It’s past time all of us stopped looking the other way

By taking to the streets today to make their voices heard, young people are educating us about how important tackling climate change is to their generation. 

They are right to be worried about what kind of planet they will inherit and right to demand far-reaching action. Governments cannot sit back, leaving major decisions to market forces. It hasn’t worked and it never will. Polluting corporations will never do anything serious to solve the crisis.

Bill Berry Wake Ivenhoe Hotel Blue Mountains 2019

Labor – Plastic Bags Ban

Big news: NSW Labor has just confirmed that it will deliver a ban on plastic bags in NSW in the first 100 days, if it wins the next election.

And that’s not all. NSW Labor have also pledged to phase out single-use plastic cups and straws in NSW, as well as implementing a recycling, resource recovery and waste council to manage the landfill crisis.

This is HUGE. And to make sure this actually happens we need to do two things, right now:

Congratulate NSW Labor for demonstrating leadership on environmental issues.
Show the Berejiklian Government that tons of people want to see an end to plastic pollution, no matter who wins the election.

Share the news right now to make sure this flies far and wide.

With one side of politics taking this seriously, we are close to winning a ban on plastic bags this year! With more single-use plastic products replaced soon. But the current NSW Government have avoided this issue for many years (and through many environment ministers). This is despite the government’s own advice that more than 10 million bags will enter the NSW environment each year, threatening marine life.

We need to reward leadership, when it happens, and remind those leaders who aren’t keeping up that we are watching their every move.

Share this story so that NSW Labor and Liberals know where you stand on plastic pollution.

We know the major parties are watching every popular issue closely. And with two weeks to go to the state election, our actions couldn’t be more impactful.

Now - let’s show them we’re all on board.

Nic and the team at Greenpeace Australia Pacific

PS: this is a really big deal. Plastic pollution is getting out of control. It’s in our water, our food and new evidence shows how it’s getting into our bodies.[3] And NSW is one of the world’s biggest massive waste producers, per capita. We can win this if we show our strength together, right now. And when we win this, we will have cut substantially cut one of the largest sources of plastic pollution in NSW. Let’s do this!

Doc Watson – Freight Train