Two events I hope will catch your interest. BBC Radio Lancashire 8pm Sunday 11th June Yours truly talking about the book and singing live. Monday 12th June Skipton Folk Club. The first half is Keith Kendrick and Sylvia Needham, with floor spots from Sue Burgess, Dave Calvert and the Bromleys. Narration from Mally Dow. The second half is a regular club night with room for Floor singers and 45 mins. from Keith and Sylvia doing their regular club act. (This is me trying to please everybody!) I will be MCing, all are welcome (The Narrowboat Skipton 8.30) Books on sale at the club, and through Francis Boutle website. kind regards to all Nick

Originally selected and edited by Frank Purslow Revised by Steve Gardham Foreword by Martin Carthy MBE

330 pages ISBN 978 0 995747 30 2

Including the words and music for nearly 300 songs

The Hammond and Gardiner manuscripts are amongst the most important nineteenth-century collections of English folk song.

This omnibus volume containing The Constant Lovers and The Foggy Dew completes the series originally edited by Frank Purslow and published by the English Folk Dance and Song Society in the late 60s and early 70s. The two books have been extensively revised and updated by Steve Gardham. They are accompanied by comprehensive notes and the biographies of the principal singers from all four volumes. In undertaking this monumental task, Steve Gardham has added considerably to song scholarship, and future academics and singers will be forever in his debt.

Sterling work by Nick in promoting the collections made in Hampshire and Dorset over a century ago. Keep up the good work, Nick. Nick made plenty of contributions to the book himself and his introduction gets special mention in reviews. That's apart from his research on the original Dorset singers, particularly the sensational Marina Russell.

The book gets a very favorable review in the current edition of English Dance & Song (says the person who wrote it who is using another computer at the moment as his own is with his repair nerd at the moment.)

Hi Joe, When I used the word 'sensational' to describe her I was referring to the fact that of the whole of the Hammond Gardiner collection, her repertoire was not only the largest by far, but the quality of some of her versions is outstanding. Martin Carthy always enthused about her contributions. No recordings unfortunately as far as I'm aware.

"Marina died in 1915? Oh, so no good recordings available, huh?" You sure 'bout that? Recordings of some of the finest singing from English traditional singers was made in 1908 (seven years earlier), by Percy Grainger in Lincolnshire. Lucy Broadwood was using a recording machine at the time, though enquiries as to what happened to the cylinders drew a blank when the Broadwood family was approached. Sharp, while expressing disapproval of recording singers (he believed it to be an intrusion), recorded some of his singers. I understand that the earliest field recordings ever made were of Native Americans in the late 1890s - there is also a recording of an Irish piper made around the same time and played by Nicholas Carolan on his 'The Irish Phonograph' series There is a horror story of an extremely deaf lady who had some authority at Cecil Sharp House. deciding to make some cupboard space and, finding a box of cylinders, request that they be played and, when she was unable to hear them, ordered them to be smashed, keeping only a couple as a memento of "dear Cecil" I have always hoped to live long enough to be told that some of these recordings might be unearthed. Jim Carroll

I think Joe meant recordings of Marina. Sharp did record Jack Barnard of Bridgewater, and several other singers from Somerset. The only comparable Dorset recordings were Charlie Wills and my recordings of his friend Bill House, whose father George sang to the Hammond brothers. They are available on line. I was very young when I recorded Bill and looking back made a bit of a hash of it. I got most of his songs but tried to ape the recordings I was listening to on vinyl at the time and used my own value judgments (just like the Hammonds did with his father George). I was only 29 years old and far from being encouraged by my elders and betters I was (probably quite correctly) taken to task but not very kindly. Needless to say being a working class lad from Peckham I felt I was being talked down to so I threw my dummy out of my pram and took my toys home at the time. I got absolutely no encouragement at all (with the exception of Sam Richards). I often wonder what I might have achieved had somebody with greater knowledge taken me under his or her wing. However you can't put an old head on young shoulders and I did my best. You can hear my efforts at collecting at the British Library Website. Marina's life story is available with my article in 'The Living Tradition, complete with a photo of her and her husband.

George Gardiner also recorded a number of singers in Hampshire, probable the year before he died. These were used by Vaughan Williams to re-notate some tunes, as stated in one of the early Society Journals - some still exist and are available on a EFDSS CD - forgotten name just now - include is a version of Banks of Claudy by Fred. White and David Clements Banks of Green Willow.

Oh, sure there were a few field recordings before 1920, but I haven't found any old ones that were "sensational." Until the late 1930s, field recordings were almost universally scratchy and difficult to understand. No? -Joe-

"universally scratchy and difficult to understand." As long ago as the late seventies there were discussions on improving the quality of cylinder recordings using lasers. Even pre-digitisation, Bob Thomson (who later became Professor Thomson and moved to a senior position in the English Department of Gainesville University, Florida) worked with Bill Leader and Dave Bland and produced the magnificent 'Unto Brigg Fair' album from Grainger's 1908 recordings. Bob was a close friend but we lost touch when he moved to the U.S. - he must be retired now but if he is still around, he would be a mine of information about those recordings - he was one of our greatest losses to English folksong scholarship. These recordings were made before our singing traditions took the downhill path and, even if they don't always make easy listening, they hold many answers to what I believe to be the culture of the British people - they should not be forgotten though they have been sadly neglected. The Grainger Collection, which I have listened to in full, has never been exploited fully, though there is a set housed at The National Library in London (seem to remember it includes some Norwegian stuff too). It has never been seriously annotated and published: Pat O'Shaugnessy dipped into it with a couple of slim paperbacks and an Australian lady, Jane O'Brien, made a serious effort of indexing it and published it as a monograph, but I don't think it was ever made widely available. I have always thought it to be one of our neglected treasures seriously in need of being turned into 'An Eastern Harvest'. I'm hoping that The James M Carpenter Collection turns up some gems - he certainly made a great number of recording, though I fear he only recorded verses rather than full songs for annotation purposes It really is a shame that England does not have a folk song organisation with the initiative and the support to take on these jobs (don't get me started about the disasterous merging of the English Folk Song Society with the dancers - grrrrrrr!!) Jim Carroll