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By Oak And Ash And Thorn
Mar. 13th, 2025 09:03 am YouTube has sussed that I like folk music and has been introducing me to a new generation of artists.
I'm particularly taken with The Longest Johns- a group of tall young men who frequently sing a capella- and with Julie (I can't find her second name) whose channel is called Eat, Bake, Sing.
What is a folk song? By this stage I'd say it's anything that can be sung in a pub with a pint of beer to hand, but even that may be over-prescriptive. The Longest Johns have a repertoire that includes covers of Marty Robins and the Wurzels. I think Nessun Dorma is probably not a folk song (too difficult) and neither is the latest KPop confection- but perhaps there are those who'd be prepared to argue....
The Longest Johns have inventive videos. They put on helmets and go down a working pit to sing their thumpingly good version of Byker Hill. Julie films herself on her phone singing in the great outdoors. She gives us John Barleycorn sitting on the edge of a barley field with cars going past- and if she wants a bit of reverb she goes and stands under a railway arch. In at least one vid she's carrying her youngest child in a sling and the baby joins in. I think this home-made approach is very, very folk.
Both Julie and the Long Johns have versions of Peter Bellamy's setting of Kipling's A Tree Song (better known as Oak and Ash and Thorn) Lots of artists cover it and from what I'd seen it's become Bellamy's greatest hit. It's a shame he succumbed to melancholia so early and is no longer around to see how his work persists in the tradition. Peace be to his troubled spirit!
I'm particularly taken with The Longest Johns- a group of tall young men who frequently sing a capella- and with Julie (I can't find her second name) whose channel is called Eat, Bake, Sing.
What is a folk song? By this stage I'd say it's anything that can be sung in a pub with a pint of beer to hand, but even that may be over-prescriptive. The Longest Johns have a repertoire that includes covers of Marty Robins and the Wurzels. I think Nessun Dorma is probably not a folk song (too difficult) and neither is the latest KPop confection- but perhaps there are those who'd be prepared to argue....
The Longest Johns have inventive videos. They put on helmets and go down a working pit to sing their thumpingly good version of Byker Hill. Julie films herself on her phone singing in the great outdoors. She gives us John Barleycorn sitting on the edge of a barley field with cars going past- and if she wants a bit of reverb she goes and stands under a railway arch. In at least one vid she's carrying her youngest child in a sling and the baby joins in. I think this home-made approach is very, very folk.
Both Julie and the Long Johns have versions of Peter Bellamy's setting of Kipling's A Tree Song (better known as Oak and Ash and Thorn) Lots of artists cover it and from what I'd seen it's become Bellamy's greatest hit. It's a shame he succumbed to melancholia so early and is no longer around to see how his work persists in the tradition. Peace be to his troubled spirit!
