31/01/2009

This week RaW Folk explored the folk rock connections to the day the music died, fifty years ago on February 3rd. Had Buddy Holly lived it is tempting to wonder whether he would have contributed to the Sixties folk revival, having moved to Greenwich Village shortly before the plane crash that killed him at the age of 22, alongside Ritchie Valens (aged 17), JP Richardson (The Big Bopper, aged 28) and the pilot Roger Peterson.

The show also paid tribute to the late John Martyn, a terrific folk (and jazz) singer-songwriter and folk guitar virtuoso, who died on Thursday.

In addition the almost regular features Folk On or Folk Off, Train Track and Young Folkies graced the airwaves with customary gauche inelegance and I decided that Mykonos by Fleet Foxes is the most affecting track I've heard since Josh Pyke's Middle of the Hill.

Music Played
Artist - Song (Album)

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Tamacun (Rodrigo y Gabriela)
Ritchie Valens - La Bamba (Ritchie Valens)
Buddy Holly - Well... All Right (Very Best of)
Fleet Foxes - Mykonos (Sun Giant EP)
John Martyn - Glory Box (The Church With One Bell)

Train Track
Bob Dylan - It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Highway 61 Revisited)

John Martyn - Solid Air (Solid Air)
Cara Dillon - Spencer the Rover (Hill of Thieves)

Folk On or Folk Off
The Nightwatchman - One Man Revolution (One Man Revolution)

Young Folkies
Ryan Young - Catharsis, Humours of Tulla, Mittens Breakdown (BBC Folk Awards 2007)

Steeleye Span - Rave On (Spanning the Years)
Don McLean - American Pie (American Pie)