Fo'c'sle Programme
July 2003

4 Gwilym Davies

Despite his Welsh name and ancestry, Gwilym Davies is a Hampshire man who has been resident in Gloucestershire since the 1970s. He is an experienced singer of traditional songs and, when not singing unaccompanied, accompanies himself on melodeon, concertina, banjo or guitar. For more than 30 years, Gwilym has been tracking down and recording traditional singers, and more that half his repertoire is based on songs from those singers. He sings a large number of songs from the English traveller (gypsy) community which he has learnt first hand. Most of his English songs come from the south and south-west of England, and he also sings a number of songs from his collecting trips to the USA.

Gwilym will sing many songs from his new album:
THERE'S A CLEAR CRYSTAL FOUNTAIN
Songs from Southern England FTCD205
A joint production between Forest Tracks and Hampshire man Gwilym Davies. Now living in Gloucester, Gwilym from his teens onwards was involved in folksong and he has made a point of noting and performing songs he has learnt from traditional singers in the south of England.
There are 20 tracks, amongst them are 11 traditional songs/tunes from Hampshire. These include songs from Jack Oakley and Annie Dodd of Steep and George Privett of Shedfield,. Also featured are songs from Gloucestershire's Wiggy Smith and his cousin, Biggin.

11 Christina Smith & Jean Hewson

Two superb traditional newcomers from Newfoundland with vocals, guitar, 'cello and fiddle.
Since 1985, Christina and Jean, both native Newfoundlanders, have dedicated themselves to the preservation and performance of Newfoundland music. Their long-standing friendships with the older generation of singers and musicians such as the late fiddlers, Emile Benoit and Rufus Guinchard, accordion players Frank Maher, Minnie White and John Joe Pigeon, and singers Gordon Willis and Tess Murphy, have given them a unique repertoire of songs and tunes that are rooted in the traditions of "The Rock". With their instrumentation of voice, guitar, fiddle and cello, they shape this material into unusual and engaging arrangements. A performance by Jean and Christina will run the gamut from rollicking dance tunes, to hilarious ditties, to chilling murder ballads; all mixed with liberal doses of the humour and wit for which Newfoundlanders are so justly famous.

18 Anything Goes

Play or Sing, read a Poem, tell a Story, listen, fetch the beer, anything

25 Stanley Accrington

End-of-season treat for the funny-bones. (Whitby FF Programme 2000 - "Stanley suffers from a compulsive mental disorder whereby he churns out a constant stream of songs whether they are required or not"). For 20+ years he has been producing songs on all sorts of topics in a variety of styles, but with more than a passing nod to Trad and Anon. Usually the subject matter is current news, but there is no explanation for his deviant use of silly hats, topical anagrams and other such artifices. He tends to visit Whitby each August to take the waters as part of ‘the cure'... more necessary than ever after this year's trips to the South to entertain two Morris Celebrations and Wherwell S&S Club and now to the Fo'c'sle ...!

(Then Club closed until 5 September Anything Goes)

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