Strawhead | |
---|---|
Origin | Northern England |
Genres | Folk music |
Years active | 1974–2012 |
Members | Gregg Butler Malcolm Gibbons Chris Pollington |
Website | http://www.strawhead.org.uk/ |
Strawhead was a northern England, Preston-based folk musical group founded in 1974, [1] that specialized in historical British music. Bolstering their national reputation for their accurate and powerful interpretation of the genre of social history of the 16th to 19th centuries, [2] the group's repertoire included popular songs from the English Civil War era to the Victorian period performed on period and electronic instruments. [1]
The group engaged in projects associated with disparate musical traditions in British history. In October 2005, they celebrated the 200th anniversary of 21 October 1805 Battle of Trafalgar through a performance at the 2005 Canalside Festival in the market town of Banbury. [4] [5] Other projects included music of the English Civil War and the Victorian period. The Fylde Folk Festival website listed "subjects such as the colonisation of America, the English Civil War, Marlborough’s Wars in the Low Countries, Monmouth’s Rebellion, and drinking songs." [6]
According to a BBC review, "Strawhead have enjoyed considerable success appearing at the top of the bill at most of the UK's major folk festivals, becoming firm favourites among folk fans." [1] In addition, they achieved worldwide recognition for their distinctive sound and interpretation of songs. [7]
Strawhead fuelled controversy when they created a work based on a British ballad entitled "The Bold Fusilier", [8] the tune to which, some suggested, predated the similar 1903 tune to "Waltzing Matilda", [9] [10] Australia's most widely known folk song. [11] However, most sources reject the idea that the British song served as a parent work for the Australian. [12]
In the 1970s, Strawhead wrote four more verses for "The Bold Fusilier", covering Marlborough's Wars of 1702 to 1713, [8] calling their revised song "The Rochester Recruiting Sergeant". [8] This was adopted by a generation of folkies and battle re-enactors, [8] many of whom came to believe that "The Rochester Recruiting Sergeant" was truly from the early 18th century. [8] Some mistakenly believed that the 1903 tune of "Waltzing Matilda" was borrowed from "The Rochester Recruiting Sergeant", rather than the reverse, even though the sleeve notes to Strawhead's 1978 record provided an explanation, and attributed the song to Pete Coe. [8] [13]
In April 2012, Strawhead announced that they were to retire from live performances.
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America.
"Waltzing Matilda" is a song developed in the Australian style of poetry and folk music called a bush ballad. It has been described as the country's "unofficial national anthem".
Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889), "The Man from Snowy River" (1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem.
The folk music of England is a tradition-based music which has existed since the later medieval period. It is often contrasted with courtly, classical and later commercial music. Folk music traditionally was preserved and passed on orally within communities, but print and subsequently audio recordings have since become the primary means of transmission. The term is used to refer both to English traditional music and music composed or delivered in a traditional style.
Eric Bogle is a Scottish-born Australian folk singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Scotland, he emigrated to Australia at the age of 25, to settle near Adelaide, South Australia. Bogle's songs have covered a variety of topics and have been performed by many artists. Two of his best known songs are "No Man's Land" and "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda", with the latter named one of the APRA Top 30 Australian songs in 2001, as part of the celebrations for the Australasian Performing Right Association's 75th anniversary.
A hoedown is a type of American folk dance or square dance in duple meter, and also the musical form associated with it.
Suvla is a bay on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in European Turkey, south of the Gulf of Saros.
Isla St Clair is a Scottish singer.
"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is a song written by Scottish-born Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle in 1971. The song describes war as futile and gruesome, while criticising those who seek to glorify it. This is exemplified in the song by the account of a young Australian serviceman who is maimed during the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War. The protagonist, who had travelled across rural Australia before the war, is emotionally devastated by the loss of his legs in battle. As the years pass he notes the death of other veterans, while the younger generation becomes apathetic to the veterans and their cause. At its conclusion, the song incorporates the melody and a few lines of lyrics of the 1895 song "Waltzing Matilda" by Australian poet Banjo Paterson.
John Gerard "Jez" Lowe is an English folk singer-songwriter. Lowe was born and raised in County Durham, in a family with Irish roots. He is known primarily for his compositions dealing with daily life in North-East England, particularly in his hometown of Easington Colliery. He attended St Francis RC Grammar School in nearby Hartlepool and later studied languages at Sunderland Polytechnic. He performs both as a solo artist and with his backing band, The Bad Pennies. In addition to singing his songs, Lowe accompanies himself and The Bad Pennies on guitar, harmonica, cittern, and piano.
Mitzie Collins is an interpreter of traditional British and American vocal and instrumental music.
"Arthur McBride" is a folk song probably of Irish origin, also found in England, Scotland, Australia, and North America. Describing a violent altercation with a recruiting sergeant, it can be narrowly categorized as an "anti-recruiting" song, a specific form of anti-war song, and more broadly as a protest song. A. L. Lloyd described it as "that most good-natured, mettlesome, and un-pacifistic of anti-militarist songs".
Paddy Tunney was an Irish traditional singer, poet, writer, raconteur, lilter and songwriter. He was affectionately known as the Man of Songs.
Thomas Edward Bulch was an English-born Australian musician and composer.
John Francis O'Hagan was an Australian singer-songwriter and radio personality.
"Street Hassle" is a song recorded by American rock musician Lou Reed for his 1978 studio album of the same name. It is 10 minutes and 56 seconds long and divided into three distinct sections: "Waltzing Matilda," "Street Hassle," and "Slipaway." Part one, "Waltzing Matilda," describes a woman picking up and paying a male prostitute. In Part Two, "Street Hassle," a drug dealer speaks at length about the death of a woman in his apartment to her companion. Part Three, "Slipaway," contains a brief, uncredited, spoken word section by Bruce Springsteen and a dirge sung by Reed about love and death. It was recorded in E major.
Australian folk music is the traditional music from the large variety of immigrant cultures and those of the original Australian inhabitants.
Ambrose Gaines "Uncle Am" Stuart (1853–1926) was an American Old-time fiddle player. After winning various fiddle contests across the Southern Appalachian region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Stuart made several recordings in June 1924 that would later prove influential in the development of early Country music.
Dorris Henderson was an American-born, United Kingdom-based folk music singer and autoharp player.
Michael Gorman (1895–1970) was an Irish fiddler, often partnering Margaret Barry. He has been described as "one of traditional music's few superstars of the post-War decades" and one whose "musical roots in Ireland can be identified back to the artisan musicians in the immediate aftermath of the famine, and he was an active musician from about 1906 until 1970."