Folk is Alive and Well in Edinburgh
Folk music was very hard hit by the pandemic and lockdown; not only were folk clubs shut down but many of the informal sessions that occur in Edinburgh’s pubs such as Sandy Bells, the Captain‘s Bar and the Royal Oak were also closed down. So when the lockdown ended the folk movement began to slowly revive but in many areas it has been a very tentative revival. Part of the reason is that the folk audience is predominantly in the older age group and they have been cautious about attending all public events. For example opera houses round the world have been finding it difficult to fill their houses, although Covent Garden I have to report was pretty full for ‘Peter Grimes‘ and ‘La Traviata’ the other weekend. There are many fine young folk musicians appearing on the Scottish folk scene, but they don’t seem to be attracting a younger audience other than at big festivals.
Edinburgh Folk Club relaunched in September and after a slow start has been building up to very healthy audiences and the last two weeks have seen 60~70 people at the club. On Wednesday March 30th George Duff and his band were the guests and Sylvia McGowan was the opening act. Sylvia is well known in Edinburgh as part of the political protest song group ‘Protest in Harmony’. Sylvia has a decent voice and sang some old favourites like Ewan McColl’s ‘Thirty Foot Trailer‘ and some of her own material, although unusually she also sang six songs at the beginning and 2 after the interval which tended to push the main guests later into the evening, finishing nearer to 11pm rather than the usual 10.30. George Duff has an excellent voice and has a great group of musicians backing him. Kevin Macleod, John Martin and Mike Katz between them played fiddle, guitar, mandolin and pipes.They played a lovely mixture of instrumental numbers and George’s rendition of traditional songs, in particular Burns’s songs such as ‘Green Grow the Rushes‘ but also more recently penned songs such as Cyril Tawney’s ‘Grey Funnel Line‘ and of course George’s signature song ‘The Collier Laddie‘. It was a great evening and got us all singing in the choruses. This for me is what a folk club is about; we get to listen but we also get to sing.
A week later we got more chances to sing in the chorus with the fine traditional singer from the North East of England, Bob Fox. Bob became very well known as “the songman“, the traditional singer who was part of the hugely successful National Theatre production of ‘Warhorse’ which toured the country for over 4 years. But Bob has also been an important part of the folk scene in the North East which was a vital part of the English traditional music scene. Sadly Bob told me that the folk scene in the North East was in decline, again the problem being the lack of young people coming to the clubs. Unfortunately, I missed the opening set by Dave Francis’s group Clan Rowie, but they did play a good set before the second half, including a nice rendition of Archie Fisher’s ‘The Shipyard Apprentice‘.
Elsewhere in Edinburgh, folk sessions in the pubs are getting back to normal with instrumental sessions at Sandy Bells and more singing at the Captain’s Bar and the Royal Oak. Sadly Leith Folk Club is still silent after losing its venue. The Edinburgh International Festival has just announced its schedule and after a vey strong stream of folk music last year in the big tents, there is a much smaller selection of traditional music this year, although the festival promise some additional concerts later.nThere will of course be a lot of folk music at the Fringe which is fully engaged this year and John Barrow has as usual a strong programme at the Acoustic Music Centre at the Ukrainian Centre on Royal Terrace, the home of the Edinburgh Folk Club. So folk music is alive and well in Edinburgh, but there are warning signs. We need to encourage more young people to come and enjoy listening to and singing folk music; I’m sure they would enjoy it.
Cover Photo: Alan Macmillan
