Glasgow's contemporary folk scene.
 

Since Glasgow, Scotland is my native soil I’ve been delving more and more into the weird and wonderful underground scene of the city. Since Scotland has a rich heritage of folk music (even Glice has done a traditional folk song, though he is a Scottish hating cunt, but I digress) I thought of exploring the fruitful, burgeoning contemporary folk scene. Alasdair Roberts, Alex Neilson (and his many projects including Trembling Bells and Scatter), Richard Youngs, Ben Reynolds, Daniel Padden etc. are the type of things I’ve been investigating.

Here’s some links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u_Xww0vafw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7Z9ftNcl8o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otmFhzNzJng
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPOqado8AXs

And for some fun, here’s Richard Youngs and Alex Neilson backing Jandek in his first ever live performance at Glasgow’s Instal festival:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5hJ8LFMCbI

Now, here’s where you come in (that’s right, you!). If you know of any Scottish experimental folk luminaries that I’ve somehow overlooked, then mention it. Or even, the recommending of more traditional sounds. Not that I expect many replies to this, but I'm sure someone reading this knows something.

i always find its the same people doing the same thing in glasgow, not that its not good its just always the same faces. there is a good music scene there though and the volcanic tongue store is fantastic for getting anything decent.

I think that's due to that there's only some dominating people in the scene and a lot of others are 'followers' if you will.

And I spend way too much money in Volcanic Tongue.

Richard Youngs is amazing. I've just begun to explore his catalog. It's criminal how unsung he seems to be outside of a few Wire readers.

i've seen him play a few times and i find him pretty underwhelming. i've seen alex youngs play a few times with various people and i'm not a fan of his either.

I'm going to be a dickhead now, so if you'll excuse me for that.

I think the idea of 'experimental' folk scene is a bit wrong. I think it's a misunderstanding of what folk music is. Folk music isn't a guy with an acoustic. It's the traditional music of an area or locality. I know that the word 'folk' has acquired connotations around the ambit of 60s types like Dylan, and while I'm fine for words to accrue new meanings, I think folk is one of those ones where the 'new' meaning has ended up obscuring the far more culturally important work of the traditional music of a people or area. I don't think one 'experiments' with folk, it develops much slower than an individual's will.

Right, I've got that little whinge out of the way.

Gaelic Psalmody from Lewis.
A ropey version of a great song about Stornaway
More Psalmody (because it's genuinely incredible - one of my plans for next year is to actually hear some in person)
Royal Edinburgh Tattoo (arguably not folk, but definitely traditional).
Elke Baker, Scots fiddle - a tradition I find really hard on the fiddle. I tend to prefer the Irish stuff, especially from the North-West of EIRE though.
One of the links that popped up from that one - Shetland fiddle (played the proper way).

I'll have a bit of a think about this - I'm sure I've got some non-highland bagpipe stuff somewhere, but I can't think of the names of any players at the moment.

Also, my (ropey as fuck) version (here) of Bonnie's cheating a bit - it's one of those songs that sort of belongs to Scotland, but is more of a nursery rhyme than the sort of thing that I'd consider 'properly' folk (whatever that means).

I don't mean to dismiss Roberts and the like - they make some great stuff, and folk music dies if people don't make new songs in the style of, I just think it's a shame to reduce the folk music of the whole of Scotland to a relatively limited thing. That Ben Reynolds thing is a really good example of the distinction - he's playing in a very international folk style that has more to do with the Anglo-American boom in the 60s than it does to do with traditional Scottish music.

Oh yeah, Quadriga Consort - they're a bit academic and a bit not-really-Scottish-people, but the music they're doing is an interesting interpretation of early Scottish music.

I completely agree. Of course Dylan isn't going to be in the same realm as aboriginal folk music for example. Hope you can excuse my ignorance for the sheer sake of convenience though.

Thanks for intelligently replying to this thread anyway, it's what I wanted from it. Will look through the links you've posted.

I do understand how Dylan is considered folk, considering a partial part of his sound is rooted in traditional American music (or at least what several American folk anthologies I've heard would lead me to believe, feel free to correct me).

I think Dylan is definitely rooted in an American folk tradition; my beef is that the tradition he's rooted in has come to represent all of American folk traditions. Which is hardly his fault, but it's also not something you could level at, say, Pete Seeger. It's a tricky one to define, but I tend to think that folk music shouldn't be about individuals but about songs, folk narratives and storytelling. In that sense I'd probably say that a lot of hardcore is closer to a folk tradition, given that there's minimal difference between someone like Black Flag and more modern hardcore; the main difference, I suppose, is that hardcore is now pretty much a global tradition, or at least an Anglo-American one. Plus, there's no standards in hardcore; just a million variations on the same three chords.

I tend to think American folk music is an oddity in the global scheme; America is a land without the idea of a huge, sprawling mythical history; you have songs that are similar to something like Scotland the Brave, in that they evoke the 'founding fathers' and so on, but the history detailed in American folk music is a history that exists within the recorded (as in written) era; there's minimal written history that details, say, Alba and the Picts, and someone like Bede can be happily ignored for the purposes of a song about MacAlpin.

I didn't want to particularly have a pop at yourself - it's always shorthand we use in these threads - I just wanted to expunge that particular beef of mine. As is my wont.

Ah, thanks for that.

I play a lot of traditional Scottish music myself (I'm part of a folk rock band that sometimes plays ceilidhs for a very decent amount of money) so I'm kind of shamed I'm not more educated in how and where exactly this music has been brought up from. I'm learning though.

Bastard! I've been trying to get a ceilidh band together for ages. Can't find a fucker to join it with me. There's really good money in that. Most annoying is that the only thing I definitely have is a caller. Fucking southern musician bastards and their lack of awareness of the ceilidh tradition/ possibilities for easy money.

I think you'd like the ceilidh band I'm in. Whistle (with bagpipes at the more traditional songs), accordion, guitar, bass and drums. We also do a delightful set of original Scottish folk rock songs that have insane intricate accordion and whistle interplay. No videos or audio though unfortunately.

Definitely easy money, I could make a living off doing it but the shows just aren't frequent enough.

A mate and me have this idea of having ceilidh nights as a club thing. Y'know, somewhere to go to get hammered, dance like a twat without feeling like you're a million years old. It's my ideal Saturday night, really.

You got any recordings? I'd be interested to hear that.

Unfortunately not. Any recording of the band is horribly outdated and before I joined. Not to mention I just don't have any.

If we record, I'll of course send it your way though.

i have seen alex nielson play quite a few times, both in leeds and glasgow and was never that impressed by him but for some reason he is in heavy demand.

Chris Corsano isn't in the UK anymore