TOPIC RECORDS

classic definitive folk recordings

CELEBRATED 60 YEARS IN 1999/2000

Martin Carthy

For more than 30 years Martin Carthy has been the most visible, versatile and, at times, controversial figure in English folk music. Whether in the folk club, on the concert stage or in a TV studio, there are few roles he has not played, from ballad singer to folk-rock guitarist. While his settings of traditional songs with guitar have influenced a generation of performers, he is also an authoritative interpreter of newly composed material.

Singer of the Year - BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2002

Watersons

The original Watersons were Mike and his sisters Norma and Lal, with their second cousin John Harrison. That is the lineup heard on Early Days and most of Frost and Fire, classic recordings from the 1960s. After a period off the scene, the group re-emerged in 1973 with Harrison's place filled by Martin Carthy; these are the Watersons of For Pence & Spicy Ale and Green Fields. In their power and rich texture the Watersons' harmonies are unmatched in English folksinging.

June Tabor

She sings the songs of Richard Thompson, George Gershwin, Shane MacGowan, Cole Porter, Ewan MacColl and Velvet Underground. Elvis Costello famously said of her ‘if you don’t like listening to June Tabor, you should stop listening to music’. She is regularly described as 'a new diva' and 'a national treasure’. Such is the emotional impact of her extraordinary voice that many believe her to be one the very finest singers Britain has produced in the modern era, irrespective of genre.

John Tams

"Home", the follow up to the award winning "Unity", reasserts the claim that there is no greater writer of English songs on the current folk scene. John Tams' writing and performance grow with each new project and he and the band assembled for the previous album are now a fully integrated unit producing a new contender for "album of the year".
The John Tams Band evolved through the recording of his latest album, Unity. Collaboration has always been central to his work and although a solo record, this release is no exception. Keith Angel, Andy Seward and Barry Coope,(of Coope, Boyes and Simpson) were joined by former Albion Band comrade Graeme Taylor and Alan Dunn from the Bob Geldof Band.
The legendary Linda Thompson also makes a rare appearance, on an album that may yet prove to be the pinnacle of this anthemic and commanding style of folk music.

Dick Gaughan

Restlessly imaginative, passionate in his beliefs, guitarist Dick Gaughan is a commanding presence on the Scots musical scene. His subtle singing and intricate guitar playing create a fabric of arresting beauty and colour. Traditional and contemporary songs sung with grace and feeling are interspersed with bagpipe jigs and fiddle reels transposed to guitar in this multifaceted collection

Christine Collister

Quite simply: one of England's greatest voices.

"Apt and sensitive instrumentation, liquid harmonies and goosepimple resonance carve a channel through which Collister effortlessly takes us on an emotive journey of heartache, anguish and liberty." BBC Radio 2 folk reviews CHRISTINE COLLISTER INTO THE LIGHT TSCD1002
Christine’s second solo album for Topic finds her great voice in even better form, if that is possible. Into the Light is the closest thing yet to capturing the live quality and personality of this outstanding singer. Its style is more acoustic than "An Equal Love" and again, it features her unique songwriting skills alongside a selection of specially chosen covers of classic contemporary song.

Harry Cox

Harry Cox is, simply, the most important and the finest among the great English traditional singers. This release brings together 54 tracks from recordings made between 1945 and 1970 to produce a 2 CD set. Combined with a 60 page booklet containing a detailed biography, extensive notes and song texts, the result is over 2 hours of previously unissued recordings.

Davy Graham

One of the most influential guitarists to emerge from the London club scene of the early '60s, Davy Graham was a model for Bert Jansch and Eric Clapton. A musician of restless and enquiring mind, he experimented with ideas drawn from jazz, blues, traditional British song and Middle Eastern music. On this, Graham's first album (1964), he seized the opportunity to bring in an uncredited bass and drums to augment his inspired guitar work and singing. Drawing on blues, modern jazz, Indian or Arabic forms he adds these influences to a basis of traditional folk music to produce the hybrid accurately described in the album's title. Davy Graham guitar
Shirley Collins vocals, banjo The original 1964 release which signalled the birth of folk-rock (although it is not a folk-rock album as such). In fact, the album could be better described as folk-fusion, opening up the doors for greater experimentation in terms of accompaniment and backing. Much of what followed in traditional and contemporary folk music was anchored in the music on this album.

Lal Waterson

Lal Waterson, an original member of The Watersons, and her son, guitarist Oliver Knight, have written some of the most captivating new songs to have been heard on the folk scene in many years. Other members of the Waterson clan often joined them on their records. LAL WATERSON & OLIVER KNIGHT ONCE IN A BLUE MOON TSCD478 In 1977 Lal and Norma Waterson, as a side project, recorded A True Hearted Girl, an album of solos, duos and trios (with Lal's daughter Maria). Lal and Norma varied the tried and true vision of The Watersons on this outing, by only using female voices and in different combinations. This gives the album a different ambience and depth to The Watersons.

Nic Jones

This mature work of a brilliant song-interpreter and guitarist, packed with fresh songs and novel settings, is rendered all the more valuable by the scarcity of his recordings. When Bob Dylan appropriated his arrangement of Canadee-I-O, it was just one sign of Jones' status among musicians as well as lay listeners. It may be the best British acoustic folk album ever made Stuart Maconie, BBC Radio 2 NIC JONES PENGUIN EGGS TSCD411

Shirley Collins

Shirley Collins's sweet, self-effacing singing keeps her closer to the core of traditional song than many a more histrionic singer. Yet her work has been extraordinarily diverse: she has collaborated with the guitarist Davy Graham, the Incredible String Band, the Albion Country Band and her sister Dolly. SHIRLEY COLLINS SWEET ENGLAND TSCD476 Her very first album, originally released in 1959, is a mixture of English and American traditional songs with banjo and guitar accompaniments. It bears out her personal philosophy that music should be 'fairly straight-forward, simply embellished, allowing you to think about the song rather than telling you what to think.'

Ewan MacColl

Ewan MacColl was one of the architects of the folksong revival. Whether as an interpreter of ancient ballads or as a writer of new songs, he influenced almost everyone involved in folk music in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. He brought the same skill and understanding to songs of Britain's industrial cities, ballads of Scots history and lyrics from the English countryside. His own compositions, many of which have passed into the common currency of folk music, are featured both on his own albums and on The Radio-Ballads (see under TSCD801-808). EWAN MacCOLL THE REAL MacCOLL TSCD463 This compilation from MacColl's many albums for Topic in the 1950s and '60s gathers ballads and songs of nationhood, crime and punishment, mining and weaving. Many are traditional, but some are MacColl's own compositions and include such widely known pieces as Dirty Old Town and The Gresford Disaster.

Joe Heaney

One of the world's greatest ever traditional singers. Double CD of previously unissued material recorded by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in 1964, when Joe Heaney was at the height of his powers. 39 tracks and a 60 page booklet, which includes a full transcript as well as detailed notes on the man, his songs and his tradition

"These superb recordings…..exceptional liner note essays…the presentation of both Gaelic and English songs makes the collection accessible and essential for anyone seeking to get a little closer to the roots of a unique man whose legacy is well captured by this release" Sing Out Magazine .
JOE HEANEY THE ROAD FROM CONNEMARA TSCD518D

Sam Larner

Sam Larner was born in 1878 in the village of Winterton in Norfolk. For most of his life he was a fisherman and developed his repertoire and style from the locality and his workmates.
SAM LARNER NOW IS TIME FOR FISHING TSCD511
Originally recorded on location in 1958, '59 & '60 by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger and released in 1961, this record has come to be regarded as one of the most important recordings of an English traditional singer ever made. Alongside classic traditional repertoire, the CD features songs associated with the fishing industry as well as sea-lore and rhymes.

A.L. Lloyd

Bert' Lloyd occupied a unique position in the folksong revival of the 1950s and '60s. He was a musicologist with an international reputation, who wrote on the social history of British folk music and broadcast many series on traditional musics of the world. A learned and kindly mentor to younger singers, he was himself a performer of great charm, who united in his performances a scholar's respect for text and a singer's instinct for expression.
A.L. LLOYD ENGLISH DRINKING SONGS TSCD496
These songs of merriment and mayhem were of the kind, Lloyd said, that might be heard 'around the barroom table of a little country alehouse on a Saturday night not drinking songs in the strict sense - not songs merely in praise of liquor' but songs that 'tell a bit of a story songs as sly as a tinker's wink, as rough as a ploughman's hand.' They are accompanied on banjo or concertina.
A.L. LLOYD LEVIATHAN! TSCD497
Lloyd brought to this collection of whaling songs and ballads a love and knowledge of the subject inspired by his own experience at sea. The harsh life of the whaler is described in laments, shanties and narrative songs.

Michael Gorman

MICHAEL GORMAN THE SLIGO CHAMPION TSCD525D
TSCD525D The Fiddle Music of County Sligo. A Musical Biography of Michael Gorman (1895-1970) by Reg Hall.

Michael Gorman, a close associate of Michael Coleman before the latter emigrated to America, was a key figure in the great music tradition of southern Sligo. His music, together with that of his nephew Michael (flute), his brother Martin (voice) and neighbours Tom Gannon (fiddle) and Gerry Whimsy (tin whistle), typifies that tradition's classic period of creativity and definition. His later major contribution to Irish music-making in London is reflected in recordings with Mick Flynn (flute), Margaret Barry (voice & banjo), Jimmy Power (fiddle), Paddy Breen (flageolet), Tommy Maguire (accordeon) and Patsy Goulding (piano).
This release is a 2-CD set together with an extensive 56 page booklet, containing an in depth essay by Reg Hall which describes the music and its social context and significance in detail.
Recordings include solos, duets, small groups, bands, songs and on-location recordings, and serves as a definitive illustration of the great creative Sligo tradition.

Albion Band

Energy, Experience, Youth, Tradition - The Albion Band is the foremost contemporary folk group in England with a glorious history stretching back over twenty years. The current line-up follows the tradition of including some of the most talented and creative musicians in Britain today. The band remains true to its roots in the English tradition and true to its reputation for classic contemporary Folk Rock
ALBION BAND ROAD MOVIES TSCD523.

Colin Reid

Colin Reid burst upon the scene with his 1998 debut album of solo guitar music and was acclaimed as the new guitar hero. He is, however, much more than an exceptional guitarist - he is an exceptional musician and, as this new album proves, an exceptional composer.
COLIN REID TILT TSCD530
The best description of TILT comes from Colin Harper's review on MOJO - "this set triumphs in its technicolor daring, where the guitar is an engine beneath the arrangements that drives forward the notion of quirky yet often moving compositions for small group and strings, from precisely where the Penguin Cafe Orchestra left off - an exceptional collection" The album works wonderfully as a kind of radio programme, moving from solo guitar to funky string quartet with guitar and on to vocals by Eddi Reader and Boo Hewerdine.

Blue Murder

The seven piece group Blue Murder, made up of Waterson:Carthy, Coope, Boyes and Simpson and Mike Waterson, has been described as "Harmony Heaven" and one listen is enough to explain why - seven of the greatest English folk voices performing together with passion and spirit. The repertoire ranges between great traditional standards, selected compositions and original songs by some of the band members. Whilst much of the album is the full glory of the seven voices, about half of the tracks have the added benefit of Martin Carthy's understated but impeccable guitar work.
BLUE MURDER NO ONE STANDS ALONE TSCD537

Billy Bennett

Years before Monty Python, a red-nosed comedian in disreputable tails and an improbable moustache created a world all his own. With his spoofs of well-loved poems, raucous street-corner singing and surreal narratives of life in the saveloy-and-gin class, Billy Bennett brought a spirit of daring and rebellion to English music hall and variety stages in the 1920s and '30s.
Billy Bennett can now be seen as a street-wise surrealist and his remarkable humour shines as bright today as it did then. The CD is remastered to the highest standard from the best condition original 78-rpm discs. BILLY BENNETT ALMOST A GENTLEMAN TSCD780

Bain & Anderson

Tom Anderson MBE, fiddler, composer, folklorist and teacher, was a profoundly influential figure in Shetland music. He and Aly Bain, with Trevor Hunter and Davie Tulloch, spanning three generations of music-making in the islands, play fiddle duets and quartets in the distinctive Shetland idiom. ALY BAIN & TOM ANDERSON THE SILVER BOW TSCD469

Dave Swarbrick

Rags, Reels and Airs TSCD517 With Martin Carthy & Diz Disley
This album was first released in 1967 and was immediately recognised as being a recording landmark. Producer Joe Boyd's sleeve notes included this comment: 'This record should provide ample evidence of the fact that Dave Swarbrick is doing perhaps the finest job of reconciling traditional instrumental styles with modern ideas and technique'.

Davy Graham

DAVY GRAHAM FIRE IN THE SOUL TSCD818
One of the most influential guitarists to emerge from the London club scene of the early '60s, Davy Graham was a model for Bert Jansch and Eric Clapton. A musician of restless and enquiring mind, he experimented with ideas drawn from jazz, blues, traditional British song and Middle Eastern music.
DAVY GRAHAM & SHIRLEY COLLINS Folk Roots, New Routes TSCD819
Davy Graham guitar
Shirley Collins vocals, banjo
The original 1964 release which signalled the birth of folk-rock (although it is not a folk-rock album as such). In fact, the album could be better described as folk-fusion, opening up the doors for greater experimentation in terms of accompaniment and backing. Much of what followed in traditional and contemporary folk music was anchored in the music on this album.

Jack Elliott

Woody Guthrie's most famous sidekick (and an early influence on Bob Dylan) celebrates his old friend in poignant versions of his most celebrated songs, then joins singer and banjoist Derroll Adams in a session of classic old-time country songs. JACK ELLIOTT RAMBLIN' JACK TSCD477

Voice Of The People

THE TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND & WALES
A TWENTY VOLUME SERIES : TSCD651-670
A separate, illustrated, 24 page colour catalogue with full track and performer details is available separately and at no charge. This series makes available nearly 500 recordings of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh traditional music drawn from the archives of Topic Records and from private collections.

Compiled as thematic anthologies, each volume stands on its own, but the series as a whole presents an extensive and varied picture of traditional singing, instrumental music-making and dancing throughout the course of the 20th century. Many of the singers and musicians and their recorded performances presented here are classic, but the inclusion of some less well-known performers and genres broadens the horizon by offering glimpses at some little-known nooks and crannies of traditional music-making. This is the home-spun art and entertainment that enriched the lives of working people in pubs and cottages, in social clubs and village halls and on the street, and was made, in the words of one of the musicians in the series, "by people with dirt under their finger nails."

Society has moved on, but the artistry of these singers and musicians and the emotional impact of their performances are timeless. The timbres and textures of the language and musical expression, the performance skills and techniques, the social values contained in both the material and the performers' life stories, and the subtleties of meaning in the song texts could easily be lost sight of forever. The cultural voices of these farm workers and men on the buildings, the housewives, the shepherds and cowmen, the gardeners and estate workers, the miners and trawlermen, the dealers in scrap, the country policeman and the village postman, the chambermaid and the hospital nurse are therefore worthy of serious and prolonged attention. Their singing and music-making have made a striking and significant contribution to the cultural roots of these islands.

Best known as a dance musician, Reg Hall is a visiting research fellow at the University of Sussex and, in compiling and annotating this series, he has called on the experience of a long, personal involvement with traditional music-making and an academic historian's view of its history and social context. His commentary pays tribute to the pioneer pen-and-paper folk-song-collectors of the Edwardian era and to those professionals in the early post-war years equipped with tape recorders. The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of a small number of enthusiasts, both professional and amateur, who recorded traditional music and broke new ground in discovery and evaluation, and this series owes a great deal to their creative efforts and co-operation.

Ever a critic of the concepts of 'folk-song' and 'folk-dance', Reg Hall challenges the ground rules of both movements and directs the emphasis in this presentation towards the lives of the performers and the communities and circumstances in which they performed. The songs and dance music had meaning and purpose for the singers and musicians, and the exploration of those realities, as far as we are able to understand them, is far more exciting than perpetuating the myths.

The Radio Ballads

devised by Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker & Peggy Seeger
A UNIQUE PROJECT IN THE HISTORY OF BOTH BRITISH FOLK MUSIC AND BRITISH RADIO

Ewan MacColl scripts, song lyrics & music
Peggy Seeger orchestration & music direction
Charles Parker production

Devised by Ewan MacColl, radio producer Charles Parker and Peggy Seeger, the Radio-Ballads set out to crystallise in words and music the experience of different ways of life - the words being supplied not by actors but by the real occupants of those lives and jobs, whether miners, fishermen, boxers or teenagers. The eight programmes were first broadcast by the BBC between 1958 and 1964. Six of them were subsequently issued on LP but have been unavailable since the early '80s. Song of a Road and The Body Blow have never hitherto been issued in any format. 'The radio-ballads,' wrote a reviewer at the time, 'are about the way we live now, attempting to give this life the quality of epic - "to make", as the documentary film-maker John Grierson once said, "the everyday significant."' The social historian Eric Hobsbawm, writing as Francis Newton in the New Statesman, called them 'The most valuable products of the British folk-music movement'.

A 16 page full colour booklet (as reproduced here) describing the series and its background is available separately (and at no charge).
In their book of songs, I'm a Freeborn Man, the The Radio-Ballads were described by Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger as:

... the work of a team of singers, songwriters, technicians, instrumentalists and others who were consciously attempting to apply the techniques of folk creation to one part of the mass media - radio.

From our viewpoint today, this description appears to understate the strength and vision of the concept. For a generation of musicians, broadcasters and media writers, the term radio-ballad is an icon, a benchmark, a milestone. When they were first broadcast, our daily lives revolved much more around the wireless than nowadays, even though network television was by then already well established, and for many listeners the cultural impact was profound and enduring.

For today's listening public, the term radio-ballad may no longer carry that weight of meaning, but these programmes are as entertaining and stimulating as when they were first created. Perhaps this series of CD re-issues will help to put into context so much that followed in both radio and television and will find new resonance among older and younger listeners alike.

The series was originally transmitted on the BBC Home Service as follows:

The Ballad of John Axon 2 July 1958
Song of a Road 5 November 1959
Singing the Fishing 16 August 1960
The Big Hewer 18 August 1961
The Body Blow 27 March 1962
On the Edge 13 February 1963
The Fight Game 3 July 1963
The Travelling People 17 April l964

Eliza Carthy

Eliza Carthy, daughter of Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, is the most impressive and engaging performer of her generation. Not only an inventive, innovative singer and fiddle-player, she is a musical conceptualist who treats the bequest of the folk tradition with respect and knowledge - and, sometimes, with refreshing irreverence. "An international star of English Folk in the 21st century" The TimesELIZA CARTHY ANGLICANA TSCD539

Eliza Carthy's return to Topic Records, with a great new traditional album re-affirming her as one of the most important artists of her generation. As the title suggests, Anglicana is an expression of Englishness (as Eliza feels it), "with people who were around at the time, no border checkpoints, nobody pushed out, just what it is".

ELIZA CARTHY RED TSCD493, RICE TSCD494, ELIZA CARTHY & THE KINGS OF CALICUTT TSCD489, HEAT LIGHT & SOUND TSCD482

Waterson:Carthy

Waterson:Carthy was created from the dynamic fusion of two generations, Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy and their daughter Eliza Carthy: living proof of the tenacity - and vivacity - of the oral tradition.
"There is a special magic when the clan (Waterson:Carthy) pools its resources. The effect is sensational" The Times
WATERSON:CARTHY A DARK LIGHT TSCD536, BROKEN GROUND TSCD509, COMMON TONGUE TSCD488, WATERSON:CARTHY TSCD475

Martin Carthy is widely regarded as one of the finest singers and interpreters of traditional music from the British Isles, as well as a highly influential guitarist. Martin has worked with a host of significant folk artists including Steeleye Span, Dave Swarbrick, The Albion Band, The Watersons and Brass Monkey, as well as maintaining a busy solo career. He still prefers to follow his insatiable musical curiosity rather than cash in on his unrivalled position as one of folk music's great innovators. He has been awarded the MBE for services to English music.

Norma Waterson formed The Watersons in the early 60's with her sister Lal, brother Mike and cousin John. They went on to become the most influential vocal harmony group of the times, and achieved near cult status when they stopped touring in the late 60's. In 1996 Norma received universal acclaim with a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize, in which she came a very close second to pop band Pulp. Norma has one of the strongest and truest voices that contemporary folk music has ever produced.

Eliza Carthy is the remarkable daughter of Martin and Norma, who sings in the rich Waterson women's style. However, there is no doubt that she quickly established herself as an artist very much in her own right. Whilst her commitment to the British tradition is unquestionable, she has also injected original compositions and traditional tunes alike with contemporary electronic and dub effects. Her debut solo album, Heat, Light & Sound (TSCD482) was praised by the critics, but the response to her ambitious follow-up release, Red Rice (TSCD2001) was unprecendented, and resulted in a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. Eliza has paved the way for other talented young roots music artists to gain recognition and respect with her winning combination of talent, vitality and charisma.

John Burgess

Connoisseurs recognise what amateurs feel instinctively, that John Burgess is the finest living exponent of the Scots bagpipes, equally impressive whether playing marches, airs, jigs, strathspeys or the majestic repertory of the pibroch, the classical music of the Highlands.
JOHN BURGESS KING OF THE HIGHLAND PIPERS TSCD466

Norma Waterson

BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Singer of the Year
A doyenne of British Folk Music, described in Mojo magazine as "possibly the finest English singer alive today".
NORMA WATERSON BRIGHT SHINY MORNING TSCD520
A significant album by the reigning doyenne of British Folk Music, Norma Waterson. Produced by her daughter, rising star Eliza Carthy, "Bright Shiny Morning" is a solo project which not only highlights Norma's passion for traditional material, but proves her to be one of this country's finest exponents.
Norma continues to breathe life into material often centuries old. Aside from her wonderful, rich and distinctive voice, Norma Waterson's particular skill is in her choice of songs and how she makes each one relevant to a modern audience. Norma's career, which began in the early 60s with folk supergroup The Watersons, has continued to blossom and grow and today she commands considerable respect amongst a wide and devoted following.

Margaret Barry

With her flamboyant delivery and idiosyncratic banjo-playing Margaret Barry brought the art of the street-singer into the pubs and clubs of Irish London in the 1950s and '60s, frequently accompanied by the fiddler Michael Gorman. 'To be confronted with a past so recent, so arrestingly singular and so irrecoverable catches alike the heart and the imagination.'- Mojo
MARGARET BARRY & MICHAEL GORMAN HER MANTLE SO GREEN TSCD474

Anne Briggs

Anne Briggs, a free spirit of the '60s, was also one of the most distinctive and influential singers on the folk scene. 'If I hadn't heard her,' says June Tabor, 'I'd have probably done something entirely different.'
'She was,' writes Colin Harper in his accompanying biographical essay, 'as the best of the music itself was, sexy, wild, mysterious, otherworldly and vulnerable all at the same time.' 
ANNE BRIGGS A Collection TSCD504

Brass Monkey

A ground-breaking five-piece band incorporating trumpet and trombone as well as squeezeboxes, mouth organ, percussion and guitar, Brass Monkey had a short but glittering career in the mid-'80s. A decade later the almost-original lineup of Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, Howard Evans, Richard Cheetham and Martin Brinsford reunited to make Sound & Rumour.
BRASS MONKEY GOING & STAYING TSCD531. The greatest recording yet from this unique powerhouse band. "Going and Staying" features the band's Deep English sound. Unique instrumentation and their approach to folk music give Brass Monkey an instantly recognisable sound and presence. For many of the tracks, the lineup expands to a six-piece featuring an extended brass section.
BRASS MONKEY SOUND & RUMOUR TSCD501
'I think that the whole band felt that, when we stopped playing in 1987, we still had plenty of life left in us,' Carthy writes in the notes, 'and that, when we played the Sidmouth Festival eight years later, it felt as though we'd never been away.' Brass Monkey's comeback album is an exhilarating blend of sea songs, Morris tunes, travellers' songs and a pipe march.
BRASS MONKEY THE COMPLETE BRASS MONKEY TSCD467
The group's two '80s albums, combined here, are full of fresh arrangements of traditional songs and tunes. 'Brass Monkey was a great idea,' said Martin Carthy. 'A phenomenal experience.' Q called it 'the finest folk group of the 1980s.'

John Kirkpatrick

JOHN KIRKPATRICK PLAIN CAPERS TSCD458
The music of the Morris dance is one of the deep underlying rhythms of English country life. Kirkpatrick captures both its formal beauty and verve in a selection of tunes from Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and neighbouring areas, played on Anglo concertina and a variety of accordions, with support by Martin Carthy, Sue Harris, Fi Fraser and Martin Brinsford.

JOHN KIRKPATRICK A SHORT HISTORY OF JOHN KIRKPATRICK TSCD473
Drawn from eight original albums of the '70s and '80s, this 19-track survey finds Kirkpatrick singing and playing a hugely varied repertory of English songs and tunes, some solo, some with Sue Harris (hammered dulcimer) and others in the bands Umps & Dumps and Brass Monkey

Martin Simpson

Whether playing American old-time music, blues, a Dylan song or his own material, Martin Simpson is unpredictable, individual and a guitarist of immense subtlety.
MARTIN SIMPSON THE BRAMBLE BRIAR TSCD513
Arguably the finest finger style acoustic guitarist on the planet, Martin Simpson returns to Topic Records after a break of almost fifteen years.

Mike Waterson

Melody Maker (1977) described this as a monumental album, and they had it right. Mike Waterson produces one of those perfect albums that only a great singer at the top of his form can. The CD re-issue includes two extra tracks taken from the 1966 Yorkshire Garland recording.
MIKE WATERSON MIKE WATERSON TSCD516

The Watersons, the most influential and best loved English vocal group of its day, disbanded in the late 1960s only to reform again in 1973. In 1975, they released their finest recorded work, For Pence And Spicy Ale (TSCD462). Fired up and full of music, Mike Waterson stepped out of the shadows of The Watersons to record his only solo album. Upon its release in 1977, Melody Maker, which was the most popular music paper of the time, wrote of the album, "Almost every track emerges as an epic...no song defeats him...a monumental work"..
Regarded as one of the best singers to emerge from the English folk song revival, Mike Waterson's voice is known to all those who are familiar with The Watersons. Here, however, the focus is on Mike alone and he brings depths to his material not possible on group projects. This reissue includes two extra tracks from the 1966 Watersons album, A Yorkshire Garland.

High Level Ranters

This Northumbrian quartet has been one of the most enduring and popular groups in British folk music. Each of its members is an artist of the first rank.
HIGH LEVEL RANTERS NORTHUMBERLAND FOREVER TSCD483
Versatility is the keynote of this album as the Ranters display their range of skills on a vivacious collection of characteristic Northeastern songs and tunes. A Landmark Recording of British Folk Music.

Johnny Handle vocals, accordion, guitar, piano
Colin Ross fiddle, whistle, Northumbrian small-pipes, jews harp
Forster Charlton fiddle, Northumbrian small-pipes
Tom Gilfellon vocals, guitar
Alistair Anderson English concertina

Walter Pardon

Walter Pardon was one of England's great traditional singers. He lived all his life in the cottage where he was born in 1914 in the village of Knapton, Norfolk and spent all his working life as a carpenter.
In 1974, a tape of his singing was received by the singer Peter Bellamy and this led to him being recognised as an outstanding singer of remarkable style and repertory. He was subsequently recorded extensively for a number of LPs on the Leader, Topic and Home Made Music labels and appeared in folk-clubs and festivals including the one held at the Smithsonian Institute of Folklife in Washington, DC in 1976.
He appears in the series The Voice Of The People but this is the first full length CD to be made available and features classic traditional repertoire from one of the true masters of the craft.
WALTER PARDON A WORLD WITHOUT HORSES TSCD514

e2K

e2K made its name as one of the most exciting bands on the UK folk scene, with a formidable reputation as a live act and festival favourite, having re-invented itself from its previous incarnation as EII and the Red Hot Polkas. The original band was primarily known as a dance band but the addition of Kellie While on vocals has produced a great fusion of folk, world, jazz and dance influences. Kellie is without question one of the rising stars of the British folk movement. e2K SHIFT TSCD522

Sheila Stewart

In her own words, probably the last in the line of a rich oral tradition of song, story and Scots Traveller culture. She is also one of the greatest singers of traditional song. SHEILA STEWART FROM THE HEART OF THE TRADITION TSCD515

Tarras

Tarras is a young band from the Scots/English Borders. Their love of their region's traditional music is matched by their awareness of other contemporary forms, from blues to '90s dance music.
'Consummately respectful of the history which has spawned their music, they nevertheless put different spins on it at every turn. An absurdly fine debut album.' - Folk Roots
TARRAS WALKING DOWN MAIN STREET TSCD524
Tarras return for their second album with a slightly changed line-up based around the core members Joss Clapp, Ben Murray and John Redfern. The album is produced by Richard Evans and features the band's original compositions alongside their re-workings of traditional material.
TARRAS RISING TSCD506
Folk Album of the Month Mojo

Steve Ashley

Steve Ashley has been one of the best kept secrets on the scene since the early 1970s. One of the original members of the first Albion Country Band, Steve went solo soon after and his albums have grown in stature over the years. Mojo recently featured his first album, "Stroll On", calling it "…a masterpiece…".
With "EVERYDAY LIVES", Steve has created a extraordinary album of contemporary songs which are informed, but never overwhelmed, by the tradition. As the title suggests, they focus on aspects of everyday lives and loves, but that shouldn't mislead the reader into thinking they are mundane. Far from it, this is a very special evocation of ENGLISH culture with no apologies (and why should there be?). A deeply atmospheric collection of remarkable songs. Full lyrics included in booklet.
STEVE ASHLEY EVERYDAY LIVES TSCD526

Leo Rowsome

Leo Rowsome was one of the great stylemakers of Irish pipe music. 'Everywhere he went,' writes his friend Sean Reid in the notes, 'he added glamour to a unique, expressive and truly native instrument, a living link with the historic Irish nation.'
This collection, accurately remastered from recordings spanning 1926-48, exhibits his highly personal approach in a programme of tunes both familiar and rare.LEO ROWSOME CLASSICS OF IRISH PIPING TSCD471

Ashley Hutchings

A collection of dark traditional songs reset in the present day by Ashley Hutchings
STREET CRIES: ASHLEY HUTCHINGS & VARIOUS ARTISTS TSCD535
Sung by Coope, Boyes & Simpson, Steve Knightley, Cara Dillon, Dick Gaughan, Helen Watson, Vin Garbutt, Judy Dunlop, Dave Burland, Kathryn Roberts with Equation, John Tams, June Tabor, Pete Morton, Nasreen Shah.

Copper Family

Early Recordings

The Copper Family of Rottingdean in Sussex has roots in traditional song that are at least two hundred years old. Their rare southern English harmony is presented at its most outstanding in these classic performances from the 1950s and early '60s. Bob and Ron Copper

came to prominence outside their immediate local environment when recordings of the duo were released during the early part of the folk revival. These newly remastered recordings are included here in their entirety. In addition, earlier recordings involving Bob and Ron's fathers - Jim and John - are available for the first time. There are three songs which feature the full quartet.

The influence of the English Southern Harmony style of singing of The Copper Family is inestimable. Certainly groups like The Watersons and The Young Tradition are deeply in their debt, but the harmony singing of many English folk groups can be traced back to these roots.

Oliver Knight

Oliver Knight is probably best known as collaborator with his mother, Lal Waterson, on their landmark albums Once in a Blue Moon (TSCD478) and A Bed of Roses (TSCD505). He has also had a long and illustrious career as a composer, musician, arranger and record producer / engineer.

Linda Thompson

Time Magazine has said "Linda Thompson may be rock's best woman singer", and anybody with an interest in contemporary music would expect that description to be expanded to include folk music. Although Linda hasn't made a recording for seventeen years, the pure, fragile beauty of her voice hasn't deserted her - indeed, time has only increased the emotional quality of her performance. This is a remarkable comeback, featuring nine songs either written or co-written by Linda. The tenth, Evona Darling, is from the pen and free spirit of Lal Waterson.

Battlefield Band

The Battlefield Band has been a leading progressive group on the Scots folk scene for more than 20 years. Opening Moves was compiled from their early albums for Topic (1977-79), when the band included such musicians as Brian McNeill, Jamie McMenemy and Pat Kilbride.

Silly Sisters

The inspired collaboration of Maddy Prior and June Tabor, two of the most individual singers in folk music, as the Silly Sisters, is enhanced by musicians such as the Breton guitarist Dan Ar Braz, ex-Steeleye Span bass guitarist Rick Kemp and producer Andrew Cronshaw.

Jazz Series

TSCD781 THE AFRICAN DIASPORA'S CONTRIBUTION TO ENGLAND'S OWN JAZZ OF THE 1930s AND 1940s 
BLACK BRITISH SWING tells the story of the most exciting jazz musicians in 1930s and '40s England - how they came to Britain and took the popular music scene by storm. It is all too easily forgotten that Britain had its own hot jazz scene in the '30s and '40s when the American Kings of Swing seemed to take centre stage.
TSCD782 THE EVOLUTION OF THE TORCH SONG IN POPULAR MUSIC
As Andrew Simons, the compiler and annotator of this wonderful collection, says in the notes to this record "Carrying the Torch is a compilation for anyone who's ever been left standing at the bus stop of love". The songs here embrace a wide range of the Torch Song style, from ballads to dance music, each paying special attention to that most ironic of relationships. Re-mastered to the highest of standards from original sources contained in the Jazz Collection of the National Sound Archive of The British Library, the resulting sound is lively and astonishing in its realism.

World Series

The Music In the World Of Islam series, TSCD901-903,

is drawn from field-recordings by the ethnomusicologists Jean Jenkins and Poul Rovsing Olsen. They illustrate Islamic musical traditions across a vast landscape: 'Bedouins and nomads, farmers on the banks of the Nile, or in the Hindukush Mountains of Afghanistan or the High Atlas of Morocco or the fertile valleys of Pakistan and India, Turkish fishermen on the Black Sea coast and Malay and Javanese along the East China Sea or pearl divers on the gulf which divides Arabia from Iran, as well as the inhabitants of the great and ancient cities of Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Fez and Istanbul'

Many releases in the Topic World Series have been produced in conjunction with the International Music Collection of the British Library National Sound Archive. Started in 1955, The British Library National Sound Archive is one of the largest in the world and now holds over a million discs, 175,000 tapes and many other sound and video recordings.

Acoustic Folk Box

Four decades of the very best acoustic folk music from the British Isles compiled, researched and produced by David Suff for Deep Sea
The Acoustic Folk Box is an exciting four CD journey through the inspiring and provocative first four decades of the folk revival in Britain. There have been other anthologies but this is the first one devoted to the acoustic thread and features the leading artists of the genre.

CELEBRATING OVER 60 YEARS

The origins of Topic Records, which has its roots in the Workers Music Association, can be traced back to 1939. In those days, the organisation fostered a belief that music should be used as a tool of revolution, in a cultural and educational sense, and that folk music, passed down through the generations, above all, gave ‘a voice to the people’.

On this theme, first in the catalogue was Paddy Ryan’s The Man that Waters the Worker’s Beer. Other early releases were influenced by the work of Ewan MacColl (singer and composer of Dirty Old Town, First Time Ever I Saw Your Face etc.) and A.L.Lloyd (singer and historian). Their original aims were to try and present a better understanding of British Industrial or urban (as opposed to rural) folksong.

At the same time, Topic Records was also making available albums by Pete Seeger, the icon of the American folk movement , by the actor, singer and political figure Paul Robeson, and by Woody Guthrie, the roving troubadour and composer of This Land is Your Land etc. The profile of the label was becoming firmly established.

Described in the 50s as ‘that little red label’ by a haughty major label, Topic nevertheless became perfectly placed to release some of the most influential recordings of the 60’s. A blossoming audience with an appetite for domestic folk music began to surface. The best performers of the day included The Spinners, Louis Killen, Jeannie Robertson, Joe Heaney and The Stewart Family, Anne Briggs, Shirley & Dolly Collins and The Watersons, and all of them recorded for the Topic label. (Other notables included Vanessa Redgrave singing Where Have All the Flowers Gone?).

However, Topic’s focus was not exclusively on ‘revivalist’, ‘traditional’, American or even British music.

The catalogue already included wonderful collections from Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey - and has continued to grow since. In this way, the label helped sow the seeds for the subsequent explosion of independent ‘roots’ and ‘world’ music labels in the 80s.

Nic Jones, Dick Gaughan, The Battlefield Band and one of Britain’s most influential singers and guitarists, Martin Carthy (MBE),

the performer widely acknowledged to have influenced the work of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, amongst many others.

In recent years, Topic has embarked on a programme of reissuing the cream of its deleted vinyl collection on CD. As a consequence, many significant anthologies of British and Irish singers, as well as collections from the neglected instrumental traditions, continue to be widely available.

In the late 1990s, folk performers were beginning to have a noticeable influence on the musical landscape once again. Releases from

Eliza Carthy, Lal Waterson, Waterson:Carthy and June Tabor,

(recently voted one of the Top 100 greatest singers of all time) have met with both critical and popular acclaim across the board.

Topic Records recently issued what is considered to be the most comprehensive and important release of its kind, the 20 volume anthology of traditional music from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, entitled The Voice of The People.

In their anniversary year, Topic also released the ground-breaking Radio Ballads; an 8 part series which revolutionised documentary radio (and television) programme making in the 50s, constructed by Ewan McColl, Charles Parker and Peggy Seeger.

During the past 60 years, Topic Records has built a deserved reputation for not compromising the nature of its work or that of the independent spirit of the artists it represents. Irrespective of fads or fashions, Topic has not simply survived, but it has grown and flourished too - proof, if any were needed, that ‘grass roots’ interest in traditional music, the artists and the label itself, has remained constant and strong.

So, not content to merely rely on the undeniable splendours of the past, Topic Records continues to look forward to the future with considerable optimism for both itself and the genre to which it has long been central. At the start of a new millennium, it is fitting that new recordings, as well as old, emerge from one of the few truly independent labels still in existence.

John Peel recalls buying his first Topic record in 1955. "I have been buying & scrounging Topic releases ever since" he says. "It feels like Topic has always been there, quietly doing good work, like a backbone." Another Radio 1 DJ, Andy Kershaw, describes Topic as being simply "the most important record label in Britain".