dr harp's folk
In the depths of winter in ill-attended pub blues gigs, members of Dr Harp's medicine band have been heard to exclaim - 'I am from England what do I know about riding the blinds on the Slidin' Delta before bursting into great traditional British song 'Brown Eyed Girl' then departing the stage never to play the blues again. Well with such sentiments in mind, Dr Harp set about creating an album of Familiar tunes we can all relate to. Back to coaxing spuds from hungry pepper pigs and the white Minch of Mingulay it is then. Heave a ho boys.
When I graduated to my personal music choices – the first record I bought was the Pastoral Symphony. Beethoven was not averse to nicking peasant tunes, so here I claim one back. Mixed for no sound reason with Captain Pugwash and another tune I heard from the Spinners. The ‘World of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger’ and the ‘Best of the Spinners’ quickly followed into the vinyl collection but were not albums to be exchanged at the school bus stop with the metal freaks. When I first picked up harmonica, Blaydon races was the first tune I learned, painfully working out where each note was, slipping fingers inside my mouth to block the holes, writing down the hole numbers with arrows for blow and suck, my own primitive tablature.
Track: One Morning in May - Dr Harp's Folk
Sometime later I heard Jacka from Lindisfarne build it into a medley around ‘Dingle Regatta’. I borrowed that one too. My love for Irish music came much later -living in Birmingham, seeing the Chieftains, hearing the great Bluesman Van Morrison returning to his roots, and our family visit to the country in 1997- all conspired to bring Irish tunes into my repertoire. Two songs are captured here from the late night parties in the King’s kitchen.
Track: Mingulay Boat Song - Dr Harp's Folk
The songs of Dr Harp’s Folk feature many of the tireless themes- the worker’s struggle on the railroad line, on the sea, or fighting for rights- to ramble in this case. Joyful love songs, desperate love songs, the lady who falls for the thief, the tragic arranged marriage. Dr Harp’s Folk is not a vogue revival of Englishness- it is English, Irish, Scottish, American ,and German, male and female. In a literal sense, the music is intermingled and interbred anyway. But folk is also canvas of the mind- if you have never been to Mingulay, think of somewhere else you have toiled and struggled against the odds and elements to return to – home.
Track: The Lady Came from Baltimore - Dr Harp's Folk
