Folk Music is About Whose History You Believe

By John Reed

History is being manipulated like never before, because it’s rarely been so essential for desperately needy, control-freak rich men in expensively tailored dark blue suits to manipulate what we read and therefore what we might believe. As soon as a regime starts to ban certain books while themselves preaching the importance of the freedom of speech, you know you’re in for a tough time.

At school, history largely bored the crap out of me. All those dull books full of apparently important dates for the accession and succession of kings and queens, the start and end dates of wars in which thousands lost their lives, and all in a Catholic school run by Christian Brothers, some of dubious sexual intent, who would rather you believed only what they wanted you to. I persevered with history because I was good at it, attained average A-level and S-level grades because I was too busy enjoying myself, and went on to study it further at University, where after the first year, I finally learned its purpose: to tell the tales of ordinary folk – people just like you and me, but from another time.

Tweed Shiel — There are shiels all along the banks of the River Tweed. These were once the homes of salmon fishermen, and most had a stone cold store nearby.

In my second year, I was one of several guinea-pigs for a new course in History & Landscape Archaeology run by one of life’s inspirations, Dr. Alan Carter. He made history relevant and tangible to a 19 year old, and alongside music it’s been my passion ever since. A lot of stuff we learned from him was the mundane stuff of life in another time: the pots and pans and utensils they used, the dwellings where they lived, and yes, the animals they reared, the crops they grew, and on what terms, the weapons they sometimes had to use to defend themselves, and their fealty to their baronial or ecclesiastical lords. Day to day life probably wasn’t as violent as it was portrayed, but of course there’s no written evidence other than that passed down by the ruling classes. Much of the rest is supposition from archeological finds beneath the ground, and the shape of the land above it (hence ‘landscape archeology’), but all of it gave a fairly accurate indication of how folk used to live their lives.

When you piece together those findings with the oral histories of passed-down stories, poems and songs, you achieve probably the most accurate history of the lives of those who ‘were just like us’. The discerning lover of folk songs will distinguish further between songs whose subjects were aristocrats having trouble with their love lives, and more real stories of love, life and loss to which we can all better relate. These songs contain their own fantasies, but when you look at their detail they contain as much credible evidence as an archeological dig:

Once, our valleys were ringin’
With sounds of our children singin’
But now, sheep bleat ’til the evenin’
And shielings lied empty and broken

When I was courtin’ Mary Jane t’ old squire he says one day,

“I’ve got no room for wedded folk so will tha’ wed or stay?”

The Dalesman’s Litany (Traditional)

Heard a siren from the docks,
Saw a train set the night on fire;
Smelt the spring on the smoky wind,
Dirty old town, dirty old town.

These three sets of lyrics are packed with descriptive evidence of our social, industrial and agrarian history, referencing things to which we can all in some way relate. In comparison, the finery, high art, and political machinations of the ruling classes feel about as far away as Nigel Fromage and the £5 million gift from a convicted fraudster who’s chosen to live in Thailand, or Donald Trump’s Qatari aeroplane gift and obsession with gold. While each has their place in historical notoriety, they hardly reflect the day to day lives of the people they purport to represent.

It’s my view that because of the manipulation of history by the ruling classes, contemporary and traditional folk music carries even more relevance than before, and can make a positive contribution to future generations’ understanding and perspective of history. That’s why it’s something to be cherished and protected. Some lyrics may have been changed to make the songs regionally relevant. Some will change the gender of the main character, but the historical evidence always remains in the detail.

It’s in that spirit that Duncan and I will release “Heritage” at 6pm on Saturday 12th September at https://johnduncanreed.bandcamp.com/ Prior to that, there will be a YouTube listening party @johnreed-music at 8pm (UK) on Saturday 5th September. “Heritage” is an album of folk songs: seven traditional, two still under copyright, and two original songs that reflect our love of, and connection with, the histories reflected in music created by people who ‘were just like us’, by our ancestors and families, and by those of communities who went before us.

Peace.

John