Clifford Hughes "Over the Sea to Skye" 1973 LP

Here is a very nice collection of Scottish folk songs,  with a couple of music hall numbers thrown in - all done in a classic style.
Clifford Hughes was one of Scotland's premier lyric tenors in the 1970s.  A churchman, he has since suffered from cancer of the larynx.
He does a really good performance on most of these numbers although the Bonnie Earl of Moray, the final track, is, IMHO, truly awful.
All tracks are listed on the cover.

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"The Restless Years" 1967 TV show (.avi)

What a line-up.  Tina Lawton, Marian Henderson, Declan Affley (all three pictured) Alex Hood, Rob Inglis and the production writer, performer, poet and narrator Peter O'Shaughnessy with some musical and choral assistance from The Claire Poole Singers and the Don Burrows Quintet and also George Golla.
This is the show that inspired the 1968 release of the book with LP titled "The Restless Years" (LP contents posted before on  the Australian Folk Blog) and the 1970 LP "Old Botany Bay" (part posted on the same blog here.)
However, the tracks on those LPs in no way truly reflected the tracks as performed in the show.  Of course, the LP tracks do not have the incidental sounds in the file (e.g. foot stamping) but the differences are far greater than that.  Some of the songs in the film do not appear on the LPs and neither Tina Lawton nor Declan Affley appear on the LPs and that is truly a significant omission. (I guess they had commitments to other record labels and/or publishers).
I will not pretend that this copy of the film is of the greatest quality.  Of course, the original material is probably not that great either and there are a few glitches where frames appear to have been lost.  Regardless, the material is, to me, absolutely enthralling and the power of some of the performances of the main folk singers was quite unexpected (I missed the show the first time around).
Marian Henderson give a very powerful performance in both an acting and singing sense and she appears to have been very comfortable in what is primarily a traditional folk musical.  She is definitely the star.  Tina Lawton - what a fine singing voice tragically lost so early.  Declan Affley - so very credible in the roles he was cast especially with that beautiful clear deep voice - sadly also long gone. Alex Hood does a great job on his tracks but seems to be a little too self-conscious in front of the cameras.
Like I said, this is not a perfect copy but it still amply displays why this was Aunty's (ABC) first ever international award-winning show.

File size is just under 400Mb

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     Part 1
     Part 2
     Part 3

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Shirley Abicair "Sings Songs from Many Lands" LP 1964

Chris from the UK has kindly provided a rip of this album (wma @128).
Shirley Abicair was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1930 or perhaps 1935?  Apparently she learnt zither as a young girl, and friends at university, impressed by her singing and playing, encouraged her to make a career of it. After a couple of years performing in Sydney, she decided to try the UK in about 1955.  Her luck along with her talent was excellent and she went on to become a very successful entertainer in both the UK and the USA.  She was also involved in children's entertainment.

She accompanies herself on her zither on two of the tracks, namely, Johnny has gone for a Soldier and Green Willow (later popularised by Steeleye Span under its most common name All around my Hat). 

Tracks are:
Giuvanne, Eddystone Light, Turtle Dove, Chiens Perdus (Little Lost Dogs), Skip To My Lou, Johnny Has Gone For A Soldier, Go Galloway, Raoul (Serenade Of The Courting Cat), Terang Bollan, Smilin' Day, Luluai, Green Willow, That's Singin' and Little Tonkinese.

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The Fureys and Davey Arthur "Banshee" LP 1978

A rare LP never put on CD to my knowledge.  It has previously been posted elsewhere and the link deleted.

Tracklist
1. Ned Walsh's/The Piper's Chair
2. The Snows (they melt the soonest)
3. William Taylor
4. Derrol in the Rain
5. Baile An Ore/George White's/Aoife's Bottle
6. Pollution
7. Ship in full Sail/Badenloch/Hardiman's
8. I live not where I Love
9. Abroad as I was walking
10. Lonely One
11. Banshee
12. Sham-Rock

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Alfred Deller "The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies" CD compilation

This CD is one of the many compilations featuring the folk singing of the very talented countertenor Alfred Deller who re-popularised the countertenor voice during the 20th Century.  He was primarily a singer of the older classics but he also performed lots of traditional music.  He was a dedicated 'period performer'  and most of his folk songs are backed by lute and/or recorder.  It should also be noted that it was probably fairly common for countertenors to sing folksongs in the 17th Century so these are genuine folk performances. These tracks all appear to have been ripped from many of the LPs produced by Deller from the 1950s to the 1970s (he died in 1979).
(Nowadays the German Andreas Scholl continues very competently in the countertenor tradition including two CDs of folk music "English Folk Song and Lute Songs" (1996) and "Wayfaring Stranger - Folksongs" (2001) both easily available for purchase).
 I have no idea who ripped the CD.  Tracks are MP3 at 192 CBR.
The tracks on this CD, in order, are:
Wraggle Taggle Gypsies, Lord Rendell, Wolsey's Wild, Sweet Jane, The Frog and the Mouse, The Seeds of Love, Fantasia, Flowers in the Valley, Near London Town, Who's going to Shoe Your pretty little Foot, Consort Pieces, Blow away the Morning Dew, Searching for Lambs, Linden Lea, Sweet England, Dabbling in the Dew, Strawberry Fair, Robin, Just as the Tide was a'flowing.

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Roger Wagner Chorale "Sea Chanteys"

Everytime I see the 50s and 60s "greatest hits" compilation CDs I tend to check just how many folk songs appear on them.  From this, one might presume that there was never a popular folk revival which inspired many mainstream performers to contribute to the popularity of both traditional and contemporary folk music.  One of that group of participants was choral groups such as the Johnny Mann Singers, The Roger Wagner Chorale and The King's Singers who each put out albums featuring traditional folk music.
The Roger Wagner Chorale was first formed in the late forties by the French-American Roger Francis Wagner and continued for many years.  Their LP output included at least four folk music albums including Songs of the Frontier 1 and 2, Songs of Old World and Songs of the New World and this collection of songs of the sea.
Of course, the performances are more classical than traditional but they have beautifully re-arranged and performed these sailor worksongs with dignity and I'll bet most of you will end up singing along with the tracks.  Those tracks include Erie Canal, Fifteen Men on a dead man's chest, Boston come all ye, Rio Grande, A'Roving, Golden Vanity, Drunken Sailor, Shenandoah, Lowlands, Early in the Morning, Haul Away Joe, Leave Her Johnny, Sailing Sailing, and Tom's gone to Hilo.  I think it was produced in the early 60's.
(Incidentally, this is an original rip at a genuine192-224 VBR)

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Various Australian Artists - "Bushwackers and City Slickers"

This is a rip of a 1982 Axis label LP compiled by Larrikin Records and featuring various artists singing folk and popular songs.  It is quite an eclectic mix featuring the original Bushwackers, Danny Spooner, Mike & Michelle Jackson. Eric Bogle, Chris Duffy, Bernard Bolan, Phyl Lobl, John Summers and Robyn Archer.  There is a lot of humour in this one.

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Pernell Roberts "Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies" LP 1963 (CD re-issue)

Pernall Roberts is best known for being one of the lead performers in the 1960's American TV series Bonanza and later as the main character in Trapper John M.D.
Although successful as an actor, in 1963, he put out this LP featuring  twelve mainly folk songs to which he does great credit.  In particular, I have always been impressed by his performance of the title track.  The album features good quality backing which nicely supplements his vocal performance.  Tracks include The Bold Soldier, a version of Mary Ann, Lily of the West, Shady Grove, Empty Pocket Blues, Sylvie and the title track Come all Ye Fair and Tender Ladies.

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