"FOLK BRITANNIA - EP 1: BALLADS & BLUES"

"FOLK BRITANNIA - EP 1: BALLADS & BLUES"

Year: 2006
Running time: 60 min. (7 parts)
Language: English

Synopsis: The first programme explores politics, ownership and the birth of the British folk revival.  In the early 20th century, a new breed of folk-song collectors, led by Cecil Sharp, worked to preserve and promote the traditional folk music that would bolster national pride during turbulent times.  In post-war Britain, this tradition was assimilated into a revolutionary soundtrack by the left-wing artists Ewan MacColl and Bert Lloyd. MacColl founded Britain's first modern folk club - The Ballad and Blues Club - and his groundbreaking Radio Ballads, which championed the working-class hero, were broadcast to unanimous acclaim.  But by the mid-1950s skiffle had captured the imagination of the nation's youth. Songs by American artists like Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie filled the airwaves while a growing bohemian movement in Greenwich Village, New York, began to wrest folk music from the communists.

(Source: bbc.co.uk)