In 2019, British and Irish folk music is more exciting and urgent than it’s been for years. “Invariably it’s written by someone whose heyday was in the 80s and they’re writing the same boring and incorrect story about how there is no political music any more. “I like to shine a light on forgotten people and tougher subjects and bring them into the medium of the folk song,” O’Neill explains. You can teach yourself things if you sit back.” She thinks traditional songs have a directness that many songs don’t. “Folk music is about pleasure and fellowship.

Source: The Guardian March 10, 2019 08:02 UTC