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was doing the same thing then. That was the way of it. Even with the number of clubs – you could go to Liverpool or Birmingham and do a week of gigs – getting your name known nationally was a gradual thing; step by step, there was no other way.”
Dave reflects on the folk clubs of the period: “They weren’t the quiet, respectful places that they tend to be these days, they were bloody rowdy sometimes. You learned your craft – you had to get in there among them and do it. There are various ways of doing that, and you had to learn which was yours.”
For Dave Burland, his way of doing it is a laid-back stage per- sona, a guitar style that appears to be effortless, but which is in fact very accomplished, and a gentle singing style which at times almost approaches the conversational. And a repertoire of both traditional and recently-written songs punctuated by, at times, amusing stories about his experiences and characters he has met.
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In the early days, song repertoire came from a variety of sources: the first record Dave ever owned was of Alex Campbell – he still sings Campbell’s Been On The Road So Long. Then there was Nigel Denver, Dominic Behan… “There was not much printed stuff about that was accessible – we sang anything we could lay our hands on.”
aking records in the 1960s was not the relatively easy business that it has now become. You built your career and, once established, you might be asked to make a record. Self-released albums were rare and relatively few record labels included folk
music in their catalogues. That’s why, for Dave, the release of A Dalesman’s Litany in 1971 – three or four years after he went professional – was such an important landmark. “It was fantastic – I really thought I’d arrived,” he grins. That album was largely recorded in an hour and a half in Bill’s home in London, remem- bers Dave, but the mixing was done at Abbey Road Studios: a bottle of whisky for a security man worked wonders! That debut album became Melody Maker’s folk album of the year, and by the end of 1972, Dave’s eponymous second album was released. As with the first record, Nic Jones added fiddle accom- paniment to an eclectic collection of songs. And once again the songs were all traditional, although this was not necessarily reflective of his club performances.
Dave joined the folk agency run by Jean Oglesby and Jane Winder – the principal agency in the mid-’70s for folk club and fes- tival performers – and soon ran into two of their other performers, Richard Thompson and his partner Linda Peters, when they were sharing the bill at a concert in London’s Shaw Theatre, alongside John Peel and the Copper Family.
This was Richard’s post-Fairport period when he and Linda toured the folk clubs; his album, Henry The Human Fly, had just been released. “When I listened to that album, I didn’t always know what he was singing about, but there was something in the songs that really appealed to me. ‘Everybody came to nobody’s wedding, everybody knew it was bound to be a hoot’ – what a great line that is.”
Dave and Richard became great friends: Dave used to stay with him when in London, and his admiration for Richard’s song-
Photo: Judith Burrows
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