f42 Direct Collection

The Song Collectors Collective are continuing the good old hunter-gatherer tradition in folk music. Clare Button collects their tale, and looks at a new novel with a Song Collector as narrator.

Lomax holding out a microphone to Lead Belly. What we may not realise is how sel- dom we picture collectors in modern-day clothes. Collecting is something that hap- pens in the past tense.

W

Except there is a group of people busy making a nonsense of this idea. The Song Collectors Collective are a group of field- workers, librarians, writers, academics and musicians demonstrating that there is still a need to collect, share and promote living traditional culture.

“The myth of the dying tradition is very helpful as a call to action,” remarks James McDonald, the Irish singer, collector and filmmaker who co-founded the Collective. Over the past three years, the group have recorded a wealth of material from ‘tradi- tion bearers’ including Travellers, Yorkshire dry-stone wallers and Inuit throat singers. They have shared these treasures online, run training events, workshops and confer- ences, and were nominated for Innovation at this year’s Celtic Media Awards. “I believe that the tradition is changing and evolving and is far too resilient to ever disappear,” says James. “However, there are many won- derful singers and songs out there that are disappearing and though we’ll never cap- ture it all, it’s well worth making a consider-

James (left) and Sam (third left) in the field.

hen we think of a ‘song collector’ we might per- haps romantically imagine Cecil Sharp scribbling notes in a field, or John and Alan

able effort to meet these people and record their songs and stories to show the richness of this culture.”

The Collective may have achieved much in their short lifespan, but they emerged from a pragmatic personal need. James, together with fellow singer and collector Sam Lee, wanted to look beyond books and archives for their song repertoire, and col- lecting offered them the chance to unearth obscure nuggets. James began tailoring his holidays around opportunities to collect, venturing to Georgia, Greece and Albania (and even as far as Slough). Meanwhile, Sam had worked closely with collector Peter Kennedy and individuals from Traveller com- munities such as Stanley Robertson. The Travellers’ rich tradition of passing down dis- tinctive versions of songs through families and of keeping stories and lore alive make them one obvious starting place for any col- lector. James and Sam’s first official field trip, with some coins in the coffers from Arts Council Ireland, was recording Travellers around James’ native south-west Ireland.

But while the collecting arose from per- sonal interests, the Collective sprang from a perceived need to provide communication and support in a field of activity where indi- viduals often plough solitary furrows.

“‘Sam came up with the idea to form a group of like-minded song collectors. There are certainly many collectors doing their own thing, in their spare time, without any formal connections to, or support from, wider organisations,” says James, with admiration for independent collectors like Frank Harte and Reg Hall. “This was one of the reasons we thought we should set up a group to support each other. But similarly to how the old songs are mostly in the heads of older people, the working knowledge and experience of collecting these songs is typically with an older generation too. It was apparent that many younger people wanted to get involved and do field work but didn’t know how to begin.” In collabo- ration with SOAS University of London, James set up a training project in collecting skills. Such was the uptake, and the interest from overseas, that they found themselves simultaneously running an online version of the course. “There is an expanse of skills needed, from technical ability with the recording devices you are using to an understanding of the ethics of song collect- ing. Our website has a lot of resources and guides that are ever-evolving, but it’s inter- esting to see how they compare to the

advice given by the Folk-Song Society in 1898. Their leaflet guide has some anachro- nisms such as suggesting to collect songs from ‘artizans [sic], sailors and domestic ser- vants especially nurses’, but there are a lot of things that are still relevant, such as dili- gent note-taking.”

Good notes aside, effective collecting requires trust and respect between the per- son holding the recorder and the person being recorded. But it also helps to have a few good tip-offs from those already in the know. Thomas McCarthy, the Irish Traveller whose rare store of family songs is testa- ment to the tradition’s vitality, has been one invaluable contact.

“Quite often, Sam and I just pull up to a halting site or a caravan on the side of the road and say ‘hello’”, James recounts. “Obviously, you get some funny looks ini- tially, but once you explain that you are a singer who would like to have a word with some older singers that might know old songs, people start to build a trust. Even with the generation of Irish Travellers, aged say 30 to 50, who might not know many old songs, they deeply value them and have a lot of respect for the generation before them who spent time on the road and sang round the camp fires learning from their parents’ generation.”

But this is only half the battle. “It can take quite a while to explain what kind of songs we’re after, as terms like ‘folk’ and ‘traditional’ are pretty useless. ‘Old’ is the best term to use, and singing fragments of certain songs that people might know is often a good start. With the songs come memories, and with the memories come songs, so we tend to have long conversa- tions that we record entirely.”

ence that might otherwise be lost; all of these are of value. In the past, limited tech- nology and different social, ethical and cul- tural attitudes meant that context and information about ‘informants’ (as that uncomfortable word has it) just wasn’t cap- tured; but things have changed now.

D

“It’s very important for us to capture from whom each singer learned the song and the circumstances. This is all part of the song’s life-story. Andy Connors from Vine- gar Hill in County Wexford, aged 77 when

espite their name, the Song Collectors Collective gather much more than songs. Sto- ries, memories, childhood yarns, know ledge and experi-