The Main BBC site is a great resource for keeping up with folk music. I didn't realise how much coverage the BBC have of folk but it's all here! The video is always in a 'slider' at the top and allows you to watch live music recordings. It's always great to watch these, can't get better than live performances....
If you love radio like me they've got it all here, usually 30 current folk radio programmes in one place! One Sunday I rather obsessively went through all of them! Just click "More folk programmes" at the bottom of the "Listen and Watch" section. The beauty of this is you can listen to radio programs after they've been broadcast with the magic of "i player" - just click and away you go!
I do have my favourites among these. Mike Harding's show is the biggest folk radio show on UK radio and is a great way with keeping up with what's going on. He also digs up some great 'unknowns' as well (for instance, three men he saw busking in the street!). It's very polished and is produced by Smooth Operations. Smooth operations put on the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards with Mike Harding presenting (sorry if you know all this already). Perhaps it's a little too polished, since I do like the complete chaos of Genevieve Tudor's live show. This woman is wonderfully disorganised! She drops things and picks them up, forgets what she's saying and asks people but noone seems to answer her! I think this ads to the character of the show, and her enthusiasm really shines through. I hope she keeps dropping things for many years to come! Also she has slightly more world music and a bit of fusion thrown in, which I think is great cos it mixes things up a bit. Johnny Coppin also has a good mix. I guess it's listenable, perhaps more mainstream songwriter stuff (good old Show of Hands, going to see 'em on Tuesday!). Not too much box. That's quite important for me. Sorry box players, but I just can't take too much box! A little is ok, after that it's strings/wind instruments all the way for me!
There are some programs I like listening to for the voice as much as the music. Archie Fisher's travelling folk is one of these, he's got a really nice Scottish accent and he always talks with the musicians as if they're his very best friends: a real feel-good show. Also my Grandmother was Scottish and my Mum used to sing us to sleep with "Dreamangus", so Scottish music really holds a special magic for me. I also listen to an Ulster Scots programme "A Kist o Wurds". This is more historical than musical, and is spoken in Ulster Scots. What a variety of dialects we have eh? I get a really homely feeling from listening to this. Don't ask me why!
Folkwaves is something else I like to listen cos of the presenters. There's more box on here than I can take under normal circumstances but the banter between the two presenters and the stories and strong sense of local tradition compensate! Again, gives a homely-warm feeling...
If anyone is reading this hope you found this useful! My goodness I need to think of another word for 'homely' :->
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