Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival - The Lives, Song Traditions and Legacies of Sam Larner and Harry Cox - Bruce Lindsay

Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival - The Lives, Song Traditions and Legacies of Sam Larner and Harry Cox - Bruce Lindsay

Sam is "Discovered"

Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival - The Lives, Song Traditions and Legacies of Sam Larner and Harry Cox - Bruce Lindsay

Bruce Lindsay [+-]
Music Journalist and Social Historian
Bruce Lindsay is a freelance music journalist and social history researcher. He is the author of Shellac and Swing: A Social History of the Gramophone in Britain (Fonthill Media, 2020), Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival: The Lives, Song Traditions and Legacies of Sam Larner and Harry Cox (Equinox Publishing, 2020) and Ivor Cutler: A Life Outside the Sitting Room (Equinox, 2023).

Description

Harry was known to ‘outsiders’ – people who were not part of his local community – from the 1920s, despite continuing to live and work in rural Norfolk. Sam’s moment of fame came much later, when he was in his late 70s. Sam retired from fishing in his mid-50s, due to ill-health, lived quietly in Winterton working at odd jobs until he reached pension age and eventually came to the attention of a BBC producer in 1956. His voice was still strong and his personality and extrovert performing style quickly made him popular. This chapter explores Sam’s emergence as an important rural singer, through his meetings with Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker, who recorded him over a three-year period. Sam was the key inspiration for “Singing the Fishing,” one of MacColl and Parker’s famous Radio Ballads which featured him as a singer and narrator. MacColl based one of his best-known songs, Shoals of Herring, on Sam’s stories.

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Citation

Lindsay, Bruce. Sam is "Discovered". Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival - The Lives, Song Traditions and Legacies of Sam Larner and Harry Cox. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 103-122 Oct 2020. ISBN 9781781799178. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=38556. Date accessed: 10 Dec 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.38556. Oct 2020

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