Shirley Collins .... Desert Island Discs .... one to do on the wireless today

 I first heard the folk singer Shirley Collins on Desert Island Discs last year and caught it again today.*

And what a wonderful programme it is.

"Shirley Collins first enjoyed success as one of the leading figures in the British folk revival of the 1960s. She initially performed with her sister, Dolly Collins, and also collaborated with other folk luminaries to create some of the era’s most beloved albums. In the past decade she has made an acclaimed return to the concert stage and the recording studio.

Shirley was born in Sussex in 1935. She can still recall how her grandfather used to sing folk songs to comfort her while they were sheltering during German air raids in the early 1940s.

Alongside her career as a singer, in the 1950s she travelled to the American South with Alan Lomax, where they made field recordings of blues and folk musicians, helping to create a significant archive.

Later in her performing career, Shirley found that she could no longer sing, following a distressing betrayal in her private life. She stepped away from music and was silent for many years, taking on other work, including a stint in a job centre Then, in her 80s, she found her voice again. In 2016 she released her first new album after a gap of almost four decades, and she has since released two more albums.

Presenter Lauren Laverne"

Now you either like folk music, or sit in a corner pouring derision on it.

Me, I have been a fan for sixty years, having made the transition from the protest songs of Bob Dylan, Phil Orchs and Tom Paxton to Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Ewan MacColl and back into traditional English music.

And when you go back to those songs in the words of Shirley Collins you are experiencing "The archaeology of music [and of songs that] tell you about the time it happened"

Which for someone who loves history is a perfect way to go back into the past

Location; Radio 4

Picture; cover album of Archangel Hill, Shirley Colllins, 2023

*Shirely Collins, folk singer, Desert Island Discs, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001pf7y