If you’ve been following my social media, you’ll know that last week I travelled with Ben Paley, Roger Wilson and John Spiers to play three shows in China. Open air, city centre stages, Huiming Culture Communication brought world music into the heart of Wuhan and Shanghai. But why did we go, it's just a gig, why was it such a big deal?..
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Hello again, dearest reader, I hope the year is settling down well for you? What with all last year’s Brexit, Syrian nightmares and the political upheaval in the States, many people are unsettled but perhaps that unsettledness is becoming a new kind of norm while we try to make sense out of what is going on. Please excuse the broad political opening to this post – but it is really very tied to the theme this time around – just how political is folk song?..
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Welcome to my first ever blog post. This is going to be an experience for us both. I have been meaning to do this for a while and I’m sure you have no idea what to expect, so I’ll start by telling you why I’m doing this and what sort of things I envisage writing about. Firstly, it is not going to be about my navel or what’s growing in the garden. Neither is it going to be about life backstage. I want to share some ideas in the work I come across in the course of my research and teaching at the University of Sheffield – this will often involve music making and touring, but I’m trying to approach it as opening questions for discussion and debate rather than purely giving you gossipy tit bits. Sorry if that’s put you right off!..
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