The Parson & the Songmen
The Reverend Sabine Baring Gould was an exceptional parson and squire from Devonshire, England.
He is probably best remembered as the composer of the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers'.
Born in Exeter in 1834, he died at his estate, Lewtrenchard Manor in West Devon, in 1924.
As 2024 is the centenary of his death it gives me the opportunity to spotlight what he considered to be the most important achievement of his life, that of collecting the old folk songs of Devonshire, and later Cornwall, as he termed it, 'from the mouths of the people'.
Join me as I tell stories about, and sing songs from, this far from ordinary Victorian country parson as he travelled by pony and trap across his native Devonshire seeking out songs that now form a major part of the English folk song tradition.
The Parson & the Songmen
S3 8 Catch Me If You Can
'Catch Me If You Can' is the title of a cassette tape, (originally released in 1978 and please search the interweb if you're too young to know what a cassette tape is) released by Pete Coe who spent a week in the company of a Cornish travelling family, recording songs and stories about their way of life in the early 1900s.
Mike has known Pete since the 1960s in Birmingham where they both sang at The Black Diamond Folk Club, held in the Drovers Arms. Pete went on to become, as described by BBC Radio 2, A 'One-Man Folk Industry' and is still sought out by major folk-festivals in Britain to appear to this day.
This podcast focuses on the reissue, this year, of 'Catch Me If You Can' on CD and features a reunion between Mike and Pete at Dartmoor Folk Festival as well as some amazing soundbites from the family about their life on the road.
Mike's website: mikebosworth.uk
Podcast producer: jontidball@hotmail.co.uk
Follow Mike on: https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Parson-and-the-Songmen/100093220748945/
Mike's YouTube page for Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould songs:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thimblerigg+videos
Sabine Baring-Gould Centenary Celebration Group - 1924 to 2024: https://www.sbgcentenary.co.uk/
Simon Mayor, ace mandolinist: mandolin.co.uk
Mike O'Connor, musicologist and musician: http://www.lyngham.co.uk/
Barbara Griggs, Cornish-based Harpist: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Arganteilin-Harp-Cornwall/dp/0954106857
Pete Coe, One Man Folk Industry: https://petecoe.co.uk/