Bird in the Belly are a collective based in Brighton made up of solo artist Jinnwoo (Ben Webb), folk duo Hickory Signals (Laura Ward and Adam Ronchetti), instrumentalist Tom Pryor and visual artist Epha Roe. Together they perform songs and stories that have either never before been recorded or are rarely recorded - all set to contemporary folk music, in the hopes of reintroducing these songs back into the folk canon.

They played at Mill Race Folk on Saturday 13th October 2018 and chose to play Give Me Back My Heart Again for the podcast. It's a broadside ballad that they discovered in a chapbook on the Bodleian's digital collections of ballads.

In this chat with Marisa, Jack and Davy they talked about their craft in how they go about reviving forgotten old songs.

Bird in the Belly's new album is called The Crowing and is available now. There is also a video of the band performing Give Me Back My Heart Again recorded at Moot Hall in Elstow by Davy Willis.

Like the music? Come to Mill Race Folk in Bedford and experience the night for yourself. We would love to see you there. Find us on Facebook, Twitter or check out our website. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a nice review if you've enjoyed the shows.

Presented By Marisa Straccia Jack Sharp & Davy Willis

Original Music and Production by Jack Sharp

Edited by Jack Sharp & Marisa Straccia

Thom Ashworth is an English folksinger and bassist who sings traditional songs. He performed at Mill Race Folk on Saturday 22nd September 2018. For the podcast he chose to sing 'Work Life Out to Keep Life In'. We had a chat about the song with him.

In this episode we talked about Martin Carthy, festivals and the political message of the song. Thom spoke about the role of unions, the erosion of employment rights and being a working class musician.

Thom's new EP is called Hollow. Check it out now on Bandcamp

Watch a video of Thom performing 'Work Life Out to Keep Life In' here . It was recorded at Moot Hall in Elstow, Bedfordshire by Davy Willis.

Like the music? Come to Mill Race Folk in Bedford and experience the night for yourself. We would love to see you there. Find us on Facebook, Twitter or check out our website. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a nice review if you've enjoyed the shows.

Presented By Marisa Straccia Jack Sharp & Davy Willis

Original Music and Production by Jack Sharp

Edited by Jack Sharp & Marisa Straccia

We travelled to The Yorkshire Sculpture Park to talk to Bryony Griffith and Will Hampson about 'The Ringers of Egloshayle'. It's a lively song based on the real life successes of an unrivalled bell ringing team from Cornwall. Warning: The sound quality of our conversation in this episode isn't the best as we recorded it outdoors, but stick with us if you can!  

In this episode with talked about holidays in sunny England, the perils of living with a huge folk library, and our favourite bogeyman, the dreaded folk police!

Check out Bryony's new solo album, Hover. Twelve English traditional folk tunes on the fiddle. You can watch a video of Bryony and Will performing The Ringers of Egloshayle here.

Like the music? Come to Mill Race Folk in Bedford and experience the night for yourself. We would love to see you there. Find us on Facebook, Twitter or check out our website. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a nice review if you've enjoyed the shows.

Presented By Marisa Straccia Jack Sharp & Davy Willis

Original Music and Production by Jack Sharp

Edited by Jack Sharp & Marisa Straccia

Administration by Marisa Straccia

We spoke to Gemma Khawaja before the Mill Race Folk sing-a-round at The Star Rowing Club in Bedford on the 14th April 2018. She sings 'George Collins' (aka Clerk Colvill and Clerk Colven). It's a mysterious ballad with many supernatural elements involving a poisonous kiss of death from a jilted lover

Gemma has just released a new album called Caelum Scalptorium (The Engraver's Chisel). It's a available to download from Bandcamp.

Like the music? Come to Mill Race Folk in Bedford and experience the night for yourself. We would love to see you there. Find us on Facebook, Twitter or check out our website.

Presented By Marisa Straccia Jack Sharp & Davy Willis

Original Music and Production by Jack Sharp

Edited by Jack Sharp & Marisa Straccia

Administration by Marisa Straccia

We chatted to Nicola, Ian and Ellie from Stick in The Wheel, before their Mill Race Folk performance at Bedford Esquires on the 31st March 2018. They chose to play Marrabones, a traditional song about an unhappy marriage with an unfortunate ending!

We talked about the Clancy brothers in their fisherman’s jumpers (check out the video we discussed in the podcast), removing the diddly choruses, plotting a murder and very mild swearing. Other artists who were mentioned were Peter Bellamy and his catalogue of music on Spotify, Planxty and Martin Carthy's version of 'Stitch in Time', a Mike Waterson song.

Stick In The Wheel have just released their second album Follow Them True and are currently touring, so go and see them!

Click here to watch of video of Marrabones by Stick in The Wheel on YouTube.

Like the music? Come to Mill Race Folk in Bedford and experience the night for yourself. We would love to see you there. Find us on Facebook, Twitter or check out our website.

Presented By Marisa Straccia Jack Sharp & Davy Willis

Original Music and Production by Jack Sharp

Edited by Jack Sharp & Marisa Straccia

Administration by Marisa Straccia

We spoke to Ffion, Kathy amd Patrick from The Foxglove Trio when they played at Mill Race Folk in Bromham Mill on 20th January 2018. They performed their version of 'William' for the podcast. It's a Welsh language folk song which features on their latest album, 'Distant Havens'. This song was discovered by Ffion whilst listening to an archive recording of Bertie Stephens at the National History Museum at St Fagans, near Cardiff. 

For more on Welsh folk songs, why not check out Ffion's blog, Caneuon Gwerin

Bertie Stephens is on discogs here (Wren Records). There is a short article about him online at The National Museum of Wales

Like the music? Come to Mill Race Folk in Bedford and experience the night for yourself. We would love to see you there. Find us on Facebook, Twitter or check out our website.

Presented By Marisa Straccia Jack Sharp & Davy Willis

Original Music and Production by Jack Sharp

Edited by Jack Sharp & Marisa Straccia

Administration by Marisa Straccia

Marisa Jack & Davy present to you, the pilot episode of The Mill Race Folk Podcast. It's all about traditional folk songs by the people who perform them.

In our trial episode we spoke to Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp when they played at Mill Race Folk in Bromham Mill in November 2017. They performed their version of 'Murder in the Red Barn' for the podcast. This song features on their fantastic debut album, 'The Poacher’s Fate'. We had an extensive conversation about where they found the lyrics, where they found the tune for this folk song and their approach to arranging and performing. We chatted about the broadside printer, Catnach and other versions of this ballad. We talked about murder, executions and gruesome artifacts too.

Like the music? Come to Mill Race Folk in Bedford and experience the night for yourself. We would love to see you there. Find us on Facebook, Twitter or check out our website.