Folk - Jeff Warner

Jeff Warner has made it his mission to bring the voices of 19th century Americans to a 21st century public, through traditional folk songs, many of which were collected by his parents (Anne and Frank Warner) from singers born in Victorian times. His parents’ collection of songs had a big impact on the folk revival of the 50’s and 60’s: they rediscovered songs that went on to become internationally loved classics such as Tom Dooley, Days of ‘49 and Whiskey in the Jar. In the words of Jeff’s website he ‘presents musical traditions from the Outer Banks fishing villages of North Carolina, to the lumber camps of the Adirondack Mountains and the whaling ports of New England.’ He’s lived up and down the eastern seaboard of the USA and in Britain, too, and has collected music wherever he’s been: expect ballads, expect Afro-American banjo tunes, expect Irish concertina numbers, expect heroic songs from the War of Independence. Sometimes he sings a cappella, sometimes he accompanies himself on the banjo, or concertina, or guitar, or Jew’s harp. His songs are called things like River Driving, Shanty Boy, Yucky Bugs, and Come Love Come.

Warner lives in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and is an artist for the New Hampshire Council as well as singing and lecturing regularly on folk music for the Smithsonian Institute. He knows his stuff, basically. This is real traditional folk music, with one foot in the past and the other tapping out the beat on the floor.