Categories: music
Date: 20 July 2009 12:11:11
Britain's New Folk Music by Will Hodgkinson is an article in the Times today which is basically promoting The Ballad of Britain. The online version of the article also contains a couple of links to some folkie tunes, which don't make a bad listen. It's appears to be the folk equivilent of Colin Irwin's Sing When You're Winning. However, there is a twist on the usual read the article buy the book and then go hunting yourself for some obscure CD ....this one appears to link to a series of concerts aswell. The Ballad of Britain My Space site has details aswell as some downloads. Also worth listening to is this weeks GCN Radio Show , if you are interested in hearing abit more about the retreat I went on a week or so ago. I sat and watched the original recording of this, rather than joining in, and have to say am liking the way it was edited. What it gives a useful insight into are the dynamics of online communities and how they work when it comes to virtual life occassionally becoming real life. Third Party did ask me the other day why I had Your Child and the Internet on the book shelf. I explained I had got it at some point when I was in "responsible parent" mode; she just replied "um...I don't think I'm the one who spends most of their spare time online and goes off around the country meeting strange people off the internet." This programme explains what some of the benefits of real life meets are. Have to say whilst the programme explicitly puts this in the LGBT context the basic thing of enabling like minded people to meet up and share goes across. In my former life when I was, it seemed, the "radical heretic" on the edge of my church meeting up with interesting Christians I'd met online helped me loads. I realised that there were a whole bunch of us struggling with the same types of issues related to church and the God of "messy reality" we encountered. Have to say these days the issues that took me into most of the online communities I'm part of no longer exist - or certainly not in the same ways. It's cool now just to sit and read, joining in the discussions as and when appropriate and sometimes having the priviledge of being able to encourage others.