The Folk Music Hour

David Calder presents the music he loves in The Folk Music Hour, with the aim of rekindling listeners' interest in acoustic music in the Anglo-American tradition, including NZ folk song, and world folk music such as that heard at WOMAD in New Plymouth's beautiful Brookland's Park. Almost all music has a folk origin: blues, jazz, rock and even so-called classical. As Big Bill Broonzy famously said - "all songs are folk songs; ain't never heard a horse sing!" Arguably the first Kiwi to make a living with a mandolin, David spent some of his musical life playing bluegrass, but was performing in the folk boom as early as 1964. He was playing in Europe and the UK in the 70's, dabbling in folk rock and pop in California in the 80's, and creating a country garden in the 90's and teaching children to read. These days, kind of retired, he is free to pursue any of the musical paths he loves: song-writing, tuition, and performance with guitar, piano, banjo, mandolin, autoharp, dulcimer, even bass; playing jazz, folk, blues and originals. Or to just kick back and listen to Bach or Grappelli ... He is a long-standing performer of NZ folk, and maintains a love affair with US old-time music nurtured since Doc Watson's LPs first made it to these shores. A natural entertainer since his debut on radio aged six, David thinks radio is the perfect performance medium.

The Folk Music Hour 24-11-2024 Songs of the Sea

The seafarer's life has inspired a vast repertoire of folk songs.

11-25
59:18

The Folk Music Hour 24-11-2024 Songs of the Sea

The seafarer's life has inspired a vast repertoire of folk songs.

11-24
59:06

The Folk Music Hour 17-11-2024 Folk Fusion

Setting fine musicianship to a beat is being called Folk Fusion, and Celtic sounds work superbly.

11-17
59:12

The Folk Music Hour 10-11-2024 Five Hundred

A celebration of the 500th Folk Music Hour includes some of David's favourites

11-10
57:19

The Folk Music Hour 03-11-2024 Farewells

A playlist of goodbye songs, of which there are many, some even promising a return.

11-03
59:12

The Folk Music Hour 27-10-2024 Folk Genres

The desire to classify kinds of music has ocurred in Folk, too

10-29
57:47

The Folk Music Hour 20-10-2024 Mixtape 17

A new world tour sharing folk music that includes tracks sent in by listeners

10-20
58:47

The Folk Music Hour 13-10-2024 Our Celtic Roots

So many of us have bloodlines that go back to the ancient Celtic peoples of Eurasia. That’s why we love Celtic music.

10-14
58:04

The Folk Music Hour 06-10-2024 Pick

Humans soon learn to hold something hard but flexible to get the best out of their stringed instruments. The 6th in our series Instruments of Folk.

10-06
58:57

The Folk Music Hour 29-09-2024 Bow

Our Instruments of Folk series resumes. After plucking strings to make folk music, some clever person invented a bow to draw across the strings.

09-29
54:11

The Folk Music Hour 19-09-2024 Maori Folk

For te wiki o te reo Maori 2024, we try to unravel the mystery: what is Maori folk music?

09-19
59:15

The Folk Music Hour 15-09-2024 WomenFolk

To mark 131 years of women’s suffrage in NZ, an all-female programme of folk and related music.

09-15
59:05

The Folk Music Hour 08-09-2024 Harmony Folk

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of folk song, for the performer and the audience alike, is singing in harmony.

09-08
59:19

The Folk Music Hour 01-09-2024 Kids Stuff

Songs and rhymes for children have folk origins and tell some wonderful stories.

09-01
58:00

The Folk Music Hour 25-08-2024 Protest, Revisited

We pick up the theme of Protest November, four podcasts from 2018, with new issues and songs.

08-25
58:09

The Folk Music Hour 18-08-2024 Mixtape 16

Some more songs and tunes too good to miss make up a sampler from over 60 years of folk.

08-19
58:12

The Folk Music Hour 11-08-2024 Lisa Hannigan

The Irish composer, instrumentalist and songstress influences modern folk with her interesting music.

08-12
58:25

The Folk Music Hour 04-08-2024 Young Tradition

Young musicians are very talented; some are keeping traditional folk going while others are adding to it.

08-04
58:12

The Folk Music Hour 28-07-2024 Cover Versions

We can’t seem to help finding versions of songs we think you will love.

07-28
57:42

The Folk Music Hour 21-07-2024 More Screen Folk

It's amazing how many filmmakers illustrate their themes with folk music.

07-21
58:16

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