"I’m up to my ass in traditional songs," Linda Thompson says in the extensive Q&A published today on theartsdesk. When she talked to me she also discussed her early adventures in traditional folk music. "I was already interested in folk singing in Glasgow," she said. "Great people like Archie Fisher. When I came to London I got friendly with Sandy Denny, who was singing at The Troubadour. I’d been singing seriously since I was 18, in folk clubs, with Martin Carthy, Norma Waterson, all those people. I really liked the music. I’d grown up with American music, so had never heard anyone sing with a British accent. And I started to do that, it just seemed the right thing to do."
While claiming to know "22,000" traditional songs, she managed to whittle down a list of ten favourite performances, in no particular order. Where available, a YouTube performance accompanies each of her choices.
1. “Bogey’s Bonny Belle" by Sheila Stewart
We know about the Stewart family. They were tinkers, they liked to be called Tinkers in Scotland, not Romanies or Gypsies. They were amazing singers and this is a great song.
Watch Sheila Stewart singing "Mill O' Tifty's Annie" in this snippet of film of the Stewarts of Blairgowrie
2. “Banks of the Nile” by Sandy Denny
Because it’s the best vocal ever. The most incredible vocal, and a beautiful, beautiful melody. I can’t believe it when I hear her sing that. It’s so fantastic.
3. “Wantonness” by Ian Benzie
I don’t even know who he is, I just head it on a record my Cajun friend Ann Savoy sent me. It’s absolutely beautiful.
4. “The Slave’s Lament” by Waterson Carthy
I could have done a whole 10 of Waterson Carthy. A fantastic song. I don’t know a lot about it. “The Slave’s Lament” – it speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
5. “I Wonder What’s Keeping My True Love Tonight” by Kate Rusby
Because it’s a beautiful song and she has such a pretty, pretty voice. It’s a lovely sound. And I particularly love that song.
6. “Jock O Hazeldean” by Dick Gaughan
A great, great Scottish singer, just one of my favourite singers ever, and it’s such a good song. The bride runs off at the end of the song with Jock O Hazeldean. And he sings it with so many gracenotes, Dick Gaughan, it’s an incredible, virtuoso piece of singing.
7. “Are You Going to Leave Me?” by Shirley and Dolly Collins
I love Shirley, obviously, and I love Dolly, I was so privileged to have known Dolly, because she died very young. She’s been dead a long, long time now. She was an incredible person and an incredible musicologist and she was pretty solemn as well, I remember. Shirley and Dolly – Dolly had the black hair, Shirley had this blonde hair. They were polar opposites. I didn’t used to like the Shirley and Dolly stuff half as much as I like it now. What I like about it is that they let the song speak for itself. Shirley sings very plainly, it’s like she’s not even singing, you just hear the purity of the song, and I’ve come to appreciate that a lot.
8. “The Poacher’s Fate” by Walter Pardon
I could have picked any number of Walter Pardon’s songs. He’s from Norfolk and Martin Carthy – if any of this is wrong, he’ll be writing in. I love Walter Pardon, one of those very old guys. He was alive and signing when I was around. The funny thing was, I didn’t like it so much at the time – it all sounded a but random to me. But of course it’s not. It’s a primal thing, almost. And of course I can remember what real men were like, I mean I don’t know many real men. I’m talking about women too. People who used to grow their food and eat it, and if it was meat they’d kill it, there’s something incredible about those people, that when you see them standing on the ground, they seem as if they’re part of it. Nothing poncy about Walter Parson, or Bob Copper, or any of those guys.
9. “Sovay” by Martin Carthy
It’s a great song and lots of people have sung it, and it has an exquisitely difficult time sequence.
10. “Pony Blues” by Charlie Patton
Because he’s the best blues man that ever was, he’s as traditional as anybody else. Everybody raves about Robert Johnson, but Charlie Patton, I think, was really the man. Not that Robert Johnson was chopped liver. He wasn’t. But Charlie Patton was something else.