Laurie Lee - As I Walked Out
I came across an interesting quote in the book, '' the other day which reminded me why, in its best and simplest form, folk music will never die.
The title of the book will be familiar to any of you that know English traditional song as the opening line of The Banks Of The Sweet Primroses  one of the most beautiful of English songs and, of course, Laurie Lee was no stranger to the English tradition.
The title of the book will be familiar to any of you that know English traditional song as the opening line of The Banks Of The Sweet Primroses  one of the most beautiful of English songs and, of course, Laurie Lee was no stranger to the English tradition.
Brought up in aÌý Gloucestershire village near Stroud in the years after the First World War, he was no slouch when it came to playing the country fiddle. His book ''Ìý is one of the finest autobiographies ever written and is also a portrait of a traditional way of life that was spinning out of time and down into the dark vortex of the past.
In 'As I Walked Out', Lee leaves behind the village of his childhood and youth and sets of for Spain, walking all the way to the English coast, sailing to Vigo in Gallicia, then walking the length of the country playing his fiddle in the streets to pay his way; travelling through a Spain that was on the verge of the Civil War and yet a Spain that in many ways was medieval.
The quotation which struck me as so pertinent comes from midway through the book when Lee has found himself in a nameless village in a farmhouse, playing for the old couple who run the farm and their sons and daughter:
"The evening's routine had been broken, and no one seemed eager to sleep. So some further celebration was possible. The girl was asked to sing, and she did as she was told, in a flat unaffected voice. The songs were simple and moving, and probably local; anyway, I've never heard them since. She sang them innocently, without art, taking breath like a child, often in the middle of a word. Staring blankly, without movement or expression, she simply went through each one, then stopped  as though she really had no idea what the songs were about, only that they were using her to be heard."
I've been in sessions in the West of Ireland and in this country too where such a thing has happened; where somebody without thought of applause or fame, and often in a quite ordinary singing voice, has sung a song in a completely unaffected way and the story with all its power and glory has come through as though across a great expanse of time.
Not something that the panel on the X-Factor would understand perhaps, but something which, none the less, gives me, and hopefully a few others out there, great hope.
In 'As I Walked Out', Lee leaves behind the village of his childhood and youth and sets of for Spain, walking all the way to the English coast, sailing to Vigo in Gallicia, then walking the length of the country playing his fiddle in the streets to pay his way; travelling through a Spain that was on the verge of the Civil War and yet a Spain that in many ways was medieval.
The quotation which struck me as so pertinent comes from midway through the book when Lee has found himself in a nameless village in a farmhouse, playing for the old couple who run the farm and their sons and daughter:
"The evening's routine had been broken, and no one seemed eager to sleep. So some further celebration was possible. The girl was asked to sing, and she did as she was told, in a flat unaffected voice. The songs were simple and moving, and probably local; anyway, I've never heard them since. She sang them innocently, without art, taking breath like a child, often in the middle of a word. Staring blankly, without movement or expression, she simply went through each one, then stopped  as though she really had no idea what the songs were about, only that they were using her to be heard."
I've been in sessions in the West of Ireland and in this country too where such a thing has happened; where somebody without thought of applause or fame, and often in a quite ordinary singing voice, has sung a song in a completely unaffected way and the story with all its power and glory has come through as though across a great expanse of time.
Not something that the panel on the X-Factor would understand perhaps, but something which, none the less, gives me, and hopefully a few others out there, great hope.
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