The Access Folk Podcast

Jan 28 2025 9 ep. 34 mins 6
The Access Folk Podcast artwork

Access Folk is a UKRI-funded Future Leaders Fellowship headed by Prof Fay Hield at the University of Sheffield. The new series of the Access Folk Podcast was produced as part of the Knowledge Exchange Project: Folk Arts and Policy in the UK’s Devolved Nations and Regions, and the Isle of Man. The project ran from April to November 2024 and was supported by Policy Support Funding from the University of Sheffield.

  Music  Science
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3. Scotland and the Convention

Jan 28 2025 45 mins  
Welcome to The Access Folk Podcast and our special series on Folk Arts, Cultural Policy and UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In this third and last episode, Esbjörn Wettermark talks to Steve Byrne from Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland and shares a recording from the project's final workshop at the University of Sheffield. At

2. Wales and England

Jan 22 2025 50 mins  
Welcome to The Access Folk Podcast and our special series on Folk Arts, Cultural Policy and UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In the second episode Esbjörn Wettermark talks to Danny KilBride from Trac Cymru in Wales and Katy Spicer from the English Folk Dance and Song Society in England. At the start of the episode Esbjörn intro

1. Isle of Man and Northern Ireland

Jan 15 2025 53 mins  
Welcome to The Access Folk Podcast and our special series on Folk Arts, Cultural Policy and UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In the first episode Esbjörn Wettermark talks to Breesha Maddrell from Culture Vannin on the Isle of Man and Ciarán Ó Maoláin from Armagh Pipers Club in Northern Ireland. At the start of the episode Esbj

6. Access Folk - Increasing participation and inclusion in folk singing

Jan 10 2025 22 mins  
For our last episode of this series Joanie and Oliver talks to the founder of the Access Folk research project Fay Hield and her colleague Esbjorn Wettermark. They discuss their methodology, how they have defined folk singing for the purpose of the project, and how they balanced intersectionality and collective experiences and barriers. Fay reflects on where new generations of sing

5. Lunatraktors - Finding a voice in Broken Folk

Jan 10 2025 26 mins  
In this episode Joanie interviews Clair Le Couteur and Carli Jefferson who together make up the duo Lunatraktors. They talk about their personal journeys to reimagining folk music, thoughts about difference, gender and embracing the carnivalesque and fun in folk. Drawing on the interview Joanie and Oliver discuss how we get to a point of feeling comfortable to participate in the fo

4. Mikey Kenney - Class and folk music education in Liverpool

Jan 10 2025 32 mins  
In this episode Oliver interviews fiddler and singer Mikey Kenney about socio-economic barriers to getting involved in folk music, differences for a young person in Ireland and England to learn folk music, and his approach to engage young people in Lancashire Youth Folk Ensemble. Drawing on the interview Joanie and Oliver discuss class, difference, English folk “academia” and t

3. Marie Bashiru - Race and belonging in folk music

Jan 10 2025 31 mins  
In this episode Joanie interviews musician and ethnomusicologist Marie Bashiru about her music, research, and race and ethnicity in the folk scene. Drawing on the interview and their own lived experience Joanie and Oliver discuss race, ethnicity, belonging and feeling connected to a place. Marie and Joanie talked about Marie’s podcast British Folk Music: Where Are All The Black

2. John Kelly - Music, disability and access as creativity

Jan 10 2025 22 mins  
In this episode Oliver interviews musician and disability activist John Kelly about his music, growing up with singing in a London-Irish family, getting involved with the folk scene and access. Drawing on the interview and their own lived experience Joanie and Oliver discuss how disability and neurodiversity is experienced within the folk scene in England. John and Oliver both ta

1. Rachel Elliott - The English Folk Dance and Song Society and youth involvement in the folk scene

Jan 10 2025 24 mins  
In this episode Oliver interviews the education director of the English Folk Dance and Song Society about youth engagement, funding and folk singing. Joanie and Oliver discuss the contemporary funding landscape for folk music, how young people first meet folk singing and reflect on their own experiences of first getting involved with folk singing. In the podcast Rachel talks about