SCC TRIP ONE - Day zero
Mon 13th August, 2012
London
Sam Lee, Thomas McCarthy and James McDonald
Having received some financial support from the Irish Arts Council, the Song Collectors Collective (SCC) has now been able to begin its first collecting trip and thereby launch itself into the wider world.
The aims are to not only to collect old songs first hand from traditional singers but also to celebrate those singers and their songs.
The first song collecting trip focuses on singers and songs from the Irish Traveller tradition and, as many songs get passed down through families, with some families having their own distinctive versions of songs, it is very important to us that we appraise those families.
The SCC is the brainchild of Sam Lee, no not the famous actor from Hong Kong, the other one. More extensive info on the intentions of the group is available on the SCC Facebook page so I won't repeat it here.
In this first phase of collecting, a key collaborator is singer Thomas McCarthy. Thomas's family is an immensely important source of songs. Many members of his family are conduits of truly wonderful old songs and Thomas and his late grandfather John McCarthy are considerable songmakers in their own right. When Thomas became known to the London folk scene, he quickly rose to prominence and was booked for many performances at clubs and festivals in Britain and Ireland. People thought that such source singers were a thing of the past. As well as celebrating the skill of musicians like Thomas, this has also encouraged people like Sam and I to go out and meet the many other wonderful singers who maintain this tradition so that we can help to keep the flame burning for future generations of Travellers and non-Travellers alike.
That’s the plan, now we’ve just got to go do it.
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