Raising the Dragon — by Unknown on Tuesday, 24 December 2013

1 comment

The weekend before last we put on a French and Breton folk dance here on Dartmoor with Red Dog Green Dog and Wod (gig photos by Rima Staine...

The Story of Stories — by Unknown on Wednesday, 4 December 2013

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Something of a departure for me this time - a story - so I hope you're sitting comfortably. It arrived, as so many of my ideas do, in th...

Courtyard Books — by Unknown on Saturday, 30 November 2013

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Of all the little pleasures in life, browsing in a secondhand bookshop is second to none, especially when the shop is well stocked with esot...

Animal Magic — by Unknown on Monday, 25 November 2013

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I was invited to play at Ludlow Medieval Fair this weekend, always a good gig and a chance to catch up with friends and musical sparring pa...

The Folk Music of Krk — by Unknown on Friday, 15 November 2013

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The Croatian island of Krk has some of the oddest folk music in the world. I first heard it on a collection of field recordings made by  A...

The Salmon are Leaping — by Unknown on Sunday, 27 October 2013

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Yesterday we walked down to the River Teign to watch the salmon returning to their traditional spawning waters, something we'd never se...

Blowzabella — by Unknown on Sunday, 20 October 2013

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Back when I was an undergraduate in the late eighties, my friend Chris made me compilation tapes from his vast vinyl collection of psych, pr...

Mosaik — by Unknown on Sunday, 6 October 2013

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Regular readers will remember that a few posts ago I shared a video from Polish band Mosaik . Their mix of indigenous Slavic folk with Easte...

On Druids, Magic Mushrooms and Cultural Memory — by Unknown on Monday, 30 September 2013

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News that the psilly season is officially underway (with early reports that this might prove to be a bumper year) means it's a good time...

Red Dog Green Dog and Wod — by Unknown on Monday, 16 September 2013

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What happens when Red Dog Green Dog and Wod get together to jam, late at night, a little worse for wear, for the benefit of the last remai...

On Hats and Looking Like Guy Fawkes — by Unknown on Monday, 16 September 2013

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Owing to the vagaries of genetics I have rather limited options for playing with pogonotrophy. My facial hair grows naturally into the d...

Drawing Inspiration — by Unknown on Tuesday, 10 September 2013

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As any creative person will tell you, there are times when inspiration strikes and the work pours out as if it comes through you, not from y...

The Homeliness of English Folk — by Unknown on Monday, 2 September 2013

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An old friend Sam came to stay and as he's one of the best English fiddlers of his generation we naturally got talking about English fol...

Dragon Paths and Pilgrimages — by Unknown on Thursday, 29 August 2013

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In 1969 the old-Etonian writer, antiquarian and ley-hunter, John Michell , published The View Over Atlantis , a book that would pretty much ...

On drones — by Unknown on Thursday, 15 August 2013

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At Breaking Convention I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in a panel on 'the future of psychedelic music', hosted admir...

A Field in England — by Unknown on Monday, 5 August 2013

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My latest Spiral Earth column , about Ben Wheatley's intriguing film A Field in England , is now up for your general delight and delecta...

Vive la difference — by Unknown on Tuesday, 30 July 2013

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I recently met a woman who dislikes bagpipes. In fact she finds the sound so grating and unbearable that whenever she hears a bagpipe of any...