Holey Ha’penny - Classic Recordings of Traditional Music from the North-East of England

I don’t know much about the music of Northumberland, but I love old, classic recordings like these, and this is a great album.

I’ll post the artist list and edit tunes later. In the meantime, those of you who know this album and/or Northumbrian tunes, feel free to edit the listing as you see fit.

Hi Dan, Thanks for posting this. I didn’t know you were into folk musc from England. I’d love to know the artists behind all these.

I just edited two of them which I know of for sure.
I’m going to guess that tracks 1 and 16 are probably from Tom Clough’s 1929 recordings, as I know of these and have seen them in another collection. If this is the case (and even if it isn’t), I’m curious as to how old the other tracks in this album are.

Sorry, I should clarify: I edited two tunes, not two artists!

@Whimbrel, you’re right about the Tom Clough recordings. I’ll add the artists soon. Good find for track 4 (Proudlock’s); it’s a great tune. I’m not sure whether you edited the link for “Nae Good Luck”, but you should know it’s a jig, not a hornpipe.

Also @Whimbrel, in what other collections have you seen Tom Clough’s recordings? I’m curious.

1, 16: Tom Clough (smallpipes)
2, 4-5, 24-26: Billy Ballantine (piccolo)
3: Jim Rutherford (fiddle)
6-9, 27-29: Ned Pearson (fiddle)
10-11: Joe Hutton (smallpipes)
12-14: Adam Gray (fiddle)
15: Billy Ballantine (piccolo) and Tom Hunter (fiddle)
17-18: Jim Hunter (accordion), presumably with Billy Ballantine (piccolo)
19: Bob Clark (jew’s harp)
20-22: Willy Taylor (fiddle)
23, 31: George Hepple (fiddle), with unidentified (smallpipes)
30: George Hepple (fiddle)

Hi,
Yes, sorry, I edited “Nae Guid Luck” to the hornpipe and didn’t know there was a jig version.
I know that Tom Clough’s songs are also in this collection:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Northumbrian-Small-Pipes-Various-artists/dp/B01NBMIC1Q
This and some of the other Northumbrian collections seem to only be available in Europe on Amazon, but are on YouTube.
Also, in this version Tom Clough’s Keel Row track is just called “Keel Row.” I think that’s the original 1929 track, based on the background noise. “The Keel Row with Variations” track was remastered from 1976, if I remember correctly.
There’s some really interesting information about Tom Clough on Wikipedia.