For now, I’m playing a final set of tunes with light or, in this case, lights, in their title. No doubt there are many I have missed, but I don’t usually go beyond three weeks with a theme, so time is up for this one! As well as extending into the plural form of the theme word I’m doing something a little different with this one – see if you can spot what the connection is. And do let me know if you recognise more than two of these, at most!

Today’s opener was raised in comments last week (thank you, Colin) but truth be told it was already cued up for a spin. I saw them play this live in concert at my uni’s folk club, and still love it to this day:

The video clip is showing its age a bit, but it is the only live performance I could find on YouTube that wasn’t shot on a phone from miles away. This is, as you saw, Richard and Linda Thompson with their album title track I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight. I played this as recently as four months ago for a Song Lyric Sunday post, but used an audio only clip that time. As I said, they played in January 1974 at my uni, the University Of East Anglia, and they were fantastic. I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight was recorded in May 1973, so they were playing us songs from their forthcoming album: it wasn’t released until April 1974, having had to take its place in the queue at a time of vinyl shortages (miners’ strike times, anyone?). This is a later clip, from a 1981 tv show with a decidedly pregnant-looking Linda (carrying Kamila, their second child). The rather surprised looking compere is Mike Harding, another mainstay of English folk music, who I also saw in my uni days.

Although it was initially ignored by reviewers, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight later came to be highly regarded, and is now viewed as a classic of English folk rock and one of the Thompsons’ finest achievements. Richard was well known in the English folk scene at the time, and assembled a veritable Who’s Who of musicians to play on the album. The CWS (Manchester) Silver Band played on the recorded version: brass bands have long been a welcome addition to folk records here, and are also great to hear in concert. Fittingly, as the show was recorded in Manchester, this is them playing in this clip.

Having set out my stall for this week with a longtime folk music favourite, how about another:

That was, as the video showed, Merry Hell with Leave A Light On. I had to go for an audio-only clip as there isn’t a live version on YouTube, and as often with songs which are included on there under their artist’s ‘Topic’ section viewing is restricted. Apologies if you live in parts of Africa, South America, Eastern Europe or some of the smaller West European countries, where this one is blocked. I’ve no idea why, sorry. Merry Hell first released the song on their 2015 album The Ghost In Our House and other stories…. and then re-recorded it among several of their other songs in acoustic versions for an album called Anthems To The Wind, released in 2018. It is a beautiful song of lost love, and the hope that it may return, and this second version is even more delicate than the first one.

You may know this next one, which is the title track of an album that was an absolutely massive success:

Passenger, with All The Little Lights.  Driven by the hit single Let Her Go, this album by Mike Rosenberg – under his brand name – was his fourth, and became his breakout record. It has sold more than a million copies in the US and half a million in the UK, going Platinum in both: it reached #3 in the UK and #26 in the US, though it made #1 on the US Folk Albums chart and got to #2 in Australia, where most of the tracks were recorded (with Australian musicians). This track wasn’t released as a single, though the fact that it has a video suggests to me that it might have been considered, but never mind – it is still a lovely song from a beautiful album, which I recommend highly.

Another of my favourites is next, with one of the most beautiful voices I know. The lady herself introduces the song, in her usual chatty style – she’s a delight in concert:

As the Lights Go Out was track on Kate Rusby’s sixteenth album, Philosophers, Poets & Kings, which was released in May 2019. It didn’t make the charts, but for those of us who love her music chart placings don’t really matter: we just enjoy being entranced by her. I think this clip shows you why.

I’m playing today’s final track to honour one of my all time favourite bands, who have very recently completed their final tour after being with us for well over forty years. Oysterband have made much of the music I have enjoyed for all of that time, and embarked on a long (very long!) farewell tour, which has concluded over the past two weekends at The Shrewsbury Folk Festival, in England, and the Tønder Festival in Denmark. I’ve seen them live twice and they are fantastic, and I think they have earned a retirement from the rigours of touring. Hopefully they will continue to make music, though, as their most recent album, Read The Sky, is another excellent offering. In keeping with my theme for today I could have played a couple of their songs but, to mark their retirement, this seems the most appropriate one:

Put Out The Lights was first released on the band’s 1995 album, The Shouting End Of Life, and was re-recorded in 2010 for The Oxford Girl And Other Stories, a compilation of acoustic versions of some of their songs. Someone kindly posted a photo on Facebook of the setlist from that final concert last weekend in Tønder, and this was their performance of the song in closing that show. I agree with their choice: I think this is a fitting tribute to a band whose music has given me so much enjoyment for so many years. For fans it is a bit of a hard watch, as you can hear the emotion of the moment in John Jones’ voice. Farewell to a very special band.

I said at the beginning that there was a connection between today’s songs, and if you hadn’t already spotted it this was that all five of my selections are from English folk musicians. This may seem narrow to you, but I make no apologies. There is much beautiful music made here under a banner that tends to get overlooked or even derided by many (“too folky for me,” etc,) and my intention is to showcase what you may have been missing, in the hope that you explore further. These have also combined to make a very mellow set with which to close this theme – that wasn’t intentional, it just turned out that way! I hope you’ve enjoyed them and are feeling suitably relaxed.

That’s it for now. I’ll see you again in a couple of days, so until then I wish you well and hope you have a good week. Take care 😊