The Walker Traditional Folk Music Trust

The Walker Traditional Folk Music Trust is a charitable organisation established in honour of devoted folk enthusiasts Graham and Joyce Walker

Graham and Joyce Walker were passionate about traditional style folk music and spent many happy years amongst the folk whanau in New Zealand attending folk clubs and folk festivals. When in 2019 Graham was diagnosed with a terminal illness, less than a year after Joyce had died, he decided to leave their estate for the growth and development of the music they loved.

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Coal Not Dole

Kate Rusby Norma Waterson

England

Here are two versions of this song: The video is Norma Waterson singing "Coal Not Dole" live at The Kalamazoo Club, London, Friday 13th March 2009. The audio track is Kate Rusby from her new record: When They All Looked Up. The song was written by Kay Sutcliffe, the wife of a miner from the Kent coalfields, during the mid-80s dispute between the Conservative government of Maggie Thatcher and the miners’ unions. Kay's poem was set to music by Paul Abrahams. Kate Rusby noted: “The period of time making this album coincided with the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike so this song jumped into my head. I am from mining stock, my maternal grandad Earnest Senior was a miner as was my lovely, gentle Uncle Stanley Norman, both no longer with us. I was 10 when it began, and remember it well, saw the destruction of so many men and their families. The great thing about folk music is it documents the lives of humans, their struggles, their dreams, their lives. My mum used to sing this song and always struggled to get through it without tears. It’s such an incredibly powerful song and just felt like the perfect time to record it. I recorded my vocals (there were tears!) wearing a tweed hat my Uncle Stan gave me. This song is for my mum, her little brother and her dad.”

About Traditional Folk Music

Traditional Folk music encompasses songs and ballads, tunes, airs, and dance tunes some dating back to medieval times. Many of the traditional songs we still enjoy today were originally broadside ballads, printed between the 16th and 19th centuries and sung to tunes which were passed along orally, often changing over time according to the popular tunes of the day. The ballads were stories of love, seafaring, murder, the supernatural, highwaymen, poaching and often of longing and loss.

Learn more about Traditional Folk Music