© 2025 - The Walker Traditional Folk Music Trust. All right reserved.
The Walker Traditional Folk Music Trust is committed to the growth and development of traditional and traditional style folk music which may have been written in any era but has roots in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and New Zealand.
By raising the profile of traditional and traditional style folk music in New Zealand and by inspiring and supporting young musicians to experience, learn, and enjoy this music, the Trust aims to ensure the music survives and flourishes in years to come, as a vibrant and active part of New Zealand’s cultural identity, finding new life in the hands of every generation.
The following examples showcase this music, and are just a selection of the enormous number of amazing Traditional Style Folk Music recordings now available online.
England
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=KtTIs4hRTmI&si=7Y_9VbxYEWcyXAdh
Sussex Cotillion played here by English Melodeon virtuoso Will Allen. A cotillion is a type of social dance that originated in France in the 18th century. This is a version from Sussex.
England
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=dVQEh74If4A&si=6fFZqRL_lQmEn7l-
The Young'uns are a very successful English trio who compose songs about current issues, and perform these unaccompanied in traditional folk style.
England
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv392GJU2aE&si=xOrSTjj5LTccwUPo
Recorded by John Kirkpatrick on his album Sheepskins 1988
England
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=PrEDFreE3OA&si=NeLReVYcwtOLj36r
Peter Knight is best known for his work as fiddle player with the legendary Steeleye Span This is one of the most poignant of traditional English folk songs, and Peter Knight’s Gigspanner do a lovely version of it.
England
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xYIFa2ej6fg&si=KNqEfy9yLeavzNzG
Folk supergroup Bandoggs recorded this track in 1978. Nic Jones was joined by Pete and Chris Coe and Tony Rose
England
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCWTHwUlyRw
Ireland
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=xGJI_vnl4iQ&si=SPjYoXWYzFWXMKmv
From his Album A Lifetime of Happiness, Daoiri Farrell sings Valentine O'Hara. A traditional song arranged by Donal Lunny and Daoiri Farrell. This story of a dashing highwayman is found in many versions throughout England and Ireland
Ireland
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=PvVZwB7XWn0&si=LZEQ-xGAIRQdNvUl
A fast set from Brendon Mulholland, Conor Lamb and Deidre Galway. This is from their album 'Music in the Glen' recorded in 2018
Ireland
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=vrM7RtbebCw&si=7s0D38GSH0QwYuFm
Recorded during the Transatlantic Sessions
Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNnzufK0nVE
Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8ak_m4v7VM
Scotland
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=q9IYGku0CJ0&si=NUX19V97JKQcZM3i
The song “Caledonia” is an example of a folk song written in the traditional style. Dougie MacLean wrote the song in less than 10 minutes on a beach in Brittany, France, feeling homesick for Scotland. He said: “I was in my early 20s and had been busking around with some Irish guys. I was genuinely homesick. I'd always lived in Perthshire. I played it to the guys when I got back to the youth hostel where we were staying and that was the final straw – we all went home the next day." He adds: "It took about 10 minutes but sometimes that's how songs happen. I'm still amazed at how much it has become part of common culture. There's not a pub singer, busker or pipe band that doesn't play it." This version was recorded at the BBC Folk Awards concert in 2013. Dougie is joined by a large group of Scotland’s folk luminaries.
Scotland
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=mBvfpjQHYig&si=ce0MzFPsYzVex0xI
The tune of this song is said to have been composed by James MacPherson, the night before his execution on November 1700. Born of an aristocratic father and beautiful gypsy mother, MacPherson was an outlaw of the Robin Hood mould taking only from the rich and acting as the champion of the poor. It is said that he played the tune on his gallows and when none of his clan took up his offer on the fiddle if they would play it at his wake, he broke it and jumped to his death.
Scotland
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=MygaENlJDWc&si=QMd5OxKZR4x8fxVf
"Ye Jacobites by Name" (Roud # 5517) is a traditional Scottish folk song which goes back to the Jacobite risings in Scotland (1688–1746). While the original version simply attacked the Jacobites from a contemporaneous Whig point of view, Robert Burns rewrote it in around 1791 to give a version with a more general, humanist anti-war, but nonetheless anti-Jacobite outlook. This is the version that most people know today
Scotland
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=OrhCYr1jNlQ&si=xR6s6q6mIt5BGeUV
A robbie Burns song sung to the tune of Dainty Davy
Scotland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o0NUmNNffM
Wales
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=DdzW1I8WqLs&si=bF4GoM0drAihF8tQ
Wales
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=fkBQAvAFjus&si=d0zT_fxNFEmAXWqJ
New Zealand
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=kV7gGKsOLXk&si=nh-vR-gazRLzVlQm
Sung here by Phil Garland. Lyrics written by Peter Cape, music Don Toms, c.1962
New Zealand
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4EpX9LsMms&si=MxmR29VE9lvsqWjh
Sung here by Chris Priestley with accordian by Craig Denham, The lyrics, written by an anonymous songwriter, were collected from E L Eyre by Neil Colquhoun, put to music by him and first published it in 1965 in "Song of a Young Country"
New Zealand
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=fM3N7x6j7D8&si=7Vad9QpW0OBDWWah
Davy Lowston is considered to be one of New Zealand's earliest folk songs
New Zealand
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=R9bj1387lHU&si=F0byxJthKFmFgHlA
New Zealand
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=rfp7Fm0qmZw&si=JTWxIMnh8sLd3RXg
New Zealand
https://folksong.org.nz/fwltgold/index.html
Written by Paul Metsers. This song has been popular and there are several versions from other artists, notably a version by Nic Jones on his album Penguin Eggs
New Zealand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP-7GNoDJ5c
New Zealand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z93CPLQRA2g
