The New Radio Ballads: In the Footsteps of Ewan MacColl

In the 1950s and 60s, Ewan MacColl – along with Charles Parker and Peggy Seeger – created the groundbreaking Radio Ballads broadcasts for the BBC Home Service. Covering a variety of subjects and using an audio documentary format, they highlighted the experiences of real people, weaving the voices of rarely-heard communities with songs written from and about their recorded interviews.

Almost half a century later, in 2006, a new set of Radio Ballads were commissioned by BBC Radio 2, using the same format but this time involving a whole team of stellar musicians, singers and songwriters from the folk/acoustic/roots music scene.

Now, three musicians from that team – Bob Fox, Jez Lowe and Julie Matthews – have put together a selection of songs from the 2006 Radio Ballads for a concert performance.

All three are engaging storytellers and multi-instrumentalists, whose skills have been honed by decades of live touring around the world and recording.

Expect to be entertained and enlightened by songs of joy, love, hardship and humour.