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Broadside Ballads

With Sam Lee, Lisa Knapp and Nathaniel Mann

Three of the UK’s most innovative folk artists collaborate for the first time to reinvent a collection of British broadsides – low cost daily song sheets sold for pence – giving a rare insight into Britain’s music, literary and political history.

Delving into the collection of broadsides at the Bodleian Libraries and beyond, Sam Lee, Lisa Knapp and Nathaniel Mann lead a five-piece band, bringing broadside ballads to life for a new generation.

A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. Broadside ballads, from the 16^th to 20^thcenturies, contain words and images once displayed and sung daily in Britain’s streets and inns. Although part of living traditions of folksong, popular art and literature, these illustrated printed sheets are now rare and preserved in only a few libraries.
 

 

Venue: Exeter Phoenix