Lindsay/Two Bold Singermen and the English Folk Revival, 7. Harry Finds Fame

Commercial folk music recordings began in 1908, when Lincolnshire farm steward Joseph Taylor recorded a dozen songs for the Gramophone Company at its London studio. They were a commercial failure and recording continued for research and study only. A decade after EJ Moeran published the songs he collected from Harry, the farm labourer made his first commercial recordings, travelling to London to record for the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS) at the Decca studios. In the late 1940s Moeran again recorded him, this time for the BBC and in the company of some of his Norfolk friends and fellow singers. Harry achieved a small degree of fame, but remained in Norfolk, singing for pleasure.