This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #98 (February / March 2002). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

The English folk revival is now at an interesting crossroads. Youngsters like Eliza Carthy and Kate Rusby thrill audiences worldwide. At the same time, their parents have become elders of the folk movement. But folk music has always been for all ages, and the elders have not lost their impact by any means. Whether on reissues of old albums, brand new releases, or compilations, there's always room in my CD player for the Grand Masters of folk.

One of the record companies keeping this music available, Fellside, is celebrating its 25th anniversary by reissuing albums of classic performances. (This is sort of like having a birthday party where you give out the presents.) Recently, Fellside reissued two great albums by Peter Bellamy as a double CD: Keep on Kipling, originally a vinyl LP from 1982, and Songs an' Rummy Conjurin' Tricks, originally a cassette-only release from 1992. The former was a studio album of Bellamy's settings of Kipling, while the latter was a live album recorded at a single folk club performance. Both show Bellamy in his best light, as a remarkable singer, a strong concertina player, a brilliant arranger of Rudyard Kipling's poems, and above all man of impeccable taste in songs. Highlights are many, but from Keep on Kipling I'll especially mention "The Land," Kipling's paean to the common farmworker; "Dayspring Mishandled," a modernization of a Chaucer poem, which is given a pretty three-part harmony arrangement reminiscent of plainsong; and two songs taken from the story "The Marklake Witches." From the later album I especially love "Cholera Camp," Kipling's bleak but weirdly funny song about disease in the army; "On Board a '98," an old ballad with a great chorus and a cute punchline; and "Tyne of Harrow," complete with Bellamy's contention that the so-called goodnight ballads never contain the words "good night." (He was wrong, of course; "The Newry Highwayman," "Adieu Adieu" and "The Flash Lad" all contain a line about bidding people "good night"). The new CD version also contains nine bonus tracks, seven of them Kipling songs and two from the tradition.

There are five more recordings discussed in this column from Dirty Linen #98 (Feb./Mar. '02). Read the full text in the magazine, available via subscription or on newsstands and in bookstores.