If you have come to this page from a search engine click here to visit our home page.

Folk Kernow

We should all be familiar with the excellent recordings of traditional music & song from the Veteran label. This CD is no exception, chronicling hammer dulcimer tunes played by one Billy Bennington of Norfolk. Twenty four tunes, many introduced by Billy in his quaint dialect are a perfect record of music gone by ~ unpretentious, uncomplicated, tuneful and unamplified! Many tune has a short story ; attached that adds to the sense of being in the room with Billy as his dulcimer reverberates a rich sound that defies the logic of strings being struck with only two little sticks. Originally released on vinyl this is not just an archive recording but truly pleasurable to listen to and comes with the usual copious sleeve notes expected from Veteran.

Essex Folk News

It was with some trepidation that I approached this CD to review. I know now that the hammered dulcimer is a traditional East Anglian instrument but it hasn't been a choice of mine to listen to. I was put off dulcimer music at a Walt Michael concert some years ago, so more than an hour of dulcimer music was a rather daunting prospect. To help people like me cope Veteran have interspersed the music with some bits and pieces of Billy talking. The tunes were a real eye-opener for me - such an amazing diversity - lots of dance tunes and popular tunes from the early decades of the twentieth century.

Once very popular as a folk instrument in East Anglia, the hammered dulcimer is still seen and heard in folk clubs & pub sessions, but has probably lost out amongst buskers & folk musi­cians to the more portable melodeon. This 24-track album from Veteran is particularly welcome as it features tunes and anecdotes from the last of the great Norfolk 'dulcimore' players, Billy Bennington It is also quite rare to find a whole album featuring this as a solo instrument. Having learnt to play as a youngster, the lifetime of experience is evident in the quality of the playing and variety of tunes. There are some folk favourites such as Flowers of Edinburgh and The Sailors' Hornpipe, and a wealth of less familiar polkas, hornpipes, etc. that I'd be quite keen to learn. This CD combines both important archival material with enjoyable music for listening.

What's Afoot

East Anglian hammer-dulcimer player Billy was born in 1900 and spent most of his life as a gardener. His prowess on the dulcimer was nurtured from an early age, when his father (who kept the old King's Head pub at Barford) gave Billy his first instrument; subsequent years saw him playing in consort with fellow dulcimer player Billy Cooper and fiddle player Walter Baldwin and touring the Norfolk village pubs on a motorbike combination! And Billy B had earned his nickname of The Barford Angel because he used to carry his dulcimer on his back while cycling and its shape made him appear to have angel's wings!… Billy was "discovered" by the folk scene in the 1970s, and gained quite a following through to his death in 1986. Eight tracks of his superbly nimble playing appeared on Topic's 1973 English Country Music Of East Anglia LP' these all appear on this new Veteran CD, along with others whose recorded provenance is not stated although the booklet notes imply that they were first issued on "the original Barford Angel LP" in the 80s. Billy's playing is characterised by a keen sense of swinging rhythm that's wonderfully infectious (it must have inspired latter-day dulcimer players like Chris Coe), while another unusual and interesting feature of his style is his interpolation of hand-plucked notes and chords in between the hammered ones. You might think a whole album of solo hammered-dulcimer would be tedious, but it proves not to be so, largely due to the variety within Billy's technique and the variety of material he plays – as well as plenty of the expected tunes for dancing, there's "novelty" items (The Chicken Reel), adaptations of military marches (J.P. Sousa's On Parade), popular tunes (Lovely Lucerne, from the dance-band repertoire) and songs (Billy Cooper had provided him with music-hall favourites like Obadiah and When Johnny Comes To Town), and musical showpieces (The Bells Of St. Mary's). And many of the selections are introduced with choice wee snippets of Billy recounting funny things that happened at gigs. This is a delightful and charming release (unless you happen to be allergic to the juicy clang of the hammer-dulcimer, of course!).

Folk Roundabout

****

On this charming and highly-recommended CD, well up to Veteran's usual standards, the indefatigable John Howson has brought together recordings of Norfolk 'dulcimore' player Billy Bennington, known as The Barford Angel. With his instrument on his back, he looked like he had wings. The cd contains all of Benningtons's one album, and his tracks from the Topic album English Country Music From East Anglia.

I've a soft spot for the hammered dulcimer - like a piano frame played with tyre levers - so an album played by a great player is most welcome. The attractive and well-illustrated booklet explains how Bennington made his beaters, and how he sometimes plucked one part of a tune with his fingernails. (Check out My Beloved Cornelia for an example of 'the sound of a mandolin accompanied by the dulcimer'. On some tunes he plays with his fingernails before switching to beaters.

This is, though, social music to listen (and dance!) to. The repertoire is a mix of dance tunes (polkas, hornpipes, schottisches), popular songs and tunes apparently taken from local brass and military bands. Bennington played dance music with marvellous swing and drive; the stepdance tunes are particularly inviting.

He was also an entertaining raconteur, so it is pleasing to see his talk given due credit. His anecdotes give valuable context for social dance in Norfolk, and a real flavour of East Anglian pub life. You may also never look at a marrow quite the same way again...

Folk London

Here's a real treat! Billy Bennington (Barford, Norfolk 1900-1986) was a virtuoso hammer dulcimer player in the East Anglian style. His nickname of 'The Barford Angel' stems from his habit of carrying the dulcimer on his back while riding his bike: the angles of the instrument stuck out like angel wings. This CD brings together recordings made by John Howson and Mike Yates (issued in 1987 as a vinyl album of the same name) and those made by Tony Engle for Topic's 'English Country Music from East Anglia'. Together they give us a detailed picture of Billy as a player and as an anecdotal storyteller. The mellow tones and rolling style of East Anglian playing matches the pace of the storytelling and warm Norfolk voice. Both are served well by the careful production and excellent overall clarity of sound.
 

John Howson's sleeve notes with their evocative photographs are up to their usual high standard, giving us good information on the instrument itself, local styles of playing, tune repertoire and social background; but more than that, they paint an affectionate picture of a fine musician who loved to perform, loved his audience and especially loved playing with other musicians.
 

Billy learned to play from Old Cooper, father of Billy Cooper, another hammer dulcimer hero. (The fee was sixpence a time and hard discipline.) Eventually he played with other musicians all over the area, servicing dances, church fetes and other community events. The 'folk scene' found him in the 1970s and as new players, we learned so much from listening to the way he used cane hammers and fingernails to vary the texture of sound, and watching how he syncopated tunes and lifted the dancers' feet from the floor. He was always generous with his music and his help.
 

East Anglia is lucky. Billy Bennington's dulcimer is now being played by twelve-year-old Tom Knight, grandson of Reg Reader, yet another excellent player who worked with Billy. A rare and precious continuum.
 

These are important archive recordings, but the CD is first and foremost a parcel of joyful music which doesn't loose its hold on you until the last chord dies away. (That can take quite a while on a dulcimer). Our thanks to Veteran.

English Dance & Song

Billy Bennington (whom I was lucky enough to hear at Sidmouth many years ago), got his nickname The Barford Angel from the spread-wing shape his dulcimer suggested when carried on his back while cycling. From Barford in Norfolk, he took lessons from Billy Cooper’s father, and became one of the key role models for many hammered dulcimer players of the folk revival. Listening to this you can see why. He plays with a real swing arising from subtle syncopation, a keen sense of dynamic variation, and sparkling trills. He also uses his fingernails to pick the strings as an occasional alternative to his usual wool-covered beaters. Amongst an eclectic repertoire of tunes familiar (Redwing, Flowers Of Edinburgh) and unfamiliar (Herbert Sadd’s Schottische) had me reaching immediately for my own instrument, while Chicken Reel is one I’ve heard played by American bluegrass fiddlers. Billy also adds entertaining reminiscences between some of the tracks of his days travelling in a motorbike and sidecar with Billy Cooper and a fiddler to play the local pubs—the tale of the pigsty is a little brutal though! Dulcimer fans will buy this without any prompting from me, but it’s a good listen for anyone who likes English music.

Stirrings

Billy was one of Norfolk's great dulcimer players. This was a popular instrument in East Anglia - at one time, there were 25 players of the 'Dulcimore' within ten miles of one small parish near Norwich. Hornpipes were the favourite tunes for stepdances while social dances needed polkas, waltzes and schottisches's. Billy will often play a tune as a schottische and then as a stepdance, to illustrate the difference. Many well known tunes - 'Flowers of Edinburgh', 'Yarmouth Hornpipe', 'Gay Ladies Polka', and Sailors Hornpipe' sit alongside 'On the Green', 'Bells of St. Mary's', 'Obidiah' and 'Pony Trot Polka'. Billy became known as the Barford Angel, due to his carrying the dulcimer on his back whilst cycling. The shape of the dulcimer made it look as though he had angel wings. The gods must have known - his playing is angelic. A fine exponent of a fine instrument.

Folk Around Kent

This recent release from Veteran was launched at a Dulcimer Day in July 2005 at the Roots of Norfolk Rural Life museum near Dereham. Almost exactly eighteen years ago at a Dulcimer Day in July 1 987 held at the museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket, the original LP record with the same title was released. Veteran now brings together on this CD 24 tracks played by Billy Bennington which were originally available on two LP records - 8 tracks from Country Music ¡n East Angila, Topic 1 2TS
(1 973), and 1 6 tracks from Billy Bennington The Barford Angel: 70 years of Dulcimer playing East Anglian Life EAL1 (1 987). In addition to all the music, this new CD also includes a generous helping of Billy’s reminiscences, all recounted ¡n his rapid Norfolk dialect. If you should need an interpreter, parts of this dialogue are transcribed in the excellent and comprehensive 12 page CD booklet.

Back in April 1983 I met Billy at Farnham Folk Day and talked with him prior to a workshop grandly titled “The Ultimate Hammered Dulcimer Workshop”. This featured two traditional players from East Anglia - Billy himself arid Reg Reader, plus English revival players Sue Harris and Chris Coe, and also Jim Couza the American player who had recently made his home in England. Billy, who was 83 at the time, told me that he’d been playing his dulcimore as he called ¡t, for just over 70 years and that he’d spent about 40 years tuning it! I’d had mine for just 18 months! Three and a half years later, Billy died, and although he heard the tracks recorded for the Topic Album, sadly he never heard the LP devoted entirely to his playing.

Billy played by striking the wires with cane beaters covered with Wool, and by Plucking with his fingernails He also created a unique Sound by holding a hammer ¡n his right hand to play accompaniments whilst Plucking the melody with the fingernails of his left hand. (Piano players reading this review might think that I’ve mixed up my lefts and rights, but on the dulcimer the bass notes are on the right hand side of the instrument whilst the trebles are on the left.) Billy worked as a gardener, so he protected his fingernails with the fingers cut off old rubber gloves.

In this wonderfuI collection you can hear his mastery of the instrument, absorb the Sound of the East Anglian style, and enjoy his humorous tales of rural experiences long ago.

Lancashire Wakes

With Chris Coe’s long residence in the region. Few Tykes’ have any excuse for not knowing what some thing akin to enthusiastic manual aerobics on a hammered dulcimer looks and sounds like (Some may also have fond memories of Jim Couza’s hammered version of the William Tell Oveture — once seen, never forgotten)

The star of this CD, Billy Bennington. who died in 1986, is widely credited with being an inspiration to hammered dulcimer players both in this country and the USA and this CD demonstrates why. For your money you get 24 tracks covering a wide range of tunes, predominantly for dancing — polkas. schottisches, hornpipes and stepping — but also covering marches and popular tunes of the day and which are interspersed with Billy s (invariably humorous stories and introductions. Mixng music with speech on recordings can often mar repeated listening but I didn’t notice that here because the extracts are short, to the point, fit in well with the tunes and above all give a real flavour of the background, warm sense of humour and personality that underlie Billy’s approach to life and to music. Billy’s pronounced but soft Norfolk accent should also appeal to those who have wondered whether it is only the St Just-near-Trunch dialect that is unique!

The tunes are too many to list but many will be familiar. e.g. Yarmouth Hornpipe, Redwing, Flowers of Edinburgh. Schottische, On Parade, The Bells of St Mary’s and The Chicken Reel. Others are probably much less so and dance musicians might like to check out Herbert Sadd’s Schottische and Gay Ladies Polka.

Irrespective of Billy’s reputation, I doubt that any listener will not immediately enjoy and appreciate his mastery of the degree of ‘attack’ required to get the right combination of sustain, volume and rhythmic emphasis to get the best out of this instrument, His ability to pluck chords with one hand while using a beater with the other also sounds impressive in more than one sense — the equivalent of simultaneous head patting and belly circumnavigation?

(Hammered dulcimer enthusiasts should note that this CD brings together tracks previously released on vinyl and cassette by Topic and Veteran. As habitual with both companies — and where would folk music have been without them and their respective collectors —) the CD includes full notes on the performer, the music and technical matters.

Tykes News

Billy Bennington (1900-1986) was the last great ‘dulcimore’ player of Norfolk. He used to cycle to pubs and other engagements with his instrument strapped on his back and the way that the corners stuck out over his shoulders like wings gave rise to his nickname ‘The Barford Angel’.

The hammered dulcimer was once very popular in East Anglia as a folk instrument - both for solo and dance band work and while it is still seen in folk clubs, pub sessions and a few bands it has largely been displaced by the more convenient melodeon.

The 24 tracks on this CD come mostly from the LP of the same name issued in 1986 plus eight from a Topic recording of 1973 (English Music in East Anglia). Like most traditional musicians Billy got his tunes from a variety of sources - Billy Cooper (son of ‘Old Cooper’ who was his (dulcimer teacher), other musicians with whom he worked, records of Music Hall singers, popular dance hand tunes of the 20s and also marches and other popular tunes from the radio. Not only do we have a great selection of very entertaining tunes played using several techniques including plucking the strings with his fingernails, but Billy also tells stories in his rich Norfolk dialect which give valuable background information on social dunce and pub life in East Anglia.

I remember seeing Billy play when he was in his early 80s — he could still give a lovely performance then and this CD captures the magic of such an event. More recently we saw his saw his dulcimer still in use being played by young Tom Knight with the Old Hat concert Party. Tom is the grandson of Reg Reader - another fine dulcimer player who worked with Billy.

Once again Veteran have produced a most informative booklet to accompany their excellent CD.

Puddlestone

Veteran CDs & downloads

News    Veteran Mail Order welcome page    About Veteran  

English CDs    Scottish CDs    Irish CDs    American & Blues CDs    Books & DVDs

Search by English counties    Search by Instruments    Shanties & Sea Songs    Morris Dance music