Shirley Collins- 2016 archival interview

In 2016 UK folk music ICON Shirley Collins came back to the world of recorded music with a new album , Lodestar, and live performances. Her last album and live performance activity had been in 1978. She had issued her first album in 1958. She is truly an icon, groundbreaking figure in folk music. She worked with folklorist Alan Lomax, travelling around the USA and recording folk songs in the early 60s. She recorded with her sister Dolly and with genius guitarists Davey Graham and Bert Jansch as well as the Albion Band. If you have heard any of PJ Harveys folk tinged albums of the last decade you would have heard echoes of Shirley Collins. I did the interview for RRR. I had been doing the show for about nine years and had inherited the time slot from Rick E Vengeance (RIP) who had presented a folk show on the station for about 30 years. I thought it would be both nice to both involve him and also to be proper and respectful to Shirley and the folk music world for someone really immersed and versed in it to be involved. Rick passed away in 2018. Further text and appropriate links at my substack https://davegraney.substack.com/p/shirley-collins-folk-icon