This is an interesting idea ive never heard before: (Mateo Austin Dean, vocalist of Shovel Dance Collective) says he sees singing English folk traditionals “as a decolonial process for me as a person of colour, to sing those songs and claim Englishness rather than Britishness, because I think Britishness is toxic. It’s the union, it’s the empire.” Not sure how much I agree thb, don’t think you can just replace one nation with a smaller nation.
Yeah the article is okay, some good acts to look up: Shovel Dance Collective, Milkweek, Angeline Morrison (and Goblin Band, of course)
Though most of it boils down to “yeah we like folk and trad but we aren’t racist” which is a bit basic.
Makes the point that these acts are looking further back than the folk revival of the 70s and 60s. So they aren’t in the tradition of that folk revival, but reviving themselves the even older traditions? Except like… Martin Carthy and Peggy Seegar fit right in and they were the 70s folk revival.
Focus on historical material, getting back to nature, a sort of mild primitivism. I think the best of this sort of folk is personally very curious about the lives and feelings of historical people, and attempting to put it alongside our own lives and feelings.