Episode 7 of Sharron Kraus’ Preternatural Investigations podcast is called “How Weird Is Folk.” The posted description says:
In which a contrast between the way folk music is seen in England and the US leads to speculation about the role of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music in weirding the US folk scene. When is folk music otherworldy and weird and when it is, what is the weirdness due to?
MUSIC
Sharron Kraus, ‘Barleycorn’
Jane Griffiths & Colin Fletcher, ‘Air’
Alasdair Roberts, ‘I Went Hunting’ (clip)
The Iditarod, ‘Raga (in D#)’
Ian Giles, ‘The Bonny Banks of Fordie’ (clip)
Jack Rose, ‘Yaman Blues’
Ralph Stanley, ‘O Death’ (clip)
Margaret Barry, ‘She Moves Through the Fair’ (clip)
Fursaxa, ‘Poplar Moon’
Alula Down, ‘Interruption’
REFERENCES
David Keenan, ‘Welcome to the New Weird America’
Greil Marcus, Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes
Harry Smith, Anthology of American Folk Music
Jeanette Leech, Seasons They Change: The Story of Acid and Psychedelic Folk
Topic Records, The Voice of the People
“Preternatural Investigations is a podcast about things that are strange but not too strange; the marvelous things that lie ‘between the mundane and the miraculous’1.
“As a rationalist who believes there is magic, mystery and meaning to be found in the world around us, my investigations are influenced by William James’ enquiries into religious experience and Mark Fisher’s explorations of the weird and the eerie.
“My subjects will include the magic we experience in certain places, as a result of participating in certain kinds of activity, in response to art, music and literature, and in nature; the relationship between fictional representations of magic and the preternatural magic we can experience in the world, at wonder, imagination and the ability to find new ways of seeing familiar things, the way fictional and other constructed worlds intersect with and are grafted onto the natural world, enabling us to experience the world as a many-layered palimpsest that draws us in, leads us on, and reveals itself to us at the same time as giving us insights into aspects of ourselves.
“Preternatural Investigations ran for 12 weeks, starting Sunday 23rd August, hosted by musician and writer Sharron Kraus.”
https://preternatural-investigations.org/episode-7/.
