A new ambassador for Traditional English Folk

Ted Comben

"You must go over to the Royal Oak folk club in Langston next Sunday" said Sam and Sandy. "There's a really interesting young man called Julian Longden guesting there, who has recently returned from Los Angeles. He plays brilliantly and sings English Traditional music." Well, Los Angeles and English Traditional folk music are not exactly the first words to leap out of Brewers Phrase and Fable at you, are they? So off I went, full of interest and intrigue. And very glad I was too. I would strongly encourage all organisers of Folk Clubs who wish to display the excellence of English Traditional music to their members, to call Julian and ask for a copy of his Sampler/Demo CD. (I would have said demo disc rather than sampler since many of Julian's roots are firmly planted in the Rock and Roll music scene of the past). However, Julian has produced and recorded a terrific sampler, three tracks, of his traditional English folk repertoire so that those who have not heard him can gauge exactly where he will fit in their programme, before they have to commit to paying him the coin of the realm. Simply ring the number published at the end of this article and Julian will send a copy to you free of charge (and with much glee), together with his confirmed availability of dates around when you require. There are even a few dates still available for this summer - so call him now.

Enough of the advertising, free though it is for Julian, and back to the night in question. The club at Langston runs from a pub called The Royal Oak, directly on the hard of Langston Harbour with the real saltwater sea lapping not ten feet from the door. The pub is extremely traditional. ‘Excellent food and Ale served here' proclaimed the tastefully traditional sign at the doorway. Just the setting needed for a traditional English Folk guitarist, I thought.

Behind the hubbub and mayhem associated with a group of musicians and singers attempting to order their first pint of the evening, sat, very quietly, a studious looking young man amongst a selection of musical instrument cases. (One of which I discovered later housed a 1950 Martin 00018).

Two or three floor singers later and Julian was introduced to us. To say that we were "treated" to a superb set of Carthy/Jansch/Renbournesque songs, by way of an introduction to Julian's interpretation of traditional songs, would be an understatement. We fair wallowed in it. Julian does not regurgitate cliché-ridden songs that we have all heard a hundred times. He uses the style of those he admires the most to put his own interpretations on songs that we would want to hear again.

From the moment the Martin grafted itself effortlessly to the extremities of his arms and the two of them started to sing (Julian and his Martin that is), we all knew that the evening would be great. Julian's Martin spends most of its life tuned in DADGAD, but with clever finger work and a strategically placed capo every now and then, one is lulled into the thought that he re-tunes his guitar as often as the maestro himself. It must be said that Julian does not simply rely on fast finger work, his concentration, he tells me, is on the overall English sound.

It all started a long time ago, in a boy's bedroom somewhere in the South of England. Becoming saturated with the American sounds of those years as we all were, John Gonnersal, a friend of Julian's father (John was a professional folk musician) gave the boy a Folk Sampler (probably from Topic Records) that included tracks from such luminaries as Martin Carthy, John Renbourn, Nic Jones, Bert Jansch, Gordon Giltrap, Davie Graham and others of that period.

Now the boy began to understand what a guitar should sound like and how traditional English Folk songs should be presented for posterity. John also gave him a small pile of records, including some of the early Gordon Lightfoot. One of the most memorable records was called "British Contemporary Guitar". Sadly, in a way, when he was around 18 years of age this entire newfound harmonium nearly floundered on the beaches of the Marshall sands when an Electric Guitar was foully introduced to the scenario. Off the tracks went our boy, seduced by the feedback of the Marshall amplifiers and the tremolo-arm glory of a Fender Stratocaster (obviously a proper one in those days). The Strat now lives in Ireland but there is, as I understand it, a deal that the present owner cannot sell it to anyone without offering it back to Julian first. He does have another electric guitar in the loft but it has no strings at present.

The dream then developed into, "Well, I have not become an overnight success as a pop star, so I shall become a session musician". Before that dream materialises at all, we have to pass through several bands, groups and duos, across a thousand pub-floors and countless hundreds of Weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, and Social Club audiences. (This is what is known in the trade as an apprenticeship). Then the accolade that many of us would envy; 'A ticket to the West Coast music scene'. The Los Angeles session circuit became home for Julian for a number of years and with Paul Hansan as his personal tutor, he learned a lot about being a professional musician. (Paul had previously tutored Michael J Fox for one of his films.) "I played mainly with the people on the Los Angeles session circuit."

Why exactly he gave all of this up to return to England can only be attributed to his inner love for the traditional English music. Don't ask, I thought. But in any event Julian returned to this Sceptered Isle and we now have the pleasure of hearing his finely honed skills, so life isn't that unfair after all. What a wrench it must have been we can only guess at. And if Julian had his reasons, then he was not in a mood to share them with me. The boy went away and the man returned, is the only phrase that I can fit to this situation.

This year [2003], amongst many of the invitations and bookings, Julian has been asked to appear at the Solent Folk Festival and I would encourage anyone who has the slightest interest in traditional music to attend.

Julian's latest CD will be available very shortly - "Work And Strong Beer" is the title, which comes from a line in one of his songs. You will note that the title comes from one of his songs. So having said that he finds it difficult to write his own songs, we will now be able to hear a selection of them on his new CD. The CD will be sold for the nominal sum of £10.00 and has 14 original tracks. Julian has been the producer director and sleeve producer/art-director/copy writer.

A website is being constructed but has had to wait until the CD was finished first - now where have we heard that before? For the moment the only way of contacting Julian is by the old-fashioned telephone receiver and handset with the slightly modern addition of an email address. But that does not matter or detract; in fact I would say that it adds to the rustic charm of the traditional English music approach.

Julian has a working repertoire of some 60/70 songs and there are some tremendous arrangements among them, although Julian would not say that himself. One of the facets of Julian that I admired was that he is totally unassuming. For someone who has made a name for himself (albeit in two different genres) on both sides of the pond, it is really difficult to get him talking freely about all of his successes. Now, ask him anything about traditional English music and he is off like the proverbial. Some of his favourite songs of the moment are: 'Farmer's Downfall', 'John Grumlie', 'May God Protect The Working Man', 'The Tailor's Breeches' and 'Young Hunting'. Some of them are chosen for the humour, some for the drama and some for the political statement that they make. In short, all for different and various reasons.

He enjoys playing at clubs that are part social, part serious folk. Swindon is another club of which he speaks most highly and has really enjoyed playing at. The audience at Langston were great he says, but I really enjoyed the people at Swindon as well. When I asked him to name the most enjoyable booking he had played in the last twelve months, not one of the aforementioned sprang to mind. Instead he named The Railway at Southsea (where incidentally he [was] booked again in March [2003]).

His plan for this year is to expand his presence on the folk club scene. Next year he hopes to be attending more festivals, as well as the clubs who re-book him.

"There are benefits of playing as a solo artist, it can get pretty lonely but at least you can breathe", he says. "There are no problems with the logistics of moving people and equipment around the country to a schedule". The amazing thing is that this loneliness does not manifest itself in his playing or his repertoire. Julian used to be a part of a duo, and when I asked him about that, and how they came to be involved with the folk circuit? he told me that he and his colleague Adrian Shearing turned up at the Woolston folk club once in the dim and distant to play a small set for those who would listen. During the evening Adrian was inveigled to join Loose Screws Appalachian Band and poor Julian was not invited. However, they did develop a need for someone to help by playing the guitar and later Julian was recruited to add six strings of accompaniment to the ensemble.

Enjoying this glimpse into the past, I became bolder and asked about the first folk song he had ever sung in public. The first traditional song Julian learned was one from Shep Woolley's repertoire, called 'Seven Yellow Gypsies'. Shep of course had nicked it from Martin Carthy, we imagine. But Julian learned it from hearing it being played as Shep's version on Radio Victory. Now that must bring back memories!

Julian also has a melodeon and a funny looking thing called a cittern but does not consider himself to be a player of the melodeon (we breathe again).

I complimented Julian on the extremely complex and entertaining arrangements that I had heard him play. In true self-deprecating style, he said, "I am not a natural musician, I have to work quite hard on the arrangements. Once they are fully in my mind then I can relax and concentrate on performing them". What an understatement that was. When asked if he planned to write more of his own material, he responded by saying that it was not in his plan. "There are many people who can do it so much better", he said. "I do not have the skill to write meaningful and interesting Iyrics. If I thought I could write like Richard Thompson, then I would be happy. Some of the efforts I have made too often have come out like 'the cat sat on the mat'. I suppose I should admit to a slight element of laziness. I enjoy taking a pile of words from a dusty old book and bring them to life with an arrangement of music that everyone can enjoy listening to in the twenty first century."

I concluded the meeting with Julian by trying to get him to lavish some praise on himself, to no avail. When I asked him how he would like to be thought of by his audiences, he said, "I would like to be recognised as a promoter of English Traditional music - that is my passion. I would like to help more people to become interested in the colour and variety that English music has to offer. I do not have any plans to publish my collection, as yet". But, who knows?

CONTACT DETAILS telephone: 01243 572629

(Reprinted from Folk On Tap April-June 2003)

A review of my current album, "Work and Strong Beer", that appeared in "SPINS" - June 2004

An article on Julian Longden, written by Ted Comben, appears in FoT95, and to be honest, it says all that needs to be said about Julian including mention of this forthcoming (at that time) CD. To sum up, Julian comes from a folk background, was seduced by the electric guitar when he was 18, failed to become a pop star in America but became a player and session musician on the Los Angeles circuit. He is now back in this country, established at Fishbourne, Sussex and is back to playing traditional English folk songs. This CD is just one man and his acoustic guitar (plus help from Adrian Shearing on 3 tracks) and 13 fine songs and a tune - all sung and played in a thoroughly professional manner. Some you will know:

'The Seven Gypsies' (a version of the song also known as 'Black Jack Davey'), The Lowlands of Holland', 'A Little Before Me Time (7 Drunken Nights)', 'The Tailor's Breeches'. Others are less familiar but no worse for that, and one song 'Farewell to You Dockmen'was written by Julian and mourns the loss of so many shipbuilding and dock jobs in Portsmouth. He should write more. If you read the article in FoT, you will see that Ted enthusiastically recommends that you sign up Julian as a guest at your club or festival forthwith. I wouldn't quarrel with that. He's good.