a folk music funeral

Joe writes: I went to a funeral recently where four wonderful pieces of folk music were played.

Ride On by Christy Moore is a tearjerker in any context, let alone at a funeral.



Safe In The Harbour was written about the folk singer Stan Rogers. It's part of the canon of beautiful songs about people who died too young, my favourite of which is Boulder To Birmingham by Emmylou Harris.



The Last Trip Home is another folk song that lends itself perfectly to a funeral, and like many folk songs, it doubles up as a history lesson.



Finally, Ewan MacColl's song Manchester Rambler was written for the mass trespass on Kinder Scout which helped win the right to ramble. What a great chorus , although the best bit of it ("I may be a wage slave come Monday, but I am a free man on Sunday") isn't included in the Amazon excerpt. Ewan's other classic songs included Dirty Old Town and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

Amazon links:
Christy Moore - Ride On
Eric Bogle - Safe In The Harbour
The Battlefield Band - The Last Trip Home
Ewan MacColl - The Manchester Rambler