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  • Singing for the Lord Mayor’s Show (in 1620!)

    Back in October last year, I was really pleased to record the two part song for the Lord Mayor’s Show in 1620, for Prof Tracey Hill to use as part of her live-tweeting of the show. As far as we know, it hasn’t been heard in the intervening 400 years…

  • John Balshaw’s Jig – an update

    I’ve recently been putting the final touches to my next book – my publication of my transcription of John Balshaw’s Jig, with the context around it too. The readers suggested somequite radical structural changes which I worked on before Easter, but I think it is much improved for the process. Given the trouble that I…

  • Sound Affects II

    Last week, I was really pleased to be able to attend the second day of the Sound Affects II workshop, organised by Rachel Willie and Emilie Murphy for their Soundscapes in the Early Modern World research network. The first paper was given by Wayne Weaver, a PhD student at Cambridge. His ‘Musical Performance Commentaries and…

  • Gender, Authority and the Image of Queenship

    Just before the end of 2020, my article ‘Gender, Authority and the Image of Queenship in English and Scottish Ballads, 1553–1603‘ came out in History. It was based mainly on a paper that I gave a couple of years ago to the EFDSS Broadside Day in Glasgow. Many of you will know that Mary I…

  • Social History Society job

    I’m really pleased to say that two weeks ago, I was appointed as the new administrator for the Social History Society. Most of the time, it’s only going to be one day a week, but for the first time in many, many years, I’ve got a small but steady and reliable year-round income (at least…