Dick Gaughan - True and Bold - Songs of the Scottish Miners (1984)

Though primarily steeped in the traditions of folk and Celtic music, Scottish singer/songwriter Dick Gaughan has enjoyed a lengthy and far-reaching career in a variety of creative pursuits.

"True And Bold" features folksinger Dick Gaughan's interpretation of traditional miner songs in support of 1984's National Union of Mineworkers. 

In Gaughan's words: "I have never subscribed to the notion that artists should be impartial and I took a completely partisan position behind the NUM. Objective reporting is not our job; we describe the universe as we see it, complete with our prejudices and opinions. Like many other musicians and singers, I spent much of that year doing concerts all over the country to raise money and support for the NUM. But I also believe that singing songs is not in itself enough - if I was to effectively put the miners' case and claim to speak on their behalf then I had to play as full a part in their struggle as I could so that I could then fully understand their views and represent those properly in concert. So, for most of that year, I was Chair of the Leith Miners' Support Group which involved spending Saturdays collecting food and money in Leith and then delivering this to the Lothian Central Strike Committee at Dalkeith. In the process, I made many friendships which remain precious to me. And I saw part of the role of "folk" musicians as being to reintroduce the mining communities we became involved with to the wealth of songs and traditional culture which were rightly theirs. And we were able to do this, not by taking an evangelical approach but by getting out there and fighting on their side. They were able to clearly see that here were musicians taking an openly combative stance in their support and singing songs which were about them and people like them. So they listened and within a few months people who would never have dreamed of setting foot in a Folk Club were enthusiastically joining in with singing songs they had never known existed but which they found actually voiced their experiences and feelings - because circumstances had restored these songs to contemporary relevance and they were no longer merely antiquarian relics of some bygone age."


Tracklist:

Miner's Life Is Like A Sailor's 
Schooldays End 
Farewell To 'Cotia 
Auchengeigh Disaster 
Pound A Week Rise 
Collier Laddie 
Which Side Are You On? 
Drunk Rent Collector 
Blantyre Explosion
One Miner's Life 
Ballad Of '84


Dick Gaughan - True and Bold - Songs of the Scottish Miners (1984)
(256 kbps, cover art included)