Hello, I’m Karl (that’s me in the middle there, with my band The Gally Canters), you might know me as the writer of the Sing Yonder series of little books about traditional folk song. If you don’t know me from that… well, basically I am working my way through the Roud folk song index, writing a brief potted history of each song, and offering an easy to sing and play arrangement, hopefully suitable for all skill levels. You can see where I’m up to over at the Sing Yonder website. I thought I would set this up to so people can see and get more involved in the process. Plus there’s always loads of stuff I can’t fit into the books, due to the pesky laws of physics, and this seems like a nice place to put them. Hopefully the platform won’t be taken over by an insane billionaire at some point. (Who am I kidding, of course it will. It may already be.)
What the heck is this Substack thingy?
It’s a kind of mailing list, in that each time I post here, you get an email (a couple of times per week, at most). But it’s also a website and discussion forum, with other social media-type functions incorporated. As with most Substack subscriptions, this will have some content for free, and some which is “premium content” available for a small monthly donation.
I thought about doing this as a Patreon, but frankly it’s not great for writing text, and I’m not really into the idea of “tiers” where you are rewarded more based on how much you can spend. Not so much the principle, mainly that I don’t have anything particularly high value to offer (see below).
The free content
For each song I’ll post up any interesting sources I have found, and show you a playlist of songs I’ve been listening to. If you have any insight into the song, or would like to hype up any particular version you love, you can comment on the post. I’d dearly love to hear your thoughts. Each post can be a little discussion, as we strive to make Sing Yonder better, together.
Benefits for paid subscribers
If you sign up for the paid subscription, you will get a warm glow knowing you are helping to keep these old songs alive, in a world where some of the more niche corners of creative endeavour are often driven to extinction by the cold dead-eyed misery of commerce. Also, there are a number of modest things I can offer you by way of thanks.
Early access. For each song, you’ll get an additional post which includes the draft version of the pages from the book, months before it’s published. You’ll also get to hear my audio demo. Some might regard that as a punishment rather than a benefit. However, I’m not forcing you to listen to it. Finally, you’ll be first to hear any announcements of new things happening, and you might get some cheeky advanced snippets of those things.
Join in. Feel free to correct my spelling and grammar, and highlight any historical errors, or things you think I’ve missed.
Free books! Every time I publish a book (once every couple of months, disasters notwithstanding), I’ll give you a Bandcamp offer code to get a free one (you’ll just have to pay the P&P) - if you want. I won’t be offended if you don’t want one! But you really should get them. Get your money’s worth, for goodness’ sake.
Free/discounted merch/other stuff! Currently the only other thing available to buy is the sheet music notation version for Sing Yonder Volume 1 - I’ll give you that for free as well. There will also be other things to buy soon. If there’s a particular item, perhaps a dog blanket or Sing Yonder pen, that is missing from your life, let me know, we can probably make it happen.
Sing Yonder Live in your Living Room. If anyone actually subscribes, I’ll do some live events over Zoom, maybe listening parties of the varous versions, or just chats about the song in hand. If we get a decent following, I might even be able to persuade artists to come on and talk about their feelings about a song that thye perform. A bit like the brilliant Old Songs podcast, but less good.
Instant fame. I’ll add you to a list of patrons over on the Sing Yonder website. Again, you are welcome to opt out. If you have a website or a thing you think Sing Yonder fans might be interested in, I’ll happily link to it there.
Sign up gift. If you sign up as a paid subscriber in the month of November, I will post a you a small gift.
REVIEWS OF SING YONDER:
"interesting, informative, and written with wit and humour; both the text and the arrangements meet the project's aims of being accessible for beginners and newcomers to folk song" Folk London
"a lovely project... want to break into traditional singing but don't know where to start? Check this accessible little guide." Old Tunes Fresh Takes Podcast
"marvellous... a key to the folkie locker and a simple first step to singing and playing trad songs...I hope it's picked up by everyone with access to a voice box and/or guitar etc." Phil Widdows, FolkCast
"a beautiful thing" Jon Boden
"a stunning piece of work... making folk songs accessible with lyrics, chords, well-written background info for each song, and recordings to listen to as well" George Sansome
"a super idea, beautifully simple and straightforward, excellent for beginners, particularly people who pick up songs by ear" Jim Causley
"a great resource... for all traditional singers" The Folk Forecast
"a rather lovely item... a beginner's guide to traditional song complete with words, chord charts, song backgrounds and downloadable audio guides that are all easy to follow" Martin Purdy, Harp and a Monkey
"beautiful... even if you know every song in Roud's index, these books are worth having for Karl's incisive commentary on the songs and sources." Piers Cawley
