Broadside Ballads

Three of the UK’s most exciting folk artists – Sam Lee, Lisa Knapp and Nathaniel Man – refresh and reinvent a collection of British broadside ballads for two special afternoon concerts.

A broadside, also known as a broadsheet, was a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side with a ballad, rhyme or news story, accompanied by woodcut illustrations. These ballads from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries were once displayed and sung daily on the streets of Britain and played an important role in the country’s musical and political past. Working from surviving of copies of broadsides in the Bodleian Library’s collection, renowned multi-instrumentalists Sam Lee, Lisa Knapp and Nathaniel Mann front a five piece band to bring to life these traditional ballads for a new generation. The trio are joined by guest musicians Seth Bennett and Pete Flood.

Although widely produced at the time, broadside ballads are now rare and preserved in only a few libraries. The Bodleian Libraries hold nearly 30,000 of these illustrated printed sheets, many of them unique survivals. In 2013 they launched Broadside Ballads Online, a digital collection of works, making these rare documents accessible to a wider public. As part of the development of this special touring project, the artists spent time handling the archive and talking with experts on the Broadside Collection. This research has inspired new arrangements and original material for their uniquely contemporary take on these historic ballads.

The Broadside Ballads project is produced by Sound UK and Oxford Contemporary Music. Supported by Bodleian Libraries. Funded by Arts Council England.