How a song can be older than itself and propel a species around the globe.

The app for independent voices

Six traditional songs, three mornings, one festival band. Bring an instrument—or just your enthusiasm—and we'll get you on stage.

Why making music may be as old as being human.

Why the music that changes us is rarely the music we expect

This playlist features the complete live performance by the Coda Blues Band from our gig on 6 July 2026. The band is made up of adult musicians who meet each...

Paterson Joseph honours the legacy of Billy Waters: Britain’s first popular Black musician

YouTube video by The Folk Orc

YouTube video by The Folk Orc

This is about music. Why and how we play music. Lessons, tips, motivation and more. The aim? To encourage more people to play music. Click to read The Folk Orc, by Chris J Barber-Hopgood, a Substack p...

What Sci-Fi, Greek Philosophers and Neolithic Cavemen can teach us about how we play music together.

The winding journey of My Lodgings on the Cold, Cold Ground

Ward, The Pirate - from traitor in print to hero in song.

When something fundamental becomes something we consume

How a Victorian broadside ballad turned imperial conflict into a love story

A folk song from 1815, the Corn Laws, and the long memory of hardship

We're sick of it. Sick of the lies, sick of the greed, and sick of a system rigged against us. This is a scandal and this dirty business must end. For more than 30 years water companies have put corpo...

Reinventing our fear of failure and why mistakes are important.

A musical detective story and what it suggests about why we make music.

A simple guide to tune structure, repeats, and first and second time bars.

From Wyld Stallyns to World Peace (Bogus? Maybe. Worth Considering? Definitely.)

How a cocky highwayman, a dung-hill chicken, and some terrible handwriting became immortal in song.

A short roundup of topics discussed at the Folk Orc Out of the Woods weekend 2025.

This is about music. Why and how we play music. Lessons, tips, motivation and more. The aim? To encourage more people to play music. Click to read Music Humans, by Chris J Barber-Hopgood, a Substack p...

My personal Substack. Click to read The Folk Orc - Play Music, Be Folk, by Chris J Barber-Hopgood, a Substack publication. Launched 7 hours ago.

After the pandemic I fully expected to have to incorporate online teaching into my daily life, but as it happens, I didn’t. Thankfully.

Walk into any community band and hang around long enough you will undoubtedly hear the groans of realisation as a Bm chord pops its head up