Soul Music Radio 4
Still Life Radio 4
Soul Music has to be one of the loveliest listens on the radio.
When you need a little spiritual boost, then pause here.
I came upon one of my favourite songs here – The Parting Glass – a popular song of farewell that has criss-crossed the Irish Sea down the centuries.
I had always considered it Irish – apparently the Clancy Brothers first made it famous in the 1960s and others followed suit.
But you can trace the history of the song back to the 1600s and a version “The Old Chieftain to his Sons” was published in the 1800s.
It was a hugely popular song in Scotland at the end of a party or a gathering until Auld Lang Syne came along and Robert Burns’ song overshadowed it.
In this episode of Soul Music, the folk singer Karine Polwart talked about its fragile beauty – a song that can be a rousing drinking song at the end of the night or a poignant farewell at a funeral.
The raw emotion of The Parting Glass speaks to our hearts … we heard Alaskan Fire Chief Benjamin Fleagle talk about how there was no more fitting song to honour his mentor and colleague at the Fire Department.
When Alissa McCulloch became seriously mentally ill at her home in Australia during the pandemic, it was Irish singer Hozier’s version of The Parting Glass that she clung to in her darkest hours.
My personal favourite is the Dubliners’ version.
The famous Ronnie Drew is on vocals – that raucous voice like “coals from a coal bucket scraping the floor”.
For me, it is always a “scullery floor” and the voice is raw with emotion that befits the pain of a final farewell.
Ah sure, just listen – you will enjoy.
A more recent episode of Soul Music features “Take me home, country roads” – a song made famous by John Denver and covered by many more singers.
It has become one of the official state songs of West Virginia – it speaks to people across the world about home sickness, belonging and the magical pull of the landscape of home – the landscape of the heart.
On Radio 4, Sarah Winman’s latest novel Still Life, tugged at the heart too.
You can whisk yourself off to the Tuscany Hills in the middle of World War II.
It’s about Ulysses Temper and about Florence and about how a bunch of individuals come together to make a family.
Winman wrote the wonderful “When God was a Rabbit” – don’t be put off by the title – and also Tin Man.
Again, it’s emotion captured in beautiful writing – music to the ears, that plumbs deep into the same well of the heart as The Parting Glass.
