Tending the Flame

Abstract

This article is an edited conversation between traditional singer, collector and broadcaster Sam Lee and voice and theatre practitioner Joan Mills, who directs the CPR's international Giving Voice festival. It begins and ends with Lee's affinity with nature and a relationship with birdsong that has helped him create the innovative Singing With Nightingales events. Lee's early experiences of song and influences are discussed and, most importantly, his 'apprenticeship' with Stanley Robertson and other renowned singers of traditional British folksong from Traveller communities. The nature of innovation in performance is examined in the context of the responsibility of 'carrying the flame' of tradition as well as the almost inexplicable, magical quality evident in the singing of certain songs, which engenders a sense of their deep legacy while communicating a contemporary immediacy in performance. Lee's radical change of approach during preparations for his latest recording project is also explored as are the sources of this new work.