A CURIOUS MIX OF BRITISH FOLK MUSIC AND AMERICAN POLITICS
Ivor Cutler
“Ivor Cutler was a true one-off. The Glasgow-born surrealist, storyteller and sage may have been the epitome of the outsider artist but his witty ditties retain an all-ages appeal.” – THE SCOTSMAN
Following the release of my album A Firmer Hand in August 2024, and after the promotional tours, sessions, interviews and sundry other bits and bobs had more or less dried up, my diary was given the briefest of chances to breathe. Mine is rigorously colour-coordinated, as those who know me might expect. As autumn rolled in, the tomato red I use for all the music-y stuff was replaced by sage green, the colour I reserve for socialising (and fun little errands). There had been for some time, however, a uniquely bright swatch a few pages down the line: a blob of tangerine slap bang in the middle of September. I assign orange to appointments I can’t quite work out where to put; curious, exciting, surprising things; professional, perhaps, but always with the promise of something else besides. The orange in this instance was a meeting with Jenny Niven, the director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF).
It’s true, I’m often billed as a “literary” songwriter, an adjective seemingly interchangeable in my case with “wordy”, “verbose”, or simply “self-interested”, but truth be told, book festivals have made me feel somewhat deficient in the past, bookish though I may seem. Jenny had kindly arranged the meeting to ask me whether I might like to put something special together for the festival’s 2025 programme, incorporating music, lyric, poetry and performance – a homage of sorts to a Scottish literary hero. My answer was immediate. There’s only one writer who has ever merited that kind of title for me, and his name is Ivor Cutler.
The term ‘spirit animal’, in the strictest shamanic sense, refers to a spirit which provides someone with protection, guidance, and perhaps the odd wise teaching throughout one or more phases of life. Since discovering his work as a teenager, Ivor Cutler is the only writer ever to have fit this bill for me, and has provided as much joy and inspiration as any New Romantic poet or garage-rock mystic. I decided he would serve as my twinkly-eyed spirit guide throughout the festival, uniquely positioned to blow absurdist holes in any stuffiness I might encounter. He would protect me more than any number of tweed jackets I might drape across my anxious frame.
Ivor Cutler was a poet, musician and humorist, as well as a visual artist. Born in 1923 to Jewish parents in Govan, Glasgow, at the age of 19 he began a career as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, but was soon grounded as a result of his ‘dreaminess’. He moved to London [ . . . ]
Originally broadcast September 9, 2025, on WRIU 90.3 FM.
By Michael Stevenson, host The Kingston Coffeehouse
PLAYLIST “Katie Cruel” (traditional) – Karen Dalton “Bashed Out” (K. Stables) – This Is the Kit , 2015 Bashed Out “God Loves a Drunk” (R Thompson) – Norma Waterson, 1996 “I’m Waiting For You to Smile” – Katell Keineg, 1994 O Seasons O Castles “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (Ian Curtis) June Tabor & Oysterband, 2011 Ragged Kingdom “People’s Faces” – Kae Tempest, 2019 The Book of Traps and Lessons “Train Song” – Vashti Bunyan, r. 1966, Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind “Anachie Gordon” (traditional) The Unthanks, 2010 Here’s the Tender Coming “Henry Lee” (traditional) Nick Cave & PJ Harvey, 2011 Murder Ballads “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (Ewan MacColl) – Offa Rex, 2017 The Queen of Hearts “She Moved through the Fair” (traditional) – Anne Briggs, 1963 Edinburgh Folk Festival Vol. 1 “Banjo Player of Aleph One” – Gwenifer Raymond 2025 Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark “Wheely Down” (R. Thompson) – Ivor Cutler, 1993 The World is a Wonderful Place “Roundabout” – Ryley Walker, 2017 Golden Sings That Have Been Sung “Brighter than the Blues” – Joan Shelly, 2016 Over and Even “Three Ravens” (traditional) – Jake Xerxes Fussell, 2019 Out of Sight “Lullaby” (from the film Wicker Man) – Magnet (Paul Giovanni) 1972 “Rivers Run Red” (Ella Oona Russell) – The New Eves, 2025 The New Eve is Rising “Witches Reel” (traditional) – Starheid Gossip, 2015 Step Sisters “Entertaining of a Shy Girl” – Donovan 1968 Hurdy Gurdy Man “The Hedgehog Song”(Heron/Williamson) – Incredible String Band, 1966 The 5000 Spirits or Layers of an Onion “Lay it Down” (G. Thomas) – Bonny Prince Billy with The Trembling Bells, 2014 New Trip On Old Wine “Conch Shell” Katell Keineg, 1994 O Seasons O Castle “Into My Arms” – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, 1997 Boatman’s Call “Place to Be” – Nick Drake, Pink Moon “How Wild the Wind Blows” – Molly Lee, 2018 The Tides Magnificence “The Sweetest Decline” – Beth Orton Central Reservation “The Wagoner’s Lad” (Traditional) – Bert Jansch, 1966 Jack Orion “Nottamun Town” (traditional)- Fairport Convention, 1969 What We Did on Our Holidays “Masters of War” – Bob Dylan, 1963 The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan “Needle of Death” – Bert Jansch, 1965 Bert Jansch “Golden Brown” – The Stranglers 1982 “Meet On the Ledge” (R.Thompson) – Fairport Convention, 1969 What We Did on Our Holidays “Anji” – Davy Graham “Green Are Your Eyes” (b.Jansch) – Marianne Faithul, 1966 North Country Maid “The Water” – Johnny Flynn & Laura Marling, 2010 Been Listening “The Parting Glass” (traditional) – James Elkington 2017 Wintres Woma “Katie Cruel” (traditional) – Agnes Obel “Blues Run the Game” – Jackson C. Frank, 1965 Jackson C. Frank “Home Sweet Home” (Bishop /Payne)- The King’s Singers 1993 Folk Songs of the British Isles “A Heart Needs a Home” – Linda & Richard Thompson, 1975 Hokey Pokey “Goodnight World” – Lisa O’Neil, 2023 All This Is Chance
