Welcome to the Official Oldham Tinkers Website
The new album by The Oldham Tinkers, “A Lancashire Grace”, released on Manchester’s World Folk label Limefield Records, at first glance appears to sit uneasily with UK culture in 2021 in the current climate.
Having, as it does, at it’s foundation, three very senior white men singing (and storytelling), often about a connection with the Northern English land and people.
Upon further listening, however, the album itself subverts some expectations.
The opening track “Alphin”, an elegy to a mountain, visible around North Manchester, sets a tone. It’s the kind of song you might hear in any culture, if you listen, about the local landscape that people inhabit and the personal, sometimes spiritual connection they forge with it
Followed by “Remember Annie Kenney”, after the me too movement, to hear these men celebrating women’s rights in a tribute to their local Oldham suffragette leader who rose to become deputy of the national Womens Social & Political Union in 1912 feels particularly powerful.
“Charlie Brown” shows the sense of play and humour always present around their music, carrying a touch of elder wisdom as it seems to steer us to take our struggles and politics a bit more lightly
What follows are more songs celebrating the spirit of the land, people and customs, some of which are already fading, day by day, as in the broad dialect of the title track “A Lancashire Grace”
“Mrs. Peet” a beautiful tribute to a community matriarch, a monologue with music and the voice of master storyteller, John Howarth, generous, in the aural equivalent of a warm hug from the kindliest grandad.
There is a freshness in this album. The themes and the stories told, although rooted in the past, so relevant today, looking forward to the future through a lens of genuine wisdom. This becomes more overt with the sounding of the Muslim greeting ‘As-salamu Alaikum’ turned to an open welcome for the entire community of the home town.
What The Oldham Tinkers have produced is a work of true eldership made available to all, in a space and time where that is a pretty scarce commodity for those that seek it.
The Oldham Tinkers – “A Lancashire Grace”
Having, as it does, at it’s foundation, three very senior white men singing (and storytelling), often about a connection with the Northern English land and people.
Upon further listening, however, the album itself subverts some expectations.
The opening track “Alphin”, an elegy to a mountain, visible around North Manchester, sets a tone. It’s the kind of song you might hear in any culture, if you listen, about the local landscape that people inhabit and the personal, sometimes spiritual connection they forge with it
Followed by “Remember Annie Kenney”, after the me too movement, to hear these men celebrating women’s rights in a tribute to their local Oldham suffragette leader who rose to become deputy of the national Womens Social & Political Union in 1912 feels particularly powerful.
“Charlie Brown” shows the sense of play and humour always present around their music, carrying a touch of elder wisdom as it seems to steer us to take our struggles and politics a bit more lightly
What follows are more songs celebrating the spirit of the land, people and customs, some of which are already fading, day by day, as in the broad dialect of the title track “A Lancashire Grace”
“Mrs. Peet” a beautiful tribute to a community matriarch, a monologue with music and the voice of master storyteller, John Howarth, generous, in the aural equivalent of a warm hug from the kindliest grandad.
There is a freshness in this album. The themes and the stories told, although rooted in the past, so relevant today, looking forward to the future through a lens of genuine wisdom. This becomes more overt with the sounding of the Muslim greeting ‘As-salamu Alaikum’ turned to an open welcome for the entire community of the home town.
What The Oldham Tinkers have produced is a work of true eldership made available to all, in a space and time where that is a pretty scarce commodity for those that seek it.
The Oldham Tinkers – “A Lancashire Grace”
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