Rural songs for COVID-19 times? UK folk music's resurgent engagement with the countryside

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic somewhat unexpectedly promoted resurgent interest in the attractions of rural places, not least associated with nature, in many countries for especially urban people. The paper argues that this link was very fecund for many within the broad UK ‘folk music’ community specifically. After introducing COVID-19's pro-rural turn, the paper gives a brief overview of now substantial music geography scholarship, paying particular attention to what has been studied in respect of folk music, not least its examination of the latter's problematic links to English identities. It argues that folk music's resurgent rural links call for attention. It then introduces how the rural-folk music COVID-19 experience worked at three non-exclusive levels. First, there was rural influence on the music being produced. Second, some musicians were also personally impacted strongly by rural experiences, evident not solely through their music. Third, some musicians developed original rural initiatives that saw audience members also gaining direct rural inspiration, not just via the strong growth in internet-facilitated connections but through direct in-place encounters with the musicians in the rural. Each reading is illustrated by two brief case studies, with the rural-folk combination becoming increasingly alive and more-than-representational. It is suggested in conclusion that there remains a strong ‘life’ to these rural-folk music connections in less predominant COVID-19 times.