From the Archives

During this evening’s online song circle, we played the first minute of a recording of Allan Davison singing Queen Eleanor’s Confession (Child ballad 156) at the Christmas Song Circle on December 17, 1973. And, we were honoured to have the song introduced by Allan himself, despite his claim to not remember ever singing it! The…

During the September 21, 2022 online song circle, we played the first minute and a half of this recording of The Banks of the Similkameen, sung by Phil Thomas and accompanied by Barry Hall on the banjo, recorded at the 10th anniversary gathering of the VFSS in July, 1969. Here’s the full recording:

During the March 16, 2022 online song circle, we played the first minute of this recording of Three Strong Winds (Jim Edmondson, Christina Ray, and Ellen van der Hoeven) singing The Family of Woman and Man, recorded at a VFSS Retreat in 1991. Here’s the full recording: Here are the lyrics:

During the 2021 Winter Solstice online song circle, we played the first two minutes of this recording of Al Cox leading Children, Go Where I Send Thee, from 48 years ago at the Christmas Folk Song Circle on December 19, 1973. Here’s the full recording (which still doesn’t capture the whole song, but that’s all…

During the September 1, 2021 online song circle, we played the first couple minutes of this recording of Gretchen Grinnell singing Who Killed Cockie Robin?, from the first anniversary of the VFSS, July 20, 1960. Here’s the full recording: Marian Buechert has been sifting through boxes of VFSS archives to organize them and digitize some of…

The first meeting at the Folk Song Circle as the VFSS was then called was at the Alma YMCA on the first Wednesday of July 1959. The five people who were responsible for founding the Folk Song Circle were Albert Cox, Jeannie (Cox) Moss, Phil and Hilda Thomas, and Rolf Ingelsrud. Of those founding members,…