Sam Larner

Sam Larner embodied the folk tradition through his very existence. Beginning work as a herring fisherman at the age of twelve, he accumulated a vast store of folk songs and sea shanties that he performed during voyages at sea. His growing renown as a folk singer eventually caught the attention of Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, and Charles Parker, who drew on his experiences to shape their 1960 radio ballad "Singing The Fishing." When the BBC aired this program, accounts of Larner's life together with the material he had gathered established him as a folk hero in England. The same radio ballad later served as the foundation for two albums, Now Is The Time For Fishing, which appeared in 1961 and was reissued in 1994, and Singing The Fishing. An additional collection of tracks that Larner recorded between 1959 and 1960 was released under the title A Garland For Sam.