Podcast #5 - Mandy Connell

Wait Long By The River

Mandy Connell - on being brought up folk and the trouble it causes in a country town, folk as an ethnic group, and reviving ancient works

Mandy Connell is a folk festival favourite. She's quick, bright-hearted and liable to break into song mid-sentence. On stage she conjures up moods with an ease that comes from living her music. "I identify as folk," she says. "If there was an ethnic group you could call folk, that would be me. I'm there. I grew up in it, and I've always called myself folk... since before banjos were on t-shirts."

With her band the Stray Hens she plays traditional folks songs, many of which are older than our country, and some of which are in languages she doesn't even speak. We cover all that in the podcast, as well as the minimum wage, the darkness underlying classic folk music, her life as a travelling singer, and growing up in country towns as the daughter of a troublesomely passionate and outspoken mother.