Songscapes
Last updated: 17.12.19
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Printed: 2001 Author: Graeme Miles, Robin Dale
Publisher: Red Scarecrow ISBN: 978-0954190101
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Paperback 176 pages.

Amazon Review
By amboline
In the UK folk scene, you don't have to travel very far afield to hear the songs of Graeme Miles. They have been recorded by some of the great men and women of the scene, and there must be many Teesside residents in particular for whom Miles' verses are as familiar as nursery rhymes. The problem is that this particularly self-effacing songwriter has never before committed his vast body of work to a published collection, so the songs tend to linger in the collective memories of the communities who have made them their own. Not everybody knows where they came from, or what will become of them when and if those communities eventually disperse. "Songscapes" is a magnificent attempt to give credit where credit is due, and in the process to help preserve and share some of the most important social commentary of the mid 20th century. From an output of hundreds of songs in the 1950s and 60s, Graeme Miles and Robin Dale have selected 50 or so covering a wide range of ground: from Miles' childhood in Kent, his years of national service, and his eventual gravitation to the areas of Cleveland and Teesside where his most famous songs are set. The collection covers familiar tunes such as "My Eldorado" and The Shores of Old Blighty now regarded as folk standards, as well as more obscure pieces such as the haunting, enigmatically titled "Exercise No. 77". These are stories of seafarers, squaddies, fell walkers, steel workers and scarecrows - stories of the ordinary made magical.
Special mention has to be made of Robin Dale's superb photographs showing the changing faces of the north-eastern landscape of whose evolution Miles has become a chronicler. It would be inappropriate to separate the two, really, since Miles and Dale form a double act who have worked together since the early 1970s and their combined aural and visual work offers a unique piece of social history which deserves to be preserved and celebrated. This collection represents a significant step in that direction, and one hopes that its stories and melodies will endure as long as the green banks of Grain and the wind over Fylingdales which serve as their backdrop.