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Tacoma’s Song – Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne

Tradfolk premieres 'Tacoma's Song', from the upcoming album, Play Up The Music!, by Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne. blending English, Caribbean, and Black American folk traditions.

We are thrilled to premiere the new video for ‘Tacoma’s Song,’ the opening track from Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne‘s upcoming solo album, Play Up The Music!. This album delves into the fascinating intersections between Caribbean, Black American, and English folk music traditions, a concept that holds deep personal significance for Cohen, given his British/Irish and Caribbean heritage.

To accompany the premiere, we chatted to Cohen about the history of the song and the making of the video itself.

About the song

Cohen explains, “The album explores Caribbean and Black American versions of English folk songs; songs that started their life in England but travelled to the Americas with British settlers, colonisers and sailors, and were taken up by other cultures in the Americas. As the songs were taken on by other cultures, they took on some of the character and musical language of the communities that adopted them, changing these songs into versions quite different to their English forebears. Given that one side of my lineage is British/Irish, and the other side is Caribbean (specifically Barbados), and with family spread across the Americas, these Black American and Caribbean versions of English folk songs feel like a musical embodiment of my personal heritage.

“One of the first sources I consulted when researching the album was Walter Jekyll’s 1907 book, Jamaican Song and Story. Jekyll was an ex-clergyman who emigrated from England to Jamaica in the late 19th century and, while in his new home, became interested in the island’s folklore, customs and music, and began noting them down from the people of the island – much in the same way that people like Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Lucy Broadwood (Broadwood incidentally wrote an appendix for Jekyll’s book) were doing in England around the same period. 

“Many of the stories that Jekyll noted down were told (as is common for Caribbean stories) through a mixture of sung verse and spoken prose. One of the stories in the book, Tacoma and the Old-Witch Girl, features two verses sung as a dialogue between the two main characters. These verses are closely related to the English song commonly called ‘The Keys of Canterbury’ [Roud 573]. I took these two verses along with the Jamaican tune and combined them with some of the common English verses to create a full song. 

“I’ve been familiar with many of the English variants of ‘The Keys of Canterbury’ for years and it is a song I’ve always liked for its playful back-and-forth structure and its ‘love conquers all’ optimism. The ‘Tacoma’ version has much that I like narratively about the English versions but set to a uniquely Caribbean melody that reminds me of so many of the songs I grew up listening to. I feel I’ve had to subtly adapt my usual playing style on this album to do justice to these Caribbean and African American tunes and, hopefully, it’s paid off. I did have an audience member at a recent gig say that the melodeon bass line that I play for ‘Tacoma’s Song’ sounds like something straight off a 1970s Trojan record, which I take as a huge compliment!”

Making of the Video

The video for ‘Tacoma’s Song’ was filmed live at St Saviour Church in Leeds by the talented Will Killen. Cohen continues, “I’ve worked with Will a number of times over the years (he also recorded my video for ‘Come Make My Bed’ which Tradfolk premiered in 2023), and he’s always a joy to collaborate with. He has a great eye for visual composition and, as a musician himself, he knows just what to do to get the best performance out of whoever it is he’s filming. 

“St Saviour Church is one of Will’s favourite locations to film, and I can absolutely see why; aside from its wonderful acoustic, it has such a rich variety of interesting backdrops to choose from. For this light-hearted and slightly romantic song, Will placed me in the aisle of the church, among the pews (you can almost see the happy couple in the song parading down the aisle in your mind’s eye!) with natural light shining in from the impressive stained-glass windows. 

“This is the first of three videos that were filmed for the release of the new album – more will be coming closer to the release date, so make sure to follow me on social media and sign up to my mailing list to hear about those.”

About the album

Play Up The Music! will officially release on October 4, 2024, with pre-release copies available now. This album, recorded with Tom Wright, reflects Cohen’s dedication to authenticity, recording songs ‘as live’ to maintain a natural performance feel.

Cohen’s meticulous research has involved scouring archives and rare books, supported by conversations with British Caribbean musicians and specialists in Black American and Caribbean music. This album aims to shed light on a “neglected offshoot of the English folk song tradition,” celebrating the Black singers in the Americas who preserved and transformed these songs.

To coincide with the album release, Cohen will embark on an extensive solo tour across England in September and October 2024. Full details of the tour can be found on his website.