[theme music] - Okay, We're at the Bath Hotel here in Tramlines for this year in Sheffield.

And I'm playing with my little trio group, Ashmark and Joe today and getting to experience the whole crazy weekend of hundreds and hundreds of bands, many bars, all kinds of places to go play, and see music, and people just go from bar to bar.

A little bit like Nashville but not really.

- Okay.

- And it says it's a hotel, but it's not really a hotel.

It's a, it's a pub but they made them hotels in the early 20th century and-and late 19th century as an excuse 'cause you could serve alcohol in a hotel back then but you couldn't serve it at anywhere else.

So, every place became a hotel.

So, this is the Bath Hotel but it's not a hotel.

So, cheers.

Welcome to Tramlines.

[upbeat guitar music] ♪ Stay until we're gone ♪ [upbeat guitar music] ♪ And all of us will carry on ♪ [upbeat guitar music] ♪ Wait until you know ♪ [upbeat guitar music] ♪ And the road will show us where to go ♪ [upbeat guitar music] ♪ And the road will show us where to go ♪ - I'm Mark Allen, a singer-songwriter with a guitar on my back connecting with people one musical conversation at a time.

♪ Travelin' down this open road ♪ ♪ Just me and you and the Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ I hear the call we're getting close ♪ ♪ Around the bend there's a signpost ♪ ♪ The places, faces, through the moon and its phases ♪ ♪ This melody keeps us alive ♪ ♪ Have guitar will travel ♪ ♪ Have guitar will travel ♪ ♪ (always, always, always) ♪ ♪ I have guitar will travel ♪ [lively guitar music] - Funding for Have Guitar Will Travel World is provided by: ♪ And I'm drinking alone ♪ - You sing!

♪ Drinking alone ♪ ♪ When I'm drinking alone ♪ - You sing!

♪ Drinking alone ♪ ♪ There'll be less to regret when I get my drunk ass home ♪ [upbeat country music] ♪ Oh, I see bridges burn ♪ - Well, I thought I knew something about Sheffield's history as a steel town.

Even as far back as the late 1300s it was mentioned in Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales."

Famous for its cutlery trade, it's the place where stainless steel was invented, literally known as Steel City.

[upbeat music] And yet, the kind of steel I encountered and heard on Tramlines weekend was something more like I would have heard in Nashville.

Pedal steel and electric guitars ringing out familiar lonesome and winding melodies with bands with names like the Fargo Railroad Company, Ash Gray and the Burners, to Banjo Jen, and Buffalo Ghost, the Lightning Threads, and The Swamp Project.

Certainly not the kind of steel I was expecting, and yet it somehow seemed to make sense in this rootsy, gritty factory town in northern England.

[upbeat music] - Something of an ode to a hardworking factory life.

A day in, day out, hot, sweaty, grinding existence going back hundreds of years.

This new, more modern Sheffield was evolving and changing rapidly with the times, forging a new chapter, literally growing out of its steel mill past.

With new life breathing into centuries old buildings, not being torn down, but renewed with new purpose and innovation.

Locals and new immigrants from all over coming to take advantage of the University of Sheffield and new opportunities.

People reinventing themselves for a new era.

This kinetic energy was unmistakable with place names like Ecclesall, Kelham Island, Meersbrook, Meadow Hall, to Nether Edge, and Woodseats.

This energy seemed to reverberate all over the city with lots of music being played, performed, and listened to, in multiple pubs and music venues year-round.

A vibrant collaboration between performer and listener without pretension, pomposity, or overblown showiness.

Just a genuine desire to share music and a pint or three.

So, this is the Sheffield that I stumbled into and began to explore even to the point of joining in on the musical conversation and enjoying the harmony of the moment.

To get some perspective on what I was hearing and seeing in Sheffield, I met up with Martin Bedford, an artist, music promoter, and longtime resident of Sheffield.

So, I sat down with Martin over a pint at Hallamshire House, a pub and music venue where he bases his Honeybee Blues Club.

Martin's vision is truly that of a music lover and fan.

He's a brilliant visual artist carrying on in the tradition and vision of artists such as Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelly, Rick Griffin, Wes Wilson, and Victor Masako.

His unconventional eye always favors the artist's perspective over a more commercial approach.

I figured it was a great place to start to get some perspective on the unique music scene that is Sheffield.

[upbeat music] ♪ Probably only see us at your local dive bar ♪ ♪ Sorry no cover songs despite the demand ♪ - As a young art student growing up outside London, Martin witnessed the emergence of a sound unique to the pubs and clubs of the 70s, Pub Rock.

- Uh, you know, I was just going to gigs all over the place but it was...

I was lucky 'cause we were on the outskirts of London but there was also, um, a lot of, uh, pubs that had big halls at the time as well.

So, the first time I saw David Bowie was in a pub and he came on wearing a dress, did a reading, strummed his guitar, fight breaks out, end of gig.

[laughter] - Wow.

- Yeah.

- Pub Rock is a back to basics scene focused on the roots of rock performed in live settings.

It began as a rebellion against what was seen as over the top, namely the excesses of glam and progressive rock.

And it was at these venues that Martin fell in love with the psychedelic art promoting local live music.

- By doing artwork, I could be involved.

I just fell in love with that id-idea of doing posters that go out on the street, they're not precious, but, you know, make 'em something interesting.

It pays respect to the artists and also the audience.

- With his Honeybee Blues Club, bringing people together is the cornerstone of Martin's work as an artist, as a promoter, and as a champion of local live music.

- Yeah, I mean, we've-we've got a great heritage here.

You know, people obviously know about Joe Cocker.

On top of that, you've got people like Def Leppard, Human League, Thompson Twins, the 90s Baby Bird, the Arctic Monkeys, Richard Hawley.

And Pulp, you know, when they started out- this takes us on to the Leadmill I suppose.

They used to hang out there all the time.

- Thanks to Martin and his mates, a disused flour mill became central to Sheffield's nightlife and music culture as well as becoming the central hub for social change.

- Well, put it this way, the-the way I-I saw it, the purpose of it was to be a community center.

And I'm really proud of what we did in the early years.

And, you know, now the Leadmill's been going for over 40 years.

- In an area described as the Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire, this dedication to preserve local venues like the Leadmill became known as the Battle for the Soul of Sheffield.

Going back to the 80s in the UK, Sheffield was a crucible of social change in the midst of the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs and a dramatic economic decline.

- I mean, you've got all grief, the big battle of all grief which has just happened on the outskirts of Sheffield.

There's a very famous, uh, photograph of this policeman bearing down on a woman, uh, with a truncheon.

That was a friend of mine.

And she was on the receiving end of that.

He missed her.

But he did take her.

You know, he was tryna hit her.

The miners strike was an intense time.

The great thing about that is everybody came together.

You know, I mean, we'd been starting the Leadmill.

We'd been looked at as being, uh, a bit crazy and all this sort of thing.

The riots happened.

Council freak out.

They think the riot is gonna happen in Sheffield.

We knew it wasn't.

But they allowed us to put on a whole load of free gigs.

As a result, we quelled the riot situation in Sheffield.

- Like that word right there on that window says, community.

- Yeah.

- So, that's what I mean.

There's community and then that one's arts.

- Yeah.

- So, you have this community that seems to be more about, uh, the, it's I guess, the sincerity question, you know?

- Yeah, what-what I was gonna say was like, um, Manchester's got its swagger and London's got its capitalism.

- Right.

- And Sheffield keeps a very low profile.

The-the-the musicians in Sheffield have always had this ability, take note of what's going down.

Even if it's not your stuff, take note of it.

Don't diss it, there's no point in that, you know?

It's one of the-the things I love about Sheffield.

Sheffield people are great.

- Martin's work captures the soul of Sheffield.

His motto of building bridges, and not walls was evident in everything he promoted, with a nostalgia for a rebellious underground, but also an eye on the horizon for what's next.

His lifelong passion for music and the sharing of those positive vibrations with others will certainly reverberate throughout Sheffield and beyond for many years to come.

I'm so fortunate to have had the moment, however brief, to share those vibes with Martin.

[distant train horn] - Another pint group.

- Uh, pint up.

- Have the-the Yorkshire legend.

- The journey to experience the heart and soul of a place always lies in a series of small things that leads you to a new place in a new town, sharing a moment over a pint.

It's the generosity of an introduction that helps you truly hear the voice of a culture.

- Move on, move on.

[laughter] - So, this is how I met radio presenter Harry Wilburn, host of the program "Steel and Wire," and a champion of the local music scene on Sheffield Live.

We sat down for a pint at the Gardeners Rest, a community pub he is proud part-owner.

- Kind of an industrial area.

- Yes, yes, I mean, a lot of Sheffield was industrial.

Uh, the River Don behind us, a lot of the-the steel industry ran up the River Don all the way through.

But this is the Gardeners Rest pub.

- Now, how long has it been a pub?

Like, how, uh, how historically?

- Oh, um, I'm sure it's over a century old now.

And Pat Neddy took it over.

The sign they've got Simon to make for them is, you'll see, it's unique.

And they put on music, uh, which I really loved because they did Bluegrass and Mary Garner sort of country, old time.

They had an old time session.

They had something called, On The Back Porch, which was a session, which was like the country stuff.

So, you get people singing Hank Williams.

- Sure.

- I'd be singing along, which made me realize I knew- 'cause I'm not a musician, I'm certainly not a performer, but I realized I knew a lot of it.

- As I was hearing all throughout Sheffield, the love of local live music runs deep, even deeper than the pockets of property developers.

Harry and 400 of his closest friends decided to buy the Gardeners Rest, converting it into a community owned asset.

- And this is community owned?

- It's a community owned pub.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you buy shares.

It don't matter how much you put in, you only get one person share.

- Right.

- Uh, Pat and Neddy wanted to retire.

Um, and amazingly brilliant, they offered it to the customers.

If we would, they said this is the price, the minimum price we want.

If you can raise it, you can have it.

Um, there were some people who managed to organize it.

I'm one of the 450 people who own it.

- You've heard that expression, put your money where your mouth is.

Well, here, that isn't just an idea.

It's an expression of love that saved this pub.

'Cause we wanted to preserve it as it was, which was impossible 'cause it was about Pat and Neddy.

You realize immediately it was about their personality as well as the building.

But, next door, but one opened up to something called, Company Works.

They set a phone call and the area was just suddenly full of people who would come in here for a drink.

So, within a year we were financially secure.

- Well, and speaking of music, I mean, your passion for Roots music, tell me a little bit about that.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I'll get to it- I was reflecting on this.

This pub then the music that they had on here, and other music, thanks to Martin Bedford who you hopefully have or will get talking to- - Yeah.

- The stuff that Martin was particularly putting on meant I was starting to see a lot more American bands that I really liked.

- Hmm-mm.

- And-and I thought, I've got this.

Like I said I'm singing along to Hank Williams songs and all this stuff, that you've gotten, I've got this.

And I thought, I-I would like to do this as a radio program.

So, I got in the bid, got the bid to do it once a week- daytime.

And when I started, I actually ha-had not a single record by a Sheffield act that was relevant, not a one.

And I think now I've probably got 60 different acts.

- 60?

- Yeah, yeah, from Sheffield.

- Wow.

- Not all of them from CDs.

- Sure.

- So, granted, that became the most more important part of the program.

I basically started the record label, not for profit for me but a p... whole big profit for the musicians.

But basically, because I got annoyed.

- And-and you're calling the record label what?

- Stain on the Wire.

- Which is the name to your... - Yeah, it's the name of the record label.

But basically, I was getting frustrated because there were people I couldn't play on my show who were playing live locally 'cause they had known projects.

Anyway, so we decide, we talk to them and I say what about if we did something where the current acts do famous Sheffield songs?

I was just amazed at how many people were there, who I wouldn't have obviously seen at a gig.

And it was just like a magnificent reunion, uh, of people.

- Yeah.

- And it was brilliant and it is, you know, about communities.

I really thought this is a snapshot of a community.

- In an act true to what I've come to know of this city, Harry and his friends honor their heritage with a twist, but always rolling forward as a community.

[faint background singing] [soft music] - What is it about a pub that makes people want to gather there and make music?

Why that specific place and not somewhere else?

Why not McDonald's?

Sorry fast food chains but you're not high on that list of places, regardless of your advertising.

Sure, there are places all over the world where people get together to share a drink, food, and even music.

But likely, they more closely resemble a classic English or Irish pub than somewhere else.

It's the third place.

Perhaps that's why man caves around the world end up looking like classic pubs.

And people spend a lot of money to replicate that space in their homes.

They want that sense of place, of connection, of community.

In fact, the pub and its variants around the world are the birthplace of so many musical styles bridging cultures.

But not without some controversy.

Elvis got his style from visiting Mississippi juke joints.

And there are the jazz bars in Paris in the 1920s.

Also, the pubs in Ireland and Scotland fomenting independence through song.

And of course, for the folk club scenes in the US and England were supporting the labor movements of the 1950s and 60s.

Which brings me to Fay Hield.

Like Martin and Harry, Dr. Fay Hield has made, thought about, and organized music communities her entire life.

♪ I shall go into, go into her highway... ♪ - As a traditional English folk singer and a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Sheffield, Faye is dedicated to making music more accessible.

- Okay, we are a singing culture.

We are a community of singers.

We have been much more fun in the past.

- Which today, strangely, seems to be a real challenge in many folk music circles.

- This thing that I love and get so much out of, why do I love it?

What do I get out of it?

And how can I help other people get involved in it and make it more accessible?

Is it, I don't know.

- How long have you been singing?

Since you were a kid?

Forever, yeah, I was brought up in it, yeah.

So, my mom was a m... - Are you from this area or-or are you recently?

- I'm from Keefley, which is West Yorkshire.

- Okay.

- So, you know, it's funny, the closer you get in space, the-the harder you find the boundaries.

So, no, I'm not from here but I'm only from like an hour away.

[laughter] So, I'm from, uh, th-they call it revival folk, that kind of 60s, 70s.

There's a huge revival in England and well, across loads of Europe.

Yeah, so, the kids of that revival.

So, my parents they just went to the folk club or my mom was a Morrison's dancer.

But because I grew up in it and I went to all the festivals and things, it-it is in me.

So, I am a child of it as well.

- Morris dancing and the roots of folk music lie deep in rural life and its traditions.

Here in the UK, as in America, there have actually been several folk revival movements over the past 100 years, all driven by the same desire, the desire to remember something before it's lost from our collective memory.

This led to a subculture of folk clubs and festivals on both sides of the Atlantic, a kind of transnational cultural exchange of ideas and ideals.

- What folk music is, from an English perspective, English like, attract to an American audience, what... how would you do that?

I mean, what would you say?

- I'd say, "Ahhhh!"

[laughter] The massive can of worms (yeah sure) of what is folk music.

- Right.

- So, that's a huge question and so contested by everybody, academics and people who make the music.

- Yeah, but what is it?

I would say more specific, "What does it mean to you?"

- To me, well because I'm an academic I can't separate it all out and I suppose this is partly why I'm an academic because when I first started singing, I'd sing folk songs because I knew I was singing folk songs because I went to the folk club and it was a song so I knew it was a folk song but then other people would tell me I was singing them wrong or, um, I should be doing it like this or that and I didn't understand what the rules were or how they knew the rules and so that's partly what the studying, where the impetus was, and the more I studied the more I kinda realized well, folk is just a set of rules of whoever's making the rules but nobody agrees on the rules.

- Right.

(chuckles) - So, if I was to sing a song now, if I were to express my contempt to politics, I can't sing that song because it might be misogynistic or it might be talking about practices I've no experience of.

So, I would have to change the words in order for it to express contemporary concerns.

You can't say what folk music is.

You really can't and-and, yeah, because it's so built up over different people's ideas of what it is.

Um, it's not a static thing.

- If it becomes a static thing, then it starts to die.

Like, when you were writing songs for your last album, what-what-what was striking you about the way you approached that?

- Well, the things I find interesting is, as soon as you put a label folk, on it, maybe that's when it starts to die.

- Yeah.

- Because musical practice is musical practice.

- Sure.

- And everybody does it.

Why is this performance of that song called folk and not this one?

It's because somebody's categorized it and usually not the singer.

That's the interesting thing.

So, it's not, I don't know, I'm thinking about this stuff at the moment.

So, it's not that that necessarily just stagnates it and kills it at that point.

So, this idea that folk music needs to breathe and live, but we're kind of forgetting that for it to have been designated folk music, it's already gone into a bit of a process of being put in a glass box.

- Right.

- Because it's already been categorized as something special or different.

What is it?

As it you were what-what it... How would you say the difference between folk music or other music?

- That's a good question.

Now, uh, my idea is-is that it's always, you know, it-it's, so how... What does it mean to you, you know?

And what is your emotion?

- That's the thing, yeah.

- Eh, you know?

- Do you, like, why does calling it folk, what-what does that matter?

You know, and it's, yeah, why is it important?

And then that's what becomes important about it.

So, you can't say this is what's important.

It's like almost has to come after 'ya.

- And diving into this particular musical conversation was actually leading me to ask even more questions.

Like, what exactly is the music of the people?

How does it stay vibrant and evolve with the times?

It's these humbling moments of meeting the artists who dedicate their lives to exploring these questions and the magic that happens when we open ourselves up to something new, different, and better, in the name of local live music.

Art endures through sharing, and sometimes it's messy, and it's supposed to be.

So, here's to the artists whose passions stop us in our tracks and make us think so we all can enjoy these moments together.

♪ I'm going to bed with the wrong person ♪ ♪ I can't be a sad old man ♪ - As I ended my exploration of Sheffield, I found myself at the Glass Frog Café.

Sitting in on bass guitar with Avital Raz, an accomplished classically trained singer and performance artist from Israel.

She relocated to Sheffield to pursue her musical and artistic endeavors.

The dynamic environment of the new Sheffield is a fertile ground for a vibrant international artist scene.

Not just for music and performance art, but also for the visual arts and literature as well.

The University of Sheffield is drawing students from around the world to learn in a number of disciplines.

The local and national arts councils also create ample opportunities and funding for artists such as Avital to pursue their inspiration.

In Avital's case, she writes, records, and performs thought-provoking and genre-bending music.

Her new multimedia show, Unnatural Cycles, was supported by a grant to include multiple performances.

She's classically trained in Western and Eastern music traditions, having studied for a number of years in India.

She also sings in a number of early music ensembles, with concerts around the UK.

- It's cheap to live here, and people kinda leave you alone to be your eccentric self.

- Yeah.

- Along with her friend and artist, Ayse Balkos, who immigrated from Turkey, they represent the cross-cultural, boundary-breaking artistic environment encouraged and nurtured here in Sheffield.

Ayse is also a multi-faceted artist who has a one-woman show called, Canine Teeth, and she also performs as a spoken word poet.

What I've learned from the people I've met here is just skimming the surface.

The deeper I explore Sheffield, the more I find it brings together people of diverse backgrounds all in the name of art, promoting collaboration and harmony, regardless of background or gender.

And while my introduction was ironically through the steel guitar and Americana music, the actual forging of ideas and ideals here comes from the new life, springing up from old factories and mills with a nod to history and a legacy of craftsmanship that is seen in new and imaginative ways.

From the promotion of live music and the poster art of Martin Bedford to the discovery and crusading on behalf of local musicians by Harry Welburn.

And the advocacy scene in Fay Hield, the character of the Sheffield musical art scene is vibrant and growing.

There's so much more to explore and just waiting to be discovered in Sheffield, UK, the Steel City.

- So, I'm really thrilled to be able to take you on this musical journey because regardless of tempo or time zone, music is truly the vibration that connects us all.

See you on the road.

♪ Just another bend ♪ ♪ Another bend another bend ♪ ♪ Another bend another bend ♪ ♪ Another bend on the road ♪ - Funding provided by: [outro theme music]