Handed Down

About Handed Down

Handed Down celebrates traditional songs and the people who sing them. The show is presented by Jenny Shaw, an amateur musician and professional writer. Each episode is full of music, tales and curiosities as we delve into the history a single song, often with the help of a fellow folk musician, to uncover the strange stories and colourful characters that lie beneath. These are the songs that have been handed down from our ancestors. This podcast and the people involved in it help keep them alive so that we can hand them down in turn to future generations.

Publisher

Jenny Shaw

Category

music · music · music

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

7 Aug 2021

Latest episode

11 Jan 2026

Latest episodes

44 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   11 Jan 2026

   As I Roved Out - Heartbreak, Famine and Class Struggle

   It's not often that I'm stumped by a folk song, but this is one tricky little character. It is also beautiful, graceful and weirdly catchy... and extremely elusive. Nonetheless, there's quite a bit to say about land, class and medieval shepherdesses, though surprisingly little about parted lovers. Given the setting and context, romantic heartbreak suddenly doesn't feel like the end of the world. Somehow we end up in Scotland, though only tentatively, and discover a mystery. But then we ...

2. 

   15 Apr 2025

   George Collins - Don't Go Kissing Watery Tarts

   George Collins is a handsome young man with his whole life ahead of him, so why does he die within a few short verses and leave a trail of devastation in his wake? Today’s episode takes us back to supernatural legends from medieval Northern Europe, in which brave young men are easily seduced. We also travel across the Atlantic to meet a dying hobo who wandered into this song sometime in the late 19th Century. In the end, these legends are a legacy of the things we didn’t properly unders...

3. 

   2 Feb 2025

   Apple Tree Wassail with Lunatraktors

   What a time we had, talking about the bones and the spirit of the Wassail. The Lunatraktors, Carli and Clair, get right to the heart of things with their "Broken Folk" which provides an anchor, a refuge and solace, a shamanic art and a collective experience. They are experts at asking questions of our tradition, and passionate about telling the stories that have been hidden or lost. The Wassail is about apples and cider and community and collectivism and so much more, and Lunatraktors' embod...

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

4.7 / 5

6 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 23 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

33

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

Contact Handed Down

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.