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A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of traditional folk music and his passion for publishing compact discs of traditional music and song.

The article focuses on early printed pieces of ballad on battle of Boulogne in 1801 by several printers in nineteenth century. Topics discussed include earliest piece of copy printed by Samuel Harward in Cheltenham, England entitled "The Battle of Boulogne; Or, The Wounded Sailor's Lamentation"; contemporary or near contemporary view offered in imprints of Alice Swindells and Margaret Angus covering date of battle; and ballad to be seen in conventional style with thrill of ballad.

An obituary is presented for English folk dancer Francis Shergold.

The article discusses the connection of Scottish history to the nation's ballad tradition. "The Bonny House o' Airlie" is said to refer to King Charles I while "The Bonny House of Airlie" and "The Battle of Harlaw" are cited for their for historical inaccuracies. The author also responds to reader Mike Yates in regard to the origin of the Scottish Travellers community and the original version of the Harlaw ballad that storyteller William Stanley Robertson once sang.

The article offers information on "A Second Catalogue Sampler," a new sampler from "Musical Traditions" magazine released in a compact disc-recordable (CD-R) format. There are 30 tracks in the sampler including "Napoleon's March," by Stephen Baldwin, "The Death of Parker," by Audrey Smith, and "The Flowers of Bermuda," by Bob Bray. Baldwin is a fiddler born in Hereford, England, while Smith is a multi-instrumentalist who enjoys singing unaccompanied.

The article reviews the music release "King's Head Folk Club 1968-1970" featuring various songs including "Toast," by Jack Smith, "Bonny Udny," by Daisy Chapman, and "Dark Eyed Sailor," by Percy Webb.

The article profiles Sarah Makem, a folk singer from Ulster, who was born on October 18, 1900 and died on April 20, 1983. A background of her childhood and family is presented. It discusses how she acquired songs from anybody she meets. A description of Sarah's singing voice is provided. It discusses Sarah's married life with husband, Peter.

The article discusses the production of "May Bradley: Sweet Swansea," the first CD release by Musical Traditions Records in 2010. One of the difficulties encountered in producing the CD include the lack of information on Bradley, which may be due to the fact that she was only ever recorded by song collector Fred Hamer. In performing "The Outlandish Knight," the singer is said to have used various techniques used by traditional singers, such as melodic variation and varied tempi.

A chart is presented that shows links to the contents of the publication of "Musical Traditions Supplement No. 2" is presented.

This article presents comments responding to a previous essay about Peter Kennedy, a collector of folk songs in the 1960s. One person mentions how he saw replies from singers to Kennedy's form letter requesting that they sign over all rights to songs recorded by him. Another recalls how Kennedy objected to Topic using BBC recordings for Vol.19 of Topic's VoP series.

The article presents information on a recording of traditional singer Jabez "Biggun" Smith made by folk song authority Peter Shepheard in 1967. It discusses Shepheard's early interest in the folk music traditions of Scottish Traveller, Irish Traveller, and English Gypsy communities. It lists songs performed by Smith and recorded by Shepheard including "My Ship's Lost Her Rigging," "Three Jolly Butcher Boys," and "Davy Faw," or "The Barley Straw."

The article examines George Frampton's brief survey of song-texts found in the music piece "Deal." It notes that "Deal" happily exposes a contribution to Nelson mytology in the copy found of a song on the glorious victory obtained over the French and Spaniards in October 21, 1805. It states that the usual epithets of Neslon are found and there are the same sentiments as were found in other balladry.

The article deals with an online blog about the early history and origins of some of the oldest musical traditions still alive in the world today, based on research presented in the essay, "Echoes of Our Forgotten Ancestors." It states that the blog should interest to professionals and students in fields such as ethnomusicology, anthropology, archaeology, historical linguistics and population genetics.

The article reviews the music release "The Brazil Family: Down by the Old Riverside."

The article reviews the music release "The Harland Road," by Walter Pardon.

The article examines a quotation from one of two printings on the John Stratford murder case from Robert Lane in Norwich, England. Hanged in 1829, Stratford attributed his downfall primarily to reading Tom Paine's book "The Age of Reason" and the work of Richard Carlile, an agitator for the establishment of universal suffrage and of freedom of the press. It is believed that Stratford have been seen as some kind of potential agitator whatever the circumstances of the murder he committed.

The article reviews several Web sites that offer music resources including Collect Britain from the British Library, The Virtual Gramophone from the National Library of Canada and MusicAustralia from the National Library and the National Film and Sound Archive.

The article features music recordings selected by "Music Traditions" writers which they claim changed their lives. One of them is Mike Yates who chose the following songs: "Folksong Today," "Anthology of American Folk Music," "Mountain Music of Kentucky" and "Old Love songs and Ballads From the Big Laurel." Another writer, Rod Stradling, mentioned the following songs: "English Country Music," "Polyphonies de Sardaine," "Voice of the People" and "Just Another Saturday Night."