At Home with Nancy Kerr

Verity Sharp hosts a series of conversations and performances recorded by songwriters at home. Tonight she calls composer, singer and teacher Nancy Kerr.

After a year of restricted movement, cancelled gigs and binned recording projects, have some of the UK’s most seasoned folk musicians changed their creative lives for good? Has the pandemic brought a whole new sense of artistic conscientiousness that has altered their artistic habits, or will it be business as usual once life’s back on track? Does the idea of jetting around the world to sing for large audiences still appeal, or has performing and sharing work online opened up new, more democratic possibilities? And how have all the events of the year rubbed off on their songwriting and sense of purpose? Verity Sharp calls up musicians who’re rooted in tradition, to find out how they’re currently feeling and to ask them to share a song that’s kept them grounded during this exceptional year.

In this episode, Nancy Kerr laments how the folk session scene has been a causality of pub closures but celebrates how a new university teaching post is giving her renewed feelings of security, self-worth and purpose.

Presented and produced by Verity Sharp.
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3.