A Shanty For Cornish Youth, by Taran Spalding-Jenkin

A Shanty For Cornish Youth

by Taran Spalding-Jenkin

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1.	A Shanty For Cornish Youth 11:32	info	buy track
2.	Singing Shanties Stacking Shelves (In the Supermarket Aisles) 02:20	info	buy track
3.	Nearly There 02:16	info	buy track
4.	The Future Is A City 02:20	info	buy track
5.	Consternationalist [Bonus Track] 02:56	info

about

This digital album includes the full version of the award-winning 'A Shanty For Cornish Youth' as well as each poem from the piece as a separate stand alone track for easy re-listening AND a bonus poem not included anywhere else.

“My story is as old as my mother tongue;
I grew up in Cornwall, young, full of life
Left and didn't come back
My story is old but far from unique”

Through poetry, interviews and music, A Shanty For Cornish Youth explores Cornish brain drain; the emigration of young minds looking for opportunities elsewhere, and whether they can keep hold of their identity in their new environment. Is it any different now, than when our ancestors sailed to Australia and beyond? Contributions from five Cornish folk punctuate the poetry and tell the stories of why they left, where they are now and how they got there. Only one has made it back to Cornwall, thirty years later. The others live in Wales, Bristol and as far away as The Netherlands. Will they ever be able to return? Do they even want to?

Each poem is inspired by themes raised in the interviews and by my own experience of leaving home for the siren song of the city. Together we find connections in our exile; the struggle to hold a secure job, the stretching of what 'home' means to us, and the search for a community, all highlighted by a reel of traditional and contemporary Cornish music by Dalla.

A Shanty For Cornish Youth was produced as part of New Creatives which was supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts.

By Taran Spalding-Jenkin
Music by Dalla
Producer – Mair Bosworth
Executive Producer – Jeremy Routledge

credits

released February 11, 2022

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about

Taran Spalding-Jenkin Bristol, UK

Taran Spalding-Jenkin is a Cornish poet and storyteller, writing in both English and his mother tongue: Kernewek. His work explores identity, health and hireth – the yearning for a home that no longer exists. While seeking to show Cornishness is who you are, and not simply where you reside, he travels back and forth between experience and myth. ... more