Robb Johnson & Roger Watson - Six of One and Half a Dozen of the Other [CD]

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: IRR135CD
Barcode: 5060749891104
Release Date: 13 Nov 2026
Genre: Folk

Robb & Roger first started working together in 1989. Roger had established a formidable reputation in the world of traditional folk music, whereas Robb was primarily viewed as a post-punk singer-songwriter. They got on like a house on fire. In 2010 Roger suffered a stroke whilst awaiting heart surgery that left him apparently unable to perform. Undaunted, Roger has steadily recovered his strengths, & this album, the first new full recording project, is the result.
Robb contributes six songs, including album opener ‘Evergreen’, their first collaboration in 1989, and two unreleased tracks ‘The Battle of South Street’ and ‘Mrs Blake’. Roger contributes two tunes from the English tradition, the songs ‘Miners’ Lifeguard’ and ‘Seafarers’, and two of Roger’s original compositions, the sublime ‘Bengal Rounds’ & the album’s triumphant concluding track, ‘The Malthouse’.
Six of One and Half a Dozen of the Other is an album about folk music and folk process, creative cooperation, the condition of England, what passes and what persists, & a musical conversation performed by acoustic guitar, melodeon and an enduring friendship.
Robb’s “An English original” (Robin Denselow, The Guardian), “a national treasure” (Mike Harding), “one of this country’s most important songwriters” (fROOTS), “one of the best songwriters this country has produced … the appellation National Treasure is often over-used, but in Robb’s case it is entirely appropriate” (St Edith’s Folk)
Roger’s “influence and work as a professional folk musician has been immense and definitive: a bandleader, solo singer, instrumentalist, dance caller, songwriter, vocal arranger, inter-cultural activist, linguist, writer, thinker and folk animateur” (EFDS Gold Badge citation). (Not going to be available as a fucking thieving digital download).

TRACKLISTING
1 Evergreen
2 The Big Ship
3 The Battle of South Street
4 Melon Juice
5 A Postcard From Blackpool
6 The Miners’ Lifeguard
7 Union Train
8 Bengal Rounds
9 Saturday Night in Albion
10 Seafarers
11 Mrs Blake
12 The Malthouse