Exploring the history of radio ballads, a personal perspective
This blog will discuss a brief history of the radio ballad, including the origins of it and some of its greater exponents. My own personal connection to this and relevant experience is my work in events. Recently, I had the privilege of working behind the scenes on another event with Peggy Seeger, she was a part of the original team who created the first radio ballads from 1958 to 1964. Peggy and her team were great craic to work with, when we met, she commented “…like something out of o brother where art thou,” most likely referring to my long beard.
Seeger’s website features an essay from her primary musical collaborator on the radio ballads, Ewan MacColl, who describes their journey through creating this format together: "It was immediately apparent that we had recorded a unique picture of a way of life told in a language charged with the special kind of vitality which derives from involvement with a work-process." (MacColl 1981)
Listening to their first published piece in the medium "the Ballad of John Axon," (MacColl, Parker, Seeger 1958) it is clear how this work has continued to be such an influential piece to this day, a beautiful account of both the working and home life of its subject, his family members and peers; John Axon was a locomotive driver who died in 1957 under heroic circumstances. At just under an hour in length, it’s an epic longform piece with many notable aspects. You can listen to The Ballad of John Axon here on Ewan MacColl’s Bandcamp.
The consistent musical influence throughout this work is that of the post-war folk song revival, MacColl was partly inspired by one of Peggy Seeger’s recent collaborators at the time, Alan Lomax “under the influence of the American folk song collector Alan Lomax, returned to the traditional songs of his youth.” (Howkins, 2000) This was an important intersection for the work, as MacColl would compose the radio ballads with a ring of authenticity that came from studying old songs and styles of performing them in detail.
I was also lucky enough to part of a live production including a performance of a long form radio ballad inspired performance (The Glasshouse ICM, 2023), produced by Newcastle based singer songwriter, Ceitidh Mac. This was the culmination of her year as artist in residence, in the Glasshouse International Centre for Music. Her performance was called Sound Weave: The Living North. It featured a live six-piece band, singing original and traditional material influenced by a collection of interviews and footage. These interviews were played back as part of the performance, creating a powerful experience showcasing the lived experience of those interviewed, lifting their words and collected songs.
I interviewed Ceitidh about her education, inspirations and process: She has a direct link to the history of the radio ballads and was introduced to the concept during her first year studying on the folk and traditional music degree in Newcastle, by her lecturer Sandra Kerr. Kerr was herself a former dedicated student of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, receiving direct tuition from each of them, after being inspired seeing them perform at the Singers’ Club, a dedicated song performance space “perpetuating a particular style of folk music, setting standards for its performance.” (Street 2021)
Kerr later became involved with the Critics’ Group, a theatrical organisation evolved from the Singers’ Club, both ran by MacColl and Seeger, formed in 1964 following the release of their last BBC broadcasted radio ballad. They performed a yearly theatrical satire featuring original songs and topics showing clear influences from the Radio Ballads – for example “they campaigned for the rights of travellers…” (Street 2021) the final radio ballad released was on the same subject.
Kerr describes receiving direct tuition from MacColl and Seeger during this time, living with and working for the pair, “listening to the field recordings that Ewan and Peggy had in their wonderful library.” (Smith 2019) Field recordings and new technologies are integral to the radio ballad form, providing not only speech and incidental sounds, but also crucially replacing the narrator and instead using people’s own words to tell their stories.
Ceitidh described to me this aspect of the radio ballads being particularly important to her, “I found it a very inspiring way of storytelling. The thing that really drew me to it is that it’s telling everyday life stories, in people’s own words so there’s no narrator. So, there’s not this powerful person who’s explaining things… The fact that it was radical at its time, but it also feels radical now.”
The BBC commissioned a second series of radio ballads in 2006, this time recorded, written and produced by John Leonard and musically directed by John Tams, broadcasted on Radio 2. “This new series featured specially composed songs and interviews with those affected by a variety of current social and political issues.” (Zierke 2026) One of the songwriters featured in later programmes of this series including “The Ballad of The Big Ships,” (BBC 2006) was Newcastle based folk singer Jez Lowe. This episode focused on the lives of shipbuilders from Tyne and Wear and the Clyde.
Lowe was later approached by sound artist David de la Haye, (a mentor of mine during my Arts Council funded creative development in 2021) as part of the Land Lines Project artist commission “Tracks, Traces and Trails: Nature Revealed.” (Land Lines 2020) he wanted to collaborate with Lowe from a very different perspective, writing songs with recorded underwater sounds on location from freshwater spaces “A radio ballad for aquatic lifeforms,” (Land Lines 2020)
Photo (top) of “Sound Weave: the Living North,” by Ceitidh Mac, performed at the Glasshouse International Centre for Music. Image credit: Victoria Wai
Reference list:
MacColl, Ewan (1981) The Radio Ballads: How they were made, when and by whom. Available at:
https://www.peggyseeger.com/discography/ballads/how-the-radio-ballads-were-made
(Accessed: 24th September, 2025)
Howkins, A. (2000). History and the Radio Ballads. Oral History, 28(2), 89–93. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40166862 (Accessed: 5th January, 2026)
The Glasshouse International Centre for Music (24 February, 2023) Ceitidh Mac in Conversation Available at: https://theglasshouseicm.org/read-watch-listen/ceitidh-mac-in-conversation/ (Accessed: 24th September, 2025)
Street, John (December 15, 2021) The Critics’ Group and the Singers’ Club: Intermediaries in Action. Available at: https://oursubversivevoice.com/case-study/the-critics-group-and-the-singers-club-intermediaries-in-action/ (Accessed: 23rd February, 2026)
Smith, Vic (December 2019) Sandra Kerr – Rebel with her Chords. Issue 131, The Living Tradition Available at: https://www.livingtradition.co.uk/articles/sandrakerr (Accessed: 23rd February, 2026)
Zierke, Reinhard (February 2026) The 2006 Radio Ballads Available at: https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/records/radioballads2006.html (Accessed 23rd February, 2026)
BBC (December 2006) The Ballad of The Big Ships Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/radioballads/2006/songwriters.shtml (Accessed 24th February, 2026)
Land Lines (November 2020) Hidden Sounds: Nature Revealed - by David de la Haye Available at: https://landlinesproject.wordpress.com/hidden-sounds-nature-revealed-by-david-de-la-haye/ (Accessed 23rd Fevruary, 2026)