Walter Pardon (4 March 1914 – 9 June 1996) was an English carpenter, folk singer and recording artist from Knapton, Norfolk, England.
He learned songs and tunes from older members of his family and remembered and performed them at a time when most people of his generation were uninterested in traditional music.
According to Pardon's cousin Roger Dixon, singing and music played a big part in the life of the Gee family.
He appeared at folk clubs and festivals and was invited by A L Lloyd to join a group of English singers attending the American Bicentennial celebrations in 1976.
[1] Many folk song collectors interviewed and recorded him, including Bill Leader, Mike Yates, Rod Stradling, and Roy Palmer.
An article that Pardon wrote about the Knapton Drum and Fife Band after a talk with Mike Yates appeared in the booklet accompanying the posthumous release 'Put a Bit of Powder on it' and may also be read via the MUSTRAD online folk Imagazine.
[5] There are a number of field recordings of Walter Pardon singing songs and ballads, and playing, as well as interviews and other material available online at the British Library Sound Archive in the Reg Hall and Roy Palmer collections.
[10][11] A lecture given by Pat Mackenzie and Jim Carroll in 2004 and filmed by Conor McMahon includes excerpts from their interviews with Pardon.
Mike Yates thought that Pardon could only remember parts of 'I'm Yorkshire Though in London', and obtained the rest from Frank Purslow's book 'The Wanton Seed'.
Regarding the second revival, he comments “The more democratic milieu of the 1970s made for a more relaxed social relationship between those and those recording, though this brought other problems of intensified mediation inherent in collectors’ attempts to embed themselves deeper and deeper into the lives of their informants.” Hillery notes that Pardon was recognised as a singer for 22 years, from the date of his first recording, in 1974, to his death in 1996.
Hillery contrasts Pardon’s situation with that of a traditional singer who received no such wider attention and who was studied only for a brief time towards the end of his life.
“Pardon exemplifies the experience of a ‘traditional’ singer who, coming to the attention of an audience more extensive than a purely local one, attracts the attention of those engaged in tradition as a field of scholarship or entertainment where Walter may be regarded as a primary source … Moreover, during the 22 years of his relative fame, Walter’s motivation to extend and develop his repertoire would clearly have been stimulated, pleased and flattered as he may have been by the admiration he received.” Regarding the provenance of Pardon’s songs, Hillery states “…even a brief examination of his repertoire shows that his songs have an overwhelmingly nineteenth- and early twentieth-century provenance and a ‘residual’ cultural form.” He adds that Pardon regretted that none of the broadsheets from which he believed that his grandfather learned the songs had survived a clear-out that took place after his grandfather’s death.
These include “Galway Bay” and “The Miner’s Dream of Home.” Hillery states that a few post WWII songs appear in Pardon’s repertoire.
“He employs vocal embellishment so subtly that, though its use may be detectable only to the careful listener, its absence would substantially diminish the artistic quality of the performance”.
Hillery (p312) thinks that Atkinson might validly have stated this point more strongly, especially in the case when a singer has been positively “celebrated by folk enthusiasts … Encounters with them carried an inevitable, though perhaps unconscious, exerting of cultural influence.” [19] (All 1998) In 1983 the American musician and film-maker John Cohen made "The Ballad and the Source", described as "a sensitive musical portrait of Walter Pardon".