Music Features
‘They make the laws to chain us well’: Folk music fights for its rights
As of March 2026, Scottish folk pioneer Dick Gaughan has served notice to record label Celtic Music to reclaim the rights to his music. Here, music historian Colin Harper, along with artists The Mary Wallopers, Barbara Dickson, Allan Taylor and Martin Simpson, discuss the impact of Gaughan’s fight for other elderly artists, and the protest at the heart of folk music’s continued legacy