January 23, 1987 was the recording date of Michael Hunter’s first radio interview – the subject being RALPH McTELL who was about to tour Australia and was already celebrating around 20 years in the music business. He had an Adelaide gig a couple of weeks later but for reasons lost in time, the interview didn’t go to air until March 24. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting chat historically, over a quarter of a century later – subjects include the songs Ralph had written for Fairport Convention, his songwriting method and disposal rate, the narrowness of commercial radio affecting the success of worthy musicians, his involvement with a couple of TV programs and more.
This was back in the days when the show was known as Rambling Folk and the station was Triple M FM.
Ralph McTell interview (with edited music) (19.20)
ROOTS & BRANCHES 