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WildGoose Records specialises in releasing and selling mainly traditional folk music. Over the years For Doug, folk music has been a life-long passion.

Wherwell is the home of WildGoose Records and Studio, which started out as the outbuilding -- ‘Doug’s shed’ – an ivy covered lean-to with a corrugated roof - that came with the cottage where Doug and Sue Bailey live. Sue and Doug removed the ivy (with a crow bar) and started to use it for his hobby of recording some of his beloved folk music. It seemed that English music was nowhere and if it was

available, it was not well recorded. Most of the artists he wanted to record had no money to pay for recording so the only way he could cover costs was to sell the albums mail order to (hopefully) cover costs. He started singing and playing guitar and mandolin at home in Wolverhampton as a teenager, before he went to university in London. Recording music provided a good contrast to his job as a senior IBM IT technician from which he retired some years ago, thus having more time for his hobby and for passing on his expertise to the younger generation.

19/09/2024

WildGoose will be bringing the show
Ghosts, Werewolves and Countryfolk – Songs & Stories of Sabine Baring Gould
to Wherwell on 23rd of October at The Home guard Club in the village. The club is on The Old Hill, Wherwell, Andover SP11 7JB.
Tickets are available at £16 via Jim’s site at:-
https://www.jimcausley.co.uk/product/wherwell-23-october/

More details of the show:-
Ghosts, Werewolves and Countryfolk – Songs & Stories of Sabine Baring Gould
Jim Causley & Miranda Sykes are joined by narrator John Palmer in a show to celebrate the centenary of Sabine Baring-Gould, through extracts from his writing and the folk songs he collected and that meant so much to him.
Sabine was an astonishing and often overlooked celebrity of the Victorian era. A pioneer of folk song collecting – inspiring Cecil Sharp to follow in his footsteps ten years after him, he was also one of the Victorian’s best-selling-novelists and composer of the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers, with a tune by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Of all of his achievements, Sabine wrote, ‘To this day I consider that the recovery of our West Country melodies has been the principle achievement of my life’. He interleaved folk songs he’d collected and wove real people and events into his fiction, to give it life. And that’s what Jim and Miranda do in the show, with the help of narrator John Palmer.
Six time BBC Folk Award nominee Jim Causley and Miranda Sykes from the Award winning Show of Hands and Daphne’s Flight will be singing some songs Sabine collected, and maybe new ones, in this show for Halloween. Narrator John Palmer will interweave these with highlights of Sabine’s own astonishing life and anecdotes and stories from his impressive array of best-selling-books.
The Rev. Baring-Gould was one of the top ten best-selling Victorian novelists; the writer of a bloodthirsty book on werewolves; author of a nerve-tingling book of ghost stories and the compiler of the finest Dartmoor history book. A man of contrasts and contradictions, he died in 1924 and our tribute aims to make the audience smile, gasp and sing along to an entertaining and engaging show. Songs he collected run through all his books and you’ll hear how:
A penny whistle saved a mother lost in a life-threatening snowstorm (Three Drunken Maidens)
A ragamuffin fiddler’s favourite tune lived on in his instrument after he died (Bold General Woolf)
A cottage was built in a day on the moor for a newly married couple ( Cottage Well Thatched with Straw)
The eerie mysteries of Wil O’ The Wisp (The Blue Flame)
And ….. how Sabine became Sherlock Holmes’s God Father.

Watch short Trailer
https://studio.youtube.com/video/Ao_9dbajxuw/edit

or for longer background to the show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1dAZnEQYBg

29/02/2024

New album 'An Outbreak of Cats' I wanted to let you know about a new album of Folk Dance/Social Dance tunes written by Derek Shaw and played by some wonderful musicians, namely Becky Price (piano accordion and piano), Richard Heacock (violin and viola), Matt Coatsworth (violin) and Richard Cox-smith (slide guitar). Derek writes tunes in many different styles and this album has both English and European style, waltzes, jigs, mazurkas, marches, hornpipes and even one lament. The tunes were chosen and arranged by Becky Price from Derek’s published tune book, ‘The Lockkeeper’ which contains 90 of his new folk tunes.

I put together this short set of samples from the album and the pictures are from cartoons in Derek's book 'The Lockkeeper'. Hope you enjoy the samples and go on to buy the album but I would be grateful anyway if you 'like' my website so I can let you know about new releases.

15/02/2024

Hello all, it has been some time since I posted but I have a couple of new releases already out there and a new one came back today from the pressers. The album which came back today is called 'An Outbreak of Cats' it is an album of tunes by Derek Shaw played by Becky Price and Friends - more about that later. The album, Burning Bright, which is featured in this video is by Pete Cooper and Richard Bolton. They have released 3 albums before but this is the first one on WildGoose. The music is definitely eclectic and is a mixture of trad English, American and Eastern European but it is beautifully played and I think exciting to listen to. Here are some snatches of the music and some pictures. I hope you enjoy them. The album is available from my website and will soon be on other outlets as well.

21/02/2022

The Exmouth Shanty Men have release their new double album, Tall Ships and Tavern Tales. The first CD contains traditional work shanties and the second maritime songs which were for enjoyment. The singing is robust, the choruses tight and punchy with natural harmonies. Listen to samples here, The CD is available from my website.

11/09/2021

It is really good to be back in the studio recording the second session for Bosun Higgs Country Dance Band starting next week. These are snatches and pics from the last session in August. Other projects lined up for the autumn are The Exmouth Shanty Men and Belshazzar's Feast 25th Anniversary album.

21/04/2021

Hampshire Dance Tunes CD was a popular album but it has been unavailable for some time now. I decided to re-master it and re-release it as a CD and also make it available digitally. The CD contains dances from a musicians tune book dated 1822 and found in the Wi******er Records Library. The tunes on the album are played by some of the finest Southern English players and the musical director was Paul Sartin. The 3 minute video here contains samples from album available from www.WildGoose.co.uk

12/11/2020

A magical story by Nick Hennessey with music by Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer. My 4 and 6 year old grandchildren's favourite story CD. I was on a car on a journey with them and my daughter when this story came on. It is over an hour long and lasted the whole journey. It is their favourite story CD. I had forgotten how good it is but they knew the little songs and loved it. I have chopped the story about to give you a flavour in this video but the actual story is far more complete. If you are searching for a present for children or grandchildren this might make a good choice. Go to the buy button on this page to go to the WildGoose website. £8 including delivery.

22/08/2020

The Living Tradition have done an Old Swan Band retrospective in their current issue. A great article by Vic Smith. I thought I would post a video with some clips from their latest album recorded and released by WildGoose.

I am ready to open the studio again let me know if you have a project in mind.

29/07/2020

The Dorset dialect poems of William Barnes (1801 to 1886) in a 2 CD release. Forty superb and evocative poems read by local dialect speakers. The musical settings and some readings are by Tim Laycock. You can find out more and hear samples by going to my website at http://www.wildgoose.co.uk/albums/wgs436cd-the-year-clock/

16/07/2020

Singer Cathy Alexander, guitar Colin Masson. Video made by Doug Bailey. One of my favourite tracks recorded over 30 years ago for an album no longer available - Friends of the Lion

04/07/2020

As some of you know I have been doing a lot to tidy up my recordings and archive them. In the process I have come across some very early recordings which were released on cassette in very small numbers.

A couple of days ago I came across the master of the first album which ever carried a WildGoose logo - Friends of the Lion. It was made to raise money for the White Lion Folk Club not long after it started it probably in the late 1980s. The songs on the album were by some of our regular 'floor singers' and I realise how lucky we were to have such talented members. The album contains recordings of the lovely Sarah Morgan RIP and others who I think may be dead now.

I say that because I have very carelessly lost the artwork and my own copy of the cassette so there is at least one singer who I cannot identify. Help would be gratefully received from any who can identify the singers. There is a recording of me on there too which I had forgotten and if I am not mistaken my mandolin and some of my guitar work is on there as well. The album contains one of my favourite versions of 'The Banks of Green Willow' from Kathy and Colin Masson. One of my favourite recorded tracks.

I have put a link here to my own Drobox folder where I have put an MP3 of all the tracks. This is a bit of an experiment to see how it works.

05/06/2020

Songs of Witchcraft and Magic available again.

The WildGoose CD ‘Songs of Witchcraft and Magic’ has been unavailable for some time but the recent availability of time has caused me to look again at this album and re-press a small quantity. The tracks on the CD are a fantastic collection chosen by Graham King during his custodianship of the Museum of Witchcraft in Boscastle. The other significant part of the CD is the 32 page booklet, written by Graham, which explains the significance of each song and also includes many pictures from the museum collection. The words of each song are included in the text.

The tracks included on the CD are:-

1. The Two Magicians Bob Fox & Stu Luckley
2. Broomfield Hill Ruth Barrett
3. The Bitter Withy Tom Brown
4. The Bells of Paradise Alva
5. Willie’s Lady Martin Carthy
6. Young Orphy Frankie Armstrong
7. Juniper Gentle & Rosemary Magpie Lane
8. The Bold Astrologer Keith Kendrick & Sylivia Needham
9. Thomas the Rhymer Ron Taylor & Jeff Gillett
10. The Brown Girl Gill Berry
11. The Laily Worm Craig, Morgan, Robson
12. The Selkie Hector Gilchrist & Liz
13. Alison Cross Malinky
14. Nostradamus Peter Bellamy
15. The Chase Song Graham & Kerriann

This is taken from the introduction to the CD:-

This collection of songs reflects the significant part that magic has played in our culture. They connect with myths and folktales that take us back to the distant past; but they also represent a living and evolving tradition. The magic of these songs still exerts power over us today.

They are a striking demonstration of the breadth and variety of magic – from the brutal revenge of The Brown Girl, through the bizarre transformations of The Two Magicians, to the haunting mysticism of The Bells of Paradise. Magic inhabits the borderland where the psychological and the spiritual meet. It can be severely pragmatic, but may also involve the mysterious depths of the mind and the liberation of the spirit.

The world of these songs – the world of magic – is not remote or rarefied. It is a vivid and compelling world of powerful emotions and intense experiences. A world not just of humans but of animals – seals, serpents, hares, horses, and even mackerel. A world of anger, cruelty, love, fear and courage. A world of brilliant colours – scarlet, green, purple. Of silver wands, velvet mantles and tinkling bells. A world of moonlight, blood and the roaring of the sea.

It is also a world of humour. It is surprising how many of these songs have a vein of dark humour running through them. Magic is obviously far too important to be taken entirely seriously. And both magic and humour centre on the unexpected. There is also clearly a connection between magic and art. Perhaps that is one of the reasons these songs have inspired such evocative and finely judged performances from the musicians who feature on this CD.

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