The Essay

The multi-award-winning folksinger, songwriter and storyteller, Karine Polwart, crafts an elegy in song for Al Beck, a local legend of rural East Lothian. The songs - were Al's choices for ‘Beckstival' a back garden celebration co-created in the depth of lockdown during June 2020, just weeks before Al's death from cancer. The music ranged from 60s psychedelia and pop classics to a traditional pipe march. The tender and witty email correspondence between the two gives voice to Al himself, and underpins Karine's week-long meditation on the role that song plays in each of our stories of living and dying - as lullaby and love letter, memory marker and memorial. In this first essay Karine describes making the offer of the private gig and being overwhelmed by Al's response, starting what would be remarkable collaboration for them both.Written and Presented by Karine Polwart Producer by Peter McManus Mixed by Sean Mullervy