It’s that time of month again when we ask you to vote for your favourite track of the past month, the winner of which we will then leave up on this site as a representation for August.
We’ve selected the seven most popular songs for you to vote on below (based on page views), however if you think there’s an obvious contender for Top August Song that we’ve missed out then let us know in the comments.
[poll id="3"]
Voting has now closed, you can listen to the August winner below (follow the link to read the full post, watch the video and hear a bonus track).
Bold Sir Rylas (read full post here).
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You can buy the August digital album now from all good download stores:
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I listened to an earlier (original?) version of Nostradamus on YouTube, and thought it was terrible, so it gets my vote here as Jon’s version is electrifying! The Oggie Man runs it a close second though.
The Dream of Napoleon was my favourite of the August songs
My vote would have to go to “Ca the Ewes” – but it’s not on the list!! Why on earth not?
‘(Now) Westlin Winds’ is my choice. However, if ‘Canadee-i-o’ was on the list I’d probably have voted for it…..after watching that video I couldn’t get the song out of my head for at least a week!
It’s just occurred to me that it’s a very difficult thing to choose a top song, given that there’s inevitably a relationship between the song itself and Jon’s performance of it. For example, I think ‘Bold Sir Rylas’ is brilliantly performed by Jon, and I also love his version of ‘Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy’ – not least because I can’t resist his sparingly used and very tasty guitar accompaniment. But in the end ‘(Now) Westlin Winds’ gets my vote simply because the song itself is so exquisite – even though I like Dick Gaughan’s recording of it best. I’m not complaining, mind. I’ve enjoyed everything so far and choosing a favourite song each month is a great dilemma to be in.
I voted for The Oggie Man, but if it had been on the list I think I would have had to go with Country Life – been humming it everywhere I go since I heard it!
I have voted for Bold Sir Rylas purely because I think it evokes such vivid pictures for me, it’s a great song. If it had been on the list I would have voted for Jordan. I love the song. The musical accompanied version on the Burlesque Album and the version I saw you do in St Ives at the opener of the St Ives music festival (that’s where I first saw you all) is great fun but I love the unaccompanied version that Jon does on folk-song-a-day. It gets my unofficial vote. ~:-)
Yarmouth Town – just for the memory of Bellamy singing it – one of my first folk experiences.
Bold Sir Rylas is one of the best songs I have ever heard. It is just so singable.
I voted for (Now) Westlin Winds, which is truly lovely, but I’d have been even happier to vote for The Holmfirth Anthem. It was a real (and very agreeable) earworm for several days!
After a little bit of angst, I have voted for Oggie man on account of Jon’s rendition, Cyril Tawney’s own notes, and because it was new to me. So pleased to see Adieu, Sweet Lovely Nancy take a hike up the poll since I last looked, as this was my other choice. I decided to leave that as one of Phil Beer’s standards in my mind. So hard to choose though!
Thanks to all voters and posters so far. Just a note in case it isn’t obvious, the songs that make the poll are the ones that attract the most comments as we go through the month. So if you really like something and want to see it make the poll it’s probably worth commenting, even if only to say “I really like this,” or, “thanks Jon.” Obviously, if you can make a point or ask a question that stimulates others to post, then you can craftily get them to do the job for you.
Difficult to choose from that list, but I “plumped” for Nostradamus in the end because of the memories it conjured up for me.
I voted for Oggie Man, but I’d also have voted for the Dream of Napoleon, or Rolling Down to Old Maui (I like his version better than Stan’s. Nuff said.)
“The Land” was the best thing I have heard for a long while.
It gets my vote tenfold.
I voted for Bold Sir Rylas (and learnt it from AFSAD)- it is great fun to sing but at “natural” speed I discovered that even by the last verse, less than a quarter of the congregation were managing a quarter of the chorus lines. So maybe it needs less self indulgence by the singer to make it a communal song – or perhaps needs singing more often!
I stopped believing in Nostradamus when I was 16, so I can’t vote for that, and I really disliked what Jon did to Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy (although it inspired me to do something different to it at the next singaround I went to, so it didn’t go to waste!)
As for the rest, it’s really hard to choose this month. Greenland Whale Fisheries is a great traditional song and Oggie Man’s a wonderful contemporary song. Jon’s version of Lord Randall is a terrific piece of work, bringing new life to a song that most of us treat as a joke, and his Westlin Winds is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard.
So I’m voting for Bold Sir Rylas.