A Folk Song A Day

Song two is called The Farmer’s Toast. At some point Jon developed a veggie friendly version…

“For a while I changed ‘I eat my own ham, my own chicken and lamb / I shear my own fleece and I wear it’ to ‘I make my own stew, lentil bake and tofu / I knit my own hemp and I wear it’. But not anymore.”

It seems this is also known as God Speed The Plough and you can explore various Mud Cat threads here. But  just to add to the layers Spiers & Boden recorded a tune called Speed The Plough on their Vagabonds CD.

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OK folks, this is where we started and for the time being I will be rescheduling the streams, but not the podcasts. I won’t be adding to or changing or editing my introductions (unless anything really vital crops up) and the original comments will come over with the day’s post. I know not everyone has been with us from the start, so here will be a chance to catch up with what you missed. For those that have seen it all before, I hope a refresher might prove enjoyable given the extraordinary journey we have been on with Jon as our guide. It will be interesting to see if the original comments or just the chance to hear the songs again provoke you to continue the discussions. I’d love to see the comments build now that we’ve had a chance to develop our own knowledge and will join in myself where appropriate. I think some of you have become bolder, adding your own links to alternate versions and helping to build the stories of the songs for which, I for one am very grateful.

Anyway, I’d ask you all to stay in the loop as if we can work out a way to get another year’s worth going, it will be announced here first.

Reading this first introduction, I’m immediately struck by my naive promise of “links to find out more about each song.” This project would become much more than that. I am on the right lines, however, in identifying that this would not be straightforward. Anyway, without further ado, here it is…

The first of the songs goes up today The Larks They Sang Melodious and just to settle any dispute, the 24^th is midsummer’s day, rather than the solstice (or longest day) based on the Roman calendar and because it falls six months before Christmas.

We start things off in fine style and summer mood with bird song to wake us and a well known song (or possibly not), as Jon explains… “This is one of those songs you’re not supposed to sing because everyone sings it. Only problem is nobody does because you’re not supposed to. If you follow me. Fortunately it is still sung with great gusto on Forest School Camps which is where I learnt it. I think this may have been the song that first switched me on to English traditional singing.”

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You can buy the digital album now from the following stores:

One of the challenges we’ve set is to bring you links to find out more about each song. This gets complicated as many of the songs are known by more than one title. So you can link to the Mudcat folk forum here, where you’ll find this song is known as Pleasant And Delightful. I’ve  read elsewhere that it is sometimes called The Dawning Of The Day, but then so is another completely different song … You get the picture.

Jon says “So here we are. Song 365. It’s possibly not the most appropriate farewell song given the sting in the tale. Over the years there were a fair few regulars who got themselves barred from the Half Moon – I always think of them when I sing this! But it is goodbye from me. It’s been a real pleasure singing to you all this last year. I’d like to thank a few people who have been doing the really hard work – Andy Bell who has done the bulk of the recording and mixing, Ben Bowdler at Proper who has done all the technical web stuff, including manually uploading each individual podcast. A particular thanks to Simon Holland who has been your host on this site – writing introductions to all the songs and keeping an eye on all your comments. It’s been great for me to read Simon’s intros every day and then read all the various ensuing postings. I’d like to thank Steve Kersley at Proper who encouraged me to make what was a fairly mad idea, into a reality. I’d like to thank EFDSS for all their support and encouragement. Lastly but most importantly I’d like to thank you all for listening and commenting on the site. I’m hoping that A Folk Song A Day may continue in some form so I look forward to joining in the conversation with someone else doing the singing! See you around. All the best, Jon.”

I’ll add my thanks to Jon for an inspiring and extraordinary journey into the world of folk song. This is a massive achievement that I feel privileged and proud to have been a part of. I’ve certainly learnt a lot, but there’s so much more to discover. Thanks to everyone for your contributions, opinions, comments and for putting me right where needed. For once I genuinely feel at a loss for words, although this bittersweet song seems a perfect end. I must just give you a final link to Mainly Norfolk and offer special thanks to Reinhard in particular, for his outstanding resource that has more often than not been my first call in researching these songs. I’ll see some of you at Cecil Sharp House and promise to enjoy the evening on behalf of those that can’t make it. Thank you all, Simon.

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We learnt this morning of the death of the legendary Mike Waterson and everyone conected with AFSAD is saddened by the news. We felt it fitting to post a small tribute to Mike, who has appeared as an inspiration throughout this project. We know that Mike was very aware of his role in maintaining the tradition and thrilled that a younger generation are prepared to carry it on.  Here’s Mike performing Bright Phoebus with Lal and as further evidence of his role as an inspiration, a video from YouTube of the recent Young Folk Award finalist Lucy Ward singing A Stitch In Time, which you’ll find on her brand new album Adephi Has To Fly.

Mike & Lal Waterson – Bright Phoebus

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Jon recalls “This I learnt for a tribute concert to Fred Jordan at Cecil Sharp House shortly after his death. I missed out on hearing him sing sadly, but love his voice. This narrowly lost out to Larks They Sang Melodious for Midsummer’s day last year and then I thought about putting it last, but figured a farewell song might be more appropriate…”

One from the Coppers, although widely collected across Southern England. It strikes me as mildly curious in and I find it hard to follow the sense of it. I was pleased therefore to find I’m not alone in that and there is some debate about the last verse being a bolt on. It seems to be remarkably robust in all other ways, however, with very few lyrical variations. It seems to start off jolly enough with the spying of a pretty young maid, but then she seems to be unhappy and less than chuffed with the attention. But quite why she blames him for her unhappiness isn’t clear and despite her intention to wallow in her misery it ends up being a “bright sunshiney day.”  Am I missing something, or is the suggestion that this is an incomplete broken-token ballad, as you’ll see at Mainly Norfolk, on the mark.

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