A Folk Song A Day

Jon notes his source here as “From Frankie Armstrong. This is sort of Barbara Allen but with a bit more venom.” A bit of righteous indignation indeed. Mainly Norfolk has this covered and also has Martin Carthy and Steeleye’s versions. The suggestion is that she’s tanned from working the fields and therefore not a fair maid, although matey boy seems to get his comeuppance for the rejection. It’s #295 in Child’s collection and there are at least two versions of it. You can Wiki here and if you follow the link through explore more about the Child Ballads should time allow and the fancy take you.

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Another from Hedonism and here slowed right down, but Jon refers back to Bellowhead saying, “Again I learnt this for Pete’s arrangement. Here I follow May Bradley’s melody.” This is Child Ballad #78 and you can Mudcat a little here you’ll see that it’s here known by the alternate title The Unquiet Grave. This link gives various lyical variations, which I believe are form Childs collection. The Mudcat suggestion that this may have originally been a much longer ballad is intriguing and certainly seems possible. In truth we’ll never know for sure but if anyone has more on this rather morbid tale based on the idea that excessive mourning disturbs the deceased, please add below. You might also like a look at May Bradley here.

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Another amusing little aside from Jon as he says, “From the phenomenal Tim Eriksen. I was singing this as a sound check song for a while but Mark Whyles [Bellowhead’s manager and sound man – Ed.] told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was to desist.” I know Mark pretty well so will have to ask him what his objection was. Mr. Eriksen seems a bit of a character and if his name is new to you, this link will help. This is clearly an American song from the Warner collection.

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I’m amused by Jon’s  Spiers and Boden derived confession here, “From the Copper family come this strange and lyrically somewhat questionable number, but one hell of a tune. John and I keep trying to do it as a two-parter but we can never remember what order the verses go in (not an issue if you’re singing solo fortunately.)” The first port of call is therefore the Coppers’ site here for the song as they have it. Mainly Norfolk also cover Steeleye’s version. After yesterday, Mudcat thankfully avoids controversy, although there is a quest for the sense of a couple of the lines and a little Micky taking in that regard.

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I thought I really should draw your attention to Colin Irwin’s ‘In Depth’ profile of Peter Bellamy, which has just gone up at propermusic.com. Many of you will be familiar with Colin as one of the longest serving and wisest critics working on the folk scene. It something he’s been doing since his Melody Maker days back in the 70s and 80s. Bellamy is a central pillar of this site, both as an inspiration to Jon and also for the music he has contributed, whether taken from the tradition, self composed or interpretations such as his settings of Kipling’s poems. Colin has the first hand knowledge to bring Peter to life using this summer’s performance of  The Transports as his starting point, catching the wave of Bellamy appreciation that seems to be growing all the time. If you’ve not heard The Transports, I can only add my opinion that it is a masterpiece, but encourage you to read Colin’s article as he knows far more about the subject than I ever can. Follow the link above or click on Peter’s picture to go straight there. Whether you count yourself as a fan or not, or simply don’t know the piece is essential extra reading, so that’ll be your homework assignment for the weekend.