A Folk Song A Day

I’m most intrigued by this one and Jon recalls, “Eliza taught me this on a long car journey whilst on tour somewhere. I think she learnt it from Jill Pidd. Although the range isn’t too huge, you need to be able to sing it pretty full on at both ends, so can be a toughy if you pitch it wrong.”

What has my curiosity is that this seems to have some extras when compared with the various versions transcribed on Mainly Norfolk. I detect a couple of verses floating in from elsewhere  – Farewell Lovely Nancy in fact – albeit slightly scrambled. It intrigues me further as the suggestion is made that Vaughan Williams was rather careless with this one and possibly lost some of the verses. I guess this is someone’s attempt to plug the gap. Given that this variant of a fairly common theme seems to have only cropped up once, it seems unfortunate that better care wasn’t taken with it. But then again I suppose that’s the folk process in action once more with the flipside of the additional verses.

Jon calls this “One of my favourite songs. I came across this in Roy Palmer’s Vaughan-Williams book. It didn’t have a tune and it wasn’t my book so I decided to sing the words into my phone. I improvised a tune and it more or less stuck.”

Well as Ashley Hutchings with Shirley Collins singing seems to be the only musician other that Spiers & Boden ( and now Jon solo) to have had a bash at reviving this, that seems fair enough. I like the notes at Mainly Norfolk, with the suggestions of the song’s and more importantly the Horn Fair’s origins. Tsk! Despite my new found knowledge about Turkey Rhubarb, I couldn’t help but feel that we have hit a little seam of song titles with words that don’t naturally belong together. I am sure there must be a grammatical term for that, I just don’t know what it is.

Jon simply says, “Was he really called Dan, or did it just rhyme, that’s what I’d like to know?”

I’ve not much to add to this short and sweet little number, except Tim and Maddy’s notes are on Mainly Norfolk. They are a little misleading as Turkey Rhubarb is actually something different from the common variety that we are familiar with in tarts and other puddings. It’s a powerful medicinal plant, much prized in Chinese medicine, although its dual use as a treatment for constipation and diarrhoea seems most curious. It’s all in the dosage apparently, although if it’s the latter you’re down with , you just have to hope they get it right.

Jon says, “I learnt this one from Bert Lloyd but the best version I’ve heard is Swarb and Carthy on the Carthy Chronicles. Mighty stuff.”

Martin is quick to credit Bert for this and the good work that he did rescuing it and similar ballads from obscurity. Mainly Norfolk offers the insight of their respective sleeve notes and it’s also interesting to see Bert claim to have “dusted it off a bit.” Given his reputation, that could mean all manner of intervention, but this works well, so it’s perhaps churlish to suggest any tampering. I’m also interested by Berts notes about the provenance of the name and the legendary character passing through history. I like Bert Jansch’s version too and may like a gander down this Mudcat thread for an expanded version with some verses added that he recorded with Pentangle. But it’s probably appropriate to hear the fiddle rather than guitar as the instrument on this. You may also like a quick contrast and compare with Glenkindie on Mudcat that I note is Child #67. I can’t help but feel that with the help of Spec Savers another tragedy could have been avoided, but you can’t help but marvel at the lusty progress of events.

Jon wishes all a “Happy St Patricks day!” adding, appropriately enough, “I got this from Planxty. There’s also a nice version available on iTunes sung by Marguerite Hutchinson (Magpie Lane) with yours truly on Uileann pipes. I sold the pipes shortly afterwards so it may be the only surviving evidence of that particular obsession.”

Another from that first Planxty album and lament of the homesick émigré.  One of the great displacements of a population is at the heart of this. It’s a subject I might like to get my teeth into, but confess to being largely ignorant of the facts. As such I’ll leave you to Mudcat away, starting here, where you’ll also note the obvious Canadian variant of this. Perhaps it’s best to put the cork back into the political bottle and gargle a Guinness or three to get on the celebratory side instead. Still, I find this rather moving, especially the sentiment at the end. Stirring stuff.