A Folk Song A Day

Jon confesses, “I forgot to do this in the autumn and there’s no sensible place to put it now, but it’s such a great chorus song it seems a shame to miss it off. So here it is.”

According to Bert Lloyd’s notes at Mainly Norfolk this actually two songs welded together celebrating both sheep shearing and the harvest. The latter naturally falls into autumn, but the sheep shearing of the title is more early summer to prevent the animals overheating during the hottest months. Sheep would have naturally moulted, but breeding to develop the yield of wool now means that human intervention is needed. So strictly speaking this could probably have gone into June on the basis of title, but the harvest bolt doesn’t really work there. Anyway, timely or not it’s a rousing chorus and I like the suggestion that the verses were repeated until all glasses (or tankards) were charged. I’m not sure about the suggested pagan link other than to say I would be more surprised if harvest festivals were proved to be a recent invention.

Jon Wishes “Happy Easter everyone,” as do I. He continues, “I’m not 100% sure that this is the right day for this song but it seems appropriate anyway. We did a nice version with Eliza and the Ratcatchers, possibly on YouTube somewhere.”

Well this does seem to entirely appropriate today as far as I can tell and this link will tell you more. It seems that the “Pace” of the title is from Pacha, the Latin for Easter. You’ll find the Watersons version of this song, which I guess is essentially the same as Jon’s version at Mainly Norfolk and this Mudcat link will also give you an extra verse or two.  As for The Ratcatchers’ performance, I’ve immediately drawn a blank, but being very conscious of the time theft aspect of YouTube have ducked out. I like the Mummers’ aspect of this, which probably also compensates for the lack of St. George action yesterday.

Jon attributes this as “From the extraordinary singing of Paul Brady. What a voice. Dan Plews introduced me to this (and to Brady).”

Paul Brady is perhaps better known these days as a songwriter, having made the leap from interpreter to composer at the very start of the 80s. It’s also fair to say he’s a bit of a songwriters’ songwriter and Paul’s work is acclaimed by many of his peers. He’s also a regular on the Transatlantic Sessions, which I don’t watch religiously, but always seem to enjoy when I do. As for this song, it strikes me it’s not so much about ‘rambling’ as full scale emigrating, although I suppose the sense of following twists and turns  is appropriate to seeking one’s fortune. The other thing that concerns is that this is all very open ended, with no sense of how long the lass is expected to endure alone. Still, I suppose it’s all well intended and no one was murdered, but all the same, I wonder how many parted to seek their fortune and lived up to the promise to return.

By the way it’s St. George’s Day and Jon’s not prepared anything for it for AFSAD, but then it’s hard enough delivering all of these songs without  worrying about every anniversary and this year it also coinbcides with Easter. We do have something for St. George’s Day by Waterson:Carthy here for you, following on from yesterday’s Bella Hardy song as part of our Easter Weekend over at Properganda. I’ve just read an interesting comment suggesting that St. George’s day tends to be overlooked because of its close proximity to May Day, which became the natural focus of English celebrations. That also got me wondering about whether saints are more of a Catholic thing and perhaps this also played a part in downgrading the dragon slayer. It’s pure speculation (mixed with curiosity) on my part, so I’d appreciate any informed comments below.

Jon says, “There’s something very convincing about this song, regardless of how far Lloyd re-wrote it. The mix of industrial and rural imagery is very evocative and quite compelling. I know it from Anne Briggs.”

I’ll agree with that with slight reservations. It’s also interesting to note that Bert’s re-write of this is both extensive and has also been acknowledged for some time. Erring on the generous side, he was economical with his source information and as this Mudcat thread makes clear we know the original author as a Robert Anderson. You can read the original text, complete with its regional inflexion. Note it originally had a totally rural setting and the new recruit was a farm worker rather than miner­, which I think leads to a couple of awkward little moments in the lyrics. It’s also very likely that this is a Bert Lloyd tune. I should perhaps make clear that I’m one of the people who have no issues with Bert’s ‘editing’ and ‘adapting.’ I doubt that the true ‘blood-line’ of a song was ever much of a concern with singers until the collectors set about the work of preserving the folk-heritage. The need for authenticity simply came with that as part of the package. In this case the original survives quite independently anyway. Either way, the story works well and I wonder how often this scenario has been played out with the distinct possibility that it will all unravel on the battlefield.

Jon calls this one “Probably the only song in the revival repertoire written in the Locrian mode. Amazingly it doesn’t sound that strange and lyrically it’s a tour de force by Kirkpatrick senior.”

John Kirkpatrick that is, who has recorded his own version, as has Martin Carthy and you can read more about those at Mainly Norfolk. I don’t have an awful lot more to add and am not scholarly enough to comment on the Locrian mode or scale, although you may like to look at this and this. I’m sure it will make more sense to the singers amongst you, but it gives a slightly odd feel to the tune, which seems to suit the matter-of-factness of it all. For some reason I’m getting a ‘musical’ film feeling from it with visions of a sinister Dick Van Dyke flickering in my mind. I’m not sure why… It may just be the peculiar sort of day I’m having.