Episodes

  • When a Christmas carol is also a folk ballad you know it's not going to be the usual angels/shepherds/kings extravaganza. This one doesn't disappoint, with a lovely garden, a jealous Joseph and a fruit-related miracle.

    But, as ever, all is not as it seems. Continuing the theme of weird Christianity from last month's episode, we get to explore medieval mystery plays and alternative gospels, and in 5th Century Syria we discover a scholarly and forthright Mary who doesn't need an angel to fight her battles for her.

    Have a wonderful Christmas!

    Music
    Verse from Jean Richieā€™s recording of The Cherry Tree Carol, Kentucky

    The Cherry Tree Carol, collected by Maud Karpeles and Patrick Shuldham-Shaw from John Partridge of Cinderford, Gloucestershire (Verse 1)

    Verse from a Jean Richie version, Kentucky, recorded by Joan Baez

    Instrumental: Version arranged by D Gilbert and W Sandys (19th Century)

    Benedicamus Domino (Plainsong, anon)

    The Cherry Tree Carol, version sung by Shirley Collins, 1959

    Orthodox Chant and Ney (flute) from FreeSounds

    References

    Royston, Pamela L (1982) "The Cherry-Tree Carol": Its sources and analogues https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/1762/15(1)%201-16.pdf?sequence=1

    https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/post-biblical-period/the-origins-of-the-cherry-tree-carol/

    https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/sugano-n-town-plays-banns-proclamation

    https://www.academia.edu/29076122/The_Origins_of_The_Cherry_Tree_Carol_How_a_Christmas_carol_links_the_modern_Middle_East_and_medieval_England

    https://dokumen.pub/mary-and-joseph-and-other-dialogue-poems-on-mary-9781593338398-2011007425-1593338392.html

    https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/thecherrytreecarol.html

    https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/cherry_tree_carol-notes.htm

    https://balladindex.org/Ballads/C054.html




  • This unusual song was a feature of the 60s and 70s folk revival - a real show stopper and something of a curiosity. But underneath it lies a thousand years of European folklore, and a further thousand years of vivid theology.

    So, my friends, we're going on a metaphysical journey to the underworld. Have you been charitable in your life? Did you give a cow to the poor, or 'hosen and shoon' to a beggar? Did you judge rightly? Have you been moving your neighbours' boundary stones? Better take stock, because the journey is long and dangerous.

    We're going over the thorny moor and the high Gjallarbrui; we're glimpsing heaven and hell and as for the final judgement, we've got a ringside seat. There are angels and ghosts and, surprisingly, gossip.

    This is a song that has to be experienced rather than studied, so follow me. We're going to have a weird time.

    Music

    Lā€™Homme Arme, 15th Century song by Johannes Regis

    Sainte Nicholas, 12th Century song by Godric of Finchale

    Marglit og Targjei Risvollo, traditional Norwegian song

    Draumkvedet, traditional Norwegian ballad

    Chiamando, unā€™astorella, 14th Century Italian song

    Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence is based on the Cherubic Hymn in the Orthodox Christian tradition and dates back to least 275 AD. The English translation from Greek was made by Gerard Moultie and set to a traditional French tune, Picardy.

    The Lyke Wake Dirge (traditional version)

    The Lyke Wake Dirge, tune by Harold Boulton, arranged by Malcolm Lawson

    The Lyke Wake Dirge, set to the 14th Century song Ad Mortem Festinamus

    References

    Mainly Norfolk: The Lyke Wake Dirge (Roud 8194; TYG 85) (mainlynorfolk.info)

    Draumkvedet in translation: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/draumkvedet-dream-poem.html

    Harald Foss - Draumkvedet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k7ne8YMIIs

    Gardiner, E. (2021). Visions of Heaven and Hell: A Monastic Literature. The Downside Review, 139(1), 24-43. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0012580621997061#body-ref-fn107-0012580621997061

    Isaacson, Lanae H. ā€œā€˜DraumkvƦdet:ā€™ The Structural Study of an Oral Variant.ā€ Jahrbuch FĆ¼r Volksliedforschung, vol. 25, 1980, pp. 51ā€“66. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/849056. Accessed 31 Oct. 2023

    Carlsen, C (2012) Old Norse Visions of the Afterlife (PhD Thesis, University of Oxford) https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9b3b8518-912e-4425-8748-dea135e695d0/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=THESIS02&type_of_work=Thesis

    John Aubreyā€™s Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme https://archive.org/details/remainesgentili01aubrgoog

    Danteā€™s Divine Comedy: https://www.owleyes.org/text/dantes-inferno/read/canto-13

    The Lyke-Wake Dirge: the revival of an Elizabethan song of the afterlife

    https://earlymusicmuse.com/lyke-wake-dirge/

    Hurdy Gurdy sample, battle sounds, stormy ambience and various owls from FreeSound

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  • The sheep are all sheared and weā€™re dancing and drinking in the warm June sun. Weā€™re transported back to simpler and more innocent times with more than a whiff of nostalgia for the loss of our connection to the land.

    And yet nothing is ever quite as straightforward as it seems, and this song is no exception. While delving into its theatrical past I once again get into that most thorny of issues ā€“ what is a folk song, and what should we do with them today?

    But mostly I have lots of fun singing about sheep.


    Music

    Instrumental version was collected by John Broadwood in c.1843

    The original stage version, The Sheepsheering Song: https://www.vwml.org/search?view=search&q=rn812

    Sheep-shearing song, collected by the Hammond brothers: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4434118

    Cecil Sharp ā€“ Folk Songs from Somerset: https://archive.org/details/FolkSongsFromSomerset/page/n3/mode/2up (my version takes a few liberties)

    The Horses Go Fast: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4434118?read-now=1&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents



    References

    Mainly Norfolk on The Sheep Shearing Song: https://mainlynorfolk.info/steeleye.span/songs/thesheepshearingsong.html

    Eric Saylor: Folksong revival in the early 20th Century https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-music/articles/folksong-revival-in-the-early-20th-century

    https://www.efdss.org/learning/resources/beginners-guides/35-english-folk-collectors/2446-efdss-cecil-sharp

    Shudofsky, M. M. (1943). Charles Johnson and Eighteenth-Century Drama. ELH, 10(2), 131ā€“158. https://doi.org/10.2307/2871662

    John Francmanis (2002) National Music to National Redeemer: The Consolidation of a 'Folk-Song' Construct in Edwardian England. Popular Music 21 (1) 1-25

    As always, Iā€™m grateful to the contributions of those who have posted on Mudcat over the years.





  • It's the first of May and we have a May Mini episode about the song Staines Morris, also known as the Maypole Dance. But did you know it started life in a puritan era farce? It was a joy to find out more about one of my favourite songs, and I hope you'll like it as much as I do.

    Thanks as always go to Mudcat Cafe and Mainly Norfolk websites without which I hardly know where I would start my research, and to Stones Barn who gave me the confidence to sing again.

    Other references:

    Stanes Morris in Playford (including the dance moves): https://playforddances.com/dances/stanes-morris/

    Acteon and Diana full text: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A34847.0001.001/1:6?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

    Popular Music of the Olden Time by William Chappell: https://archive.org/details/popularmusicofol01chapuoft/page/126/mode/2up

  • A chance meeting in a meadow, a false young man and a philosophical endingā€¦ itā€™s that folk favourite the Banks of the Sweet Primroses, beloved of collectors and Broadside publishers alike. In fact itā€™s part of the history of so many folk song collectors that weā€™ve taken the opportunity to follow one of them on their collecting expedition.

    But what really happened in that meadow and why did the young man get such a dressing down? Weā€™ve got all the theories and a few of our own, and even a potential Civil War origin for the song itself. And while weā€™re out walking in the morning fields thereā€™s a perfect opportunity for some gratuitous medieval weirdness.

    Oh yes, weā€™re back!

    Music

    The Banks of the Sweet Primroses (instrumental) was collected from W. Buckland of Buckinghamshire in 1943 by Francis Collinson and is found in the New Penguin Book of English Folk Song.

    The Banks of the Sweet Primeroses (sung, first verse only) was collected and arranged by Cecil Sharp. It appears in Cyril Winn, A Selection of Some Less Known Folk-Songs vol.2 pp.64-65

    Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy was sung for me by Phil Beer at Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2022.

    Maids Looke Well About You can be found here. The tune used is Cold and Raw

    Medicines To Cure The Deadly Sins can be found here. The tune used is The Agincourt Carol.

    The extract of Peggy Gordon sung by Isobel Anderson has been used with her permission. You can find her albums on bandcamp and theyā€™re highly recommended https://isobelanderson.bandcamp.com/

    References

    The Hammond Brothers:
    https://www.williambarnessociety.org.uk/the-hammond-brothers/


    https://www.efdss.org/learning/resources/beginners-guides/35-english-folk-collectors/2441-efdss-henry-and-robert-hammond

    Folk Songs from Dorset: https://archive.org/details/folksongsfromdor00hamm

    Purslow, Frank (1968) The Hammond Brothersā€™ Folk Song Collection. Folk Music Journal 1(4) 236-266

    Marina Russell on Tradfolk: https://tradfolk.co/tradfolk-101/female-source-singers/

    Vaughan Williams' collection of the song:

    http://blackmorehistory.blogspot.com/2008/08/vaughan-williams-and-essex.html

    http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2015/03/through-lent-with-vaughan-williams-32.html

    https://carolinedavison.substack.com/p/vaughan-williamss-journey-into-folk-9de

    An early broadside version of the Sweet Primroses from the Bodleian Library: http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/static/images/sheets/10000/06733.gif

    The definition of a broken token ballad was written by Chat GTP after some training, and read by Steven Shaw.

  • The Wexford Carol - also known as the Enniscorthy Carol - is said to be one of Europe's most ancient Christmas songs, but the truth is even more interesting. In this festive episode I take a look at the singing traditions that produced this lovely song, and put out a little theory of my own.

    Thank you for following the podcast during 2022, I'll keep making episodes while people keep listening.

    Have a wonderful Christmas!

    Music
    Wexford Carol (instrumental)
    All You Who Are To Mirth Inclined (recorder consort)
    Carol for St Sylvester - W. Devereaux
    O Viridissima Virga (extract) - Hildegard von Bingen
    The Wexford Carol


    References
    The video that started it all off - Aileen Lambert sings The Enniscorthy (Wexford) Carol in St Aiden's Cathedral, Enniscorthy: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=440082454271246

    Oldest version of The Sinners Redemption, from the Roxburghe Collection c. 1634 https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/30252/image

    Details of the Sheffield Carols tradition from Tradfolk: https://tradfolk.co/customs/customs-customs/sheffield-carols/

    List of the Kilmore Carols with original source books: https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Images/Wadding_Devereux/christmas_carols_of_waddinge_and.htm

    Copy of ā€œA Pious Garlandā€ http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/ebooks/177052/177052.pdf

    Facsimile of ā€œA Garland of Old Castleton Christmas Carolsā€ https://recordoffice.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/advent-calendar-day-6/

  • You don't find many traditional songs where the woman becomes pregnant out of wedlock and yet it all turns our wonderfully. But then Willy O' Winsbury is not your run of the mill folk song. Kingā€™s daughter Janet knew what she wantedā€¦ and it seems that her father wanted it too. Once heā€™d established that Willy wasnā€™t too foreign that is. He especially noticed his blond hair and milky white skinā€¦ oh dear.

    As well as picking up on some of these themes, the episode looks at the twists and turns of this songā€™s journey over time and the real events that may (or may not) have prompted it. Thereā€™s also a review of medieval virginity tests and musings on why a light scorching of the nether regions might actually be a good outcome, all things considered.

    Music

    Lā€™Homme ArmĆ© (Anon) Medieval popular song

    De moi doleros vos chant (Gillebert de Berneville) 13th Century song

    Lord Thomas of Winesberrie (Kinloch ā€“ Ancient Scottish Ballads ā€“ see below)

    Instrumental: Fair Margaret and Sweet William (ballad from the Percy/Parsons correspondence) 1770s ā€“ though the tune may be more recent

    Johnny Barbary (tune from Bertrand Harris Bronson ā€“ see below)

    Fause Foodrage

    Willie Oā€™Winsbury

    References

    Mainly Norfolk have an excellent overview of the song and its recorded versions: https://mainlynorfolk.info/anne.briggs/songs/willieowinsbury.html

    Kinloch, George Richie (1827) Ancient Scottish Ballads: https://archive.org/details/ancientscottishb00kin/page/90/mode/2up

    Karpeles, Maud (1934) Folk Songs From Newfoundland

    Fresno State Universityā€™s Traditional Ballad Index: https://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/C100.html

    Child, Francis James (between 1882-98) The English and Scottish Popular Ballads v2 (Child 100) https://archive.org/details/englishscottishp21chilrich/mode/2up

    Bronson B H (1976) The Singing Tradition of Childā€™s Popular Ballads https://archive.org/details/singingtradition0000bron/page/n5/mode/2up

    Bronson B H (1959) The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads

    http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT7/CP25(1)/CP25_1_194_8-10/IMG_0334.htm A legal document relating to the lease of property by Thomas, son of William de Winsbury

    Cartwright, Jane (2003) Virginity and Chastity Tests in Medieval Welsh Prose in Bernau A, Evans R and Salih S (2003) Medieval Virginities University of Toronto Press.

  • Many of us know The Keeper as a slightly odd - but fun - song from our school days. All together now:

    JACKIE BOY!

    MASTER!

    No need to shout! reprimands a weary teacher.

    But away from the sanitised and bowdlerised versions of our childhoods lurks a dark song of sexual pursuit. You didnā€™t really think all those does were female deer, did you?

    We talk about Camus, the band Andrew has been a part of for four decades, and explore its influences from the Northumbrian, Shetland and Irish traditions. The bandā€™s version of The Keeper combines different versions and makes some deliberate choices. They often run a competition for keen-eared listeners at their gigs, and if you listen to this episode you will get the answer, and if you then go to one of their gigs youā€™ll win a free CD!

    As we talk about this traditional song and its themes, we also chat about the time that Andrew asked Martin Carthy about guitar tunings in a folk club toilet, and a rare sighting of Steve Roud at St Neots' folk club (but did he join in with the chorus?)

    Andrew is a Northumbrian piper and we chat about the way that the lockdown brought together the national and international Northumbrian piping community, creating such a surge of competition entries that the queen of Northumbrian pipes Kathryn Tickell herself had to get involved.

    If youā€™ve ever wondered how this podcast got started, stay tuned because all is revealed! This leads to a chat about childrenā€™s songs on which Andrew ā€“ or Professor Burn as heā€™s also known ā€“ is an expert. Will you, like me, suddenly remember those childhood skipping songs? And, in a world of wonderful diversity, what new songs from around the world can we hear in todayā€™s playgrounds?

    Music


    The Keeper (trad) performed live by Camus at the Ely Folk Club. You can see a video of this recording here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uB0EVItk8w

    Roaring Boys (Brian Cleary) performed by Camus. You can see a video of this recording here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOxoCBwxaUQ

    Equinox Hornpipe (Andrew Burn) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Optcf45MD_Q

    There are also excerpts from two sets of tunes from Camusā€™ 2021 EP Time and Again:

    Da Day Dawn (trad), Christmas Day Iā€™ da Morning (trad), Da Alamoutie (trad). Three traditional Shetland tunes. Three Day Week/Alan Burnā€™s Memorial Jig (Andrew Burn).

    Time and Again can be found on various streaming services, please visit the bandā€™s website for all the links, and there's a preview of the forthcoming album here.

    Other links

    The Mudcat thread that Andrew references, featuring Malcolm Douglas, can be found here.

    The Opie archive can be found here.

    You can find out more about Professor Andrew Burnā€™s research interests here.

  • Our first ever live show was recorded on 4th September 2022 as part of the Folk at the Folk Festival. This is a field recording of an acoustic show in a beautiful but very echoey space with the bells of Gloucester Cathedral occasionally in the background, so the audio is a little different from usual.

    Features the following:

    Sainte Nicholas by Godric of Finchale (12th Century)Account of Eleanor and Rosamond from the French Chronical of London (14th Century)Fair Rosamond (trad - New England)Extract from The Knight's Tale by Geoffrey ChaucerExtract from The Lark Ascending by George MeredithThe Lark Ascending/Lark in the Morn (tune)Letter to The Times from G. Henry Latchmore concerning Cecil Sharp (1931)Version of Lark in the Morning collected by Cecil Sharp (1 verse)Version of Lark in the Morning collected by Vaughan WilliamsDoffin Mistress (trad)Extract from the diary of Samuel PepysBarbara Allan's Cruelty from the Roxburge Collection (1 verse)Barbary Ellen (compiled from two Appalachian versions)I Dreamed a Dream (Ashley Hutchings)

    Thanks go to my family, especially Steven Shaw, for listening to all of these songs and tunes endlessly over the summer.

  • I met up with Louisa on the final day of the festival. Her favourite song is the beautiful The Flower of Magherally, and she sang a wonderful verse with the unorthodox accompaniment of a drumming workshop.

  • We're in the bar at Shrewsbury Folk Festival. Katie Whitehouse talks about running a management agency for folk artists, and why Reg Meuross's song England Green and England Grey will be a folk song for future generations.

  • In the first of a mini-series of short interviews at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Iain talks about his favourite folk song Flower of Scotland and sings a very beautiful version.

  • Put on your Sunday best, we're going to the fair!

    A handsome young man, a moonlight tryst and a young woman is left to bear the consequences. It's an age old tale, but why did it become so popular in the early 19th Century? We might have the answer.

    We're also looking more widely at English fairs through the ages; the fun, strange and sometimes scandalous things that happen there, and the songs people sing about them.

    This episode features bit of mild swearing thanks to our cheeky friend Samuel Pepys.

    Music
    Brimbledon Fair is from Folk Songs From Somerset by Cecil Sharp
    Selby Fair words are from the Bodleian Library Ballad Index, but I made the tune up
    The Ewan MacColl version of Bartholomew Fair can be found here
    The full words of Jockey to the Fair can be found at the Bodleian Library here
    The tune behind the Thomas Hardy extract is Brigg Fair
    The full version of Ramble Away is the one I learned from Shirley Collins' recorded version
    You can find the full lyrics of Answer to Young Ramble Away (if you really want to!) here and the tune is a Derrydown Fair variant that I found on Mudcat.

    References
    There are some great discussions about Ramble Away on the Mudcat Cafe, and the Mainly Norfolk website has a very informative summary about the song.

    The episode features extracts from A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain 1724-1727 by Daniel Defoe (which also features on the Mainly Norfolk website), from the Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy and the diaries of Samuel Pepys.

    Vic Gammon (1982) Song, Sex and Society in England 1600-1850 Folk Music Journal 4 (3) 208-245 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4522105


  • It's another epic ballad this week as I catch up with Franz Andres Morrissey to learn more about this song, that was originally collected in Scotland. We also chat about the ups and downs of the Swiss folk scene, have a good old gossip about Robert Burns, and I learn where Martin Carthy gets his tunes from.

    Brown Adam, or Broun Edom, is a rare song with some old, even pre-Christian, themes and motifs. It unfolds in true storytelling style and includes such colourful characters as a False Knight, a faithful Lady, and Brown Adam himself, a magnificent young Smith. Shenanigans ensue and there's quite a bit of gratuitous bird shooting before the story moves on. Who needs Netflix when you've got songs like this?

    Franz is an academic (though he carries it lightly) and an experienced folk musician, and we talk about his book, Language, the Singer and the Song. We also discuss his play which tells the stories of slavery through words and song.

    His band Taradiddle (https://taradiddle.ch) has just recorded an album that will be out soon, and there's a rumour that there'll be tour dates announced shortly.

    You can hear more of Franz's music on Soundcloud.

    Music
    Brown Adam was performed and produced by by Franz. The episode also features three live recordings by Taradiddle: Benediction Song, Who's The Fool Now, Hey Ca' Thro and Leaving Limerick. You can find more here. There's also a snippet of the song that Franz and I recorded together remotely, Now Westlin Winds.

    Acknowledgements
    Franz and I met through The Barnstoners, a self-organising group of musicians who have all been to the fabulous Stones Barn run by Maddy Prior and Rose-Ellen Kemp up in Cumbria. It goes without saying that we're big fans of theirs and recommend them highly.

  • Bessy (or Betsy) Bell and Mary Gray were two bonny lasses, and they may even have been historical figures, but the plague came from yon borough town and slew them both regardless. And thus was created a most romantic and picturesque place of pilgrimage.

    Bessy Bell is also a tune and we take a look at it's surprising history, from being scrawled in a book of sermons to the part it played in the heyday of a theatrical phenomenon.

    The tune we sing today isn't the traditional one; a quite different tune accompanied this song for a couple of hundred years. And yet there's a far better tune lurking in an old broadside, and I'm giving it a world premiere as the tune for Bessy Bell and Mary Gray.

    Music
    Instrumental version of Betsy Bell and Mary Gray (trad)
    Betsy Bell and Mary Gray in the style of Maddy Prior and Martin Carthy
    Harp improvisation
    Bessy Bell tune (trad)
    Go To Bed Sweet Muse (Robert Jones)
    Bessy Bell to the tune of A Health To Betty (trad)
    Beggar's Opera Overture (Johann Christoph Pepusch)
    'Twas Within A Furlong of Edinburgh Town (tune from Playford but sometimes attributed to Henry Purcell; words quite possibly by D'Urfey, arranged by Jayne Morrison)
    Betsy Bell and Mary Gray - full song (trad)

    FX from Freesound contributors djangoaltona, inchadney, boodabomb and bruno-auzet

    References

    Francis James Child (1904) English and Scottish Popular Ballads https://archive.org/details/englishscottishp1904chil/page/n13/mode/1up

    Letter written by Major Barry: http://journals.socantscot.org/index.php/arch-scot/article/view/168/166

    Highland Notebook, Robert Carruthers: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CZsHAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

    Bertrand Harris Bronson (1976) The Singing Tradition of Childā€™s Popular Ballads: https://archive.org/details/singingtradition0000bron

    Fourpence Halfpenny farthing, from A Pepysian garland : black-letter broadside ballads of the years 1595-1639, chiefly from the collection of Samuel Pepys (1922) https://archive.org/details/pepysiangarlandb00pepyuoft/page/322/mode/2up

    Bessy Bell from Orpheus Caledonius https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/91483447

    Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes: https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000opie/page/n9/mode/2up

    Julie Bumpus (2010) BALLAD OPERA IN ENGLAND: ITS SONGS, CONTRIBUTORS, AND INFLUENCE: https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_etd/send_file/send?accession=bgsu1276055885&disposition=inline

    Miscellaneous works of that celebrated Scotch poet Allan Ramsay: https://deriv.nls.uk/dcn23/1056/7480/105674805.23.pdf

    Edinburgh Literary Journal, 1829 https://www.proquest.com/openview/f7929bf2f574263f/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2773