A Folk Song A Day

Another of the Sheffield set, but as Jon says, “This one is normally sung solo, but can work as a group song.” The village carol site adds some more specific instructions about where and when to join in, link here. The title I guess must refer to the village in the Sheffield area and I can’t seem to trawl up an author or anymore on it, so please feel free to add whatever detail you can. I must say I’ve no recollection of ever hearing this, so am also curious to know, is this heard outside the Sheffield area at all? By the way it’s the solstice today, or at least according to the Gregorian calendar. From here the nights start getting longer, so best wishes to you all at the turning point of the year.
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Our third and final While Shepherd’s Watched… is the Lyngham variant and it’s nice to hear Jon tackle this differently, solo with concertina. According to Wiki this is the popular tune in Cornwall (although I’d welcome comment on that) and is more commonly associated with the hymn Oh For A Thousand Tongues To Sing.  That tune was apparently written by Thomas Jarman circa 1803.

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Another of the popular Sheffield selection and one form across the Atlantic it seems form the pen Of Charles Lewis Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire born in 1838. He was fairly prolific, although this is from quite late in his life, published in 1916, four years before his death. Should you wish to know more about the right reverend, link here.

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I love the singing and the arrangement of this, but was totally thrown by the lyrics and have never heard this version before. It seems it’s probably a fairly modern rewrite of what is a very old song that originally has more to do with the wassailing and door to door carolling of old and is missing its figgy pudding and the threat that, “we won’t go until we get some.”  As such, the original is one of the few carols where the authorship is not actually known and it seems not to be included in the early carol books either. It’s also unusual in containing the wish for a happy New Year, retained here in an otherwise very religious makeover. Jon explains that as far as he knows, “This is only sung in the Sheffield area and usually at or towards the end of a big group sing.” The chorus certainly works this one up a treat and you can imagine a packed pub bellowing along. I quizzed Jon for more details and he explained, “ It’s from Ian Russell’s book called The Sheffield Book Of Village Carols and is associated with the Mount family of Worrall, with several versions sung in south Yorkshire and at least one variant in Somerset.”

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Jon brackets the next three day’s songs as being, “More biggies from the Sheffield tradition.” The title of this is most curious and I wonder if it refers to the tune, although the village carol site has it listed by the same name here. I find it curious as the titular mount doesn’t feature in the lyrics and seems to relate to the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac and the subsequent building of a temple by Solomon. It seems to be holy both in Judaism and Islam. Maybe I’m missing something but I don’t see its relevance  to Jesus. This Wiki page made nothing clearer, so perhaps those with more theological zeal than I can cast light in dark corners, or is this just another Spout Cottage as it does appear on the carols’ site.

You can buy the December digital album now from all good download stores.