A Folk Song A Day

Jon says, “This is also from Anne Briggs, although Eliza used to sing this a lot solo at Ratcatchers gigs and we’d listen from the wings. Apparently the original was from a male perspective but I think it works better with a girl narrator so I’m sticking with that.”

I can add that this is definitely Briggs and for a while it was even incorrectly attributed as her composition, although that was as a result of Chinese whispers rather than any attempt to take the credit on her part. You can read the full Mudcat thread here should you so wish. A.L. Lloyd’s notes on A Collection CD make it plain that it was collected and published in Blackwood’s Magazine early as 1821 by a Thomas Doubleday. He in turn got it from a Newcastle street singer. The melody is given as My Love Is Newly Listed. The Mudcat thread above also offers the possibility that Doubleday wrote the words himself and somewhere in there is a reprint of a section of the tune, which I am not clever enough to tell you anything about – it’s all dots and squiggles to me. I did include this in my Alternative Advent Calendar, however, being much taken with it. Given the apparent gender transfer it’s interesting that Jon hasn’t swapped it back again. Although I agree with him that it somehow suits a female perspective.
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With this one Jon has confused me somewhat, he says “It’s an unusual melody this with a sharpened fourth that I learnt from Anne Briggs.”

I can add that I haven’t been able to track down an Anne Briggs version of this at all, even under a couple of other possible title variants. Reinhard at Mainly Norfolk is also doubtful, so if anyone knows different please enlighten us. I’ve asked Jon and he’s now unsure himself. Anyway, June Tabor has certainly recorded it and Mainly Norfolk has that covered. It comes from Sarah Mackem and it’s interesting to see this described at MN as her “greatest contribution to the annals of folk song.” I say that because there’s a suggestion on this Mudcat thread that she composed this. There are possibly similar songs or simple variations of this called The Forsaken Mother And Child, The Cruel Father, It Was On A Winter’s Morning and The Snowstorm. The theme of the women left literally holding the baby is fairly common and the inference is that there is a gulf in class, probably between a family heir and a servant girl. The former takes the money or is despatched off by the wealthy parents rather than doing his duty, so hence the warning to others at the end that is once again a fairly common folk-lesson device. I think a similar plotline was used in an episode of  Lark Rise… or some such BBC costme drama. Still, wherever Jon got it from (and let’s face I can hardly remember what day it is so no criticism is implied), it’s a haunting little number, sharply economical in the telling of a tragedy.
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Jon says, “I know this from Ian Giles and Dan Plews, but I’ve learnt Lucy’s version here. Lucy and Jonny were brilliant supporting Bellowhead on the November tour – they’re definitely going places, so do check them out.”

Simon adds – It’s of course Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell that Jon is referring to, who met at Newcastle Uni and have since been attracting considerable praise for their understated but lovely debut CD, The North Farm Session and it’s indeed Lucy, once more, singing with Jon on this lament. There has been some serious debate as to the songs origins and it is often credited as being from Nova Scotia, or as being a Canadian folk song. A broadside print, however, apparently dates this to 1820s and New York and things are further confused as a version also became a popular music hall number in North America in the 1880s. Both Scots and Irish origin have also been suggested, although no record exists before the revival in the 60s. In truth, the lovelorn sentiment is both fairly common and universal and floats through many songs, The Water Is Wide for example. Should you wish more detail, I’ve condensed the above from this Mudcat thread. I must say I like the pace of this, it makes it all the more heart rending.
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From the same pen as Sea Coal and Jon says, “A lovely one from Graeme Miles. I love how it’s so sentimental throughout then gets really bleak at the end.” This was made popular by Martyn Wyndham-Read and is covered by Mainly Norfolk. It’s also on Mudcat where there is the suggestion that this is a heavily edited version of an epic song of about 45 (!!?) verses. I’ve also read elsewhere that Graeme wanted to write about Australia as he regarded it as exotic and mysterious, but then got a letter from an old friend who had moved to New Zealand and this was the result.
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Jon confesses, “I think this is the only pirate song I know (apart from When I Was One). Shameful. I’ll try and learn The Flying Cloud I reckon.” Well it may be his only one, but it’s a good one and some of you will know the version that appears on Vagabond. It also seems to be known as Captain Ward And The Rainbow and is a close relative Child Ballad #287. Jon refers to Bellamy in the brief Vagabond note and that in turn led me to Mainly Norfolk, where Bellamy called the song Ward The Pirate. I’ve found that on Fellside’s Fair Annie double CD set on which Bellamy accompanies himself on guitar, according to the notes in “a bottleneck blues tuning.” The notes also repeat those on Reinhard’s site suggesting the Vaughan Williams, Norfolk route for this. This Wiki link seems to be pretty much the lyrical set that Jon (from Bellamy) has, but there’s a long and interesting Mudcat thread here that has various hooks. Not least is that the ballad obviously has much older roots and may date to the mid to late C17th (1680 in this form), shortly after Ward’s death. I found the lack of historical detail on Ward a concern although The Rainbow seems to be positively identified. But the vagaries of his life and demise seemed strange. I note a suggestion somewhere down that Mudcat thread of trained British pirates, but then I came across this link that really threw the cat amongst the pigeons, with the continuing revelation that as usual I know nothing. I’m becoming wary of accepting things on face value that so obviously seem to have an agenda so was also pleased to eventually drag this Wiki page up as at least partial confirmation. There’s more to this pirating business than I thought but still… “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.”
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