A Folk Song A Day

Jon says, “This is such a lovely song. I keep meaning to learn some more Brecht stuff, so this is a start anyway.”

I must confess that Brecht is another I know little about. Mainly Norfolk has Jon’s source for this, Martin Carthy’s notes, which refer to a Brecht play called The Good Soldier Schwejk. I couldn’t find that listed amongst his plays as listed here on Wiki, although that title actually belongs to a book by Jaroslav Hašek. It follows the fortunes of the titular soldier through WW1 as a recruit in the Austro-Hungarian army. It seems Kurt Weill turned Brecht’s text into a song and if you scroll down towards the bottom of this Wiki page you’ll see it listed with a date of 1942. I don’t know whether the arrangement Martin heard is closely based on Weill’s version, but either way he recorded this twice, once solo and once when he rejoined Steeleye Span. There’s also a very good version of this by PJ Harvey and you’ll find a simple but effective video for that on YouTube easily enough, if you fancy it. It seems to have pretty much the same tune and Marianne Faithful has also recorded it as The Ballad Of The Soldier’s Wife and that’s rather splendid too. I think this version works well unaccompanied too.

Jon acknowledges Mike Waterson as his source of this  and notes, “Bellowhead have done this a few times – maybe we’ll get around to recording it at some point.”

This is one that seems to have traversed the Irish Sea as there’s an original ballad, The Blooming Rose Of Antrim at its root. Or at least so Bert Lloyd has it at Mainly Norfolk. Apparently the tune was originally a capstan shanty and is common to other songs. It seems unusual to have a happy ending here, although I’m a bit concerned that ‘the blooming rose’ might need a trip to the opticians.

Jon recalls, “Probably one of the most exciting phone calls I’ve ever had was from John Spiers saying that Eliza Carthy had been in touch and was asking if we’d like to play on her new album. This was one of three tracks we played on, and we ended up playing it quite a lot after joining her band, although we actually new it already from Graham Metcalfe’s rather magnificent pub version.”

I’m interested to note from the various sleeve notes at Mainly Norfolk that this is alternately known as Oxford City and any number of variants are of course possible. I guess that tales of murderous jealousy were all the rage, but then we probably know that don’t we. Mind you it is a good song and Eliza’s notes plus others that help to flesh out its history.

Jon says, ”I heard this first from Australian duo Cloudstreet, who I’m excited to see have now launched an Australian folk song a day. I think I’m right in saying that Martin Carthy pretty much wrote this, presumably based on a folk tale. I’m not sure though.”

Martin Carthy doesn’t take the credit for this and his notes at Mainly Norfolk give that to Ray Fisher for marrying Child Ballad #6 with a Breton tune. You may want to research Ray more and should start here. She looks to be an important figure in the revival and Martin Carthy obviously thought highly enough of Ray to seek her permission before following her lead. It’s the wicked mother involved here and some heavy cursing afflicting the unfavoured bride of her son. The Billy Blind character is interesting too, possibly a throwback to Odin he makes regular appearances under various names in song and folklore. This tale too is found around Europe, particularly Scandinavia, but has elements of the birth of Hercules (or should that be Heracles) from Greek mythology involved. High-brow stuff this, you know! As for the Australian Folk Song A Day, it’s John Thompson of Cloudstreet fame behind it and you can link here.

Here’s one that caught me out slightly as Jon explains, “From Martin Simpson’s brilliant The Bramble Briar album. It’s surprising that Bellamy never set this wonderful poem – but I’m very glad that Martin (also a Kipling buff) did, and did it so brilliantly too.”

I’ve got so used to the Bellamy/Kipling connection, but it’s nice to hear someone else take up the challenge. Although Martin has long been known as an exceptional player rather than writer his ability with a melody isn’t in doubt. This one, however, seems to have taken him by surprise as Mainly Norfolk reveals. Anyway who better than Kipling to turn to for the words and as Martin says, this seems most timely.