A fresh mix of my 2019 track from the “Nine Branches” album, based on a traditional song.

John Barleycorn is an allegorical figure in English & Scottish folk ballads, dating back at least to the 1600s, representing the barley crop and its life cycle from planting to harvest.

Barleycorn is killed and buried (planted), then springs back to life as the summer barley grass grows. At harvest-time, he is cut down again and made into bread and ale, nourishing us and lifting our spirits.

In the cover image, two crows stand watch, not only because they are ever-present in the grain fields, but to represent the presence of death - an essential element in the story.

“John Barleycorn must die…” in order to be reborn and give new life.

In the turning of the seasons, he is associated with the beginning of the grain harvest (Lammas/ Lughnasadh, early August), standing at the waning of summer, as the May Queen presided over its beginning.

Reaching further back into pagan times, the song may reflect older songs of reverence for the sacred aspects of the nourishing grains, as well as ale, used in religious rituals. There are hints of an Anglo-Saxon deity named Beowa (barley) son of Scyld Scefing (sheaf). He is listed in royal genealogies alongside other names known to be gods, and his name parallels the Norse “Byggvir” (also meaning barley grain), one of the servants of the fertility god Frey.

Vocals, crystal bowls, and handpan by Soulstice (Taylor Weekley https://soundcloud.com/ssoulstice)

Based on the melody of “Mairin de Barra” (pronounced “mawr -een de bar-uh”), a woman’s name.

The spoken voice is in one of Tolkien’s elvish languages (Sindarin) saying “May the light be your guide”.

Soulstice (https://soundcloud.com/ssoulstice) writes:

“The words came from a reflection on emergence, companionship, and the experience of recognizing another soul as a mirror. It speaks to the quiet hope of meeting someone who walks beside you as an equal, reflecting the divine in one another.”

The low whistle part is the melody of the Irish song “Siubhan ni Dhuibhir” (pronounced roughly “shoo-van ni yi-veer”, a woman’s name, sometimes anglicised as “Susan McGuire”)

Based on the traditional slow air melody of “Caoineafh an Spailpin” (pronounced roughly “Keenuh an Spahlpin”) meaning “lament (keening) of a wandering labourer (spailpin). Soulstice (Taylor Weekley https://soundcloud.com/ssoulstice ) adds haunting vocals, crystal bowls, and handpan.

Based on an English folk song on the theme of finding new love in the early summer. The “May Queen” is crowned on May Day (May 1, variously celebrated as Beltane, Walpurgis. etc) and presides over the festivities. The flowers are in full bloom and the sun approaches its height, as we enter the lightest and most abundant quarter of the year.

“Now the winter is gone and the summer has come

And the meadows are pleasant and gay

I met a young damsel so sweetly sang she

And her cheeks like the blossoms of May

The bells they did ring

And the birds sweetly sing

I crowned her the Queen of the May

I took this fair maid by the lily-white hand

On the green mossy banks we lay down

Then I placed a kiss on her sweet rosy lips

And the small birds were singing all ‘round

The bells they did ring

And the birds sweetly sing

I crowned her the Queen of the May”

Based on an English folk song on the theme of finding new love in the early summer. The “May Queen” is crowned on May Day (May 1, variously celebrated as Beltane, Walpurgis. etc) and presides over the festivities. The flowers are in full bloom and the sun approaches its height, as we enter the lightest and most abundant quarter of the year.

“Now the winter is gone and the summer has come

And the meadows are pleasant and gay

I met a young damsel so sweetly sang she

And her cheeks like the blossoms of May

The bells they did ring

And the birds sweetly sing

I crowned her the Queen of the May

I took this fair maid by the lily-white hand

On the green mossy banks we lay down

Then I placed a kiss on her sweet rosy lips

And the small birds were singing all ‘round

The bells they did ring

And the birds sweetly sing

I crowned her the Queen of the May”

Based on a 13th century Middle English song.

“Man mei longe him lives wene,

ac ofte him liyet the wreinch,

fair weder often him went to rene...”

“Long may man want his life to be,

but oft for him there waits a trick

Fair weather often turns to rain…”

Element = Spirit

Based on two Irish Jigs, “The Lilting Banshee” (aka “Mulhare’s Jig”) and “The Rakes of Kildare”

Element/Season = Water/Autumn

Based on two Irish hornpipes, “The Red Haired Boy” and “Poll Ha’Penny” from O’Neill’s Music of Ireland

Element/Season = Fire/Summer

Based on the English folk song “Seventeen Come Sunday” and “Childgrove”, a melody from Playford’s “English Dancing Master”(1701)

As I walk’d out one May morning

One May morning so early

I overtook a pretty fair maid

Just as the sun was dawning

With my rue-dum-day, fother-diddle-day

Fol, the dol, the diddle-um the day

Her shoes were bright, her stockings white

Her buckles shone like like silver

She had a dark and rolling eye

Her hair hung down her shoulder

With my rue-dum-day, fother-diddle-day

Fol, the dol, the diddle-um the day

Element/Season : Air/Spring