Handed Down

The Doffin' Mistress was the overseer in a linen mill who took care of the young mill girls. Jennie Higgins shares her early memories of singing this Northern Irish industrial song with her sister, and the importance it has as an early song of female empowerment.

In the same vein, we talk about Jennie's important work in supporting female artists through the Folky Union of Women, and her new mythbusting segment on the fantastic Thank Folk For Feminism podcast.

IMPORTANT: Jennie is making an album called Where Are The Women and needs your support! If you'd like to hear more of her music, and see women's perspectives better represented in folk music then please back her Kickstarter.

In 1845, Sir John Franklin set off on his doomed voyage to find the North West Passage and was never seen again. Said to be written by his wife Jane, it's the tragic love story that makes it a stand-out song to this episode's guests, Reg Meuross, David Harbottle and Freya Jonas.

Featuring tracks from their album Songs of Love and Death, we talk about how the project developed from a lockdown collaboration into a fully fledged album and forthcoming tour. Along the way we talk song writing and getting into the heart of an authentic story, and touch on another tragic seafaring tale - that of Hull's own Lil Bilocca.

There's also a true tale of secret folk contraband passed from musician to musician in Devon, and a lovely surprise announcement towards the end of the recording.

Music
All featured songs are from the album Songs of Love and Death and include:

Oxford Girl
Anachie Gordon
Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy
As I Roved Out
and of course Lord Franklin

The trio will be touring during March and April, and you can catch them on the following dates:

18th March - The Gather, Ennerdale 
13th April Folk at Ash - Kent
14th April John Peel Centre - Suffolk
15th April Sound Lounge - Sutton
16th April Green Note London (matinee)
17th April Cantonacre - Stroud 
17th June Beardy Folk Festival 

Further details and tickets here.

Handed Down is presented by Jenny Shaw with episodes coming out twice a month. Please subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and if you like what you hear then please share it with someone you know.

This short ballad fragment from New England is a remnant of a lively strand of folklore going back 850 years. The characters are real but the stories are fanciful, so buckle up for a wild ride and a gratuitous quantity of early music.

Music

The Lamentable Ballad of Fair Rosamond on the English Broadside Ballad Archive - to the tune of Chevy Chase

Sainte Nicholaes by Godric of Finchale (11th Century) - find out more here

O Viridissima Virga by Hildegard von Bingen (12th Century)

Summer is Icumen In, anon (14th Century)

Flow my Tears by that notorious Elizabethan Emo, John Dowland

The Unfortunate Concubine on the English Broadside Ballad Archive - to the tune of The Court Lady (also known as Confesse, his tune)

Chevy Chase again, this time on recorders

En amours n'a si non bien, anon (15th Century)

Alleluia, anon (in medieval style with organum)

Fair Rosamund, based on the version in Folk Songs of New England by Eloise Hubbard Linscott

References

French Chronicle of London: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/london-mayors-sheriffs/1188-1274/pp231-237 

England’s heroical epistles, by Michael Drayton: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A20814.0001.001/1:5?rgn=div1;view=fulltext 

There's a lot going on in this American folk song  - a lost love, a fight, jail and a miscarriage of justice. This is a song that has wandered its way around the Southern and Western states of the US and was popularised by Burl Ives. It's found in several versions, including one sung by Vikki Appleton Fielden's mother, which has some unique features. Vikki and I talk about memories of her mother who learned the song at a coffee house and sang it at concerts and family gatherings alike.

We also chat about the joy of singing Broadway songs, folk dancing, being a Yankee in Yorkshire, and what it's really like to record at the iconic Abbey Road Studios.

This is a bumper episode, but it's full of all kinds of interesting stuff. If you want to hear a Bulgarian folk song here's your opportunity. We also get to hear snippets of a couple of Vikki's hilarious parody songs, and a more sober song of modern times.

But can you solve the mystery of the song's bridge? It can't be found anywhere on the internet, so where is it from? Send us a tweet if you know! @handeddownpod

Music
Sir Gav Gets Hitched was written by Vikki Appleton Fielden based on The Marriage of Sir Gawain (Child Ballad 31), sung by Vikki and with instruments by Lynne Morely (of John Barleycorn fame) and Jon Loomes. You can hear the full version on Soundcloud here.

Interesting Times was written and performed by Vikki Appleton Fielden (lead vocals) with Ciarán Boyle (bodhran), Pete Grassby (melodeon, backing vocals) and Aeron Z. Jones (producer, guitars, mandolin, bass guitar, backing vocals). You can hear the full version on Vikki's Bandcamp here.

Trŭgnala Rumjana is a Bulgarian folk song, here's a version in four-part harmony on Youtube.

Poor Boy, and other song fragments performed by Vikki, some of them spontaneously.

You can visit Vikki's website at: yorkshireyankee.com

Acknowledgements
Vikki and I first met at Stones Barn and we're big fans of theirs.

How did an English song of love and loss vanish completely, only to pop up in a remote part of the Appalachian mountains as one of their many "love songs"? In tracing its story we come across the colourful characters who played a part in bringing it to the wider world. We cross the water in the cramped steerage quarters of a transatlantic sailing ship, and fly back over the ocean on the wings of a little bird to find an older song that may have been its source.

Music
The first verse of Pretty Saro is based on a version collected in North Carolina by Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles.

The mountain dulcimer version was kindly recorded for this podcast by Chris Nelson, you can hear Chris being interviewed on the podcast here.

I've based the singing of Pretty Sarah (1911) collected by John Lomax on the singing of Cas Wallin, recorded in 1982 for the Alan Lomax archive.

The Streams of Bunclody (first verse only) is the more well known tune, recorded by Luke Kelly and by Emmet Spiceland.

The tune introducing Patrick Kennedy is The Boys of Wexford.

The full version of The Streams of Bunclody, embedded into The Banks of the Boro is based on a version recorded by the Wexford traditional singer Aileen Lambert. I'm a big fan, and her version is as far away as possible from being "a maudlin lay"!

References
An account of Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles’ travels in the Appelachians, including extracts from Sharp’s journal, can be found here: https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/sharp.htm 

From: Cohane, Mary Ellen, and Kenneth S. Goldstein. “Folksongs and the Ethnography of Singing in Patrick Kennedy’s The Banks of the Boro.” The Journal of American Folklore 109, no. 434 (1996): 425–36. https://doi.org/10.2307/541184.

Maud Karpeles’ own account of her visit to the Appalachians in 1950: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4521358

Maud Karpeles’ journals from her visit to Appalachia 1950: https://www.vwml.org/archives-catalogue/MK 

Some Ballads of North Carolina, by John Lomax: https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/lomax/lomax.html

A copy of The Banks of the Boro by Patrick Kennedy can be found here: https://archive.org/details/banksboroachron01kenngoog

The Maid of Bunclody http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/search/?query=+2806+b.9%28206%29

The Streams of Bunclody in Halliday Sparling’s Irish Minstrelsy. Irish minstrelsy. Being a selection of Irish songs, lyrics, and ballads : Sparling, H. Halliday (Henry Halliday) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Bundclody on the Mainly Norfolk website. https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/themaidfrombunclody.html

Acknowledgements
Huge thanks to my family for putting up with my endless research and singing over Christmas and New Year, especially Steven Shaw who has the patience of a saint.

Thank you as always to Maddy and Rose-Ellen at Stones Barn, who helped me to find my voice again.

A selection of songs and tunes from Season 1, to take you through to the New Year.

1. The Airy Bachelor, collected by Herbert Hughes (Episode 5)
2. Rondo Minuet in Gm, Purcell (Episode 3)
3. John Barleycorn, traditional, sung by Lynne Morley (Episode 2)
4. En amours n'a si non bien, anonymous (Episode 3)
5. Nine Herbs Charm, written and performed by Henry Parker (Episode 7)
6. Death and the Lady (Instrumental), traditional, performed by Chris Nelson (Episode 6)
7. She Moved Through the Fair, traditional (Episode 5)
8. Old Pendle, Milton and Allen Lambert (words) and Ted Edwards (tune), performed by Peter Madeley (Episode 4)
9. Green Lady, performed by Columbines (Bonus track)
10. Eleanor Plunkett, Turlough O'Carolan (Episode 5)

Songs performed by Jenny Shaw unless otherwise noted.

A big thank you to those who have listened to the podcast in our first few months, it means more than you will ever know. More episodes coming in the New Year!

This song is traditionally sung  on Christmas Eve in the Outer Hebrides. Here, we have the full text of this long outpouring of Christmas joy, of which only three or four verses are usually sung today.

The introduction is a variant of the tune, a lovely version of which can be found here.

For the long reading of the full text, I've made some stylistic edits to the English translation found on Wikipedia, the original being in Scottish Gaelic. The harp music that accompanies it is mainly noodling, but I have included a version of Soay from The Lost Songs of St Kilda. If you've not heard of this, do yourself a favour and head over to the website. What an amazing story it is!

For the version of the song at the end of the show I've edited the usual text, pulling in some of the middle section from the original to make a new English verse.

Scottish waves and seabirds by inchadney on Freesounds.

Have a wonderful festive season, see you in 2022.
 
Jenny xxx

The Brisk Lad is a 19th Century Dorset song of defiance in the face of poverty. Henry Parker transports it to the bleak moors of his native West Yorkshire in spectacular folk-rock style.

We talk about the song's origins and significance, and about the influence that the landscape and the seasons have on his own song writing. Along the way we discuss his journey from heavy metal to folk, the golden age of folk-rock, and Henry shares the recipe for a balm to soothe all your ailments - the 10th Century "Nine Herbs Charm".

Music
All the music in this episode comes from Henry Parker's second album, Lammas Fair, released on 5th November 2021. Alongside The Brisk Lad, the episode features extracts from Blackthorn, Lammas Fair, Return to the Sky, Travelling for a Living, and Nine Herbs Charm.

The album is available on Bandcamp  and you can find out more about Henry's music, including tour dates, on his website https://henryparkermusic.co.uk/ 

When a feisty young lady squares up for a battle with Death there can be only one winner, and therein lies the essence of tragedy. But just as importantly, what does Death's voice sound like? DOES HE TALK LIKE THIS? Chris and I talk about this most unsettling of English folk songs and discuss plagues, from the Black Death to the impact of Covid on folk musicians.

We also chat about the folk stage show Avondale, which tells the true story of Kate Fitzpatrick, a mysterious inmate of the Ormskirk Workhouse in Lancashire, and the American lady who may - or may not - have been her relative.

Music
Both the fiddle and sung versions of Death and the Lady were recorded by Chris Nelson. You can hear more of Chris and his wife Siobhan at chrisandsiobhan.co.uk and on their Facebook page. If you'd like to hear them live, head on down to the Bothy Folk Club.

Avondale was written by Len Pentin, and this podcast features two songs from the show: Tell Me Your Name, and The Workhouse Calls. You can find our more about the show, order the soundtrack CD and, if you're lucky, find an elusive live show at avondale.uk.com or on their Facebook page. It's an intriguing story with great music and highly recommended.

Acknowledgements
We like Stones Barn and we cannot lie!

Is She Moved Through the Fair really a folk song, or is it an early 20th Century parlour song?  The answer to this question takes us deep into Irish social and cultural history and we meet some colourful characters along the way. But our journey's end is a cottage fireside where, in the space of just a few minutes, a woman and two men unwittingly sparked a musical phenomenon.

Music

In addition to She Moved Through the Fair, this episode includes the following music:

The opening music is Eleanor Plunkett by Turlough O’Carolan

The music accompanying Padraic Colum’s words is The Frost is All Over, a tune from Donegal

The piano version of She Moved Through the Fair is Herbert Hughes’s arrangement, published in his book Irish Country Songs vol 1 in 1909. It is followed by an excerpt from La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin by Claude Debussy. Like many parlour pianos, mine is greatly in need of tuning.

The harp tune behind the words of Herbert Hughes is The Airy Bachelor, a tune he also collected in Kilmacrenan, Donegal on the same trip on which he and Colum first heard She Moved Through the Fair.

There’s a verse of “The Grey Cock” played on piano.

The reading of “My Own Rod’s The Sorest” or “Out of the Window” uses the verses reconstructed by Hugh Shields (see below). The tune played is the one originally collected by Herbert Hughes (see below)

The final version of She Moved Through the Fair is the version my Mum taught me, apart from the final verse - I've never heard her sing the final verse.

All music performed by Jenny Shaw.

Acknowledgements

As always I’d like to express my thanks to the team at Stones Barn, Cumbria and the Barnstoners community, who are always supportive and encouraging, and to Steven, Cai and Eleanor Shaw who remain supportive despite having to listen to my nonstop singing and whistling.

References

The song was first published by Herbert Hughes in The Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society in 1905.

A free PDF version of Herbert Hughes’ Irish Country Songs

A copy of Wild Earth by Padraic Colum 

There’s an interesting article on Irish sean-nos singing here 

She Moved Through the Fair in Fresno State’s Ballad Index

Mainly Norfolk’s article about She Moved Through the Fair.

Article about Colum in the Irish Times

Lots of versions of the song; sheet music and video

An article about Margaret Barry from The Guardian:

Pickering, M. (1990). Review of The Singing Bourgeois: Songs of the Victorian Drawing Room and Parlour, by D. Scott. Popular Music, 9(3), 381–384. http://www.jstor.org/stable/853333 

Shields, H. (1975). The Proper Words: A Discussion on Folk Song and Literary Poetry. Irish University Review, 5(2), 274–291. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25477077