All in a Garden Green WGS345CD
Adieu to Old EnglandWe found this song on a manuscript from the George Gardiner Collection. It was originally sung by a guy called George Blake from the New Forest and concerns British transportation of convicts to Australia. We've given it a slightly jaunty swing, taking it that the convict had accepted his lot...and after all, Australia is rather sunny...
All in a Garden Green/Horses Bransle
The title track. The first tune is from John Playford's 1651 Collection.
We've never done the dance, but we have heard it involves a lot
of kissing. The tune is also similar to "Gathering Peascods",
one of Playford's greatest hits. It's followed by "Horses Bransle",
a medieval dance tune dating back to the 1200s.
The Old Virginia Lowlands
This version of "The Golden Vanity" is originally from
Stan Hugill's great book "Shanties from the Seven Seas"
where it's called the "Five Gallon Jar". We first heard
it from the singing of Brass Monkey. It is rumoured to have been
based on a ballad from the seventeenth century about the conduct
of Sir Walter Raleigh, who was less popular in his time than modern
legend portrays.
Fare Thee Well, My Dearest Dear
We first fell in love with this song after hearing Nic Jones's version.
Our adaptation is from that given in "The Penguin Book of English
Folk Songs" by Harriet Verrall of Horsham. There are no other
collected versions known, but the song is thought to have descended
from the seventeenth century broadside "The Two Faithful Lovers".
High Germany
We like this song as it shows a gutsy woman willing to 'face her
foes'. This version was collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams in Sussex
and is also known as "The King's (or Queen's) Command".
However we nicked the first few lines from the popular "Oh
Polly Dearest Polly" version to create a more powerful opening,
and put the tune into 4/4 to echo the marching sound of the war
drums in the story. The conflict referred to is thought to be the
Seven Years War, which was partly fought in Germany.
Dorrington Lads
This is a fourteen-part pipe tune that we learnt from a Waterson:Carthy
album. It comes from a manuscript of tunes in the repertoire of
the piper William Dixon, dating from 1732. It was his favourite
tune and legend has it he played it with his last breaths on his
deathbed.
The Lover's Ghost
Also known as The Grey Cock, this haunting ballad was collected
from the singing of Cecilia Costello in 1951. It's one of our favourite
songs and is full of interesting ideas from ancient folklore. Reference
to travelling 'without a stumble' and to 'kneeling on a stone' follows
the idea that someone returning from the dead must not fall on or
touch the ground. The cockerel referred to is a mythical creature
that guards the gates to the afterworld, and Mary tries to bribe
it by making an offering out of 'beaten gold' and 'silver grey'.
The idea that the dead can only travel between the two worlds in
the gap between night and day can be found in ancient folklore across
the world.
The Banks of the Sweet Primroses
This lovely song is almost as popular today as it was 100 years
ago, when collectors came across it so often that some stopped noting
it down. We like the idea that the guy in the song has hit on the
same girl twice without realising, and that she's not prepared to
stand for it. This version comes from the singing of Mrs Vaisey,
a Hampshire woman who was living in Oxfordshire when Lucy Broadwood
collected it in 1892. We've put a couple of verses back that she
seems to have forgotten, but they can be found in other collected
versions.
Blenheim House/ The Malt’s Come Down
The first tune comes from "Twenty Four New Country Dances for
the Year 1711" by Nathaniel Kynaston and we learnt it from
the playing of Belshazzar's Feast. We found "The Malt's Come
Down" on "The Tale of Ale" LP. The words date back
to the sixteenth century and the tune we use is an amalgamation
with the Playford tune "Halfe Hannikin".
Bedlam City
We found this song in the Hampshire edition of "Folk-Songs
of England", a book of traditional songs collected by George
Gardiner and edited by Cecil Sharp, complete with piano accompaniment.
Intrigued at the short number of verses, we went through the original
manuscripts to find the complete version, only to discover that
it wasn't there. We later found out from the late Frank Purslow
that the tune comes from a version of "Eggs in Her Basket"
collected in Twyford, and that the words were probably taken from
a broadside.
A Noble Riddle Wisely Expounded
Versions of this ancient ballad can be found dating back as far
as 1444, where a young woman eludes the Devil by answering his riddles.
This version comes from a street ballad issued in 1675 and has lost
its supernatural qualities. The Devil has become a handsome knight
and the youngest sister gains the right to marry him by answering
his riddles. We first heard this ballad from the singing of Bryony
Griffiths who sings the earlier version.
The Unfortunate Tailor/ The Shaalds of Foula
We used to dance to the A part of "The Unfortunate Tailor"
as the Sherborne Morris jig "I’ll Go and Enlist for a
Sailor". We found this version complete with a B part in volume
II of "Dave Townsend's English Dance Music". It can also
be found as the tune to a song of the same name. We learnt the second
tune as an English jig but we recently discovered that it's actually
from the Shetland Islands (we didn’t know the right name at
the time).
Three Drunken Maidens
We got this fun song from the singing of the wonderful Frankie Armstrong.
The earliest source of the words comes from "The Pedlar’s
Pack of Ballads" of 1869, but the tune is probably more modern.
Frankie altered the words from four to three maidens, which seems
to make more sense (it's rumoured there may have even been seven
in the original version: we wouldn’t be surprised).
Hidden Track: Lullaby
Traditional lullabies are rarely found in English, but we discovered
this one which was collected by Vaughan Williams in Dunstan, Northumberland.