1.
Ballad
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A ballad /ˈbæləd/ is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally danced songs, Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of the British Isles from the later medieval period until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in the Americas, Australia, Ballads are 13 lines with an ABABBCBC form, consisting of couplets of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides, the form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century, the took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and is now often used for any love song. The ballad derives its name from medieval French dance songs or ballares, from which ballet is also derived, as a narrative song, their theme and function may originate from Scandinavian and Germanic traditions of storytelling that can be seen in poems such as Beowulf. Musically they were influenced by the Minnesinger, the earliest example of a recognizable ballad in form in England is Judas in a 13th-century manuscript. This means that the two words, ballad and ballet, are derived from the French language. Ballads were originally written to accompany dances, and so were composed in couplets with refrains in alternate lines and these refrains would have been sung by the dancers in time with the dance. Most northern and west European ballads are written in ballad stanzas or quatrains of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, known as ballad meter. Usually, only the second and fourth line of a quatrain are rhymed, there is considerable variation on this pattern in almost every respect, including length, number of lines and rhyming scheme, making the strict definition of a ballad extremely difficult. Ballads usually use the dialect of the people and are heavily influenced by the region in which they originate. Scottish ballads in particular are distinctively un-English, even showing some pre-Christian influences in the inclusion of elements such as the fairies in the Scottish ballad Tam Lin. The ballads do not have any known author or correct version, instead, having passed down mainly by oral tradition since the Middle Ages. The ballads remained a tradition until the increased interest in folk songs in the 18th century led collectors such as Bishop Thomas Percy to publish volumes of popular ballads. In all traditions most ballads are narrative in nature, with a story, often concise, and rely on imagery, rather than description. Themes concerning rural laborers and their sexuality are common, and there are many ballads based on the Robin Hood legend. Another common feature of ballads is repetition, sometimes of fourth lines in succeeding stanzas, as a refrain, sometimes of third and fourth lines of a stanza and sometimes of entire stanzas
2.
Child Ballad
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The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Childs studies of them were published as the 2, the tunes of most of the ballads were collected and published by Bertrand Harris Bronson in and around the 1960s. There were also comprehensive ballad collections from other countries, Child modelled his work on Svend Grundtvigs Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, classifying and numbering the ballads and noting different versions, which were placed side by side to aid comparison. As a result, one Child number may cover several ballads, conversely, ballads classified separately may contain turns of phrase, and even entire verses, that are identical. The ballads vary in age, for instance, the manuscript of Judas dates to the thirteenth century, the majority of the ballads, however, date to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although some are claimed to have very ancient influences, only a handful can be traced to before 1600. Moreover, few of the tunes collected are as old as the words, nevertheless, Childs collection was far more comprehensive than any previous collection of ballads in English. Many of Childs ballads were obtained from printed broadsides, but he distinguished the traditional ballads that interested him from later broadside ballads. As Child died before writing a commentary on his work, it is exactly how and why he selected some ballads. Child Ballads are generally heavier and darker than is usual for ballads, on one extreme, some Child Ballads recount identifiable historical people, in known events, embellished for dramatic effect. On the other, some differ from fairy tales solely by their songs and in verse. A large part of the collection is about Robin Hood, some are about King Arthur, a few of the ballads are rather bawdy. The editorial history of Childs publication received a study by Mary Ellen Brown in 2011. In 1860, Child published a collection entitled English and Scottish Ballads, generally presenting just one variant of each ballad, via Little, Brown. However, as a scholarly edition this was superseded by his later, the first edition of Childs book was, once complete, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. by Francis James Child,5 vols. It was printed in one thousand copies, and actually issued in ten parts, the final title pages for each of the five volumes, printed in red and black, were issued with part 10. Part 10 actually emerged after Childs death, and was edited by George Lyman Kittredge, the book was reprinted, this time physically in three volumes, in 1957 by the New York-based Folklore Press, in association with the Pageant Book Company. It was reprinted again in 1965 in New York by Dover, this time with an essay by Walter Morris Hart entitled Professor Child, many Child Ballads have subsequently appeared in contemporary music recordings
3.
Arthur Rackham
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Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator. Rackham was born in Lewisham, then part of Kent as one of 12 children. In 1884, at the age of 17, he was sent on a voyage to Australia to improve his fragile health. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office, in 1892, he left his job and started working for the Westminster Budget as a reporter and illustrator. Book illustrating then became Rackhams career for the rest of his life and this was developed further through the austere years of the Boer War with regular contributions to childrens periodicals such as Little Folks and Cassells Magazine. In 1901 he moved to Wychcombe Studios near Haverstock Hill, edith suffered a miscarriage in 1904, but the couple had one daughter, Barbara, in 1908. M. Barries Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, published by Hodder & Stoughton. Income from the books was greatly augmented by annual exhibitions of the artwork at the Leicester Galleries, Rackham won a gold medal at the Milan International Exhibition in 1906 and another one at the Barcelona International Exposition in 1912. His works were included in exhibitions, including one at the Louvre in Paris in 1914. From 1906 the family lived in Chalcot Gardens, near Haverstock Hill, until moving from London to Houghton, in 1929 the family settled into a newly built property in Limpsfield, Surrey. Arthur Rackham died in 1939 of cancer at his home, during that period, there was a strong market for high quality illustrated books which typically were given as Christmas gifts. Many of Rackhams books were produced in a de luxe limited edition, often vellum bound and sometimes signed, as well as a larger and this was often followed by a more modestly presented octavo edition in subsequent years for particularly popular books. The onset of the war in 1914 curtailed the market for such quality books, arthur Rackhams works have become very popular since his death, both in North America and Britain. His images have been used by the greeting card industry. His original drawings and paintings are keenly sought at the international art auction houses. Rackhams illustrations were based on robust pen and India ink drawings. He would first lightly block in shapes and details of the drawing with a soft pencil, over this he would then carefully work in lines of pen and India ink, removing the pencil traces after the drawing had begun to take form. For colour pictures, he would begin painting by building up multiple thin washes of watercolour creating translucent tints. He would also go on to expand the use of cuts in illustration work, particularly in the period after the First World War, as exemplified by his Sleeping Beauty
4.
Francis James Child
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Francis James Child was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, in 1876 he was named Harvards first Professor of English, a position which allowed him to focus on academic research. It was during this time that he work on the Child Ballads. The Child Ballads were published in five volumes between 1882 and 1898, while Child was primarily a literary scholar with little interest in the music of the ballads, his work became a major contribution to the study of English-language folk music. Francis James Child was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the family was poor, but thanks to the city of Bostons system of free public schools, the boy was educated at the Bostons Grammar and English High Schools. At Harvard, Frank excelled in all classes and also read widely outside his studies for his own pleasure and he was graduated in 1846, topping his class in all subjects and was chosen Class Orator by his graduating class, who received his valedictory speech with tumultuous applause. Upon graduation Child was appointed tutor in mathematics at Harvard and in 1848 was transferred to a tutorship in history, political economy, in 1848, Child published a critically annotated edition of Four Old Plays of the early English Renaissance. There were then no graduate schools in America, but a loan from a benefactor, bowditch, to whom the book was dedicated, enabled Child to take a leave of absence from his teaching duties to pursue his studies in Germany. In 1851, at the age of 26, Child succeeded Edward T, channing as Harvards Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, a position he held until Adams Sherman Hill was appointed to the professorship in 1876. Harvard had at time a enrollment of 382 undergraduates and a faculty of 14, including the president of the University. As a mathematician, wrote folklore scholar David E, the volumes on the works of Edmund Spenser and the English and Scottish Ballads, Child edited himself. Child planned an edition of the works of Chaucer, as well. He soon realized that this could not be done, however, Childs linguistic researches are largely responsible for how Chaucerian grammar, pronunciation, and scansion are now generally understood. Childs largest undertaking, however, grew out of the original English and Scottish Ballads volume in his British Poets series, the material for this volume was mostly derived from texts in previously published books. Child and Furnivall then went on to found The Ballad Society, with a view to publishing other important early ballad collections, thereafter, Child devoted himself to the comparative study of British vernacular ballads, using methods adopted from historical comparative philology to arrive at the earliest attested versions. Child considered that folk ballads came from a more time in the past when society was not so rigidly segregated into classes. He conceived the people as comprising all the classes of society, rich, middle, and poor, although Child concentrated his collections on manuscript texts with a view to determining their chronology, he also gave a sedulous but conservative hearing to popular versions still surviving. 1–12, was the model for Childs resulting canonical five-volume edition of some 305 English and Scottish ballads, worked and overworked to the last, he died in Boston after completing his task – apart from a planned general introduction and bibliography
5.
Billy Blind
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Billy Blind, Billy Blin, Billy Blynde, Billie Blin, or Belly Blin is an English and Lowland Scottish household spirit, much like a brownie. He appears, however, only in ballads, where it frequently advises the characters. In Child Ballad no 5c, Gil Brenton, it is Billy Blind that advises the hero that his bride is not the woman beside him, who is a virgin, but she is hiding in her bower and already pregnant. In Child Ballad no 6, Willies Lady, Willies wife has been in labour and can not deliver because Willies mother, Billy Blind advises Willie to make a wax figure of a baby and invite his mother to the christening. In her rage, the demands to know how all her magic was undone, listing all the things shes done. In Child Ballad no 53C, Young Bekie, he advises Burd Isobel that Young Bekie is about to another bride. In Child Ballad no 110, The Knight and the Shepherds Daughter, he appears in many of the variants to reveal the true births of the marrying couple, much higher than was apparent. In modern fantasy, the Billy Blind appears in Peter S. Beagles Tamsin, where his main characteristic is constantly to give advice
6.
False hero
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The False hero is a stock character in fairy tales, and sometimes also in ballads. The character appears near the end of a story in order to claim to be the hero or heroine and is, therefore, the false hero presents some claim to the position. By testing, it is revealed that the claims are false, the false hero is usually punished, and the true hero put in his place. Vladimir Propp identified it as one of the eight roles he found in an analysis of Russian folktales, in some tales, the false hero appears early, and constitutes the main obstacle to the hero. In most of the tales that use this figure, the hero is the final obstacle to the heros happiness. Other tales have characters take the hero or heroines place without claiming to be the original. The false bride fails the test when the heroine, not plagued with greed, refuses to trade the bride for gold or treasure, the false brides greed draws her to agree, other tales including this are Brother and Sister and The Wonderful Birch. Hans Christian Andersens literary tale The Little Mermaid makes a variation not usually found in more traditional fairytales, the Temple Girl fits the above prototype, since she gets the credit for saving the Princes life and wins his love
7.
The Two Kings' Children
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The Two Kings Children is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimms Fairy Tales, tale number 113. It is Aarne-Thompson type 313C, the helps the hero flee, and type 884. Others of the first type include The Master Maid, The Water Nixie, Nix Nought Nothing, Jean, the Soldier, and Eulalie, the Devils Daughter, others of the second type include The Twelve Huntsmen, The True Bride, and Sweetheart Roland. The Brothers Grimm also noted that the scene with the false bride resembles that of The Singing, Soaring Lark. Other fairy tales that use a similar motif include East of the Sun and West of the Moon, Black Bull of Norroway, The Feather of Finist the Falcon, Mr Simigdáli, and White-Bear-King-Valemon. Once long ago, it was foretold that a son would be killed by a stag at the age of sixteen. When the prince was sixteen, he went hunting and chased a stag, a great man, the king set him to watch his three daughters, one each night. The king told the boy that he would call on the prince each hour and if he answered every time, he could marry his daughter, each daughter enchanted a statue of St. Christopher to answer in the princes place, thus saving the prince from death. The king said that in order to one of his daughters, he had to cut down a forest in a day, the king gave him a glass axe, a glass mallet. When the prince went to the forest, the glass broke, finally having felt that he had outwitted the prince, the king told his daughters to bring him some food. The youngest daughter brought it, and told her father to let her comb his hair, the king fell asleep, allowing her to conjure up Earth-workers to fell the forest. Astonished that the prince had completed his task, the king ordered him to clear a muddy pond. When the kings son tried, his hoe and shovel stuck in the mud, once again, the youngest daughter brought her father food and got him to sleep, then she conjured the Earth workers to clear the pond. The king then ordered the prince to clear a mountain of briars, the glass hatchet he was given broke on the first briars, the youngest daughter saved him again. Finally, the king declared that the youngest daughter could not marry until her sisters were married. Hearing this, the decided to run away at night. Once they were on their way, the kings daughter heard her father behind them and she turned herself into a rose, and the kings son into a briar. Believing he had lost them, the king returned home only to be told by his wife that the briar, the king chased them after again and this time the kings daughter turned herself into a priest, and the kings son into a church where she preached a sermon
8.
The Master Maid
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The Master Maid is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their Norske Folkeeventyr. Jørgen Moe wrote the tale down from the storyteller Anne Godlid in Seljord on a visit in the autumn of 1842. Others of this type include The Two Kings Children, The Water Nixie, Jean, the Soldier, and Eulalie, the Devils Daughter, Nix Nought Nothing, a kings youngest son set out to seek his fortune and was hired by a giant. The first morning, the giant went out to bring his goats to pasture and ordered the son to clean out the stables and to not go into any of the rooms about the one where he slept. The son disobeys and finds three pots bubbling with no fire, and one turns things into copper, the second silver. Past them, he finds, in one room, the Master Maid. She warns him that cleaning the stables as ordinary people do causes ten shovelfuls to fly back in for one he takes out. He talks with her the day long, and they agree to marry, in the evening, he set to his task. He finds that she is telling the truth, and succeeds, the giant accuses him of having spoken with the Master Maid and the prince denies it. The next day, the giant orders him to bring in a horse from pasture, the Master Maid warns him that it breathes fire, but if he uses a bit, hanging behind the door, he will succeed. When he does, the giant accuses him of speaking with the Master Maid again, the third day, the giant orders him to go to Hell and get his fire tax. The Master Maid tells him the directions, and that he should ask for as much as he can carry and he retrieves it, though the man who lets him says it was well that he did not ask for a horse-load. The giant accuses him of speaking with the Master Maid again, the fourth day, the giant brings him to the Master Maid and orders her to kill him and make him into a stew. Then he lies down to sleep, the Master Maid cuts her finger and lets three drops of blood fall on to a stool. Then she puts all sorts of rubbish into a stew pot, taking a chest full of golddust, a lump of salt, a flask of water, a golden apple, and two golden chickens, she sets out with the prince. They reach the sea and start sailing over it, the giant asks, three times, whether the stew is done, and the drops of blood answer him. The third says that it is done, the giant gets up and tries some, and realizes what the Master Maid has done. Seeing them sailing, he sets a monster to drink up the sea, but the Master Maid has the prince throw down the salt, and it transforms into a mountain, cutting off the water
9.
Sweetheart Roland
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Sweetheart Roland is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 56. It combines several Aarne-Thompson types, type 1119, the killing her own children, type 313C, the girl helps the hero flee, and type 884. Others of the type include The Master Maid, The Water Nixie, Nix Nought Nothing. Others of the type include The Twelve Huntsmen and The True Bride. The Two Kings Children, like one, combines the 313C. A wicked witch had a daughter, whom she loved. One day, the witch decided she would kill the stepdaughter at night, and the daughter was told to make sure she lay by the wall, the stepdaughter overheard this and, after her stepsister slept, shifted their places. The witch killed her own daughter, and the rose and went to her sweetheart Roland, telling what had happened. Roland said they must take the magic wand. The stepsister went back to take it, leaving three drops of blood. When, in the morning, the witch called, the drops of blood answered her, raging, she set out after them in seven league boots. The girl turned herself into a duck, and Roland into a pond, and the witch was unable to lure the duck to her, and had to return home that night. The girl and Roland went on, and when, the day, the witch caught them again. The witch asked permission to pick the flower, and got it, the magical music forced the witch to dance, and he kept playing until the thorns tore her to death. Roland went to his father to arrange for the wedding, and the girl remained as a red boundary-stone, sad, the girl turned herself into a flower, thinking that someone would trample her. A shepherd picked her and took her home and he found that whenever he left, all the housework was done in his absence. At the advice of a wisewoman, he threw a cloth when he saw something move in the morning. She agreed to house for him
10.
Percy Grainger
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Percy Aldridge Grainger was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the revival of interest in British folk music in the years of the 20th century. He also made many adaptations of composers works. Although much of his work was experimental and unusual, the piece with which he is most generally associated is his arrangement of the folk-dance tune Country Gardens. Grainger left Australia at the age of 13 to attend the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, between 1901 and 1914 he was based in London, where he established himself first as a society pianist and later as a concert performer, composer and collector of original folk melodies. As his reputation grew he met many of the significant figures in European music, forming important friendships with Frederick Delius and he became a champion of Nordic music and culture, his enthusiasm for which he often expressed in private letters. In 1914, Grainger moved to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life, though he travelled widely in Europe and he served briefly as a bandsman in the United States Army during 1917–18, and took American citizenship in 1918. After his mothers suicide in 1922 he became involved in educational work. He also experimented with music machines that he hoped would supersede human interpretation, in the 1930s he set up the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, his birthplace, as a monument to his life and works and as a future research archive. As he grew older he continued to concerts and to revise and rearrange his own compositions. After the Second World War, ill health reduced his levels of activity and he gave his last concert in 1960, less than a year before his death. Percy Graingers father, John Grainger, was an English-born architect who emigrated to Australia in 1877 and he won professional recognition for his design of the Princes Bridge across the Yarra River in Melbourne. In October 1880 he married Rose Annie Aldridge, daughter of Adelaide hotelier George Aldridge, the couple settled in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne where their only son, christened George Percy Grainger, was born on 8 July 1882. John Grainger was an accomplished artist, with cultural interests. These included David Mitchell, whose daughter Helen later gained fame as an operatic soprano under the name Nellie Melba. Johns claims to have discovered her are unfounded, although he may have offered her encouragement, John was a heavy drinker and a womaniser who, Rose learned after the marriage, had fathered a child in England before coming to Australia. His promiscuity placed heavy strains upon the relationship, particularly when Rose discovered shortly after Percys birth that she had contracted a form of syphilis from her husband, despite this, the Graingers stayed together until 1890, when John went to England for medical treatment. After his return to Australia they lived apart, the burden of raising Percy fell to Rose and he also designed Nellie Melbas home, Coombe Cottage, at Coldstream
11.
Jean Ritchie
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Jean Ritchie was an American folk music singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player. Jean Ritchie was born to Abigail and Balis W. Ritchie of Viper, many of the Ritchies attended the Hindman Settlement School, a folk school, where people were encouraged to cherish their own backgrounds and where Sharp also found many of his songs. Jeans father Balis had printed up a book of old songs entitled Lovers Melodies, jeans forebears had fought in the Revolutionary War in 1776 before settling in Kentucky, and most of them later fought on the Confederate Side in the Civil War. Her grandfather Justice Austin Ritchie was 2nd Lieutenant of Company C of the 13th Kentucky Confederate Cavalry, Alan Lomax wrote that, They were quiet, thoughtful folks, who went in for ballads, big families and educating their children. Jeans grandmother was a mover in the Old Regular Baptist Church. Jeans Uncle Jason was a lawyer, who remembers the big ballads like Lord Barnard, jeans father taught school, printed a newspaper, fitted specs, farmed and sent ten of his fourteen children to college. As the youngest of 14 siblings, Jean was one of ten girls who slept in one room of the familys farm house. She was quick to memorize songs and, with Chalmers and Velma McDaniels, performed at dances and at county fairs, where they repeatedly won blue ribbons in Hazard. Jean recalls that when the family acquired a radio in the late 1940s they discovered that what they had been singing was hillbilly music, at college she participated in the glee club and choir and learned to play piano. During World War II, she taught in elementary school, after graduating she got a job as a social worker at the Henry Street Settlement, where she taught music to children. There she befriended Alan Lomax, who recorded her extensively for the Library of Congress and she joined the New York folksong scene and met Lead Belly, Pete Seeger, and Oscar Brand. In 1949 and 1950, she recorded several hours of songs, stories, elektra records signed her and released three albums, Jean Ritchie Sings, Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family and A Time for Singing. The Brooklyn-born Pickow, who had studied painting at Cooper Union and made training films for the Navy in World War II, went on to have a career as a professional photographer. His career also included an extensive documentation of his wifes work, Pickow and Ritchie met in 1948 at a square dance at the Henry Street Settlement. The following day, Pickow invited her to him on a photo shoot at the Fulton Fish Market. The result — Ms. Ritchie perched on the hood of a truck and they married in 1950 and had two sons, Peter and Jon. In 1952, Pickow accompanied his wife on a Fulbright Scholarship to collect folksongs in Britain, the result was the acclaimed 16-minute color film Oss Oss Wee Oss. In 1961, Pickow and Lomax collaborated on a film documentary about the Greenwich Village folk revival scene intended to be shown on the BBC
12.
Nic Jones
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Nicolas Paul Nic Jones is an English folk singer, fingerstyle guitarist and fiddle player who was most active in the years 1964–1982. He recorded five albums, and has been a frequent guest performer. Nic Jones was born on 9 January 1947 in Orpington, London, the family moved to Brentwood in Essex when Nic was two, and he later attended Brentwood School. He first learned to play guitar as a teenager and early musical influences included such artists as The Shadows, Duane Eddy, Chet Atkins, Wes Montgomery. His interest in music was aroused by an old school friend, Nigel Paterson. When the members of the decided to turn professional, one of them left to pursue a different career. Whilst playing with The Halliard, Jones learned to play the fiddle and also how to research, the group toured the UK between 1964 and 1968, eventually splitting up when two of the members decided to pursue careers outside the folk music business. In 1968 Jones married Julia Seymour and they eventually were to have three children together – Daniel, Helen and Joe, the couple settled in Chelmsford and Jones decided to pursue a career as a solo folk artist. He started playing gigs in 1969, and in 1970 released his first album, Ballads. Between 1971 and 1980 Jones recorded four solo albums – three more for Trailer Records and his last, Penguin Eggs, for Topic. Apart from Jones trademark vocals, fingerstyle guitar and fiddle, the records also introduced guest instrumentalists playing piano, harmonium, bodhran, melodeon and recorders. He was also a member of short-lived folk group Bandoggs, comprising Jones, Tony Rose and Peter & Chris Coe, on 28 February 1982 Jones was involved in a serious road traffic accident. He suffered serious injuries, including broken bones and brain damage. His injuries left him with permanent physical co-ordination problems, unable to play the guitar as well as before, the accident effectively ended his career as a touring and recording professional musician. Jones now lives in Devon and continues to play guitar and write songs for his own pleasure and his wife Julia set up the record label Mollie Music which has issued four albums of re-mastered live recordings from Joness early career. On 5 August 2010, after an absence of 28 years and he appeared at an event dedicated to his music at Sidmouth Folk Week. Jones sang three songs with one of his former bands Bandoggs and commented that he would consider performing again –, in 2012 Nic Jones performed his first solo concerts for 30 years at the Warwick, Cambridge, Wadebridge and Towersey folk festivals. On 22 September 2012, Nic Jones was presented with The Gold Badge of the English Folk Dance & Song Society at a concert at Cecil Sharp House
13.
Planxty
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Planxty is an Irish folk music band formed in January 1972, consisting initially of Christy Moore, Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny, and Liam OFlynn. They quickly revolutionized and popularized Irish folk music, touring and recording to great acclaim, subsequently, Johnny Moynihan, Paul Brady, Matt Molloy, Bill Whelan, Nollaig Casey and, briefly, Noel Hill and Tony Linnane were also temporary members. Planxty broke up twice, first in December 1975 and again in April 1983, the original quartet reunited in October 2003 and their final performance was on 31 January 2005. Christy Moore and Dónal Lunny had been friends since school days in Newbridge, County Kildare, Liam OFlynn was playing in public and on the radio, and was well respected in traditional folk circles. In January 1972, the four joined forces to form Planxty, recording their first single, Three Drunken Maidens/Sí-Bheag, Sí-Mhór, in Trend Studios on 18 January 1972. The band performed on RTÉs The Late, Late Show the following Saturday, and played their first show on 6 March and they then assumed a weekly residency at The Mugs Gig, began rehearsing, and started playing live around Ireland. The groups first major performance–opening for Donovan at the Hangar in Galway, neither the audience nor the band knew what to expect, and both were pleasantly surprised. Irvine, unable to see the audience through the glare of the lights, was worried that the crowd might be on the verge of rioting. It took him several minutes to realize that what he was hearing was the expression of their enthusiasm. A rough quality recording of the song Raggle Taggle Gypsy from this concert was included on the 2004 retrospective, Christy Moore – The Box Set, 1964–2004, complete with the audiences reaction. Planxty’s first single, Three Drunken Maidens, was released by their manager Des Kelly’s label, Ruby Records, the next single, a re-recording of The Cliffs of Dooneen, previously recorded for the Prosperous album, made it to no.3. Two full albums followed, Planxty, recorded at Command Studios in London during September 1972, the group’s increasing popularity led to heavy touring throughout Ireland, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and northern Europe. Tired of constant touring and wishing to explore other avenues, Lunny left Planxty at the start of September 1973. He would eventually end up a member of The Bothy Band, Johnny Moynihan, who had played with Irvine in Sweeneys Men, joined at this point, playing mandolin, bouzouki, fiddle, tin whistle and singing. This line-up, with contributions from Lunny, would record Planxty’s third album, Cold Blow, next to leave, shortly after the making of this album, was Moore, who had a desire to return to his solo career and perform from a larger repertoire of songs. The split was amicable, and while Paul Brady was recruited to fill the gap in September 1974, after his departure, the Irvine/Moynihan/Brady/O’Flynn line-up toured extensively, but released no recordings before playing their final show in Brussels on 5 December 1975. After the break-up, Moynihan retreated into obscurity, continuing to perform occasionally, for a while, Irvine continued to tour with Brady in Ireland and in the UK, and also with Mick Hanly, predominantly in Europe. In 1978, Brady released an album including Irvine, Tommy Peoples and Lunny
14.
Broadside Electric
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Broadside Electric is an American electric folk band from Philadelphia. Formed in 1990, the band was active in 2011. Audiences expect an erudite and eclectic mix of material, including child ballads, foreign language songs, and the humorous, obscure. Broadside in the name is taken from the printed song lyric sheets which became popular in the 16th century. The band was formed in 1990 by Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College students and alumni Rachel Hall, Tom Rhoads, Jim Speer, left to pursue a Ph. D in social anthropology. Left to pursue a Watson Fellowship, black-edged Visiting Card Amplificata More Bad News. With Teeth Live, Do Not Immerse Official website Broadside Electric on MySpace Broadside Electric on last. fm Broadside Electric on Virb
15.
June Tabor
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June Tabor is an English folk singer known for her solo work as well as for her earlier collaborations with Maddy Prior and with the Oyster Band. Tabor was inspired to sing by hearing Anne Briggs EP Hazards of Love in 1965, I went and locked myself in the bathroom for a fortnight and drove my mother mad. I learned the songs on that EP note for note, twiddle for twiddle, if I hadnt heard her Id have probably done something entirely different. Then I tried putting the two together, and missing a few bits out - and thats approximately what Ive been doing ever since and its also why I dont do singing workshops, because thats about as much as I can tell anyone. Her earliest public performances were at the Heart of England Folk Club, in the Fox and she attended St Hughs College, Oxford University and appeared on University Challenge in 1968, as captain of the college team. She joined the Heritage Society at Oxford University and sang with a group called Mistral, an appearance at Sidmouth Folk Festival led to folk club bookings and she contributed to various records. One of her earliest recordings was in 1972 on an anthology called Stagfolk Live and she also featured on Rosie Hardmans Firebird and The First Folk Review Record. At the time she was singing purely traditional unaccompanied material but in 1976 she collaborated with Maddy Prior on the Silly Sisters album and tour and it provided the launching pad that same year for her first album in her own right, Airs and Graces. She later joined again with Prior, this using the name Silly Sisters for their duo. Starting in 1977 Martin Simpson joined her in the studio for three albums before he moved to America in 1987. After his departure, she started working closely with pianist Huw Warren, Tabor stopped performing professionally for a time after working for decades as a singer, although she made some guest appearances with Fairport Convention during this period. In 1990, Tabor recorded an album with the folk-rock band The Oyster Band titled Freedom and she went on tour with the Oyster Band, and the Rykodisc label published a limited-run promotional live album the following year. Many of her current fans first discovered her through this tour, in 1992, Elvis Costello wrote All This Useless Beauty specifically for Tabor, and she recorded it on Angel Tiger. Costello did not record it himself until 1996, on his album of the same title, in 1983, the BBC TV series Spyship was broadcast, with Tabor singing the title song. In 1997 she appeared on Ken Russells In Search of English Folk Song broadcast of Channel 4, tim Winton, author of the 2001 novel Dirt Music which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, made a selection of music to echo the themes of the novel. The CD Dirt Music includes He Fades Away by Tabor, a tale of the slow death of a miner. In 2002 the Passchendale Peace Concert in Flanders had Tabor sharing the stage with Coope Boyes, on 30 June 2006 BBC Radio 3 broadcast Night Waves to commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. It was broadcast live, with World War I songs sung by Tabor, over the years she has worked in various genres including jazz and art song, but generally with a sparse and sombre tone to it
16.
Jim Moray
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Jim Moray is an English folk singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. While studying classical composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Moray released the home-recorded I Am Jim Moray EP, during 2002 he appeared at the Glastonbury festival and the Cambridge Folk Festival gaining notice in the music press. A nomination for the Horizon Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2003 followed before he began work on his first full-length album, the album was recorded in his bedroom while completing his final year of study. Sweet England was released in June 2003 on his own Niblick Is A Giraffe record label, at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2004 he was presented with the Album of the Year Award for Sweet England and the Horizon Award for best newcomer. He was also nominated twice in the Best Traditional Song category for Early One Morning, Moray recorded and released the single Sprig of Thyme in May 2004, and in the autumn appeared on the Oysterbands Big Session Volume 1 album. This gained yet more Folk Award nominations in 2005, including one for Cuckoos Nest, after a long gestation period, Morays eponymous second album was released on 1 May 2006. Moving away from the sound of Sweet England it features a more orchestral sound. On 6 July 2007, The Independent featured Sweet England in its Cult Classic series, affirming its impact, Jim Morays third album, Low Culture, was released on 14 July 2008. On this album Jim makes use of African kora, the melodeon and mandolin, Low Culture won the fRoots Critics Poll Album of the Year 2008 and was also the MOJO Folk Album of the Year 2008. It was also nominated for the Album of the Year Award in the BBC Folk Awards 2009 and it was also announced that the album would be available in a deluxe box set and standard editions on 7 June 2010. Morays fifth studio album Skulk was released on Bandcamp with no build-up or warning in January 2012 going straight to number 1 on the Bandcamp chart and it received a full release on 9 April 2012. Moray received three nominations in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for Best Album, Folk Singer of the Year, along with singer and guitarist Sam Carter, in 2014 Moray launched a new band named False Lights to play traditional music with electric instruments. Their album Salvor, produced by Moray, was released in Feb 2015 and they announced headline shows at Folk East, Trowbridge Village Pump and Homegrown festivals. Aside from all of his own albums he has begun to produce other artists. Moray produced and mixed the track The Cuckoos Nest for the Oysterband Big Session in 2004 and this was a live album, recorded over two nights, featuring a similar line-up to the tour he took part in in 2003. The track was nominated in the BBC Folk Awards that year, during 2005 Moray produced and performed on James Raynards debut album Strange Histories, released in September 2005 on One Little Indian records. In 2008 he wrote and produced the song The Wishfulness Waltz for his sister Jackie Oates second album The Violet Hour, as well as playing all the instruments on the track. He subsequently produced and mixed her third album Hyperboreans which was released in September 2009, in 2015 he produced and mixed her sixth album The Spyglass And The Herringbone as well as co-writing the majority of the tracks
17.
Chris Wood (folk musician)
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Chris Wood is an English songwriter and composer who plays fiddle, viola and guitar, and sings. He has worked for years in a duo with button accordion/melodeon player Andy Cutting. Q Magazine gave their Live at Sidmouth album four stars and put the duo at the forefront of the latest wave of British music acts, one of his first recordings was playing bass and percussion on Jacks Alive the first album by the Oysterband. Wood is also a member of Wood, Wilson & Carthy, with Roger Wilson, Wood & Cutting, together with piano accordionist Karen Tweed and guitarist Ian Carr, make up the Two Duos Quartet, who have made one album Half as happy as we. With John Dipper on fiddle and Robert Harbron on concertinas, he is part of the English Acoustic Collective. This is also the name of an organisation which Wood set up in 1999 to link the many threads of his activities, including summer schools based at Ruskin Mill near Nailsworth. Other projects include Listening to the River and Glassblower, described as an industrial ballet and he was also nominated in three other categories, Best Album, Best Traditional Track, and Folk Singer of the Year. In 2009, the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards recognised Wood as Folk Singer of the Year, and Trespasser was also recognised as Album of the Year. In March 2009, Wood took part in the Darwin Song Project, a CD was released in August 2009. In 2012, the singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading asked him to appear as support act on the British leg of her Starlight tour
18.
John Kirkpatrick (musician)
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John Kirkpatrick is an English player of free reed instruments. John Kirkpatrick was born in 1947 in Chiswick, west London, as a child he sang in the choir and played piano. In 1959 he joined the Hammersmith Morris Men, in the week of their existence. In 1970 he became a regular at a club in the Roebuck pub in Tottenham Court Road and led the resident group. The club hosted a show of Morris dancing and Ashley Hutchings turned up. It was the beginning of a musical relationship. In 1972 John recorded his first solo album Jump at the Sun which included Richard Thompson on acoustic guitar, in 1973 Kirkpatrick moved to Shropshire and married Sue Harris. After seeing a team called Gloucestershire Old Spot Morris Morris Dancers he formed Shropshire Bedlams to perform local dances. In the early weeks some girls turned up and rather than have a mixed team, Harris took the girls aside to form Martha Rhodens Tuppenny Dish. By this time John Kirkpatrick was a player of melodeon, Anglo concertina. Ashley Hutchings project Battle of the Field floundered when the Albion Country Band broke up and they had recorded not quite enough material for an album. John had appeared on several of the tracks with Martin Carthy and it was not released until 1976 but is highly regarded. Harris sang and played oboe and hammered dulcimer, an unusual combination, in 1974 John Kirkpatrick and Ashley Hutchings produced a themed album The Compleat Dancing Master, a history of English country dancing. He 1976 he teamed up with Martin Carthy for Plain Capers, in the same period, John released two albums as a duo with Sue Harris. John became part of Richard Thompsons backing band in 1978 and this brought him such publicity that he was in heavy demand as a session musician. He recorded with Pere Ubu, Viv Stanshall, Jack the Lad, Gerry Rafferty, Maddy Prior, in 1980 he released his only single, Jogging Along with My Reindeer. Two more albums with Sue Harris appeared in 1981, but the constant touring, as a duo and they had four sons together, but parted in the mid eighties. In 1979 Kirkpatrick had appeared in the National Theatre Companys stage show Lark Rise to Candleford together with Carthy, the group is an occasional gathering rather than a fixed company
19.
Child Ballads
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The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Childs studies of them were published as the 2, the tunes of most of the ballads were collected and published by Bertrand Harris Bronson in and around the 1960s. There were also comprehensive ballad collections from other countries, Child modelled his work on Svend Grundtvigs Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, classifying and numbering the ballads and noting different versions, which were placed side by side to aid comparison. As a result, one Child number may cover several ballads, conversely, ballads classified separately may contain turns of phrase, and even entire verses, that are identical. The ballads vary in age, for instance, the manuscript of Judas dates to the thirteenth century, the majority of the ballads, however, date to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although some are claimed to have very ancient influences, only a handful can be traced to before 1600. Moreover, few of the tunes collected are as old as the words, nevertheless, Childs collection was far more comprehensive than any previous collection of ballads in English. Many of Childs ballads were obtained from printed broadsides, but he distinguished the traditional ballads that interested him from later broadside ballads. As Child died before writing a commentary on his work, it is exactly how and why he selected some ballads. Child Ballads are generally heavier and darker than is usual for ballads, on one extreme, some Child Ballads recount identifiable historical people, in known events, embellished for dramatic effect. On the other, some differ from fairy tales solely by their songs and in verse. A large part of the collection is about Robin Hood, some are about King Arthur, a few of the ballads are rather bawdy. The editorial history of Childs publication received a study by Mary Ellen Brown in 2011. In 1860, Child published a collection entitled English and Scottish Ballads, generally presenting just one variant of each ballad, via Little, Brown. However, as a scholarly edition this was superseded by his later, the first edition of Childs book was, once complete, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. by Francis James Child,5 vols. It was printed in one thousand copies, and actually issued in ten parts, the final title pages for each of the five volumes, printed in red and black, were issued with part 10. Part 10 actually emerged after Childs death, and was edited by George Lyman Kittredge, the book was reprinted, this time physically in three volumes, in 1957 by the New York-based Folklore Press, in association with the Pageant Book Company. It was reprinted again in 1965 in New York by Dover, this time with an essay by Walter Morris Hart entitled Professor Child, many Child Ballads have subsequently appeared in contemporary music recordings
20.
Alan-a-Dale
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Alan-a-Dale is a figure in the Robin Hood legend. According to the stories, he was a minstrel who became a member of Robins band of outlaws. In this tale, Robin rescues Alans sweetheart from a marriage to an old knight. They stop the bishop from proceeding with the ceremony, and Robin Hood, in other versions it is Little John or Friar Tuck that performs the ceremony. Another variant appears in which the hero is not Alan but Will Scarlet, howard Pyle uses this tale in his book The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, but changes several details. In Pierce Egan the Youngers story Robin Hood and Little John, Alan is given the name Sir Allan Clare, he is a knight, not a minstrel. His sweetheart is Lady Christabel, the daughter of the Sheriff of Nottingham, who wants to give her to an old knight friend of his. The Allan-a-Dale name is given to his estates in Sherwood Forest, he is not given a role after he and Christabel are married by Little John. Alan plays a prominent role in later plays, childrens novels, films. Alan-a-Dale was played by John Schlesinger in two episodes of Robin Hood, Alan-a-Dale is the musical narrator of Disneys 1973 animated Robin Hood film. He is depicted as a lute-playing rooster voiced by country singer Roger Miller, the songs are Whistle Stop, Oo-De-Lally, and Not in Nottingham. Alan Dale is the character in Angus Donalds novels Outlaw, Holy Warrior. He is played by Elton Hayes in the 1952 film The Story of Robin Hood, Alan A ‘Dale was the subject of a comic song performed on Dudley Moore and Peter Cooks show, Not Only But Also in 1965. The lyrics consisted of more than a repetition of his name. Along with Cook and Moore, the performers were Joe Melia, Bill Wallis and he was played by Bing Crosby in the rat pack film Robin and the 7 Hoods. He was played by Peter Hutchinson in the 1984 British television series Robin of Sherwood, appearing in the fifth episode, in this version, Alans sweetheart is named Mildred and is to be married to the Sheriff of Nottingham. Friar Tuck weds Alan and Mildred, in the 2002 video game Robin Hood, The Legend of Sherwood, Allan appears briefly to disguise himself as Prince Johns man Guillame de Longchamps to deliver the ransom to save King Richard. LeVar Burtons character Geordi La Forge was cast as Alan-a-Dale in a Robin Hood fantasy episode of Star Trek, Allan A Dale is played by Joe Armstrong in the 2006 BBC production of Robin Hood
21.
Barbara Allen (song)
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Barbara Allen is a traditional Scottish ballad, it later travelled to America both orally and in print, where it became a popular folk song. The ballad generally follows a plot, although narrative details vary between versions. A servant asks Barbara Allen to attend on his sick master and she visits the bedside of the heartbroken young man, who pleads for her love. She refuses, claiming that he had slighted her while drinking with friends, Barbara Allen later hears his funeral bells tolling, stricken with grief, she dies as well. They are buried in the church, a rose grows from his grave, a briar from hers. A diary entry by Samuel Pepys on January 2,1666 contains the earliest extant reference to the song, from this, Roud & Bishop have inferred the song was popular at that time. They suggested that it may have written for stage performance, as Elizabeth Knepp was a professional actress, singer. One 1690 broadside of the song was published in London under the title Barbara Allens cruelty, or, with Barbara Allens amentation for her unkindness to her lover, and her self. Additional printings were common in Britain throughout the eighteenth century, the ballad was first printed in the United States in 1836. Many variations of the continued to be printed on broadsides in the United States through the 19th and 20th centuries. Throughout New England, it was passed orally and spread by inclusion in songbooks and newspaper columns, along with other popular ballads such as The Farmers Curst Wife, several early complete versions of the ballad are extant. Scottish poet Allan Ramsay published Bonny Barbara Allen in his Tea-Table Miscellany published in 1740, soon after, Thomas Percy published two similar renditions in his 1765 collection Reliques of Ancient English Poetry under the titles Barbara Allens Cruelty and Sir John Grehme and Barbara Allen. Ethnomusicologist Francis Child compiled these renditions together with others found in the Roxburghe Ballads to create his A and B standard versions. It was in and about the Martinmas time, When the green leaves were a falling, O Hooly, hooly rose she up, To the place where he was lying, And when she drew the curtain by, Young man, I think youre dying. The setting is sometimes Scarlet Town and this may be a punning reference to Reading, as a slip-song version c.1790 among the Madden songs at Cambridge University Library has In Reading town, where I was bound. London town and Dublin town are used in other versions, the dying man is called Sir John Graeme in the earliest known printings. American versions of the ballad often call him some variation of William, James, or Jimmy, his last name may be specified as Grove, Green, Grame, the ballad opens by establishing a festive timeframe, usually stated as May, Martinmas, or Lammas. A dialogue between the two follows, O its Im sick, and very, very sick, And t is a Barbara Allan, O the better for me yes never be
