When I Come Home

This week a cracking song by Chris and Anne that really captures the spirit of returning home. On their CD 'Peaceful Harbour' they write:

"Chris wrote one and a half verses of this song. We sometimes have a competition for the audience to guess which (clue: sex and booze)."

Chris and Anne

Ch: When I come home, when I come home again
Sweet are the songs I'll be singing
When I come home, when I come home again
Deep is the love I'll be bringing

Tall are the trees by the riverside
Bright is the sun on the water
Peaceful and still is the countryside
Where we can stay forever

Ch:

Deep is the lake by the mountainside
Sweet is the scent of the flowers
We'll walk together hand in hand
Through gorse and heather for hours

Ch:

Down in the valley the village lies
Rosy and red in the sunset
Cosy the light in the window shines
Welcoming me from my travels

Ch:

Friends will come round and eagerly
Listen to tales of my journeys
Then we will drink a pint or two
To keep out the chill of the evening

Ch:

Dark is the night all is silent now
Let's leave this part of our lives
Here now beside me is my love
No more to lie alone

Sweet Lover of Mine

This week's song is an upbeat version of a song that you may well know, over to you Rob (sans Garfunkel):

"I love the fact that there are so many versions and arrangements of different
traditional songs that perhaps there is one song you could sing all the time, and no-one
would ever get bored. Maybe. I don't know how many versions there are of the Two
Sisters, or the Prickly Bush for example but I'd love to have the time to find out.

Most people are familiar with "Scarborough Fair" as recorded back in the day by
Simon & Garfunkel, and many 'folkies' also know that this is Martin Carthy's version
of Child Ballad #2, The Elfin Knight. Child lists over a dozen variants and other
collectors have found over 50 different texts. The Coppers have "My Father He Had
an Acre of Land in their song basket, and I once heard Sandra Kerr at a Singers Group
here in Bath sing a smashing Northumbrian version called Whittingham Fair.

Last year Emily Smith released "Traiveller's Joy", a great album which I heartily
recommend, and on it I found this song, "Sweet Lover of Mine". She says that the
version she started with was collected in Coleraine, Ulster. It has been running around
in my head for some months now, and a few Sunday's ago at The Star it just sort of
came out, though I have to say it is infinitely better sung with Emily's Scottish accent.
I didn't know Tim was recording at the time, but he was, and here it is...."

Sweet Lover of Mine by Emily Smith (Anglicised by Rob Winder)

As I came over by Bonny Moor Hill
Every rose grows bonny in time
I met a sweet lass, and they called her Nell
Longing to be a sweet lover of mine

It’s questions three I will ask of thee
Every rose grows bonny in time
And it’s questions three you must answer me
Before you are a sweet lover of mine

You must make me a cambric shirt
Every rose grows bonny in time
Without one stitch of your needlework
Before you are a sweet lover of mine

You must wash it in yonder well
Every rose grows bonny in time
Where never water ran and rain never fell
Before you are a sweet lover of mine

Then dry it out on yonder thorn
Every rose grows bonny in time
Where blossom never bloomed since Adam was born
Before you are a sweet lover of mine

That’s questions three you have asked of me
Every rose grows bonny in time
And it’s questions three you’ll now answer me
Before you are a sweet lover of mine

You must get me an acre of land
Every rose grows bonny in time
Between the salt sea and the sea water strand
Before you are a sweet lover of mine

You must plough it with an old ram’s horn
Every rose grows bonny in time
And then sow it o’er with a single grain of corn
Before you are a sweet lover of mine

You must sheer it with a sickle of leather
Every rose grows bonny in time
And bind it all with a peacock’s feather
Before you are a sweet lover of mine

Then stook it o’er on yonder sea
Every rose grows bonny in time
And bring the shell sheaf dry back unto me
Before you are a sweet lover of mine

And when you’ve done and finished your work
Every rose grows bonny in time
You may call unto me for your cambric shirt
And you'll be a sweet lover of mine

Then I'll be a sweet lover of thine

Ae Fond Kiss

This track is a firm favourite at the session and I've wanted a recording of Ali's version for quite a while now:


"Ae Fond Kiss is a love poem by the Scottish poet and song collector Robert Burns. His words were an adaptation of the poem "One Kind Kiss Before We Part" by Robert Dodsley, whose lines reportedly were set to music by James Oswald around 1756. It was first written as a poem in a letter to Agnes M'Lehose ( known as 'Nancy' to her friends) in December 1791. I first heard this song from my father, who is a Robert Burns fanatic. I have always admired the intense passion and sadness conveyed in the lyrics."

Ali

Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee!
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerfu' twinkle lights me,
Dark despair around benights me.

I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy;
Naething could resist my Nancy;
But to see her was to love her,
Love but her, and love for ever.
Had we never loved sae kindly,
Had we never loved sae blindly,
Never met—or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.

Fare thee weel, thou first and fairest!
Fare thee weel, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure,
Peace, enjoyment, love, and pleasure!
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!
Ae fareweel, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee!

She Moved Through the Fair

Owen, a recent edition to the group, sings the classic tale for us this week;

"This was the first song I ever sang, nearly 2 years back! I never consciously learnt it -- it just osmosed into my head at the right time and place.
Pure chance had brought me to an Irish session one night and impure substances had got me into the mindset that I'd sing. I had never sung in public before and had no idea what to sing, just a definite desire to do so. I had stepped outside to think, and 'She Moves Through The Fair' was the first complete song to enter my mind. I had known it a long time from Sandy Denny and John Martyn's recordings, but neither treated the song well (John Martyn even omitted the twist about her being dead, that's 1968 for you).

So I asked Mai Hernon for permission to join in and gave I suppose a note-for-note rendition of Anne Briggs' perfectly spooky recording -- I'm sure you all know it. It was her version that showed me the beauty of the melody and the importance of the story - she sang She Moves egolessly, or rather with her whole self.

For me that experience was epiphanic. The greatest songs grow on you like barnacles on saltwood, or it's as if the song carries itself, and you the singer are temporarily a void through which the light travels. In my experience this sensation is purest when singing a capella - I feel very privileged to have met so many singers here."

Owen

Owen is also a fantastic artist in his own right, have a look at his work here

My young love said to me, “My mother won't mind,
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind.”
Then she laid her hand on me and this she did say,
“Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding day.”

She went away from me and moved through the fair,
And fondly I watched her move here and move there.
Then she went away homeward not one star awake
Like a swan in the evening moves over the lake

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in,
And so softly she came, her feet made no din.
Then she laid her hand on me and this she did say,
“It will not be long, love, till our wedding day.”

The Ballad of Hawkwood

As promised last week, here is Robin Grey's song from Leigh. Robin is a terrific singer-songwriter based in London and the first time I heard this track (which is on his latest album) I knew I wanted to sing it with him one day! Also here are Rosemary Lippard and Kate Denny.

"Written about Hawkwood Nursery, the main site of Organiclea, a workers' cooperative growing food on London's edge in the Lea Valley (www.organiclea.org.uk)

The melody comes from an old english murder ballad called 'The Two Sisters' which I first heard performed by Rachael Dadd. I learn it from a Tom Waits recording but did not fancy singing about death so wrote these words instead."

Robin

There is a fine gent christened Ru Litherland
Mulch, sow and then reap
There is a fine gent christened Ru Litherland
And he has green fingers on both of his hands
I’ll be good to the land and the land will be good to me

With the vicar’s fair daughter he dreamed a bold dream
To grow food for his kinsmen as nature decreed.

By the edge the forest they spied a fine patch
And to grow fruit and veg there a plan they did hatch.

The men of the hour dreamed of buildings not plants
A development would far more there profits enhance.

Our forefathers fought for this fair forest land
So now against the law was the businessman’s plan.

After two years had past did the council relent
So now we’ll work the earth as our forefathers meant.

Now if you past by here you may hear a tune:
Mulch, sow and then reap
Now if you past by here you may hear a tune,
The melody is old and the words will be soon.
I’ll be good to the land and the land will be good to me