Milk White Dove

I've just been at Leigh Folk Festival for the weekend and got to hear and meet the excellent Kate Denny. Kate has recently released a new solo album entitled 'Closer to Home' (just this week in fact!) which is already being described as "a gently poignant and increasingly haunting musical delight” (fRoots magazine) and I told her about this little project that I've been putting together and if she would like to record a special song just for our time in Leigh. To my great delight she agreed and along with Rosemary Lippard and the excellent musician Robin Grey we sat down to put down a couple of tracks in the living room of a little fishing cottage near the harbour (listen out for Robin's next week). Of the song, Kate says "I found this tale in a Scottish Book of Fairy tales - and was really struck with all the various folk themes contained in it - and thought it would be perfect to turn into a folk song."



Hope you enjoy and check out the pages below for more information on the musicians

http://katedenny.com/
http://www.robingrey.com/

Tim

There once was a man had two children dear
But his wife was dead and gone
On an ill day he married in haste
And a new wife he brought home
It was an ill day for she was not kind
The children she despised
She plotted plotted and planned to be rid of them
And took the young boy's life
She put his body in the cooking pot
To pretend it was rabbit stew
But the daughter guessed at her evil game
And knew what she must do

Ch: Pew pew what a dreadful fate
Mother murdered me and my father me ate
My sister gathered my bones
And buried them beneath two milk white stones
Until they grew and grew
Into a milk white dove
And flew forever in the sky above
A beautiful milk white dove

Two women they were washing clothes
And heard the dove's sad song
"If you'll sing your song for us again
This dress to you will belong"
The dove alighted on a window sill
Where a man was counting his store
"The song you sang has bewitched me so
That a bag of gold is yours"
He finally flew to a brown, brown mill
Where two millers were grinding corn
And such was his song that the miller's son
Handed him a grey mill stone

ch:

The dove was heavy with burden
As he flew back to his home
He gave a call as he landed on the roof
For to see his family again
His sister was the first to come out
And his father was the next
So he flung the gold to his daddy'o
And his sister got the dress
The stepmother was slow and stout
And so appeared at last
He threw the millstone upon her head
And cracked her head in half

ch:

While Gamekeepers are Sleeping

Everyone enjoys a tale of the rogue who comes out on top and this is one of my favourite examples of those stories, the chap in this one shows himself to have a heart as well as a smart mind.

The main character in this song is a poacher who, despite all odds, comes up good and always has a trick up his sleeve to help out. A good natured man at heart wherever he appears in the various versions of this song, in this version he helps out a couple in need despite one of them being an officer of the law who once arrested him, the words certainly point to a generous nature rather than guilt for on the part of his deception earlier in the plot, certainly a positive message and one that resonates kindly with all who hear the words.

This version, recorded in 1977, was sung by Bob Roberts on the Isle of Wight though there are several different versions recorded in Hampshire, Sussex, Kent and Suffolk. Roberts himself came from Dorset originally so this is clearly a song born the the fields in the Southern counties.

The singer this week is Rosemary Lippard with guitar by Tim. Rose cites June Tabor's excellent version on 'airs and graces' as one of her inspirations for her vocals on the song.

Tim

I've got a long-legged lurcher dog
And I keeps him in my keeping
He'd run a hare on a winter's night
Whilst the gamekeepers lie sleeping x 2

One day a policeman collared me
To have me in his keeping
Your brindle made a moonlight raid
Whilst the gamekeepers lie sleeping x 2

I seen her come out of the wood
Across the fields right speeding
A partridge she had in her mouth
Whilst the gamekeepers lie sleeping x 2

But my dog's black and white you see
So I'm not for your keeping
He couldn't see I'd brindled she
Whilst the gamekeepers lie sleeping x 2

One day his wife fell mortal ill
He had to give up policing
But I dropped on by his door each night
Whilst the gamekeepers lie sleeping x 2

She fed so well on pheasant broth
Her colour come back creeping
So long as my dog roamed abroad
Whilst the gamekeepers lie sleeping x 2

My bitch she pupped, I gave him one
For to have in his own keeping
He left the force and now roams like me
Whilst the gamekeepers lie sleeping x 2

Many thanks to Elliott Kember for this recording