31st May 2020 - Free Games For May

And so, May 2020 comes to an end. CMLE Play was set up to share some joy in what was a difficult month. I certainly enjoyed doing the blog - and I hope you enjoyed it too.

Some of my personal discoveries in curating the blog were Magpie Lane, The Hindman Settlement School and the classic Lomax film about Padstow. I was also pleasantly reminded about Malicorne by Tony Gillam and introduced to a couple of classical takes on May songs by Stuart Raistrick and Ariane Klauer.

We had some straight May or May-related traditional songs from Steve Fry, Brian Hunt, William Duddy, Phil Harley and Jackie Lyness. We had folk-rocked songs (sorry, that was me) and we had newly completed songs from Vic Gammon, Ant Wilson, Phil Howie and Penny Grennan.

May is also the month for Morris - and I don't mean Maurice the mouse who appeared briefly in my video. There were Morris contributions from many of the above-named, plus a couple of tunes from Doug Watt. Great to hear.

There was some tasty May-related mountain dulcimer sneaking in too - me again, Tony, William, Ariane, Sam Gleaves, Steve Smith and Steven K.Smith.

Over the month we got the chance to listen to a lot of great songs and tunes and there was some canny craic flying about in the facebook group. Some of my highlights, in no particular order, were:

• Chris Leslie dancing and playing a jig in his back garden
• Ant's crazy video "Nutz In May"
• Trying to keep the peace in the banjo wars between Tony and William
• Jackie's bonnie May costume
• A very funny parody of Matty Groves by Phil Harley
• Re-discovering and re-mixing Jim Wigfield's lovely Mayfly song
• Ken Hudson on Phoenix FM reading out in full the members of the Whole Hog Band
• Getting the opportunity to collaborate with the legendary Cecilia Winterbottom
• Ant having nightmares about Mr.Maypole 
• Voice Venir Le Joli Mai - pure psychedelia Tony!
• The hobby hoss on wheels in the Stealing Sheep video

Thanks everyone for taking part in our free games for May. I hope to see you again soon. Let's leave this blog with Pink Floyd, after all it was their song the blog was named after........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c0EDM-Yu9o 

30th May 2020 - Summer Is Icumen In

A song from the 13th century written in the Wessex dialect of Middle English, Summer Is Icumen In is a round (or rota) also known as the Summer Canon or the Cuckoo Song. It is the earliest known musical composition written in 6-part polyphony and the manuscript in which it was preserved was copied between 1261 and 1264.

It is also known as the Reading Rota as the manuscript was found at Reading Abbey, though it probably was not drafted there. As is usual with these cultural artefacts (for example the Lindisfarne Gospels) it is now to be found at the British Library, which I believe is in London.

Anyroadup, this is a great song to bring our May series almost to a conclusion. Let's welcome in the summer with Jackie Lyness:

https://youtu.be/hIj4ovWM3Kg

Lyrics in Middle English:

Sumer is icumen in
Lhude sing cuccu
Groweþ sed
and bloweþ med
and springþ þe wde nu
Sing cuccu

Awe bleteþ after lomb
lhouþ after calue cu
Bulluc sterteþ
bucke uerteþ
murie sing cuccu

Cuccu cuccu
Wel singes þu cuccu
ne swik þu nauer nu

Sing cuccu nu • Sing cuccu.
Sing cuccu • Sing cuccu nu

Modern translation:

Summer has arrived,
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
The seed is growing
And the meadow is blooming,
And the wood is coming into leaf now,
Sing, cuckoo!

The ewe is bleating after her lamb,
The cow is lowing after her calf;
The bullock is prancing,
The billy-goat farting [or, possibly "The stag cavorting"],
Sing merrily, cuckoo!

Cuckoo, cuckoo,
You sing well, cuckoo,
Never stop now.

Sing, cuckoo, now; sing, cuckoo;
Sing, cuckoo; sing, cuckoo, now!


Information on the song sourced from Wikipedia

29th May 2020 - Two May Tunes

Two May Tunes - A lockdown virtual collaboration between Vic Gammon (tenor banjo) Steve Gray (mandolin and mix) and Cecilia Winterbottom (bass). 

https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14055167

Here are Vic's notes about the tunes:

‘The 29th May’ was published by John Playford in The Dancing Master from the seventh edition in 1686 to the eighteenth edition in 1728, it was also in his Apollo’s Banquet of 1686 and in John Walsh’s dance collections in 1718, 1731 and 1754. 

People will recognise the tune as related to the Hymn ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’. This adaptation was made by the Victorian hymn composer W H Monk (he of ‘Abide with Me’ and music editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern). The words are from Mrs Cecil Alexander's Hymns for Little Children (1848) - a highly conservative work that tried to teach children to behave themselves and put up with the world as it is:

The rich man in his castle / The poor man at his gate / God made them high or lowly / And ordered their estate. 

She was the daughter of a land agent in Ireland and married a man who became Bishop of Derry, later Archbishop of Armagh. She also wrote the words of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ and other well-know pieces.

The original dance tune is obviously named after ‘Restoration Day’, (aka ‘Oak Apple Day’) the day Charles II (he of 12 illegitimate children and counting) was restored to the English throne in 1660. Sad - I think it would have been better if we had stayed a republic, but it was not to be. Nice tune though - I don’t think there is a tune called ‘The 30th of January’ - I should write it. 

’The New May Moon’ I first came across in the manuscript book of the Welch family of Bosham in Sussex, which dates from  around 1800, Anne Loughran and I included it as no 77 in A Sussex Tune Book (1982). In the Welch manuscript it is simply called ’The New Moon’ but the tune crops up in other English, Scottish and Irish sources as ‘The Young May Moon’ or ‘The New May Moon’.  It has a number of other titles including ‘Johnny the Journeyman’ and ‘The Dandy-O’

The tune gets the May moon title from a song by Thomas Moore published in 1807, but Moore used an old tune. You can hear a performance of the song by, of all people, Anthony Burgess, the author of A Clockwork Orange at https://www.anthonyburgess.org/blog-posts/anthony-burgess-sings-the-young-may-moon/ . 

The tune became an unofficial march of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and The Quick March of the 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles. Strange world isn’t it? 

28th May 2020- Bright Skies

Bright Skies is my response to the May project that Steve has kindly set up. I wrote this song whilst walking under a blue sky in November in Northumberland. It was a beautiful day. The words and tune just came out together. I like it when that happens. I had a difficult time matching the tune with the chords until I discovered DADGAD tuning this month. I hope that you like it. Happy May.

https://youtu.be/EeOT7SO5oqI

Bright skies, bright skies,
With the blue of your eyes,
Bright skies, light skies,
And the white clouds hanging high,
Light skies, nice skies
And the sun reflected in your eyes,
And I say, Light skies, bright skies,
Makes me want to have wings to fly.

If I had wings and I could fly,
I ‘d take to the sky,
I ‘d skim over the land,
And see the imprint made by man,
I’d skim over the sea,
And see those fishes swimming free.
Nice skies, bright skies
They make my spirits rise.

Some days are dark and grey
And heavily they weigh, upon me
But my heart flies
When I see a nice sky.

Bright Skies, light skies
They make me want to fly
They make me remember the blue of your eyes
I see all this in a nice sky.

Bright skies, light skies
They help our hearts to rise
And reach the pinnacle of the skies
All this in a nice sky
All this in bright sky
So beautiful it makes me want to cry
Nice skies, bright skies
In the blue of your eyes.

27th May 2020 - Staines Morris

The lyrics to this were first printed as The Maypole Song in 1656 from a stage play. William Chappell then married the lyrics with the tune of Staines Morris in his Popular Music of the Olden Time, Vol. 1 (1859, pp. 125-6), saying:

"This tune is taken from the first edition of (Playford's) The Dancing Master. It is also in William Ballet's Lute Book (time of Elizabeth); and was printed as late as about 1760, in a Collection of Country Dances, by Wright.

The Maypole Song, in Actæon and Diana [Robert Cox, 2nd ed., 1656], seems so exactly fitted to the air, that, having no guide as to the one intended, I have, on conjecture, printed it with this tune".

However, Steve Fry says: "I got it from Ashley Hutching's "Morris On"!"

https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14053340

Come ye young men, come along,
With your music and your song.
Bring your lasses in your hands
For 'tis that which love commands.

Chorus:
Then to the maypole haste away
For 'tis now our holiday

'Tis the choice time of the year
For the violets now appear.
Now the rose receives its birth
And the pretty primrose decks the earth.

And when you well reckoned have
What kisses you your sweethearts gave,
Take them all again and more,
It will never make them poor.

When you thus have spent your time
Till the day be past its prime
To your beds repair at night
And dream there of your day's delight.

26th May 2020 - Return of Hal An Tow

We heard Jackie Lyness singing the Helston May song Hal-An-Tow earlier in this blog series. And I have had it in my head all month - sometimes I burst out into actual song at unexpected moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs9PMky7Fj0

I first caught Hal-An-Tow on the Waterson's magnificent album Frost and Fire, which was apparently Melody Maker album of the year in 1965. Now, I don't work for or receive any commission from Topic Records, but I am going to quote their description of the re-mixed album in full. I'm off to buy a copy now and urge you to do the same.

"First released in 1965, Frost and Fire, A Calendar Of Ritual and Magical Songs was the debut album from the then new group on the folk scene. Originally from Hull, two sisters, their brother and cousin had been singing family songs all their lives and as a new folk group had been attracting attention for their powerful and exciting performances. 

They were taken into the studio by Bill Leader to record an album for Topic Records and what came out of the sessions was incredible. Frost and Fire was essentially a concept album, the songs following the passage of the year. It's effect was seismic, standing the folk scene on it's head and influencing not just folkies but the ever growing and eclectic rock scene as well, particularly Traffic whose magnificent "John Barleycorn Must Die" came directly from Frost and Fire. 

Sympathetically and carefully re-mastered from the original master, the resulting sound on this new release of Frost and Fire is nothing short of a revelation. Belying it's years, the power and sonority of the voices hits the listener just as hard now as it did in 1965. To accompany such an incredible sonic upgrade, the packaging has been enhanced with a slipcase and an expanded booklet which has many photos of English folk traditions and is a visual treat."

25th May 2020 - Lockdown Birds in May

Here's a new song from my good friend, Phil Howie - hot off the press, as they used to say, to make the CMLE Play schedule. It was certainly worth the anticipation!

Let's hear what Phil has to say about "Lockdown Birds in May":

"Inspired from our daily walks during Covid-19 lockdown on Alston Moor. Started by trying to record one of my favourite bird sounds, that of the Curlew, using my mobile phone (and heard at the beginning of my song). We also noted all the many birds that could be seen and now easily heard in our garden, such as the blackbird, and in our immediate surroundings.

The peace was lovely, and often the sky was so clear and blue. However, when lockdown was eased we started to lose the tranquility with human noise competing with the birds. It started to make you wonder what you really preferred!"

https://youtu.be/LwDY9z2LJ5A

Lockdown Birds in May

‘Twas in the month of May
I heard the Curlews say
Hear my song, it’s your song
And the freedom that you long

The lapwing cries a warning
“Away from my nest”
Soaring above in the wind
Longing for its young to rest

The gull arrives high above
But the peewit sees him off
The cry echoes on the moor afar
And peace returns once more

Our blackbird arrives each day
Perches on rails out back
A nest in the tree in May
A short flight from the deck.

‘Twas in the month of May
I heard the Curlews say
Hear my song, it’s your song
And the freedom that you long

Lockdown is easing
Human noise drifting back
Peace and birdsong not so clear
Normality becoming ever so near

The robin, the wren, pied wagtail, bluetit, great tit, chaffinch,pigeon, yellowhammer, pheasant, the lapwing, the blackbird, the curlew

‘Twas in the month of May
I heard the Curlews say
Hear my song, it’s your song
And the freedom that you long

24th May 2020 - Jockey To The Fair

Isolation has brought out some wonderful songs and videos. One of these which made me smile and brought much joy was of Chris Leslie dancing around his garden in morris bells playing the fiddle. You might have to sign in to Facebook to see this - so apologies if you are unable to get to it.

https://www.facebook.com/203130380023789/videos/2562220777370465/

Of course, you will all know Chris from his contribution to Fairport Convention over many a year. I first saw him - and got his and Swarb's autograph on an LP - as part of Whippersnapper, a short-lived but excellent act. They were playing at the Labour Club in Tony Blair's constituency village, if I remember correctly.

I met up with him again - that's Chris, not Tony Blair - at a Durham Folkworks weekend, where he taught us some slightly obscure but exciting new tunes on fiddle. I still play a couple of these - but on mandolin as my fiddle playing has declined somewhat. Chris is an inspiring, approachable and patient teacher - and he's not bad on the fiddle and mandolin either.

Thanks for sharing your jig with us Chris!

23rd May 2020 - May Day Carol

According to their website Magpie Lane are a five-piece folk band from Oxford, specialising in traditional English songs and dance tunes. The band has been delighting audiences for over 25 years. And finally, through researching May songs for this project I have discovered them!

They have a lovely early folk-rock sound to my ears - based, admittedly, on my hearing only a very small part of their repertoire. They all sing and they play acoustic instruments - fiddle, concertina, melodeon, cello, bouzouki, guitar and percussion. 

Here is their version of the May Day Carol, which I will be contrasting (video available on Facebook only) with an American version by Sam Gleaves at the Hindman School.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqSv8gUgyA4

22nd May 2020 - Barbara Allen

Steve Smith, via Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer, kindly sent me links to several May-related songs played and tabbed for dulcimer for the Western North Carolina Dulcimer Group.

The tune I have selected is a song most people will recognise - Barbara Allen.

https://wncdc.org/mp3/Barbara%20Allen%20-%203.%20Full.mp3 Steve Smith plays Barbara Allen on the dulcimer

https://wncdc.org/tab/Barbara%20Allen.pdf for the dulcimer tab

https://wncdc.org/lyrics/Barbara%20Allen.txt for the lyrics

Steve's tab is in 3/4 time, but I came across an interesting discussion of time signatures in relation to traditional music from my dear friend, and CMLE Play contributor, Vic Gammon. Vic has a fascinating talk  about the history and global spread of the song, Barbara Allen, but in this paper he (and Emily Portman) examine it's time signature:

Barbara Allen’ (Child 84; Roud 54) ‘“Barbara Allen” I always get sung to five-time,’ said Cecil Sharp of his Somerset collection. ‘Barbara Allen’ is an immensely popular song. Bertrand Bronson remarked that it has ‘shown a stronger will-to-live than perhaps any other ballad in the canon. It has been popular since the seventeenth century and its popularity shows every sign of continuing. The Roud index produces over a thousand hits for the ballad (although some of these are duplications). Bronson includes about two hundred tune versions in The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads. Of these, around twenty, or approximately 10 per cent, are in five-time.

(From "Five-Time in English Traditional Song" by Vic Gammon and Emily Portman published in the Folk Music Journal and available to download from academia.edu).

21st May 2020 - May Song - Bedfordshire

One of the pleasures of curating CMLE Play has been friends and strangers getting in touch and offering their help and ideas. Anne Garrison contacted me and kindly sent me several May songs from a book of Buckinghamshire songs called "Pass The Music On" (collected and edited by Ken Piper).

Anne is a Maypole Dance organiser/leader - not a profession I have ever come across before. This year has obviously put paid to Maypole activities, but we wish her success for 2021. Please visit her Facebook page "Maypole Anne" for some joyful photos and to wish her well.

Reading the Buckingham May song lyrics made me think about the similarities between May songs from around the country (and even France - see Voici Venir Le Joli Mai). But first, the lyrics to my traditional Bedfordshire May song:

https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14049913

Good morning lords and ladies - it is the first of May
We hope you'll view our garland - it is so bright and gay

Chorus:
For it is the first of May, oh it is the first of May
Remember lords and ladies - it is the first of May

We gathered them this morning all in the early dew
And now we bring their beauty and fragrance all for you

The cuckoo comes in April. It sings it's song in May
In June it changes tune. In July it flies away

And now you've seen our garland, we must be on our way
So remember lords and ladies - it is the first of May

Ken Piper describes Mayday in Wolverton: "prior to the First World Way, carol singers still used to go round early on Mayday morning. Small groups of children carried a May garland and a collecting box. The garland was often a small hoop covered with coloured tissue paper and flowers, but sometimes a decorated wooden pushchair was pushed around by the carol singers. Even the baby in it would be covered in daisy chains.

"The flowers used were cowslips. daisies and bluebells. The bunch of May was a token, normally only in bud, as the cold clay soil of the area meant that it was hardly ever in flower by the first of May."

There were variations in the tradition and in the songs from village to village, but a lot of the surviving lyrics follow a similar pattern. Many begin with:

A bunch of May I have brought to you
And at your door it stand
It is but a sprout but it's well spread about
By the work of our fair hands.

Often the words were religious, reflecting the beliefs and fears of more God-fearing times:

It is but a sprout but it's well spread about
By the works of our Lord's hands.

Now take the bible in your hand
And read the chaper through
And when the day of judgement comes
God will remember you.  (Lillingstones and Akeley Mayday Song)

A man, a man his life's but a span
He flourishes like a flower
He is here today and gone tomorrow
And cut down in an hour. (Leckhampstead Mayday Song)

And even more grim:

Death when he strikes, he strikes so sharp
He strikes us to the ground
There is not a surgeon in all England
Can heal the dreadful wound. (Tingewick Mayday Song)

There are some lighter religious verses though:

The hedges and trees they are so green
As green as any leek
Our Heavenly Father, He watered them
With His Heavenly dew so sweet

The Heavenly gates are open wide
Our paths are beaten plain
And if a man be not too far gone
He may return again.  (Westbury Mayday Song)  

In many of the songs the Mayers ask for a few pence, some cream or some beer. I particularly like this one:

The may, the may, the very first of May
The springtime of the year
And I'll come round unto your door
To taste of your strong beer
And if you have no very strong beer
I'll be content with small
And take the goodness of your house
And thank the Lord for all.  (Amersham, Chesham and Tring Mayday Song)

I'll drink to that. Cheers!

20th May 2020 - The Nightingale

Now  you may recognise the story in this song. It appears in many variants and under quite a few different titles. Earlier in the series William Duddy played us his USA-derived version "The Bold Grenadier". Here is Phil Harley's version "The Nightingale. He has provided the words in his video for you to sing along with.

https://youtu.be/y5UYglHeGDs

Like me, Phil has an ancient song book (this one from 1967) in which he collected the lyrics.

19th May 2020 - May You Never

OK, it's a play on words, but William Duddy's take on John Martyn's classic deserves to be here. If you haven't heard the original then go seek it out. But first check out William's dulcimer-accompanied version:

https://youtu.be/0azD1bPJRIg

Lyrics from the John Martyn website:

And may you never lay your head down
Without a hand to hold
May you never make your bed out in the cold.

You’re just like a great strong brother of mine
You know that I love you true
And you never talk dirty behind my back
And I know that there’s those that do.

Oh please won’t you, please won’t you
Bear it in mind
Love is a lesson to learn in our time
Now please won’t you, please won’t you
Bear it in mind for me.

And may you never lay your head down
Without a hand to hold
May you never make your bed out in the cold.

Well you’re just like a good close sister to me
You know that I love you true
And you hold no blade to stab me in the back
And I know that there’s some that do.

Oh please won’t you, please won’t you
Bear it in mind
Love is a lesson to learn in our time
And please won’t you, please won’t you
Bear it in mind for me.

May you never lay your head down
Without a hand to hold
May you never make your bed out in the cold.

You’re just like a great strong brother of mine
And you know that I love you true
And you never talk dirty behind my back
And I know that there’s those that do.

Oh please won’t you, please won’t you
Bear it in mind
Love is a lesson to learn in our time
And please won’t you, please won’t you
Bear it in mind for me.

May you never lose your temper
If you get in a bar room fight
May you never lose your woman overnight
May you never lay your head down
Without a hand to hold
May you never make your bed out in the cold.

May you never lose your temper
If you get in a bar room fight
May you never lose your woman over night
May you never lose your woman over night
May you never lose your woman over night.

18th May 2020 - Voici Venir Le Joli Mai

Tony Gillam sent me a song for CMLE Play which was a cover of Malicorne's song "Voici Venir Le Joli Mai". I mentioned to Tony that it was rather short, coming in at only 26 seconds. Tony's response - it was actually longer than Malicorne's version!

Then the May magic set in. Tony re-worked the song into the psychedelic classic we now have before us. Take yourself back to the early seventies, put on your loons (no, they won't fit), don your headphones and float downstream.

https://soundcloud.com/fracture-zone/voici-venir-le-joli-mai-version-folle

Malicorne, often referred to as the French Steeleye Span, were formed in 1973 by Gabriel and Marie Yacoub. Gabriel had previously sung and played acoustic guitar, banjo and dulcimer in Alan Stivell's band, which introduced us to Breton Folk-Rock. I think he'd probably left by the time I saw Stivell at the City Hall in 1974.

"Voici Venir Le Joli Mai" was a track from Malicorne's concept album "Almanach" which journeyed through the calendar in traditional song. It is listed as being 24 seconds long. Despite it's brevity, it has much in common with the lyrics of a traditional English May song:

Voici venir le joli mai
L'alouette plante le mai
Voici venir le joli mai
L'alouette le plant
Vous plairait-il de vous lever
Pour nous donner a boire?

Here comes the pretty may
Lark plants may
Here comes the pretty may
The lark plants it
Would you like to get up and buy us a drink?

17th May 2020 - Dawn Chorus

I have to confess that some of the inspiration to get this blog up and running came from CMLE Play-contributor Ariane Klauer. Ariane ran an Advent calendar and then a Spring calendar in which a different mountain dulcimer-player would have a tune released every day. The Spring calendar is still available on Facebook and provides some lovely songs and tunes - many with accompanying videos.

It also has a song by me. With my attempt at a video. Here it is again, as it fits in with our May theme - a simple song of Spring with three (count them!) dulcimers driving it along. Listen to the birds sing.

And see if you can spot Maurice the mouse.

https://youtu.be/sQXRLq2oK0g

Dawn Chorus
by Steve Gray

Spring is sprung and lambs are born
The birds are singing-in the morn
Celebrate the coming day
A new day dawns - in every way
Listen to the birds sing
Listen to the birds sing
Listen to the birds.

Winter's gone - it's down and out
Green man rising - buds will sprout
The sun is shining on us all
Heed once more that mating call
Listen to the birds sing
Listen to the birds sing
Listen to the birds.

A young man's thoughts will turn to things
Best left unsaid - here comes the Spring!
Nights grow short, the days are long
It's time to sing our shearing song
Listen to the birds sing
Listen to the birds sing
Listen to the birds.

Morris men will dance at dawn
Ring their bells and hide their yawns
Bringing in the month of May
And better times, oh Lord, we pray
Listen to the birds sing
Listen to the birds sing
Listen to the birds.

16th May 2020 - Claudy Banks

Another, and possibly the best known, song of the Copper Family of Rottingdean, Sussex. A man returning from war, decides that the best way to make sure his true love has been faithful, is to pretend to be someone else and then suggest that her beau might be dead. This is a "broken token" ballad, unusually, without an actual broken token. 

Brian Hunt, in his Padstow scarf, sings Claudy Banks....

https://youtu.be/qZ3RKGbP0kE

Claudy Banks

Twas on one summer's evening all in the month of May
Down by a flow'ry garden where Betsy did stray.
I overheard a damsel in sorrow to complain,
All for her absent lover that ploughs the raging main.

I stepped up to this fair maid and put her in surprise,
She owned she did not know me, I being all in disguise.
I said, “My charming creature, my joy and heart's delight,
How far have you to travel this dark and rainy night?”

“Away, kind sir, to the Claudy banks if you will please to show,
Pity a poor girl distracted for there I have to go.
I am in search of a young man and Johnny is his name,
And on the banks of Claudy I'm told he does remain.”

“If Johnny he was here this night he would keep me from all harm
But he's in the field of battle all in his uniform,
He is in the field of battle his foes he will destroy,
Like a roaring King of honour all in the wars of Troy.

“It was six months or better since my Johnny left the shore,
He's a-cruising the wide ocean where the foaming billows roar,
He's a-cruising the wide ocean for honour or for gain,
But I'm told his ship got wreck-ed all on the coast of Spain.”

When Betsy heard this dreadful news she fell into despair,
In a-wringing of her hands and a-tearing of her hair.
“Since Johnny has gone and left me no man on earth I'll take,
Down in some lonesome valley I'll wander for his sake.”

Young Johnny hearing her say so he could no longer stand,
He fell into her arms crying, “Betsy, I'm that man,
I am that faithful young man and whom you thought was slain,
And since we met on Claudy banks we'll never part again.”

15th May 2020 - Oss Oss Wee Oss

Oss Oss Wee Oss - Mayday in Padstow

When the town clock of Padstow strikes midnight on April 30th, there begins a ceremony which is one of the most remarkable pagan survivals in England. Between 12 and 2 a.m. the hobby horse committee walk through streets and gardens singing the May Day Song. Then, next day, the hobby horse dancer appears. He wears a six-foot hoop skirt, painted shiny black and reaching to the ground. This hoop rests on his shoulders, and his head is covered in a conical black mask on which a sinister face is painted in black and white.

At about 11 a.m. this rather terrifying creature emerges from the Golden Lion Inn, accompanied by the “Old 'Oss Committee,” generally in sailor costume, an orchestra of drums and accordions, a man with a box for voluntary collections, and the teaser, who dances nimbly in front of the horse, directing his movements with the manipulation of a phallic club. All day this strange procession roves through Padwtow, singing:

Unite and unite, and let us all unite
For summer is a-comin' today.
And whither we are going we all will unite
In the merry morning of May.

The hoss visits the sick. Children come shyly to touch the skirt for luck. Young married women, caught up under the hoss's shirt, will, according to old Padstonians, give birth within the year. And then, every so often, the surging dance rhythm ceases with a sudden bang of the drum. The hoss bows down motionless to the ground, and, while the teaser makes caressing movements with his symbolic club, the crowd sings a solemn dirge, in which some scholars have found a garbled reference to the Norse goddess, Freya, and her long ship.

Oh where is King George? Oh where is he O?
He's out in the longboat, all on the salt sea O.
Up flies the kite, down falls the lark O.
Aunt Ursula Birdwood she has an old ewe,
And she died in her own park O.

With a thwack of the club and a crash of the drums the hoss suddenly leaps up, revived; and the singing throng moves on beneath the springtime blossoms.

(From the liner notes to the Alan Lomax Collection CD "World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: England" - source mainlynorfolk.info)

Folklorists Alan Lomax and Peter Kennedy and filmmaker George Pickow collected this footage at Padstow in 1951: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISO1QmG_VE4 The youtube video is from the Alan Lomax Archive.

Some of the comments on the youtube page: 

"I see that modern rave/trance dancing was invented in that pub. Amazing. Love it"

"The Oss lads dancing in the pub on 1st of May eve are like the forebears of punk"

Apparently the film circulated widely and continues to have influence today, especially in the neo-Pagan community.

14th May 2020 - Hal An Tow

This dragon was part of the Helston “Hal An Tow” procession in 2006. The photo is by Frances Berriman, and was shared to Flickr with a Creative Commons License.

“Hal An Tow” has become a popular song in the folk revival, with, among others, The Watersons, Oysterband and Jon Boden recording versions. In most of these folk-revival versions, the song begins with the following verse:

Take the scorn and wear the horn
It was the crest when you were born
Your father’s father wore it
And your father wore it too.

Among many others, Jon Boden has noted the similarities between this verse and a passage from Shakespeare’s As You Like It, Act IV, Scene 2:

Take thou no scorn to wear the horn
It was a crest ere thou wast born
Thy father’s father wore it and thy father bore it.

But which came first: the traditional song or Shakespeare's lines? There's a fascinating debate about this in the blog Folklife Today (https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/05/hal-an-tow-some-intriguing-evidence-on-a-may-song/) from which the above is extracted.

Jackie Lyness learned Hal An Tow (and her other featured song in this May Song series) from musician / educator David Oliver while he was leading the Tynedale Community Choir. David started off the "tradition" of a dawn chorus sing on May Bank Holiday Mondays at the bandstand on the Sele in Hexham, not that many years ago. 

https://youtu.be/6KpJhxNpPLs

Hal-An-Tow

Take the scorn and wear the horns
It was the crest when you were born
Your father's father wore it
And your father wore it too

Robin Hood and Little John
They've both gone to the fair-o
Well, we shall to the merry green wood
To hunt the buck and hare-o

Hal-an-Tow, jolly rumbelow
We were up long before the day-o
Well, to welcome in the summertime
To welcome in the May-o

Well, the summer is coming in
And winter's gone away

What happened to the Spaniards
That made so great a boast-o?

Well, they shall eat the feathered goose
We shall eat the roast-o

Hal-an-Tow, jolly rumbelow
We were up long before the day-o
Well, to welcome in the summertime
To welcome in the May-o
Well, the summer is coming in
And winter's gone away

God bless Aunt Mary Moses
With all her power and might-o
Well, send us peace in England
Send peace by day and night-o

Hal-an-Tow, jolly rumbelow
We were up long before the day-o
Well, to welcome in the summertime
To welcome in the May-o
Well, the summer is coming in
And winter's gone away

Hal-an-Tow, jolly rumbelow
We were up long before the day-o
Well, to welcome in the summertime
To welcome in the May-o
Well, the summer is coming in
And winter's gone away

13th May - Komm Lieber Mai

Ariane writes: "Komm, lieber Mai" is a well known traditional folk song (Text: Christian Adolph Overbeck, music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) and is my contribution to Steve's May song series".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajcOx47V6yw

"Please find following the German song text as well as the translation to English":
Komm, lieber Mai, und mache die Bäume wieder grün, und laß uns an dem Bache die kleine Veilchen blühn! Wie möchten wir so gerne ein Blümchen wieder sehn ach, lieber Mai, wie gerne einmal spazieren gehn! Zwar Wintertage haben wohl auch der Freuden viel, man kann im Schnee eins traben und treibt manch Abendspiel; baut Häuserchen von Karten, spielt Blindekuh und Pfand, auch gibts wohl Schlittenfahrten aufs liebe freie Land. Doch wenn die Vöglein singen, und wir dann froh und flink, auf grünem Rasen springen, das ist ein ander Ding! Jetzt muss mein Steckenpferdchen dort in dem Winkel stehn, denn draußen in dem Gärtchen kann man vor Schmutz nich gehn. Ach, wenn doch erst gelinder und grüner draußen wär! Komm, lieber Mai, wir Kinder, wir bitten gar zu sehr! O komm und bring vor allem uns viele Veilchen mit, Bring auch viel Nachtigallen und schöne Kuckucks mit! ------------------------------------------- Come, dear May, and make The trees green again, And let the little violets Blossom by the brook! How we'd like to see A little flower again, Oh, dear May, how we'd like To even go for a walk. It's true that winter days Bring many delights too, We can trot in the snow And play some evening games; Build little houses of cards, Play blind man's bluff and forfeit, There are sleigh races On the good open land. But when the little birds sing, And we happily and quickly Jump on the green grass, That's another thing! Now, my little stick horse Has to stay there in the corner Because we can't go outside In the garden because of the dirt. Oh, if only it were more mild And green outside! Come, dear May, we children, We perhaps ask too much! Oh, come and bring for all of us Lots of little violets, Bring also lots of nightingales And beautiful cuckoos!

12th May 2020 - Nutz In May

Well, I guess I knew what to expect when asking my long-term collaborator, Tony "Ant" Wilson, to send me a May Song. I've played the video many times now and still laugh at it every single time.

Tony has kindly provided some background information to the song: "Nuts was first recorded near Beanie Hill, in Shropshire, by avid folk-song collector Cedric Blunt. Although the song has been largely ignored by all self-respecting members of the folk-community, someone has obviously added a more recent verse."

Tony somehow manages to incorporate the turning of the seasons, Benny Hill, drunken pole-dancing, girls named after months, girls named after flowers and herbs, nutters competing with squirrels, and Pink Floyd / Syd Barrett references all into one song. And then he makes a video of it - starring Fools Gold, Lara Barnes and Ken Schoch as well as his good-self! And all this during lockdown!

Tremendous fun Tony - take care marra.

https://youtu.be/46bjDKHuSlI

11th May 2020 - May

Jan Croot and Penny Grennan - The Spectacles - have joined me on several of my songs on  "Bellmetal Banana Company" and "The Winterland", lifting them with their wonderful harmonies. On the album  "Bellmetal Banana Company" they took the lead on my song, May, as I was struggling to sing it in the key and tuning I had written it in. And what a wonderful job they made of it!

I still like to sing this song in the month of May, but to do that I now go back to standard tuning, simplify the chords and drop the key so that my range can almost manage it.

In 2018 I had the pleasure of playing on and producing The Spectacles album "Bi-Vocal". Short of a track, we decided to include our earlier version of May. It seems to complement the other tracks which were written, with one trad exception, either by Jan or Penny. Check out the album for some sublime harmonies.

https://www.reverbnation.com/stevegrayandtheultrarayviolets/song/25783652-may

May 
by Steve Gray

It was a bright spring morning
And I was strolling out
By a bank of jew'lled primroses
And a crystal-flowing stream

The flowers were freshly blooming
As I took the scented air
The birds were singing songs of love
From every greenwood tree
     
Ne'er cast a clout till May is out
But May is here again
With morris dancers on the green
  Long winter nights are gone

I walked this way beside her
Less than a year ago
I'd gladly forgo summer
To have her back again

                Ne'er cast a clout till May is out
But May is here again
With morris dancers on the green
  Long winter nights are gone

The bees are finding pollen
While the lambs are playing games
The maypole ribbons streaming
Point to a better year

                Ne'er cast a clout till May is out
But May is here again
With morris dancers on the green
  Long winter nights are gone

                Ne'er cast a clout till May is out
But May is here again
With morris dancers on the green
                And the summer nights are here

10th May 2020 - Mailied

Hexham resident, Stuart Raistrick has sent me two versions of Mailied - one on accordion and one on moothie.

He tells me that it's a well known (to some) poem by Goethe (a contemporary of Beethoven). Stuart regularly plays a piano version each May if he remembers: "it's good to mark the start of summer."

https://youtu.be/A3eEb8alahY

https://youtu.be/To3Td-V7FU8

Mailied

Poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Music by Beethoven

How brightly nature 

Shines this morning! 

What radiant sun! 

How the fields sing!

The buds burst forth 

From each green frond! 

A thousand bushes 

Resound with song!

And joy and wonder 

Streams from each breast. 

Oh Earth! Oh Sun! 

Oh joy without rest!

Loveliest of loves! 

Fair and golden, 

Like morning clouds 

On the mountain. 

You renew each field 

With veils of mist. 

And your morning dew 

Leaves each field blest

. 

Oh how I cherish 

You, sweetest maid! 

How your eyes shine bright 

Where love can’t fade. 

As morning larks love

To sing and fly, 

As springtime flowers 

Greet the blue sky, 

So do I love you

With all my heart! 

The one who inspires 

Youth, joy and art; 

A mood for new songs, 

Dancing lively. 

Oh be so happy 

As you love me! 

And here's a sung version from 1956 - Fritz Wunderlich and Rolf Reinhard: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsGJ0MGglnA

9th May 2020 - Bold Grenadier

I had the great pleasure of meeting William Duddy from Belfast at the Nonsuch Dulcimer Club's annual Spring Fling in Allendale last year, and again at their October weekend event at Denstone College, near Uttoxeter. Unfortunately, the Spring Fling was not to be in 2020, but we have kept in touch and this is one of the results......

William, relaxing in his garden, plays the Bold Grenadier for us on his bold banjo:

https://youtu.be/clMJy9HkHrY

According to The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, the history of this song is unclear. A ballad entitled "The Souldier and His Knapsack", registered with the Stationers Company in 1639, might be our song. Half a century later the ancestor of our song was definitely in existence. Surviving broadside editions  of "The Nightingale's Song, or The Souldier's Rare Musick and Maid's Recreation" date from the 1680s and 1690s.

But the song does not re-appear in print until about 1840. Did the song persist in oral tradition for over 140 years or was it re-introduced in the 19th century by a broadside author / printer? Perhaps it was keeping out of sight in Northern Ireland?

8th May 2020 - Matty Groves and the Famous Folky's Wife

"Bank holiday,bank holiday, in the merry month of May, when Matty Groves went to the pub...."

Thus starts Phil Harley's take on of one of the best known tales in folk-music. You'll know it, no doubt, from Fairport's definitive version on their ground-breaking "Liege & Lief" - but have you heard Planxty's version? - I know which one I prefer.

Originally parodied in fine style by the Kipper Family - who can forget the immortal lines "How do you like my feather bed and how do you like my sheets? How do you like my curtains that I got in the sale last week?" - Fatty Groves set a high standard in folk-fun.

So how will Phil's version compare? There's only one way to find out - here's the video and the lyrics: Matty Groves and the Famous Folky's Wife

7th May 2020 - Mayfly

My good friend Jim Wigfield, from Morpeth way, is known for his great punning songs and children's songs, but here's something quite different. Jim loves the great outdoors and is a fount of knowledge on all things natural-history related. Here's his absorbing song about the short life of the mayfly.

Oh, and I have sneaked a bit of mandolin on this mix too.

https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14035255

Mayfly

Mayfly, so fragile and so free
Mayfly, alighting on a tree,
Mayfly, what is your destiny?
Mayfly.

Mayfly - your glistening frame unfurled,
Mayfly, three shining tails uncurled,
Mayfly, explore your brand new world
Mayfly.

A nymph you have survived in upland streams,
Emerging from your case so you can live your dreams
Mayfly.

Mayfly, may fly away,
Mayfly, but only for a day.
Mayfly, this is the price you pay
Mayfly.

Mayfly, you may fly anywhere,
Mayfly, live life without a care,
Mayfly, your world awaits out there
Mayfly.

Mayfly, it's over now to you,
Mayfly, today what will you do?
Mayfly, go make your dreams come true
Mayfly


There isn't any time left you can borrow.
Go live your life today like there is no tomorrow,
Mayfly

Mayfly.
Mayfly this is your special date,
Mayfly, head down and find a mate,
Mayfly, before it is too late,
Mayfly.

Mayfly you're off into the fray,
Mayfly, a hedonist at play,
Mayfly, you glide amongst the spray,
Mayfly.

Mayfly, one moment of true bliss,
Mayfly, a tender mating kiss,
Mayfly,.. is that all that there is?


The urge is strong to pass on all your genes,
One last throw of the dice and you head for the stream.
Mayfly.


Mayfly, your eggs you now must lay,
Your flimsy body dips away,
The trout awaits in month of May,
Mayfly.

Mayfly you're floating down the stream,
You're spent, but you've fulfilled your dream!
That's life! … if you know what I mean
Mayfly

Mayfly......    Mayfly …....  Mayfly.

6th May 2020 - May Song North Bedfordshire

I still have some of the loose-leaf pages and exercise books from school in about 1972 when we must have had a song-collecting bug. From Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, Lindisfarne through to traditional ballads and nursery rhymes - they all found their way into our books.

There's one particular batch of songs that I always liked but have rarely heard. They include Green Bushes, Fanny Blair and three May songs. I think we copied them from Garners Gay which we may have borrowed from Jarrow Library.



I always wanted to rock these songs up, so here is my attempt at the May Song from North Bedfordshire. Sorry traditionalists!



A branch of may it does look gay
As before your door it stands.
It is but a sprout but it's well spread about
By the work of our poor hands.

I have a bag upon my arm
It is drawn with a silken string.
It only wants a few more pence
To line it well within.

Arise, arise, my pretty fair maids
And take our may buds in.
For if it is gone before morning comes
You'll say we never have been.

Come give us a cup of your sweet cream
Or a jug of your brown beer.
And if we live to tarry the town
We'll call again next year.