There are several great folk-music dynasties. Locally, in the North-East of England, we have the Elliots of Birtley, the Doonans from Hebburn and the Wilsons from Teeside. Further afield are the Watersons and Carthys and, of course, the Copper Family - famously lampooned by the Kipper Family.
From Wilkipedia: The Copper Family have a tradition of the unaccompanied singing of traditional local songs that has been passed down through several generations. In 1898, they came to the attention of Kate Lee (d.1904), one of the founders of the Folk Song Society (later the EFDSS). Vic Gammon notes, in the leaflet accompanying the society's archive CD Come Write Me Down, that both the collecting of songs and their unaccompanied singing were less common than is often imagined at this time and that Lee, a singer herself, knew she had found something special when she encountered the Coppers.
There's much more on the Coppers in Wikipedia and on the family's own website: http://www.thecopperfamily.com/ but let's return May and an interpretation by our very own Stephen Fry of Hexham of the Copper's "When Spring Comes In". Take it away Steve.....
https://youtu.be/89zdgiwqB0E
When Spring comes in the birds do sing,
The lambs do skip and the bells do ring
While we enjoy their glorious charm so noble and so gay.
Chorus (repeated after each verse):
The primrose blooms and the cowslip too,
The violets in their sweet retire, the roses shining through the briar,
And the daffadown-dillies which we admire will die and fade away.
Young men and maidens will be seen
On mountains high and meadows green,
They will talk of love and sport and play
While these young lambs do skip away.
At night they homeward wend their way
When evening stars appear.
The dairymaid to milking goes her, blooming cheeks as red as a rose,
She carries her pail all on her arm so cheerful and so gay,
She milks, she sings, and the valleys ring.
The small birds on the branches there sit listening to this lovely fair.
She is her master's trust and care, she is the ploughman's joy.
When Spring comes in the birds do sing,
The lambs do skip and the bells do ring
While we enjoy their glorious charm so noble and so gay.
Chorus (repeated after each verse):
The primrose blooms and the cowslip too,
The violets in their sweet retire, the roses shining through the briar,
And the daffadown-dillies which we admire will die and fade away.
Young men and maidens will be seen
On mountains high and meadows green,
They will talk of love and sport and play
While these young lambs do skip away.
At night they homeward wend their way
When evening stars appear.
The dairymaid to milking goes her, blooming cheeks as red as a rose,
She carries her pail all on her arm so cheerful and so gay,
She milks, she sings, and the valleys ring.
The small birds on the branches there sit listening to this lovely fair.
She is her master's trust and care, she is the ploughman's joy.
And here's a video of the Coppers with the same song: https://youtu.be/ZT_vcDq6zUM
