Welcome to the ‘Spoils of the Hunt’ Blog

6th November 2024: For this Song Hunt, I was joined by my fellow Cambridge folkie, Clare Dyer Smith, for a deep dive into folksongs about press gangs, forced conscription, and women’s resistance.

It being November, a traditional time to offer remembrance, I wanted to reflect on ways in which ordinary people endure and make sense of the extraordinary circumstances of war. And because women often seem to be positioned as conduits for communal grief in the folk tradition, through some deeply affecting songs of grief and loss, Clare and I ended up looking at the practice of impressment through the lens of women’s experiences, as they’re narrated in folksongs. … Lots of folksongs!

Video

Songs mentioned in the session:

• The Lowlands of Holland (Roud 484) – listen to Sandy Denny’s version
• All Things Are Quite Silent (2532) – listen to Kerry Andrew’s choral version (sung by the choirs of Pembroke College, Cambridge, cond. Anna Lapwood)
• The Press Gang (662) – listen to Seán Dagher’s version
• The Weary Cutters (8772) – listen to Rachel Unthank and the Winterset’s version (rubbish quality recording, but it’s got me in it, and I’m nostalgic!)
• Sweet Lovely Nancy (165) – listen to Maddy Prior and Tim Hart’s version
• The Brisk Young Lively Lad (2930) – listen to Andy Turner’s version (with a brilliant blog)
• Here’s the Tender Coming (3174) – listen to The Unthanks version
• Lovely on the Water (1539) – listen to Steeleye Span’s version
• The Young and Single Sailor (264) – here’s my version!

Resources we consulted and further reading:

• The Warrior Women Project: https://s.wayne.edu/warriorwomen/scholarship/
• Roy Palmer, The Valiant Sailor… : https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/books/thevaliantsailor.html
• John R. Hutchinson, The Press Gang Afloat and Ashore: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6766/6766-h/6766-h.htm
• ‘The women who went to sea – dressed as men’, Royal Museums, Greenwich: https://rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/women-who-went-sea-dressed-men

If you enjoyed this Imaginary Song Hunt, please drop some pennies into the tip jar… And feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback or fun facts!

Welcome to the ‘Spoils of the Hunt’ Blog

2nd October 2024: This Song Hunt investigates the (almost certainly NOT medieval) origins of the folksong The Cutty Wren, pondering the vexed question of ancient origins (as usual), reflecting on the symbolism of wren-hunting rituals, probing the tenuous links between the rebellious folksong and 14th-century Peasants’ Revolt… and wondering how in the hell anyone on this earth could ever ever ever in a million squillion years EVER contemplate hunting and killing something as charming and sweet and utterly innocuous as a darling little wren… even symbolically… even in the form of a stuffed toy on a stick. 🐦🥺

Video

Some of my favourite arrangements of The Cutty Wren and other wren-related songs

• Steeleye Span singing the Wren Boys’ song
• You Are Wolf (Kerry Andrew): W R E N
• You Are Wren: Little Wren (The Cutty Wren)
• Chumbawumba: The Cutty Wren
• Johnny Flynn, Robert Macfarlane, Héloïse Tunstall-Behrens, and Luisa Gerstein
• Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbeck (1969)
• And, would you believe, it’s the territorial song of Tristan da Cunha?!

If you enjoyed this Imaginary Song Hunt, please drop some pennies into the tip jar… And feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback or fun facts!

Enjoy this gorgeous wren…

This blog is where I share the spoils from each Imaginary Song Hunt. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box to share feedback or fun facts! If you enjoyed the session, please drop some pennies into the tip jar…

7th August 2024:

In this session, Joan Armatrading and medieval lyres joined forces, in my take on the ‘bardcore’ genre. We also enjoyed a spot of Hildegard von Blingin’ and a chat about the do’s and don’ts of cover versions, and some Song Hunter favourites.

Session video

The Joan Armatrading cover (first draft!)

Favourite cover versions

Some highlights from the Zoom chat:

• Pete: Matthews Southern Comfort version of Woodstock. Different and even more tuneful than original
• Moira: Karine Polwart – Parting Glass- superb!
• Debby: worst: orchestral versions of Nick Drake at the proms this year!
• Mike: best: Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower. Worst: Rolf Harris – Stairway to Heaven.
• Sjakk: worst: King Crimson’s Fracture, by a not so small chamber orchestra. Best: King Crimson’s Starless, by Unthanks
• Tony: worst: Mariah Carey’s Without You – a TV talent show (eek!)
• Helena: Hallelujah is by Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley covered it, but that goes to show what a good cover it was. Can’t beat the original with that one though! [Good point Helena! Love it too, yet still constantly give if to Jeff… just because that was the one I heard first! 😏😅]
• Graham: we saw Joan at Ronnie Scott’s on our wedding night in 1975. [!!!!!] Cover choice: Joni Mitchell’s River by US jazz singer Dianne Reeves. Long, soulful and cool.
• Mike: Rolf – just bad. Best: Walter Trout’s version of Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country”. Amazing blues guitarist makes it his own.
• Timothy: Nina Simone: Strange Fruit. Controlled rage.
• Helena: One of my faves is a piano instrumental of Moulette’s Revenge of the Bear, a frantic song with frantic strings. The piano gives a whole different perspective.
• Liz P: I like Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version of “Through the Grapevine.”
• Mike: Yes, agree it has to be “a different take”not just repeating the original. As per my earlier comment, the cover version artist “makes it their own”.
• Tony: Another very different cover version. I’m a great fan of Manfred Mann covers. YouTube link

And some thoughts in an email from Coleman, which were too interesting not to share:

What makes a good cover is very much like seeing different productions of familiar Shakespeare plays. When you have read Hamlet or other familiar play and seen many productions of it, you can still be amazed by a new performance that reveals profound truths that make you wonder, “Were those lines really in the play? I never noticed those before. Were those lines not used in earlier productions? Or did this actor find meaning and emphasize it in delivering those lines? Or what?“ Sometimes I have to go back and read it to be sure. I have the same experience with Chekhov and Ibsen, but sometimes a different translation reveals new meaning. And of course I am different each time, as I have more life experiences and/or I am more receptive.

Great covers of songs are the same way. Bob Dylan prefers to say “uncovering” a song when the new version reveals things you never noticed before. The first cover that blew me away in spite of familiarity was Joe Cocker’s version of “With a Little Help from My Friends.” The emotional impact was so much stronger than the original by the Beatles. It had a lot to do with Joe Cocker’s gravelly voice and his phrasing that was in the same league with Sinatra’s best work, but the main thing is that he communicated emotion that was lacking in the original. Jimmy Page’s guitar solo added to the emotional impact.

Then there are the covers of songs I had never heard before. When I heard Shane MacGowan and the Pogues sing “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda,” it hit me emotionally like a ton of bricks. He sounded as if he had barely survived the Battle of Gallipoli and had written a song about his experience. When I read that this great song was written by Eric Bogle, I bought the CD and found his delivery to be relatively lifeless. Another favorite is Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails, recorded by Cash near the end of his life.

GREATEST COVER EVER!

This blog is where I share resources from each Imaginary Song Hunt session, along with a Zoom video for anyone who wants to catch up. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback, fun facts, or just to say hello! If you enjoyed the session and these resources, feel free to: drop some pennies into the tip jar

5th June 2024:

Sweet Melodies Unheard

This session was a bit of a reverie on loss, transience, mortality anxiety, and Shakespearean ‘secular spirituality’, prompted by my thoughts on setting Sonnet 60. Taken from a poem by John Keats, the title – Sweet Melodies Unheard – is a reference to the Song Hunt itself (sometimes it’s sweeter imagine lost songs than to listen to surviving ones) and to the fact that almost none of the original music to which Shakespeare’s words were set has survived. We took a look at the Robert Johnson and Thomas Morley melodies that do survive, and explored the process of creating a performance ‘edition’ of Desdemona’s famous ‘Willow Song’ (from Othello), by combining a surviving lute song and a broadside ballad with Shakespeare’s words.

Slides from the session

Video

Do you have a favourite Shakespeare setting you’d like to share? If so, please add it using the comments form below!

This blog is where I share resources from each Imaginary Song Hunt session, along with a Zoom video for anyone who wants to catch up. Feel free to use the ‘comments’ box below to share feedback, fun facts, or just to say hello! If you enjoyed the session and these resources, feel free to: drop some pennies into the tip jar

8th May 2024:

Why did Lord Randall have to die?

This session explored the ancient ballad commonly known (among 50+ other titles!) as ‘Lord Randall’ (Roud 10, Child 12). A young man (called ‘Randall’ in many versions of the song) is asked by his mother where he has been, who he was with, and what he has eaten. He answers the questions and sings a refrain that tells his mother he is very unwell. In some versions he has eaten eels; in others, snakes; in others, worms. The conclusion in almost all versions is that he has been poisoned, usually by a lover. In many other versions, he then dictates his will. It’s a creepy song with a big mystery at its heart: why was he murdered?!

Slides from the session

Video

Scores

You’re welcome to use this score for your own performances, but please just credit me if you do so (and let me know, in case I can come and listen 🙂). I am always grateful for feedback on my scores!

John Riley

Further listening

Here are the pieces of music I played during the session (which I’ve had to cut out of the catch-up video because of copyright):

• Ewan MacColl
• Phyllis Davison (singing on Kids’ Concert, for Sudbury Community Television, produced and hosted by Stewart Cameron)
• Il Canzoniere del Piemonte
• Jean Ritchie
• Frank Harte
• Mary Humphreys

And some others I did’t have time to play, but like very much:

• Martin Carthy
• Pete Seeger
• Andreas Martin, Andreas Scholl: English Folksongs & Lute Songs (this appears to be their own arrangement of a traditional melody, not based on a historical source, but I haven’t had time to look into it. If anyone knows, please tell me!)

From the Song Hunters…

There was some fun speculation in the chat (and by email) about why Lord Randall might have met his end in such a grisly way.

I loved Yvonne‘s idea that Randall’s mother and lover were in cahoots, or that the lover was in fact ‘hired by the mother’ to help her get her hands on the inheritance. Ooooh… nasty! 😬

And Pete rather rationally pointed out that ‘If he is Lord Randal, his father must have already died and he has inherited the title, lands, and the rest’, which makes ‘the theories that people (lovers, mothers, etc.) [are] after his money …reasonably plausible’! Eek! Life was more brutal in those olden days, I guess, and without a welfare state, this sort of cruelty was probably a bit more common than today. As Pete says, ‘No good waiting until he has a son of his own… – Get him to make a will, quick; under duress if necessary’!!

And Gry asked about the ballad of Olaf and the mermaid, which I briefly mentioned in relation to the archetype of the supernatural feminine death-bringer! 😈💀💋 Here’s a great blog on the song/story, and its many relatives: https://terreceltiche.altervista.org/lord-olaf-herr-olof-and-the-elves/