Ballads...

[neotoma]

cruisedirector took me out to lunch yesterday for my birthday! Much fun, and on the way back to the Metro we got to talking about music.

Myself, I love ballads, particularly Childe Ballads. I have several CDs by obscure performers just because they had a rare folk song on their albulm. A shipment actually arrived yesterday for my birthday.

And today, I want to share...



Cat-Eyed Willie Claims His Lover -- by Dave Carter & Tracey Grammer.

Cat-Eyed Willie Claims His Lover -- as sung by Full Frontal Folk.

The Great Silkie/My Love She's but a Lassie Yet by Full Frontal Folk

Tam Lin by Fairport Convention

Tam Lin by Mediaeval Baebes

The Elf Knight by Steeleye Span

The Elf Knight by Seelie Court

Matty Groves by Fairport Convention

Thomas the Rhymer by Steeleye Span

General Taylor by Full Frontal Folk



I also like sea shanties, American Civil War songs (though those get maudlin *fast*), labor protest athems, and some medieval music.

Comments

[dragovianknight.livejournal.com]

Awww, I can't play m4a files. ::is sad::

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing! This music is unfamiliar to me, but I'm always curious to hear things I haven't heard.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Most of these are traditional ballads as sung in America and the British Isles. "Cat Eyed Willie" is the only modern song.

Child Ballads (http://www.springthyme.co.uk/ballads/childballads_list.html) were collected by a folklorist named Child, and tend to have wide variations over time. The American ballad "The Streets of Laredo" is derived from an older British one, with some substitution of characters (there being a lack of cowboys in Britain), but the narrative and even some of the phrasing not changing.

[painless-j.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation! I'll listen attentively tomorrow when I have spare time :)

[lexin.livejournal.com]

Thank you for these...I'm not familiar with some of them.

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

Happy, HAppy, HAppy belated birthday!

*hugs*

[temve.livejournal.com]

Oh God, those take me right back... I have three of these on record somewhere (the Fairport & Steeleye Span ones), and in fact was inexplicably humming Tam Lin at work today, after not humming it for at least ten years.

Coincidence? :)

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Who was general Taylor?

The Mediaeval baebes version of Tam Lin was haunting.

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Oh, and now taking time to notice what else you actually wrote - happy birthday.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

If you like sea chanties, check out the Sea Music Festival at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Excellent folk music for an entire weekend, tons of books at a superb bookstore, tons of CDs, and some of the best folk singers around (featured guests have included the likes of Tommy Makem and Odetta). It's the first weekend in June most years, and well worth it.

[caesia390.livejournal.com]

*quietly downloads all of them*

...except for the fairport convention, which i'd already had. <3