Young Hunting
A pleasingly juicy murder ballad, which I first heard on a recording by the wonderful Nancy Kerr. Unaccompanied. Features bonus snarky bird.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Fair Maid on the Shore: 1. Fair Maid on the Shore
There was a young maiden who lived all alone, She lived all alone on the shore. There was naught she could find that would comfort her mind, But to roam all alone on the shore, shore, shore, But to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule: 8. Somerset Wassail (trad.)
This is one of the English folk songs collected in in the first few decades of the twentieth century by collectors using field recordings. Walter and Harry Sealy of Ash Priors, Taunton, Somerset, sang...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule: 7. An Ivy Song (Kelly/Hadaway)
My lovely partner Sam and I were discussion a few months ago how sad it was that we have lost the traditional English ivy songs, the counterpoints to the holly songs. So, Sam being a lyricist along...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule: 6. I Syng of a Mayden (trad./Hadaway)
Here's another set of words popular among choral composers – and for which I nevertheless decided to write my own tune! “I Syng of a Mayden”, or “I Sing of a Maiden”, is a beautiful fifteenth century...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule: 5. The Field Mice Carol...
Some of you will already have realised that this is a setting of the carol that the young field mice sing to Mole and Ratty in Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows". I've loved the book since I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule: 4. The Christ-Child Lay...
The other G.K. Chesterton setting on the EP! Chesterton actually called the poem "A Christmas Carol", and also gave at least one other poem the same title, hence my using the first few words instead. I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule: 3. Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing...
An old set of words, to a tune I wrote about this time last year. I've always loved this carol, especially in the various choral versions, some of which I've had the privilege to sing in! The image of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule: 2. The House of Christmas...
I was already very much in love with some of Chesterton's poetry having come across "The Christ-Child Lay" (track 4!), but "The House of Christmas" absolutely enchanted me, with its yearning,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule: 1. The Holly and the Ivy (trad.)
The tradition of "holly" and "ivy" songs appears to be an ancient one in Britain. There is a theory that at one time, women and men would have a song battle, with the women defending ivy as the best of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sigh No More, Ladies: 1. Sigh No More, Ladies (Shakespeare/Hadaway)
I wrote this song, setting Shakespeare's words, for a play-reading of "Much Ado About Nothing", in January 2015. I was playing Balthasar, a musician attached to the court of Leonato. Fans of Kenneth...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tell Me Where the Ocean Went: 5. The Druids' Harvest/November Leaves
The woodland looks fantastic at this time of year. (In the strictest sense; a fantasy, a mere collage of every smeared and painted word.) It begins with greens; I'll spare the list I heard, and only...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tell Me Where the Ocean Went: 4. The Sea Singer
1. If I was a turn-stone, I'd hop along the shore, I'd pick and pry and lift up stones, And never wish for more. 2. If I was a seagull, I'd circle and I'd dive, I'd preen and I would swagger round, The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tell Me Where the Ocean Went: 3. Toad-Stone
1. Tick, tock, toad-stone Crouching in the river bed Tell me where the ocean went Tell me where you lay your head. 2. Tick, tock, toad-stone Swaddled in the ocean's bone Show me where the river goes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tell Me Where the Ocean Went: 2. Allotment 17b
1. The trees are gnarled and gentle, The grass is long and fair, A hundred years of workers Fed their hungry families here. We're finding flowers in corners, The grass is full of light, And in this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tell Me Where the Ocean Went: 1. I Am the Mountain
I am the mountain. I am the river that flows down its flanks. I am the wind that dances through the peaks. I am the buzzard who drifts on the wind. I am the rowan and the hawthorn, the gorse bush green...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Down in Yon Forest
"Down in Yon Forest" is an old English folk carol dating back to the Renaissance, with its ultimate origins in the mediaeval (and rather non-Christmassy!) Corpus Christi Carol. It has everything that I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Lady of the Woods
Storyteller and poet Hel Gurney and I wrote this song as a birthday present for a dear friend, and as the first in I hope a plethora of collaborations! The Lady of the Woods is a mythical figure of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Donkey
A little song for Palm Sunday and Easter! I have an enormous fondness for Chesterton's work, and I've had at least two of my favourite people request that I set this one at some point, so here we are....
View Article