New Midis:

THE CRUEL SHIP'S CAPTAIN filename[ ANDRROS3  DT text transcribed from a recording by A.L. Lloyd.  I don't know which of the several variant tunes found in tradition Lloyd used, so have made a midi of the particularly fine one collected by Vaughan Williams from James Carter of King's Lynn, Norfolk in 1905.  The song is better known as The Captain's Apprentice; a recent article in the Folk Music Journal (vol.7 no.5, 1999) explores the historical background and traces the song's antecedents.

GRUEL filename[ GRUELL  No source is named, but it looks very like Jimmy MacBeath's version.  Though the tune specified is "The Lincolnshire Poacher", it's not the familiar version, so I thought it best to make a separate midi; this is taken from the transcription of Jimmy MacBeath's singing in Ailie Munro's The Folk Music Revival in Scotland.

ROAST BEEF OF OLD ENGLAND filename[ ROASTBF  As Snuffy pointed out, the tune is a close relative of HARD TIMES OF OLD ENGLAND; it's different enough, though, to deserve a midi of its own, so I've made one from the set given in The New National Song Book (Boosey & Hawkes, 1957)

BARLEY STRAW filename[ BARLSTRW  Transcribed from Martin Carthy's recording.  He learnt the song from the version recorded by Peter Kennedy from Harry Cox of Catfield in Norfolk, in 1953, though the words have got changed a bit somewhere along the way.  I've made a midi from the transcription in Kennedy's Folk Songs of Britain & Ireland.

THE KNIGHT AND THE SHEPHERD'S DAUGHTER (5) filename[ SHEPDAU5  The version published by Cecil Sharp in 100 English Folk Songs (1916).  The book was intended for use in the parlour and concert-hall, so the text is a collation of several versions, set to what Sharp felt was the best tune available of those he had collected.  There is also a little bowdlerisation in verse 2; this was done for sound practical reasons, not because Sharp was a prude.  He published unedited texts in the Folk Song Journal.  A midi of the tune, collected by Sharp from John Swain of Donyatt, Somerset, in 1904, goes to Alan.

Cross-references:

GREEN FIELDS OF CANADA filename[ GRNCANAD  Another transcription from a Planxty record.  Again, i believe they had the song from Paddy Tunney; a version of his is given in THE GREEN FIELDS OF AMERICA (3), filename[ GRNFLDA3 -the tune given, GRNFLDA3.mid, is so close to Planxty's reading of it that only a link to it is needed.  It's a close relative, incidentally, of the best-known Plains of Waterloo tune.

CAPTAIN ROBERT KIDD filename[ CAPNKID2 American version (Lomax) Almost certainly sung to a variant of the Jack Hall/Sam Hall/Admiral Benbow tune; tune at CAPTAIN KIDD filename[ CAPNKIDD (CAPNKIDD.mid) would work, as would either ADBENBOW.mid or ADBENBOW2.mid

Technical Questions: please comment!

THE CRUEL SISTER filename[ TWOSS11  This version is credited to one Dave Webb; it is, however, virtually identical to the version recorded by Pentangle (Cruel Sister, Transatlantic Records TRA 228, 1970), with the interleaved burden (Lay the bent to the bonny broom and Fa la la la la la la la la)removed, and the two-line verses conflated into 4-line stanzas.  I strongly suspect that he learned the song from that record: the textual differences seem mostly to be minor mis-hearings on the part of Mr. Webb or the transcriber.  If I'm right on that, then it's impossible to guess at what kind of tune was used, since I have no idea who Dave Webb is, and the transcriber gave no indication.  The tune that Pentangle used was not a traditional "Cruel Sister" tune, but one taken from a version of "Riddles Wisely Expounded" and slightly simplified, whether by Pentangle or their (unnamed) source I do not know.  Also on the DT is TWO SISTERS (Bonnie Broom) -filename[ TWOSIS- presumably transcribed from Frankie Armstrong's recording, which is essentially the same text, again with a few minor variations probably due to mis-hearings.  The interlaced burden is there this time, but the tune is entirely different.  Probably either tune could be used, though that used by Pentangle would be compromised rather by being forced to fit the altered text.  I don't see what the most appropriate action would be, here: only someone who has heard Dave Webb sing the song can tell us which (if either) tune he used.  Comments, please!

HIND HORN filename[ HINDHORN  Version from Child, therefore with no tune.  Bronson gives a good few tunes for this ballad, all of which are variants of each other.  No tune is given for this specific version.  There are already 2 other versions on the DT: HIND HORN (2), filename[ HNDHORN2 (soundfile HNDHORN2.mid): Ewan MacColl, and HIND HORN (3), filename[ HNDHORN3 (soundfile HNDHORN3.mid): American version.  Either tune would work, as would most of those given in Bronson.  I'm tempted to send a midi of the one I like best (Bronson's version #10), which has an incomplete text which however is reasonably close -so far as it goes- to the DT/Child text, but it would need to be made clear that this is only one of a number of possibilities...

In the Pipeline:

BONNY BIRDIE filename[ BONBIRDI  Only one text has ever been recorded, and so far as I remember, no tune is known.  (Child #82).  Ray Fisher, however, has recorded it, set (by Martin Carthy) to the strathspey "Devil in the Kitchen"; I'm making a midi based on that, but it's a bugger getting the phrasing right...

ANAC CUAIN filename[ ANACUAIN  Not having access to the book from which this text was transcribed, I'm having trouble deciding which of several differing versions of the tune I should use.  More on this later.

NUT BROWN MAIDEN filename[ NUTBROWN  Midi made from the copy in Moffat's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands; the DT text is Professor Blackie's English language version, rather than a translation, and has a verse missing.  I feel that I ought to post the Gaelic text, but my knowledge of the language is too limited for me to be able to produce a decent translation myself, so it will have to wait until I find one.  As a rule I will not post songs in languages other than English unless I can provide a full translation.

Oh, yes; has anyone done AS I ROVED OUT filename[ ASIROVED, yet?

Malcolm