The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #169962 Message #4109386
Posted By: Joe Offer
08-Jun-21 - 05:55 PM
Thread Name: Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)
Subject: Pre-Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)
Again With One Voice: British Songs of Political Reform, 1768 to 1868, by Dick Holdstock, Loomis House Press, 2021.
If Faith Petric was the matriarch of the San Francisco Folk Music Club, many might agree with me that Dick Holdstock is the patriarch. I met them both in about 1995. Faith is gone now, but I've had a lot of contact with Dick and his wife Carol through the years. Dick has lived in Northern California forever, but he's from Kent and never lost his accent.
I knew a lot about Peter, Paul, and Mary when I joined the Club in the 1990s, but that was about it. Through the years, Dick encouraged and challenged me and others to learn the tradition, and we did learn. And all the time I've known him, Dick has been writing a book. He was almost done with the book back in the 1990s, a collection of songs from seamen of the British Merchant Marine, since British military sailors didn't sing. Then it took a turn toward including labor songs, and now the book has arrived with the title, Again With One Voice: British Songs of Political Reform, 1768 to 1868. I feel like I've grown up with this book, and I'm so happy to see it come to fruition after all these years. And all through these years, I've heard Dick sing these songs he collected, experimenting with various melodies when he couldn't find the "real" melody.
And it has been so much fun - especially in recent years, when Dick has called me and asked ME for advice about one thing or another. I think I'm the one who convinced him to get the book published at Loomis House Press, and the results are excellent.
I haven't read the book yet, but I think I've heard most of the songs and narratives over the years. The book feels like a chronicle of my friendship with Dick over 25 years, because this book is an adventure that Dick shared enthusiastically with all of us. And now it's finished. The narratives and songs are fascinating, the illustrations are vivid and interesting, and the book is laid out beautifully. I suppose it's strange to post a book review before actually reading the book, but I think I can say I've lived this book with Dick for 25 years, and I know it well. I'm proud of my friend Dick, and I feel privileged to have been able to travel with him on at least part of his adventure of producing this wonderful book.
The Chapters:
Liberty: 1768-1781
Revolution: 1780-1789
Paine: 1789-1795
Insurrection: 1796-1799
War: 1800-1815
Suppression: 1815-1819
Gagged: 1819-1830
Union: 1830-1836
Charter: 1837-1851
Reform: 1851-1868
The Songs:
An African’s Appeal to the British Nation The African’s Complaint “All round my hat,” or a Corporation Turn-Out Answer to the Threats of Corruption The Battle of Blorris Moor Battle of Waterloo Billy is Sick of the War: By Mr. Dyke Bold Robert Emmet Bonaparte’s Farewell to Paris Bonaparte’s Farewell to Paris Btitannia’s Lamentation On the Devastation War Britannia’s Wish: A New Song No 33 British Tars Rewarded Briton’s Pilot The Patriot King Burdett Our Leading Star Catholic Rent The Champion of Reform The Chartist Song The Corn Laws The Cotton Lords of Preston The Cotton Spinners Farewell The Countryman’s Frolick; or, Humours of an Election. The Coventry March Dark Bonnymuir Dialogue and Song, Between Captain Swing and ]oan o’Greenfield The Dispersion of the British Convention The Dudley Boys Edmund Burke: To The Swinish Multitude Edward England Demands Reform And Reform She’ll Have The Fatal English Poor Law Bill Or, The Ways of the World Father Murphy: Or the Wexford Men The File Hewer’s Lamentation The French Invasion Frost, Williams, and ]ones’s Farewell to England Gagging or The Worst Robbers of All The Gathering of the Unions General Ludd’s Triumph The Genius of Britain God Save Great Thomas Paine The Great Battle For Freedom and Reform The Great Liberal Majority of 110 Great Naval Action Between The Kearsarge and The Alabama The Great Reform Meeting December 3rd 1866 The Handloom Weavers Lament The Harvest of Corruption Hunting a Loaf “ I’d Be A Reformer Isle of St. Helena ]ohn Bull and the Unions: Unity is Strength ]ohn Bull in a Rage at the Corn Laws The Knight-errant or The Distressed Queen Lock ]aws: A Ballad Lord Cornwallis’s Surrender The Meeting at Peterloo The Men of Forty Eight The Mitred Majority The Muse’s Friendly Aid Napoleon Buonaparte’s Exile To St. Helena Negro Slavery Nelson’s Death and Victory A New Ballad: On the Birth... of Mr. Edmund Burke’s Brat The New Bunch of Loughero A New Chartist Song The New Irish Drum A New Liberty Song No 44 A New Song A New Song Called the Tradesmen’s Lament A New Song on Lambton’s Motion for Reform A New Song on the Great Demonstration... on Kersal Moor A New Song on the Great Lock-Out and Strike A New Song, called The French Kings Blood Crying for Vengeance A New Song: By Phelemy Freebairn A New Song: I Wish the Wars Were all Over A New Song: Lately composed on Castle Island A New Song: Pitt and the Union The Nottingham Tragedy!!! Lines to Their Memory O’Connell’s new Song on Emancipation Old Middlesex, Burdett, and Freedom For Ever! On Peace, By Mr. Fox The Ploughman’s Ditty The Pop-Gun Plot Found Out: Or, Ministers in the Dumps Present Times or Eight Shillings a Week President Parker The Queen or the Birth, Rise, and Progress of The Green Bag!!! Queen Victoria The Rats and the Ferret The Reform Battle in Hyde Park The Reform Demonstration in Hyde Park, May 6th, 1867 Removal of Napoleon’s Ashes T Resignation Of His Majesty’s Ministers Rouse, Hibernians Serjeant Kite’s Invitation to the Swinish Multitude The Shan Van Vocht Short Time Come Again No More The Silent Cell The Song of the Lower Classes Song of the Volunteers of 1782 Song on the Death of Her Royal Highness The Princess Charlotte Striking Times The Suffering of the British Army in the Camp Before Sebastopol The Tara Monster Meeting The Tenders Hold, “Or Sailors Complaint” To the Chartists of Shropshire To The Commons: On Meeting After The Recess To The Electors of Great Britain Reform Song Tone’s Grave The Tradesmen’s Complaint Transports and Old Baileys The Tree of Liberty True Reformers Verses On the Death of Queen Caroline The Voice of Africa When We Get ]ohnny’s Reform The White Cliffs of Albion Wilkes and Glyn: A new song Wilkes and Liberty: In Honour of No 45 A Word of Advice to Reformers of England Working Men of England Yankee Doodle: Or The Negroes Farewell to America
Patience Young did the editing, June Nishimoto the musical notation, and Steve Roud wrote the foreward.