happy trad songs

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Kent Davis
Date: 29 Mar 08 - 10:52 PM

Here are some from Patrick Gainer's FOLK SONGS OF THE WEST VIRGINIA HILLS.

"The Devil's Questions" (Child #1)
"The Cherry Tree" (Child #54)
"Get Up and Bar the Door" (Child #275)
"The Farmer's Wife and the Devil" (Child #278)
"The Wise Farmer" (Child # 283)
"The Fair Maid in the Garden"
"The Wealthy Squire"
"The Barnyard Song" (I had a cat and my cat pleased me...)
"Old Dan Tucker"
"Cindy"
"Sourwood Mountain"
"Wade in the Water"
"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

Kent

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: topical tom
Date: 29 Mar 08 - 04:25 PM

Perhaps not trad but surely happy. Mocking Bird Hill

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Kent Davis
Date: 28 Mar 08 - 10:45 PM

Bryn Pugh,

Had I known any happy traditional Wiccan songs I would have posted them. Why don't you join in the fun and post a few for us?

Kent

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Mar 08 - 08:49 PM

leeneia: "Big Rock Candy Mountain" was originally a satirical song about the trials of being a hobo's catamite. Burl Ives cleaned it up considerably.

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Tootler
Date: 28 Mar 08 - 07:05 PM

Sovay irritates me intensely. She's jealous and mistrustful of her lover. If he has any sense, he should get out before it's too late.

Oh dear, Now I'm taking the song too seriously

Lovely Joan is another happy one. The girl not only outwits her would be seducer but gets a gold ring and a horse into the bargain.

Highwayman Outwitted.

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 28 Mar 08 - 11:44 AM

Famous Flower of Serving Men - eventually

Sophie the Female Highwayman (Sovay)

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Elmore
Date: 28 Mar 08 - 11:28 AM

William Taylor (sort of)

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 28 Mar 08 - 11:13 AM

And don't forget "Pleasant and Delightful"

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Mar 08 - 10:27 AM

Ohhh, the buzzing of the bees
in the cigarette trees,
the soda-water fountain,
where the bluebird sings
at the lemonade springs
on the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 28 Mar 08 - 04:56 AM

I wondered how long it would take the god-botherers to get in on the act.

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Kent Davis
Date: 28 Mar 08 - 12:16 AM

"What Wondrous Love Is This?"
"Alleluia" ("Ev'ry Day, Lord, Oh I Need You")
"Love, Love" ("The Gospel in a Word is Love")
"God Is so Good"
"I'm Happy Today"
detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=1059705

"I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy"
"Deep and Wide"
"The B-I-B-L-E"
"The Wise Man Built his House upon the Rock"
"I'm in the Lord's Army"
"If You're Happy and You Know It"
thread.cfm?threadid=104255#2132416

Kent

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Nick E
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 09:48 PM

Old Mac Donald? you know, that farm tune?
B_I_N_G_O is that not trad?
Row Row Row Your boat? Does a song get more Merily Merily Merily sung?
Yankee Doodle Dandy?
The wheels on the bus?
No shortage I think, unless I dont ken trad

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Gene Burton
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 07:37 PM

Bully in the Alley, Spencer the Rover, The Golden Vanity, (oh, go on, then) Whiskey in the Jar, (oh, gaawwd!) The Wild Rover, Broomfield Hill, Byker Hill, Seventeen Come Sunday, Catch Me if You Can, Thousands or More, Stars in my Crown, My Flower My Companion and Me....none of which are in my own current repertoire,'cos I like 'em SAD, DREARY and very, very LONG. I think this new-fangled notion that folk songs can be joyous and uplifting is a heresy and should be suppressed forthwith. Now, where's me tapirs..?

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 04:00 PM

Just as the tide was flowing, Come Write Me Down, Bold Fisherman, the Nightingale..

Kitty

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: semi-submersible
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 03:59 PM

Star of the County Down
Mairi's Wedding
(Both always leave me smiling.)

See also Cheerful Folk Songs thread.

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: JWB
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 03:44 PM

Almost any double entendre song is happy: Maid of Australia, The Game of All Fours, Cruising 'Round Yarmouth. Drinking songs are pretty upbeat, too: When Jones' Ale Was New, Good Ale, Old Dun Cow, Little Brown Jug. While they can leave folks feeling down, sex and booze -- in the moment -- tend to be uplifting, so there are piles of songs that capture that part of the experience.

Jerry

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Snuffy
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 01:58 PM

Several score of "Broken Token" songs

And don't forget The Wild Rover.

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Adeleh
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 11:31 AM

Down the Moor (Peter Bellamy sings it)

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 11:29 AM

Well if there are happy songs out there why don't people want to sing them? My lovely man Wolfy, isn't keen on coming to singarounds cos he says the songs a dreary and miserable. He's not a singer and is new to the folk world, so it's good to get some feedback from a member of the audience. To a certain extent he's right, and I agree that a slow folk song can sound dreary if it's not delivered properly.

If you sit/stand there with your eyes closed (and not engaging with your audience) thus not 'telling' the story, then any song sounds miserable.

My opinion, and I dare say I'll now need fire proof specs for the flames being spat at me with the next load of comments!

Sal (about to go out for a walk in the sunshine)

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Willa
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 11:17 AM

Welcome sailor, John Reilly,Sovay(?), I Live not Where I Love

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 11:10 AM

The Fox.

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: davyr
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 10:27 AM

I haven't done a count-up, but I reckon a high percentage of the Copper Family's songs could be described as "happy":

http://www.thecopperfamily.com/songs/coppersongs/index.html

Bob Copper always maintained that the men he knew who worked on the land were generally happy in their work, even though most of us now would consider it unacceptably "hard labour".

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: IanC
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 10:08 AM

Actually, there are probably at least as many traditional happy songs as sad ones. It's just that people in the last 50 years or so seem to prefer to look at the sad ones.

My favourite is "The Little Gypsy Girl".

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 08:55 AM

Rigs of London Town
Lord Bateman

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 08:55 AM

Though Traditional and happy are NOT words that are normally together!

Subject: RE: happy trad songs
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 08:52 AM

Are there any? Of course!

Searching for Lambs.
Marrowbones (the conniving wife dies).
Down Among the Heather.
The Gallant Hussar (I think that's what iut's called, Eliza C performs it on Rough Music).

Subject: happy trad songs
From: goatfell
Date: 27 Mar 08 - 08:47 AM

is there any happy trad songs out there because they are nearly all about people and the sadness that surrounds them