Tree songs? esp. Celtic?

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Susan of DT
Date: 24 Mar 99 - 08:09 PM

What's the Life of a Man (any more than the leaves), see DT

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Bri/ain
Date: 24 Mar 99 - 12:25 AM

I have a fiend who sings aversion of "a nobleman's wedding. There is a version of it in Sam Henry's Songs of The People. The last verse he sings: All sobbing and sighing she rose from the table All sobbing and sighing she went to her bed. And early the next morning, when the bride groom He awakened He went to embrace her and found she was dead.

Oh Annie, lovely Annie I knew you never loved me For your love and my love could never agree for I have seperated you from your true lover And that seperated the bark from the tree.

Pretty grim, but makes the point. Beidh Me/ ag caint libh ari/s le cu/na De/ Le meas, Bri/ain

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Penny
Date: 23 Mar 99 - 06:38 PM

In one of my rescued BBC school song books there's a Welsh song called the Holly Tree, with a foldiroldirol chorus.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From:
Date: 21 Mar 99 - 01:27 PM

'The Weeping Willow' by Padraigin Ni Uallachain (Wife of Len Graham) Ireland It is on ' When I Was Young ' a collection of children's songs from Ireland. FONN CD001 Distributed by Gael linn

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: mm
Date: 21 Mar 99 - 05:36 AM

The lament for Cill Cais (translated, it starts: "What shall we do now for timber, the last of the woods is down...") reminds me of another song in Irish, An Droigne n Donn - The Hawthorn Tree - in which a boy is addressed as a hawthorn.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Night Owl
Date: 21 Mar 99 - 12:39 AM

"Lilac bush and an Apple Tree"-Kate Wolfe. One of the strongest songs I've ever heard. (Sorry....it's not Celtic)

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Susan A-R
Date: 20 Mar 99 - 11:56 PM

Old apple tree we wassail thee and here's hoping thou wil't bear For the Lord doth know where we may go to be merry another year To grow well and to bear well, and merry let us be Let every man lift up his glass and a health to the old apple tree (Noel Sing we Clear does this one. also a lovely one

Green grows the holly, so doth the ivy The winter blast blows ne'er so hard green grows the holly

There's a verse for each season (All around me brain cells are dying) same source as above.)

Sweet Pinery boy/River in the Pines are both about raftsmen who bring down the logs. frequently at cost to life and imb.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Philippa
Date: 20 Mar 99 - 11:49 AM

You could try out the lament for Cill Chais, available at this site: http://ingeb.org/songs/cillchai.html

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From:
Date: 20 Mar 99 - 09:30 AM

Moving off the Celtic tradition a bit, don't forget the lovely Cajun song by the Balfa Freres, En Basd'un Chene Vert. This can be found on Arhoolie Record and features Dewey Balfa, Marc Savoy and D. L. Menard. A good listen.

Subject: Lyr Add: Land of the Silver Birch^^
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 30 Aug 98 - 04:01 PM

Tim, I think the song Alison had in mind is one I learned as a child:

Land of the silver birch,
Home of the beaver,
Where still the mighty moose
Wanders at will.

Chorus:
Blue lake and rocky shore,
I will return once more.
Boom-de-de-boom-boom boom-de-de-boom-boom Boom boom boom.

High on a rocky ledge
I will build my wigwam,
Close by the water's edge,
Silent and still.

Chorus

There was at least one more verse; it ended "Hills of the north." I'd be interested in the origin of this song.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: JB3
Date: 29 Aug 98 - 05:18 AM

Look under the title: seven virgins and you'll find a couple of versions in the database. The one I sing is the same as that recorded by Norma Waterson. This is a lovely song!

Cheers,

June

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: belter
Date: 27 Aug 98 - 01:44 PM

There's a song called Tree Of Life. Does anyone know who sings it?

Subject: Lyr Add: WOODLAND WALTZ^^^
From:
Date: 27 Aug 98 - 03:26 AM

I was going to submit the lyrics for 'The Yew Tree' by Brian MacNeill, one of my all-time favourite songwriters, but I have to type them out first. Should take a week or two. Meanwhile, here is another tree song. - Susanne

Woodland Waltz (by Jim King)

Chorus:
Can you imagine a world without trees
Do you think you'd survive it for long
Put yourself to the test, try it with ease
Hold your breath for the rest of this song

Hornbeam and willow, maple and elm
Sycamore, chestnut and yew
Rowan and redwood, hazel and birch
Oak and holly, to name but a few

The tropical rainforest burns day and night
In Brazil they need land for the cow
But the Amazon Basin, the lungs of the world
Has a cancer that must be cured now

The scale of destruction eases production
Of beef for the hamburger king
Those meat mafiosos, that's how it goes
That's why I stand here and sing

If you've no objection to making a buck
And you don't think the future looks black
If it comes to the end you could be out of luck
If you had to inhale a Big Mac

Last chorus:
Can you imagine a world without trees
How long do you think you'd survive
Put yourself to the test, try it with ease
Hold your breath for the rest of your life

^^

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From:
Date: 01 Aug 98 - 01:33 PM

The Land of the Muskeg and the Shining Birch Tree is indeed Canadian, by Wade Helmsworth. He also wrote The Logdriver's Waltz, The Log Jam Song, and The Blackfly Song.

I've always like The Holly And The Ivy, but it is a seasonal song.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WILLOW
From: Maelgwyn
Date: 31 Jul 98 - 02:25 PM

Nomos does a song that goes something like this:

I love the trees, the willow and the hazel
The apple tree, the blackthorn
The silver birch trees standing in the moonlight
I love them all.

I can't remember the rest of it. I heard another song on the Thistle and Shamrock. I don't remember who sings it though. It's called 'The Willow':

It was underneath the weeping willow tree
When you swore undying love for me
How sweet the promise that could never be
How sweet the ? we never came to see.

CHORUS: I sat beneath the willow tree and wept
For promises we made and never kept
It's here for every footstep as you left
Beneath the willow tree I sat and wept

Who can know the thoughts and reasons of the heart
That tear a love into pieces and apart
That leaves a stone where once a flower bloomed
That turns the world a deeper shade of blue. CHORUS

It was underneath a weeping willow tree
She lay within your arms so peacefully
I stood upon the hill and watched you there
You never saw me through her golden hair.
^^

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: JB3
Date: 17 Jul 98 - 06:23 AM

Earlier in this thread, the second line to "All "Round My Hat" was omitted. It should read:

All 'round my hat for a twelve-month and a day

Cheers

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From:
Date: 12 Jul 98 - 12:53 PM

How about Gordon Bok's recording of the traditional tune "The Arbutus" (on "Return to the Land", Folk Legacy CD-118)?

Cheers,

-- Arne Langsetmo

Subject: Lyr Add: BONNY PORTMORE^^^
From: Dan Mulligan
Date: 12 Jul 98 - 03:17 AM

Did anyone suggest "Bonny Portmore?" One of my favorite celtic "tree songs."

BONNY PORTMORE

Oh Bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand,
And the more I think on you, the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

Oh Bonny Portmore I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats of Antrim came to float it away.

All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying, "Where will we shelter or where will we sleep?"
For the oak and the ash they are all cutten down
And the walls of Bonny Portmore are all down to the ground.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: JB3
Date: 12 Jul 98 - 01:28 AM

Sorry - got cut off in the middle. I was wondering about the connection between these verses and the first verse to the trees they do grow high. Why is it considered bad luck to love a young tree? Was it considered bad for the lad to have been wed so young in the trees song? They never mention the cause of the young man's death in the three versions I know of the song.

"All 'Round My Hat" is another song that uses the willow as a symbol of false or absent love, as does "The Seeds of Love".

I just looked up the version of "All "Round My Hat" and found that it's fairly different from the one I sing.

All "Round My Hat"

All 'round my hat I will wear the green willow
If anyone should ask you the reason why I wear it
It's all because my true-love is far, far away

My love he was fair and my love he was kind, too
And many were the happy hours between my love and me
I never could forbid him whatever he'd a mind to
And now he's far away, far across the stormy seas

Oh, will my love be true and will my love be faithful
Or will he find some other girl to court where he's gone
The girls will all run after him, so pretty and so graceful
And leave me here lamenting, lamenting all alone

The first verse is used as a chorus.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: JB3
Date: 12 Jul 98 - 01:12 AM

I've been away two weeks on vacation and was interested to see what turned up on this thread. A common theme that I mentioned before is a taboo about a woman placing her affection on a young green-growing tree. I'm sure you've heard it in "On Top of Old Smokey":

Come all you young maidens
And listen to me
Never place your affections
On a green-growin' tree
For the leaves they will wither
And the roots they will die
You'll all be forsaken
And never know why

Does anyone know the origin of this idea? It makes me wonder if the first verse to "Young, But daily growing" or "The Trees They do Grow High"

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 07 Jul 98 - 12:17 PM

Regarding references to willows, I read somewhere that willows turn up in love songs because the trailing branches of the weeping willow provide a hidden trysting place.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: AndyG
Date: 07 Jul 98 - 06:41 AM

Logs to Burn, is a favourite of mine, and it's in the database. A firewood-selling song from Johnny Collins.

AndyG

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Cuilionn
Date: 07 Jul 98 - 03:58 AM

Martin,

Could ye get me any information on that Celtic Tree SOngs workshop at th' festival, or contact info for th' fellow whae tocht it? It sounds like a brilliant bit o' wairk, an' I'd dearly love tae get my hands on notes or a gatherin' o' th' music tae which he referred!

An' tae th' rest o' ye:

Ye've gi'en me a grand treasure here, an' plenty o' tunes tae fill in th' gaps o' my ain lairnin'. Th' songs ye suggestit are lovely... Tho' tae be sure I wasnae expectin' th' Lumberjack Song tae show up here at a'! Must hae been posted by some auld sap whae's oot on a limb...

Tapadh leibh, --Cuilionn

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From:
Date: 30 Jun 98 - 11:14 PM

Subject: Lyr Add: LUMBERJACK SONG
From: Pete M
Date: 30 Jun 98 - 04:19 AM

Lumberjack song transcribed from Monty Python recording

Oh, I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK.
I sleep all night and I work all day,
(He's a lumberjack and he's OK.
he sleeps all night and he works all day.)

I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lavat'ry.
On Wednesdays, I go shopping and have buttered scones for tea.
(He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch, he goes to the lavat'ry.
On Wednesdays he goes shopping, and has buttered scones for tea.)

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK, I sleep all night and I work all day.
I cut down trees, I skip and jump, I like to press wild flowers.[pronounced "flahrs"]
I put on women's clothing, and hang around in bars.
(He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps, he likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing, and hangs around in bars.??!?)

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK, I sleep all night and I work all day.
I cut down trees, I wear high heels, suspenders and a bra.
I wish I'd been a girlie, just like my dear Papa.

[Chorus departs with various cries of "oh, this is too much!" and "Pooftah!" etc.]

Pete M
^^

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Pete M
Date: 30 Jun 98 - 04:03 AM

"Oak and Ash and Thorn" [A Tree Song] is a poem by Kipling, "I'm a lumberjack and I'm Ok" is from Monty Python. I'll try and dig out the rest of the words

Pete M

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: leprechaun
Date: 30 Jun 98 - 02:04 AM

I seem to remember a staid olde English troupe of some sort doing a song that went:

Oh I'm a lumberjack and I'm O.K. I sleep all night and I work all day. I chop down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lavat'ry On Wednesdays I go shopping For crumpets, scones and tea.

There were some other significant verses, but I can't seem to remember them now.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Bert C
Date: 29 Jun 98 - 01:00 PM

Eileen McGann's REQUIEM (FOR THE GIANTS) is an incredibly beautiful piece lamenting the demise of the virgin forests of North America. If it doesn't bring tears to your eyes, you're not paying attention.

Bert C

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: aldus
Date: 29 Jun 98 - 12:35 PM

One of the most beautiful of all "tree" songs is Bonny Portmore. It is about the cuuting down of Irish trees to build Enlish Ships. It is on a wonderful Album by Loreena MacKennit called "The Visit". You will find this version in the database.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Largo
Date: 29 Jun 98 - 08:33 AM

Not too sure 'bout tree-songs in Gaedhlig, but maybe some in Russian could help you?

Cheers, Largo

Subject: Lyr Add: OAK, ASH, AND THORN^^^
From: harpgirl
Date: 29 Jun 98 - 08:24 AM

I like OAK AND ASH AND THORN [A Tree Song], as well

Of all the trees that grow so fair old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the sun than oak and ash and thorn.

Oak of the clay lived many a day o'er ever Aeneas began.
Ash of the loam was a lady at home and brut was an outlaw man
And thorn of the down saw new Troy town from which was London born.
Witness hereby the ancient try of oak and ash and thorn.

Yew that is old in churchyard mould, he breedeth a mighty bow.
Alder for shoes do wise men choose and beech for cups also;
But when you have killed and your bowl it is filled and your shoes are clean outworn,
Back you must speed for all that you need to oak and ash and thorn.

Elm she hates mankind and waits till every gust be laid,
To drop a limb on the head of him that anyway trusts her shade;
But whether a lad be sober or sad or mellow with ale from the horn,
He'll take no wrong when he lyeth along 'neath oak and ash and thorn.

Oh, do not tell the priest our plight or he would call it a sin;
But we've been out in the woods all night a-conjuring summer in;
And we bring you good news by word of mouth, good news for cattle and corn.
Now is the sun comes up from the south by oak and ash and thorn.

From John Roberts and Tony Barrand "Dark Ships in the Forest" Folk Legacy 1977
^^

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From:
Date: 28 Jun 98 - 10:00 PM

Danny Spooner did an entire hour workshop on Celtic tree songs at this years National Australian Folk Festival, including the exploration of Jack in the Green and his evolution into Robin Hood. Robyn Williams (hope I spelt that right) has a woodcutters song I think

Oak logs will warm you well That are old and dry Logs of pine will sweetly smell But the sparks will fly etc.

Not exactly your celtic ambient faerie ring plant an oak over me kind of thing though.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: harpgirl
Date: 28 Jun 98 - 09:04 PM

how about The Woodcutter's Song?

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WOODTURNERS LOVE SONG^^^
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Jun 98 - 06:05 PM

Cut and pasted from an earlier thread. Since I deal with the insides of trees, I look for songs about the uses and mythology of 'wood', whether for burning or turning.

THE WOODTURNER'S LOVE SONG

If I had a piece of Maple, white or red or pink,
I'd turn you a set of chair legs, so you could set and think.
And when you set and think, love, I hope you'll think of me;
For I'd like to be there in you thoughts, if not in your company.

If I had a piece of Coachwood, white and fine and pure,
I'd turn you a handle smooth and round, a handle for your door.
And when I'd come to see you, you could make that handle spin,
And open up the door, my love, and let your true love in.

If I had a piece of Silky Oak, with even-textured grain,
I'd turn you a lampstand for your light, a table tall and plain.
And when you turn your light on, I hope it'll be for me;
'Cause you're the light of my life, the only one for me.

If I had a piece of Cedar, grain well shot with red,
I'd turn you a set of corner posts for a fine double bed.
A bed for you to lie on with the one that you love best,
But I hope you'll lie with me, love, and farewell all the rest.

Well, I'm a turner. That's my trade, as you can plainly see;
But the I'd really like to do, is turn your heart to me.
Alas, at that I have no skill. I never learned the art,
And Cedar, Maple, and Silky Oak won't make a woman's heart.

Written by Phyl Lobl...Australia
^^

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From:
Date: 28 Jun 98 - 04:20 PM

There are plenty of songs about people being suspended from various trees. (the suspended sentence)

Bob S.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Ian HP
Date: 28 Jun 98 - 08:34 AM

Ashley Hutchings and Judy Dunlop have a nice CD called 'Sway With Me' which is entirely on the theme of trees, most of them newly written but in the folk tradition.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 28 Jun 98 - 06:31 AM

From, "Same Old Man, Sittin' At The Mill" (that other thread) this verse. It's not Celtic, nor is it the subject of the song, but it's a great verse....

Purty little leaf, lying on the ground,

Now you're turning slightly brown,

Why don't you hop back up on the tree,

Turn the color green the way you oughta be.

For more H.M.R. with a trivia question, see the thread about dirty lyrics to folk songs.

Frank i.t.s.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: alison
Date: 27 Jun 98 - 08:17 PM

Hi,

Yes Tim. there is "Home among the gum trees" and "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree" to name just two.

Isn't "Land of the silver birch" Canadian?

Slainte

Alison

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Cuilionn
Date: 27 Jun 98 - 08:03 PM

Muckle thanks...'tis a richt guid eddication ye're givin' me! Please keep addin' tae th' list as ye think o' mair sangs!

Th' deepest o' curtsies,

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: mm
Date: 27 Jun 98 - 07:21 PM

"There was an old woman who lived in a wood
Eela weela waulia
There was an old woman who lived in the wood
Down by the River Saulia"

etc. - the eerie Irish children's song about infanticide, a popular skipping rhyme with Dublin children.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From:
Date: 27 Jun 98 - 01:31 PM

Isn't there one from Australia about a gum tree?

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From:
Date: 27 Jun 98 - 01:30 PM

The song quoted by Joan shares lines with "Oh, No, Not I", but the young maid says not to put your trust in the "green willow tree". I had always understood that to be a reference to a folk abortion remedy. There is a reference to willow in this context in The Shipping News, if I remember correctly.

The song is known in Newfoundland, and Stan Rogers did a version, but it must surely be from the UK or Ireland as there are no lords of high degree in Newfoundland. Nature's ladies and gentlemen, yes, but no lords of high degree.:) There are "maids", though, as young girls in Newfoundland are still called that much as they were in western England in the time of Thomas Hardy.

Tree songs -- there is "Lemon Tree". I suppose "The Lumberjack's Alphabet" might qualify, although they list things necessary to cut trees down. You'd think a country like Canada would have lots of songs about trees, but oddly enough none come to mind except in the context of lumberjack and woodsman songs, where they have a tendancy to fall on young men.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: kiwi
Date: 26 Jun 98 - 06:04 PM

How about "The Trees They Grow High"?

The trees they grow high and the leaves they do grow green Many's the time my own true love I've seen Many's the hour I've watched him all alone He's young but he's daily growing...etc.

Sla/n, Kiwi

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Susan of DT
Date: 25 Jun 98 - 08:45 PM

a search for @tree gets 16 hits, but that is a more recent category than @plant* which probably has hundreds. Or search for [oak and]

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 25 Jun 98 - 04:58 PM

If it's oak (ok) with you, it's pine by me. Barry

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 25 Jun 98 - 11:55 AM

Searches of the DT for "oak", "pine", etc., will probably turn up a lot, but the trees probably won't be the real subjects of the songs, as they aren't in

"The oak and the ash and the bonnie ellum/birken tree
Are all a-growin' green in my own countree."
--"Home, Boys, Home"

The DT has a song called "Arbutus". A forum search for "arbutus" will turn up a different song I posted some months ago. It's as Celtic as your heart could desire, Cuilionn, but since the words are by the 19th-century poet Alfred P. Graves, it may not be what you're looking for.

There's also "The Cherry-Tree Carol"

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Jon W.
Date: 25 Jun 98 - 11:47 AM

I don't know as it's exactly a tree song but "The Old Oak Tree" is a murder ballad where the fair young victim is buried under the oak. Boys of the Lough recorded it on their first album.

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Bo
Date: 25 Jun 98 - 11:33 AM

Dont forget The Rattlin Bog

Bo

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Håvard
Date: 25 Jun 98 - 07:09 AM

Think "Bonnie Jew Tree" is one of Brian McNeill's songs (might have been written while he was still with the Battlefield Band) - I don't have the lyrics though :-(
Håvard

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 25 Jun 98 - 06:53 AM

"My bonnie yew tree
Tell me what did you see"

Not to old of a song I think, maybe by Jez Lowe, can't remember much about except it's a nice song about if this ancient tree had eyes & could talk what a history it would tell. Maybe someone else will have something on it. Barry

Subject: RE: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: JB3
Date: 25 Jun 98 - 05:21 AM

"Oak and Ash and Thorn" [A Tree Song] comes to mind, as do all the "Holly and Ivy" (Christmas) songs. Are you familiar with those? Jean Ritchie wrote a lovely song called "The Holly-Tree Carol", that compares the holly with the beech and oak. There are many versions of "The trees they do grow high", or "Young, but a-daily growing", but trees are only mentioned in the first line. There's also the old ballad from the Makem family about a young girl with child, thrown out of her parents' house, that has the verses:

The taller that a young tree grows, the bitterer (sweeter grows) the bark
And the fonder that a young man speaks, oh the falser is his heart
For he'll kiss you and embrace you
'Til he thinks he has you won
Then he'll go away and leave you
All for some other one

So come all you fair and tender maids
This warning take by me
And never try to build your nest
Up in too high a tree
For the leaves they will all wither
And the branches, they will decay
And the beauty of your own first love
Will oftimes fade away

I like these verses because they shed light on a problematic (to me, anyway) commonplace floating verse that you find in everything from "Fair and Tender Ladies" to "On Top of Old Smokey", about not placing your love on a tree, lest it wither and die.

Another floating verse, most often associated with "The Water is Wide", talks about "she leaned her back up against an oak", etc, that I always took as an allegory for a love that proved false (which it is), but, you find it also in most versions of "The Cruel Mother", which points to the very ancient tradition of seeking a guardian tree under which to give birth. Which is why so many births are associated with the "greenwood side" in folksong.

I've always been interested in folksongs that mention trees and look forward to what others may add.

June (JB3)

---

The song quoted above is in DT as "Month Of January." -JoeClone 19-Jan-2001.

Subject: Tree songs? esp. Celtic?
From: Cuilionn
Date: 25 Jun 98 - 01:17 AM

Mo cairdean/ Folks & Friends,

'Tis th' indecipherable lass wrichtin' tae ye agin, sae luik weel an' wricht back if ye care tae oblige me! I've been sairchin' mony's th' lang day for songs whae mention trees, an' I'm beggin' for a wee bit o' help. Can ye Mudcatters help me tae gaither up lyrics o' Tree Songs in Braid Scots, Scots Gaelic, Irish, or English? Richt noo I anely twa o' them, sic as:

Craobh Nan Ubhal (Apple Tree) Rowan Tree

There mun be a hantle o' ithers oot there, an' I want tae be at th' lairnin' o' them! I'd prefer tae limit th' harvest tae traditional or present-day folk songs whae rise oot o' th' Celtic tradition, but if ye hae ane or twa guid American anes that'd be alricht. Please list full lyrics if ye can, particularly for th' Gaelic anes!

Tapadh leibh/ Muckle Thanks,

--Cuilionn