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Now define a 'ballad'?
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Subject: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Richard Bridge Date: 04 Apr 07 - 07:51 AM In a conversation at the Good Intent (Rochester, Kent, UK) the other night someone mentioned some "ballads" I sang. That started me thinking - what is the definition of a "ballad". My gut reaction was that ballads don't have chorusses. What about other ideas? |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: GUEST Date: 04 Apr 07 - 07:54 AM In Ireland they seem to call all folk songs 'ballads'. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Big Mick Date: 04 Apr 07 - 07:59 AM Good thread idea, Richard. I am not sure that one could categorize ballads as not having choruses. Think of "The Dutchman". How about "Dublin in the Rare Old Times"? But these are modern, singer-songwriter, ballads. I wonder if the classical definition is different? The Oxford English dictionary defines a ballad as:
Mick |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: kendall Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:12 AM I thought ballad had more to do with form than content? Charlie had a herring weir down to Bailey's Bight And he got up the tend it in the middle of the night Late October, midnight, black as tar Nothing out the window but a big cold star. (Exerpt from a book of ballads by Ruth Moore, titled "Cold as a dog and the wind Northeast" |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Leadfingers Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:22 AM As I understand it , in Folk terms a Ballad is a song that tells a story . The Modern use of ballad seems to be any Not Too Up Tempo Song ! So In Folk , a ballad could have a chorus , or a refrain , or both ! |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Mr Happy Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:27 AM a slow sentimental or romantic song, with a lot of moronic drunks SHOUTING the choruses, & compulsory multiple off beat bodrhans!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggh! |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:29 AM The minute I saw this thread I thought of "The Ballad of Semmerwater". I always thought of a ballad as a poem or a song that tells a story. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Vixen Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:31 AM This came up on another thread, where I offered the following... One Definition V PS, I hope this link works...lately the blicky maker hasn't been doing what I think it should, so I did this one manually. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:47 AM Here are a few out of many threads on the subject. Suggest using the proximity search of the Advanced Search part of the Lyrics & Knowledge Search and go through some of the others as well to have a good broad idea of the "definitive" meaning. Threads on the meaning of Folk |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: GUEST,HSA Date: 04 Apr 07 - 09:12 AM I see one of these threads has a comments "why do we need to define a ballad"? And linking into the earlier comment about the different deifnition of Ballads in Ireland I would say - you might want to define it in order to avoid a misunderstanding. On the English folk scene we tend to think of a ballad as being a song which tells a story, often longish and maybe unaccompanied. To my Irish friends it means something lively and singable (in the Dublin City Ramblers tradition) - and believe me that would include things like Fields of Athenry. They would call an unaccompanied song "Sean Nos". So in an Irish pub if asked to sing a ballad they'd be pretty surprised to be met with Barbara Allen! The other cross-cultural confusing terminology I have come across is that in an Irish context, songs have "airs" not tunes. Tunes don't have words! Helen |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: GUEST,Shimrod Date: 04 Apr 07 - 09:22 AM Plenty of ballads seem to have refrains - off the top of my head: 'The Swan Swims sae Bonny' (ie. 'The Twa Sisters'), 'Earl Brand', 'The Three Ravens', 'Riddles Wisely Expounded' etc., etc. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: John Hardly Date: 04 Apr 07 - 09:29 AM last week |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: greg stephens Date: 04 Apr 07 - 09:36 AM Many possible definitions. In popular music, say 1920-60 and beyond, a sonbg with a thirty-two structure(probably with a preceding verse). The 32 bar bit should have an AABA structure. The B 8 bars are referred to as the middle 8, and often change key, or have a markedly different feel to the rest. Blue Moon, Sunny Side of the Street wouls be two classic examples. In folky(Brit) cirecles, generally an old narratiove song. Often with a four-line verse structure with4,3,4,3 feet. (This is known as ballad meter). eg(from Chevy Chase) Of Witherington needs must I wail As one in doleful dumps For when his legs were smitten off He fought upon the stumps. The structural aspects have been forgotten in popular music recently, and usage tended towards any romantic not very fast song. I think there are several kinds of ballad in Irish usage, including the British usages here, but also specifically Irisah ones mentioned earlier. As to whether ballads have(or had) choruses: the old ballad metre songs often had the second and fourth lines as recurrent refrains(give the singer time to think up the next bit?) |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: greg stephens Date: 04 Apr 07 - 09:40 AM Interestingly, this is a non-controversial topic, unlike threads discussing the defintion of "folk". However, were SmoothOps to organise a BBC Ballad Awards, or were Arts Council England to start to dish out grants to Ballad Development Agencies to go in to schools and teach children to write ballads: then I think, after a year or two, we might hear the rumbles developing as the number of snouts grew too many to get round the trough. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Date: 04 Apr 07 - 09:51 AM The old folklorists' saw about ballads is that the word derives from the same root as the Spanish "bailar," to dance, and that ballads were originally composed and/or sung in the process of dancing. The standard example is "Maid Freed From the Gallows," which adds incrementally to a simple story in such a way that, while dancing, you could actually toss in a verse to advance the plot. Father have you brought me silver ... I have not brought you silver ... Mother have you brought me silver ... etc. This doesn't really apply to very many ballads, though Faeroe Island ballads are often cited to make the case. I personally think that a traditional ballad is more often than not 1 a narrative using 2 four-line verses, or else two-line verses with refrains like "The broom blooms bonny and so it is fair / I'll never gang doon tae the broom nae mair" on 3 folk themes, whatever those are (i.e., a ballad about "Star Trek" probably wouldn't make the cut) 4 with relatively unsophisticated words, lacking in self-consciousness, and a relatively simple tune (i.e. Sir Walter Scott, though he tried, really never could quite write one, and the tune of "Hello Dolly" really wouldn't fit) but you'll get a thousand arguments against every word of all four points from ballad singers with different ideas. Then there's the ballad used as a literary form by Stephen Vincent Benet, Alfred Noyes, and others. Coleridge's "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" is a pretty successful ballad imitation, though of course its language is heightened. Literary ballads are fixed in form, and ordinarily have no melodies, whereas traditional ballads tend to vary in text and tune with the singer, which is what is meant by their having traveled and changed in the traditional process. Many traditional ballad enthusiasts would like to eliminate at least some broadside ballads on one ground or another (as, for example, did Francis J. Child (mostly) in his standard work "English and Scottish Popular Ballads" -- because they never entered tradition, died in a week, were lousy poetry, obviously the work of Fleet Street-type hacks, or whatever. But these productions, more or less the equivalent of newspaper articles on current events and features on past events, come well within the definition of ballads for the most part. An interesting light on the question of ballad composition/improvisation is the work of Parry and Lord, reported in the book "Singer of Tales," concerning Yugoslav cafe singers who improvise ballads that may last half an hour or more, based on folktale themes, using standard elements to recompose a song that is different every time, depending on audience tolerance and the singer's whim of the moment. This is used to draw parallels to the saga- and lay-style ballads of Scandinavia and France, respectively, and ultimately to the epic ballads sung by ancient Greek balladeers that are believed, by some, to have underpinned Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. It's sometimes noted that ballads were the TV of their time: satisfying the hunger for music and narrative, just as TV now provides its "American Idols" and its sitcoms and cop dramas. Ugh, but probably true. We're glutted now with entertainers and entertainment, so relatively few people have room in their lives for ballads. Too bad for them. Whole books have been written on what is or isn't a traditional ballad, including the delightful Evelyn K. Wells oldie "The Ballad Tree." But you'll find the definition of a ballad slithers around quite a lot, depending on whose ox is being gored. Bob |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Date: 04 Apr 07 - 10:01 AM Meant to add that, to the modern music listener, a "ballad" is, as somebody noted above, a soothing song, often encountered while dancing, sung by a "crooner," or pre-rock 'n roll music star. It's "bailar" all over again! Thus Jo Stafford, or Bing Crosby, or Perry Como, or Peggy Lee, or Frank Sinatra would "croon" a "ballad," meaning, perhaps, something like "Embraceable You," or "Melancholy Baby" -- I'm not complaining, as these are two pop oldies I happen to like. More recently I guess you could say Barry Manilow, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and their ilk were in the ballad business. But you can see that semantics have taken their toll. One word means two violently different kinds of song. Us folkies have that happen to us all the time. The mainstream takes over all our cherished terms of reference. Like "folk," for example, which to us means traditional, but to the everyday guy on the street means the style, songs and persons of contemporary singer-songwriters. Again, two violently different meanings for one word. But that's our beloved English language for ya. (Sigh.) |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Jim Lad Date: 04 Apr 07 - 10:40 AM A ballad is a song that tells a story. Thats it. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Bert Date: 04 Apr 07 - 11:35 AM That's what it used to be Jim Lad, but nowadays a lot of people use 'ballad' to mean any poem or song. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Jim Lad Date: 04 Apr 07 - 11:50 AM Ah, the old evolution thing, I suppose. I get asked for ballads a lot. They usually mean "Slow songs". I guess when the meaning changes for everyone but yourself, it's time to catch up. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Scoville Date: 04 Apr 07 - 12:48 PM Pop music people seem to think it's anything romantic, dreamy, or just slow. I hold with the "song with story line" definition. Stuff like "Engine 143", "Barbara Allan", "The Devil Went Down To Georgia", "Stagolee", "Wild Bill Jones", "Three Wooden Crosses", "Ebony Eyes", etc. (trying to cover a variety of genres). Choruses are OK but the song has to actually have a plot rather than just be about something. "the Jute Mill Song" and "Coal Tattoo" are about something but do not have plots, so I wouldn't call them ballads. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Surreysinger Date: 04 Apr 07 - 02:23 PM "Interestingly, this is a non-controversial topic" Not sure that I'd necessarily agree on that one Greg! I recall several ballad sessions at festivals where some idiot has stood up to sing something he/she had written themselves, and was politely listened to, despite the fact that some definition of what a ballad was for the session had been given ... it, like "What is folk music" seems to be subject to the Heinz 57 varieties of definition - after all, there are many sub categories - eg classical , lyrical and Child ( a whole ball game of its own) ballads etc. So I don't intend to try and join in, apart from saying that "it's a song that tells a story" is probably far too loose - there are many songs that tell stories that wouldn't be considered appropriate in ballad singing circles. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Declan Date: 04 Apr 07 - 02:45 PM In Ireland the folk music revival in the 50s-60s was known as the ballad boom, groups like the Clancy's The Dubliners etc were known as Ballad Groups, so most people describe all the material from around this time as ballads. Some were ballads by the classic definition, others were not. The Ballad as any slow song seems to have eminated from the US music Industry, but it seems to have crept in in this side of the Atlantic also. Westlife, for example recorded an album of ballads, but The Foggy Dew and Whiskey in the Jar were not featured! |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Little Robyn Date: 04 Apr 07 - 03:50 PM Help! I've just been caught in Cowboy lyrics dot com - the link in Scoville's post. It wouldn't let me back out and started calling out HELLO! Scary. But I escaped. Ballads used to be the long boring unaccompanied songs I fell asleep in but I can cope now! I even tried one or two myself but I don't make a habit of it. "Oh Father, oh Father come riddle to meeeee...." Robyn |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Little Robyn Date: 04 Apr 07 - 03:51 PM If it's got a Child number, it must be. Robyn |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Don Firth Date: 04 Apr 07 - 03:59 PM Time was when words tended to mean something fairly specific. But lately, a folk song is any song someone feels like calling a folk song and a ballad is any song someone feels like calling a ballad. To hell with Francis James Child, Cecil Sharp, John and Alan Lomax, to hell with all the other ballad collectors and folk song collectors and musicologists and ethnomusicologist throughout history. We're well on our way back to communicating by simply grunting at each other. (mutter mutter mutter) Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Scoville Date: 04 Apr 07 - 04:45 PM Really? Freaky. It's never done that to me. I do get the obnoxious pop-up thing (which I've never actually read so I have no idea what it's advertising), but it's never refused to back up. Here, this one will let you back up, there's no pop-up, and it plays the song. I tested it for you. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: GUEST,Val Date: 04 Apr 07 - 06:31 PM RE: Kendall's comment about the definition having more to do with form than content: It's possible that the term Ballade is confused for Ballad . (click links to Answers.com for details) A balladE is a specific form of poetry. A ballad is not nearly as precisely defined. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Stringsinger Date: 04 Apr 07 - 07:09 PM I think that a ballad has to have an epic feel to it. A universal theme in a story that carries down through the ages. In a sense, I think that this is what the popular ballad means, too. It's a "standard", generally slow and with sophisticated harmony that has an enduring quality. The ballad is a venerable song or poem that has a kind of dignity to it. A comic song is not a ballad in my opinion. Nor is a rock song or simple-minded ditty. A ballad (in the folk music sense) has to be listened to as lyrics. The melody is a vehicle for carrying the story. The popular ballad of the 40's, 50's can be listened to for its melody which is generally sophisticated musically but the words are of a higher quality. A ballad is not in my opinion a dance tune either. It requires a concentration on the lyrics that tell the story. Some examples of folk ballads: Barbara Allen Hangman, Slack Your Rope She Moved Through The Fair Streets of Laredo Bonny Banks of Binnorie Edward Lady Gay or The Wife of Ushers Well (Check the ballad index....) Examples of popular ballads All The Things You Are Kern Time After Time Carmicheal Embraceable You Gershwin Night and Day Porter Spring Is Here Rogers and Hart It Might As Well Be Spring " " Autumn in New York Vernon Duke Speak Low Kurt Weill September Song " " (I think you get the idea) I think both type ballads define themselves. Frank Hamilton |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Don Firth Date: 04 Apr 07 - 07:34 PM What Frank said. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Mrrzy Date: 04 Apr 07 - 07:39 PM I've not thought that the term Ballad referred to structure, but it had to tell a story. I found a while ago that almost all the ballads I sing are about death, but then I realized, what other story is going to have a song made about it. In my experience, ballads that sing about current events are called contemporary ballads, and ballads that sing about actual past events are sometimes called historical ballads. So I infer that the default ballad is set in the past, and is often fictional. I grew up with an album of murder ballads and one of ghost ballads, by Paul Clayton and someone else shelved alphabetically nearby (but I don't recall which was which anyway), and lots of folk songs. I tended to enjoy singing the ballads because they were long and told a story, and only realized later how very, very few of them were not a story involving death... ? |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Surreysinger Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:06 PM Sorry, but I would NOT have said that She Moved Through The Fair was a ballad - it's a poem with an identifiable author relatvely recently set to music ; it could be loosely called a folk song,(and a good one at that) but in my books _not_ a ballad. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Don Firth Date: 04 Apr 07 - 08:26 PM FYI, from the "Contemplations" web site: The original words were an old ballad from Donegal which was collected in 1909. The words were "reworked" by Padraic Colum to this version. Alternate titles and variants include, Our Wedding Day and Out of the Window.To the best of my knowledge, it's not part of the Child collection, but then Child did miss a few that fit the definition he was working with. For example, The Trees They Grow High, which, by his criteria, is pretty definitely a ballad. In a class I took from Dr. David C. Fowler when at the university, Dr. Fowler said that Child missed several specifically Irish ballads (according to Child's own definition), mainly because he put the whole collection together through correspondence, and his correspondants in Ireland were a bit sparse. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Songster Bob Date: 04 Apr 07 - 09:09 PM The classic folklorist deefinition of a ballad is a narrative story told in the third person, usually with dialogue between characters carrying the story forward. So "Alice's Restaurant" is NOT a folkloric ballad (it's in first person), nor are many lyric songs (the more accurate definition of "She Moved Through the Fair" and similar "soft" songs). Of course, the popular-music term "ballad" got mixed with folklorists' term, just as the popular-music definition of "folksong" did. So now, even among members of the "folk music community," we talk of "Irish Ballads" that are pop-song ballads in a folk style, but not "ballads." Maybe we should capitalize Ballad when we mean "folklorists would agree" (not actually -- scholars bicker), and leave it lower-case -- ballad -- when we mean Johnny Mathis / Tony Bennett / Ella Fitzgerald et al. Of course, we won't hear the capital when we're speaking, not writing, but we could use our hands, making "quote marks" with our fingers, or something like that. Or we can just sing 'em and to hell with definitions (which can wait till the singing's done). Bob |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Deckman Date: 04 Apr 07 - 09:59 PM I learned the definition when I was 13. A ballad is a "STORY SONG." that's it ... super simple ... been that way since I was 13, and it always will be so. If modern society wants to change the defination ... they can ... but they'll be WRONG. (but that's another story). A ballad is a STORY SONG! Any more damned questions? CHEERS, Bob |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Jim Lad Date: 04 Apr 07 - 10:05 PM Why is the sky blue? |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 04 Apr 07 - 10:54 PM Professor Child died decades before Pádraic Colum wrote his poem 'She Moved Through the Fair', which would be one quite good reason why it wasn't included in Child's collection. The little group of folksongs on which SMTTF was based are only ballads in the sense that they are narrative songs, and that is the sense in which Herbert Hughes used the term, as quoted -without attribution- at the 'Contemplator' website, which should never be quoted as an authority in itself, as the information there is précied, frequently inaccurately or misleadingly, from unspecified sources. Any suggestion that the melody 'dates back to medieval times' was probably made by a romantic fantasist who also imagined that the pyramids were built by Martians. Of course, I'd be glad to hear of any verifiable evidence that might support either of those assertions; Ossian's Folksongs and Ballads Popular in Ireland books, however, are about as reliable as a dandelion clock when it comes to telling the time. There are perfectly good definitions of the word 'ballad' as it is used in relation to (1) traditional song and (2) art song. They can be found in any good dictionary, as can the fact that the word is now commonly also used to mean 'a romantic song of any sort' (in all English-speaking countries. I don't see that Irish usage is in any way different from, for example, American). This last is pretty much irrelevant, as it doesn't affect the earlier definitions, all of which are long established and uncontroversial; except when people particularly want to confuse the issue for personal reasons of their own. We know why the sky is blue (or, rather, why it appears to be); that is a simple matter of scientific fact. What is a mystery to me is why Richard started this discussion. Perhaps he was bored. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Jim Lad Date: 04 Apr 07 - 11:00 PM Malcolm: As always, your first three paragraphs are extremely informative. Thank You! Jim |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Little Robyn Date: 05 Apr 07 - 01:25 AM Thanks Scoville, that's luverly. But I'm not sure I'd call it a ballad. Does it mean that the preacher's mom was the hooker? The crosses in the picture look too fresh to be from a time before the preacher was born - or did I miss something?? Very nice tho'. Robyn |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Declan Date: 05 Apr 07 - 01:50 AM Malcolm, If you don't see that the Irish usage of the term ballad is different from the American, then, with respect, I would suggest that you don't fully understand the way in which the word ballad is used in Ireland. Rightly or wrongly (by the dictionary definition), most Irish people understand "Irish Ballads" to be the set of songs made popular during "the ballad boom" in the 1960s by groups such as The Clancy's The Dubiners and their many imitators. The use of the word ballad may not stand up to academic scrutiny, and may be wrong by the definitions used by Deckman and others, but it is in common usage. Given that the main purpose of language is communication, it is as well that we realise that people can be imprecise in their use of language. If I were to advertise a ballad group performing in a pub in Ireland, most people would have a certain expectation of the sort of material they would be likely to hear. If the group in question were to sing a series of long narrative songs, whether or not classified by Child et al as ballads, they might well end up with a very disgruntled audience looking for their money back. In a post early in this thread, A guest said that the Irish seem to call most folk songs ballads. In fact this perception is not accurate. Whereas many of the songs the Irish call ballads would be called folksongs in the UK and elsewhere, many of the songs that are called folksongs outside Ireland would not be termed ballads as the word is used over here. "Irish Ballads" is a paricular genre (for want of a better word) of folk songs. Incidentally the "F" word (Folk that is) was not in common usage in Ireland until the late 60s when groups like Emmet Spiceland, Sweeney's Men and most notably Planxty arrived on the scene. I would imagine that if you asked most Irish people to name a Ballad Singer they would more than likely mention Luke Kelly, Ronnie Drew or Paddy Reilly. A Folk singer would probably be Christy Moore, Paul Brady or Andy Irvine. The distinction may be a subtle one, but it exists. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Richard Bridge Date: 05 Apr 07 - 02:50 AM I was piqued by the fact that my first reaction was that I was unclear exactly what the person to whom I was speaking meant when she spoke of "ballads" that I sang. I was also interested to see if there was the same sharp dichotomy between those with any real attention to the subject matter and the "horse" school of thought (if it can be called "thought") that there was in relation to the "F" word. And although there is less acrimony (so far) it seems there is. The Oxford Companion to Music had over 4 pages of small print about "ballad" "Ballad opera" and "ballade", and I am pressed for time this morning and going out for a long weekend soon, so I am not going to try to scan and OCR them just now, for I fear the cleanup will be demanding. Maybe some evening next week. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Snuffy Date: 05 Apr 07 - 09:03 AM the "horse" school of thought (if it can be called "thought") won't find this thread because they usually talk about "ballards" anyway. |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: Surreysinger Date: 05 Apr 07 - 10:42 AM "Any suggestion that the melody 'dates back to medieval times' was probably made by a romantic fantasist who also imagined that the pyramids were built by Martians. Of course, I'd be glad to hear of any verifiable evidence that might support either of those assertions; Ossian's Folksongs and Ballads Popular in Ireland books, however, are about as reliable as a dandelion clock when it comes to telling the time." Thanks for a good laugh Malcolm!!! |
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Subject: RE: Now define a 'ballad'? From: GUEST Date: 05 Apr 07 - 02:51 PM The most comprehensive summary of the term 'Ballad' (traditional, popular, English and Scottish etc) I have come across is to be found in Funk and Wagnall's 'Standard Dictionary of Folklore' (approx 5 pages worth). 'The Ballad Boom' a.k.a 'the time of the singing pullovers' certainly helped to form the present day concept of the term here in Ireland. The situation has not been helped by Comhaltas's (non) definition which seems to applied to anything old and comes with a tune attached, (as long as it's in Irish)! The confusion has been added to by the fact that the song sheets sold by Travellers around the fairs and markets right into the 1950s were also referred to as ballads. Having said this, 50 plus Child Ballads have been sound-recorded from traditional singers, including such gems as 'Young Hunting', 'The Maid and the Palmer', The Suffolk Miracle, Lamkin, 'The Demon Lover', 'Edward', 'Lord Randall', Johnny Scot' and 'The Outlandish Knight'. Up to 20 years ago you coldn't throw a stone here in West Clare without hitting 'Lord Lovell'. As with Scotland, Travellers have proved the most fruitful source by far for traditional ballads. Jim Carroll Irish |
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