Subject: Broom O' the Cowdenknowes on Youtube
From:
JedMarum
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 09:58 AM
Here's a link to The Broom of the Cowdenknowes at Youtube. The song is sung by Ed Miller and has background comments from Ed about the song that I quote below.
I've always loved the song and have heard so many wonderful versions, including Ed's. These comments put some perspective on the song for me.
It's not listed on the Youtube page, but I have the album this clip comes from and know that EJ Jones is playing the small pipes and that Brian McNeill is on fiddle.
Comments from Ed Miller about this song:
"This has always been one of my favourite songs, ever since I first heard it sung by Archie Fisher, years ago - so long ago, in fact, that the words of his version and mine have deviated considerably. Such is the oral tradition.
Cowdenknowes was a farm in the hills near Earlston, a small market and woollen mill town about halfway between Edinburgh and the English border; and broom is a bushy plant that covers the hillsides with its yellow blooms in the early summer.
For centuries, sheep grazing has been the main land use in the Scottish Border hills, providing wool for towns along the Tweed and other rivers. This song is basically a lament by a shepherd who has fallen for the landowner's daughter; but, as she is from a higher class, he is forced to leave, rather than fulfill his love."
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sj
