Best folk songs from Dorset?

Subject: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,Jacky
Date: 10 Mar 15 - 01:56 PM

Suggestions much appreciated, Wessex Lubbers!

Jacky

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,alex s no cookie
Date: 10 Mar 15 - 01:59 PM

Ask Nick Dow - he's got some terrific songs.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 10 Mar 15 - 02:36 PM

I really like the song "Dorsetshire George" which I recorded from the singer Bob Blake many years ago. He also sang me a fine version of "The Grey Hawk" which also comes from Dorset. You can hear both on the double Musical Traditions CD "Up in the North and Down in the South" (MT CD 311-2).

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: RTim
Date: 10 Mar 15 - 03:05 PM

A good starting place is theEFDSS Vaughan Williams Library (online) that has the complete Hammond Bros. collection of songs from Dorset!!
see: http://www.vwml.org/browse/browse-collections-full-english/browse-ham

This has hundreds of songs with both words and music
Browse at your pleasure!!

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Mar 15 - 04:28 PM

perhaps if you gave us an idea of what sort of thing you're after. i've lived in Dorset for the last six years. there is a great wealth of folk song here. you can talk to people who knew the people whmy o put those folksongs into the library. if its trad you want.

locally there are many songwriters working in a folk idiom. i live near Dorchester. if you google me you will find my contact details.

Bonnie Sartin out of the Yetties, his family provided the Hammond brothers with several songs for their collection.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 10 Mar 15 - 06:29 PM

Carolyne Hughes was from Dorset. She sings 23 songs on the CD set 'I'm a Romany Rai' in the latest batch of Voice of the People CDs from Topic.

In the 60s I recorded a lady called Dorothy Bavey who as a child in Dorset had learnt songs from shepherd Willy Miles recorded by Vaughan Williams. Vaughan Wiiliams only recorded the tunes. These tracks are on the British Library Sound Archive site. You should easily get them by typing 'Dorothy Bavey' into the search box.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 10 Mar 15 - 07:21 PM

And then there are the works of William Barnes - in both dialect and Common English - including Linden Lea.

Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect (l844),
Hwomely Rhymes (1857), and
a third volume in 1863.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,bill S in Adelaide
Date: 10 Mar 15 - 08:36 PM

Try the Songs of Hardy's Wessex CD

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: Bert
Date: 11 Mar 15 - 12:52 AM

Threshing Machine of course.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 11 Mar 15 - 02:31 AM

A service from the British Library allows users to search through an online map of Dorset for old recordings of songs and stories.

Broadwindsor boasts more than 50 pieces recorded by the Lancashire-based folk song collectors Nick and Mally Dow. Performers include 'Flash' Phelps, Doug Phillips, Norman House and Dick Corbett.

On the British Library's map for Traditional Music, you can hear Dick Corbett sing round about 30 songs in what the notes correctly identify as a "Lively pub atmosphere."

Beaminster boasts even more recordings, from Fred Chubb, Mrs Fowler, Beaminster Band member Bill House and his son Norman, a retired forestry worker and resident of Newtown. Among the rarer songs performed by Norman House is the true and scary Murder at North Perrott.

Other places and people featured include Weymouth (Ivy Sims), Dorchester (Henry Barter and George Hirst), Charminster (Norman Grey – singing Cock-a-doodle-doo in the front of his Ford Anglia in a pub car park), Stratton (Lewis Downton) and Piddletrenthide (Bill Hunt).

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: Tradsinger
Date: 11 Mar 15 - 03:08 AM

The Sheep Stealer.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 Mar 15 - 04:28 AM

there was a lady whose name i forget who is regarded as a source singer from Upwey near Weymouth. Pauline Forsdyke nee Clenshaw wrote a whole show about her, Pauline has just moved to Bridport - she is on facebook.

Pauline is a great singer. i have done several gigs with her. she will help you out , she is a very nice person.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 11 Mar 15 - 06:23 AM

re Steve Gardham's note about Caroline Hughes and her contribution to Topic's Voice of the People. There is of course a double CD of her on Musical Traditions. Sheep-Crook & Black Dog. MTCD 365.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Mar 15 - 12:03 PM

THE MARINA RUSSELL STORY - A musical production of the life and songs of a lady from Upwey, Dorset.

Cast :-
Keren Brown Narration and guitar
Bob Smith Banjo and Mandole
Pauline Clenshaw Narration & Vocals
Annelie Talbot Vocals
Tina Leeming Vocals
Julian Batten Accordion
Alan Evans Percussion
Sharon Muhl Vocals
Plus local dancers
SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE from BONNY SARTIN of the YETTIES.

Following in the footsteps of the great song collector, Cecil Sharp, in 1905 the HAMMOND BROTHERS, Henry & Robert, set off on their bikes to scour Dorset for songs. In three months they recorded 193 songs and discovered a wealth of excellent singers with amazing repertoires. Henry wrote the music while Robert noted the words.

During their travels they came upon Mrs Marina Russell of Upwey. Despite the fact she was well into her 70's by 1905, she sung them 84 songs at their first visit and another 18 in 1907. There were love songs, songs of mystery and magic, see songs, parting songs and many more. They were songs she had learnt throughout her life. And what a life!

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: RTim
Date: 11 Mar 15 - 01:03 PM

Although I think Marina Russell was a very great source and probably a wonderful singer, many of her songs in Hammond are incomplete.
You have to find other versions to flesh them out - of course there is nothing wrong in doing this, but it is not easy.

Nick Dow also produced a tape of her life, but there are none of her songs performed on it due to some copyright issues - and I don't know what these were.

Good luck with you searching.
Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 Mar 15 - 01:16 PM

that's the one i was thinking of.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,Jacky
Date: 12 Mar 15 - 02:20 AM

This is great thanks, I'll definitely be looking these up. Out of interest, what would you say are the most well-known trad songs to come from dorset?

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 12 Mar 15 - 10:14 AM

Those recorded by The Yetties.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,Monologue Man
Date: 12 Mar 15 - 12:57 PM

Songs by Mick Ryan and Graham Moore.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 12 Mar 15 - 07:29 PM

Just to put the record straight re Marina Russell.
Martin Carthy related the tale of Marina's Grandaughter turning up at one of his gigs and announcing that her famous grandmother was in fact barking mad.
This turned out to be Lindy Russell, and related to the family on the male side.
Mally and I did a lot of research in the 1980's well before the days of on line census forms. We did it the hard way, knocking on doors and trawling through books at Somerset House.
This was a part of a larger project that involved collecting songs and publishing some life stories in a book series with Wessex Publishing, the book never happened for lots of reasons.
I adapted the Marina Chapter for radio with Nigel Canter {Wessex Festival} and Mally with music from Martin Carthy, Tim Laycock and yours truly.
It was syndicated throughout the BBC, and entered for the Sony awards. Later it was broadcast on numerous radio stations including Radio Solent. This threw up more info from the Hampshire Sartins {Marina was a Sartin and named Mary Anne at birth}
Cyril Tawney became involved and related the story of an old woman from Upwey who remembered Marina and the Hammond brothers visit, and told how she danced round the kitchen table singing 'Mark me once more john she said!' {one of her un published songs}
Was she barking mad? After the life she had who could blame her. I released the BBC narrative some 30 years ago on tape but obviously without the songs as I had no right to do so.
Nigel Canter found photo's of many of Marinas children and descendants and I found Pat Marsh her niece still living in Upwey.
Nigel and I contacted Bonny Sartin and passed on our research. I did a gig in Weymouth about this time and more than a few villagers came down to see me, which was very rewarding
Karen Brown contacted me and asked me if I had any problem with the Upwey History Society presenting an evening about Marina, of course I said no.
Pauline Clenshaw evidently re-wrote our research to make it work on stage I suspect. I have no problem with this at all. However she was not invoved in the original research at all.
The republished Penguin Book of English Folk Songs retitled Classic English Folk Songs includes a potted history of Marina, which is of course the same as our researches. It is credited as 'Unpublished research courtesy of Bonny Sartin'
Finally I hope to include the Marina Russell story as a part of a longer DVD about Dorset Folk song, which is not aimed primarily at the Folk Scene but of course will be made available to those who are interested. The script is written but needs recording and I finished filming at Corsecombe Church {Where Marina was married} last Tuesday. It will probably need a hammer and chisel to edit it but I hope it comes to fruition, and I plan to market it with a CD of songs as well. If there were more hours in a day etc. etc.
The best Dorset songs for me are in the repertoires of Marina, Robert Barratt, and my own singing teacher Bill House of Beaminster. I love our cottage and our life here in Lancashire, but Dorset will always hold a special place in my heart and I don't mind admitting it.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 02:28 PM

Lovely stuff, Nick. I wish you well in your projects.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: vindelis
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 02:59 PM

Don't forget Tim Laycock who may be another source.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 03:14 PM

wow! put me down for a copy of that dvd.and cd.

your pal Nigel Canter told me that Upwey is also remarkable as having been the trysting place of lovers Barbara Windsor and Sid James - it was the house opposite the Old Ship.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 04:31 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,Elaine Evans
Date: 25 Aug 16 - 01:30 PM

Marina Sartin/Russell is my 3x great aunt and I have a tape recording of Marina, the life and songs of a Dorset Woman, unfortunately it has deteriorated, is it possible to purchase another copy? My Sartin family tree goes back to the late 17th century, and I love having the extra stories that enhance it, particularly that of Marina, and the strain of musicality which has been inherited by later generations of the Sartin family.
I would be vey interested in the DVD.
Sorry to approach you through this but have been unable find any other way to contact you

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Aug 16 - 07:54 PM

Barking mad? Dryden wrote "great wits are sure to madmen near allied", and the same may perhaps be true in the folk tradition.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 26 Aug 16 - 03:52 PM

who is it you want to contact Elaine?

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,Musket for it may be he
Date: 26 Aug 16 - 04:08 PM

I did a spot at The Ship in Upwey many years ago (my missus was pregnant at the time and my lad is now 32...)

The organiser told me that "The Bedmaking" comes from Upwey, and so I learned it as a keepsake from the gig.

Last year at a concert oop in 'Doncaster, Martin Carthy did his version and we spoke in the interval about the origins of the song. Seems we heard the same story....

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 27 Aug 16 - 10:57 AM

Elaine you can contact me re-Marina Russell on [e-mail] or [e-mail] I've lots to tell you there is an update and a photo of Marina.

Subject: RE: Best folk songs from Dorset?
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Aug 16 - 04:35 PM

though i live not where i love ,is one of my favourite dorset songs, collected in piddletown from Roberts Barratt