Lyr Add: Barbara Allen / Barbry Ellen (C Hughes)

Subject: caroline hughes and barbara allen
From: GUEST,Roberto
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 01:31 PM

I'd like to find a recording of Barbara Allen sung by Queen Caroline Hughes. It is not in the Folktrax records, where Barbara Allen is sung by Caroline Hughes' husband. I think it was Ewan MacColl who recorded Caroline Hughes singing Barbara Allen, but I don't know where and if that recording is available. McColl sings a Barbara Allen that he says comes from Caroline Highes' version (in The Long Harvest and in The Manchester Angel). Norma Waterson also says that the version she sings in Bright Shiny Morning is from Caroline Hughes. Can somebody give me some information about? Thank you. Roberto Campo

Subject: RE: caroline hughes and barbara allen
From: nutty
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 02:23 PM

Sorry Roberto ....didn't manage to find Barbara Allen but Carolyne Hughes was recorded by Peter Kennedy and that recording is still available on cassette , if you are interested

blackdog and sheepcrook

Subject: RE: caroline hughes and barbara allen
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 03:04 PM

That's the Folktrax recording that Roberto mentioned. (Previous thread: Queen Caroline Hughes). There is a transcription of her set of Barbry Ellen in Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's book Travellers' Songs from England and Scotland (1977), but so far as I know no recording of it has ever been issued commercially.

Subject: RE: caroline hughes and barbara allen
From: GUEST,Matthew Edwards
Date: 03 Jan 03 - 08:59 PM

Roberto, you've touched on something interesting here. I too would love to hear the recordings of Caroline Hughes made by MacColl and Seeger. They are held in the National Sound Archive of the British Library, but they have never been issued. There may be a problem with the quality of the recordings, perhaps.

It would seem worth trying to get these released - it seems odd that none were included by Reg Hall in the Topic Voice of the People series.

Subject: Lyr Add: BARBRY ELLEN (Queen Caroline Hughes)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 04:07 AM

Here at least is the song as noted by MacColl and Seeger.

BARBRY ELLEN

(Noted by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger from "Queen" Caroline Hughes, 1962/6)

O, in Reading Town where I was born,
There's a fair young lady dwelling;
I picked her out for to be my bride,
And her name was Barbry Ellen, Ellen,
And her name was Barbry Ellen.

Now, mother dear, you make up my bed,
You'll make it soft and easy;
That I might die for the sake of love,
And that she might die for sorrow, sorrow,
And that she might die for sorrow.

Now, mother dear, you'll look up over my head,
You'll see my gold watch standing;
There's my gold watch and my guinea gold ring,
Will you 'liver it to Barbry Ellen, Ellen?
Will you 'liver it to Barbry Ellen?

Now, mother dear, look at the side of my bed,
You'll see a bowl there standing,
It is full of tears that I've lost this night
For the loss of Barbry Ellen, Ellen,
For the loss of Barbry Ellen.

Now, as I were a-walking across the fields,
I met a corpse a-coming;
(O, you put down, my six young lambs) ¹
That I might well gaze on him, on him,
That I might well gaze on him.

While (strollily) I walkèd on, ²
I heard the (knell a-telling), ³
And as it tolled, O, it seemed to say:
"Hard-hearted Barbry Ellen, Ellen,
Hard-hearted Barbry Ellen!"

¹ (O, put him down, my six young lads)?
² (strollèd I, strolling there)?
³ (bell a-tolling)?

From Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, Travellers' Songs from England and Scotland, University of Tennessee Press, 1977.

Child 84, Roud 54.

X:1
T:Barbry Ellen
S:"Queen" Caroline Hughes, 1962/6
Z:Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger
B:Travellers' Songs from England and Scotland, 1977
N:Child 84 Roud 54
N:First verse
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
M:6/4
K:F
C2 C2|A2 A2 A6 G2|F2 E2 D4 z2 CC|F2 A2 c6 B2|
w:O, in Read-ing Town where I was born, There's a fair young la-dy
A2 G3 z2 c2|d2 d2 c4 z2 FF|G2 F2 D4 z2 EF|G2 A2 G6 C2|
w:dwel-ling; I picked her out for to be my bride, and her name was Bar-bry
E2 F2 G2 c4 GA|B2 A2 G6 C2|E2 F4 z2|]
w:El-len, El-len, And her name was Bar-bry El-len.

X:2
T:Barbry Ellen
S:"Queen" Caroline Hughes, 1962/6
Z:Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger
B:Travellers' Songs from England and Scotland, 1977
N:Child 84 Roud 54
N:Tune variation with "most common" ending.
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
M:6/4
K:F
C2 C2|A2 A2 A6 G2|F2 E2 D4 z2 CC|F2 A2 c6 B2|
A2 G3 z2 c2|d2 d2 c6 GA|B2 c2 A4 z2 FG|A2 BA G6 C2|E2 F2 G2 A4 GA|
M:5/4
B2 A2 (G2 E2) C2|
M:6/4
C2 F4 z2|]

"Queen" Caroline Hughes (née Bateman) was born in 1900 in a horse-drawn caravan in Bere Regis, Dorset. She was a prolific and impressive singer, despite ill-health in later life; and a Traveller very much of the "old school". She was recorded during the 1960s by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, and by Peter Kennedy. On her death in 1971, she received a traditional Gypsy funeral; her caravan and all her possessions were burned.