Hi Bob

I presume the song you refer to goes:

Looms are swept and brass is drawn
And me and Jack'll be up at dawn
And we're off to beg or steal or pawn
For t' July wakes.

We've sweat for one and fifty weeks
And human limbs like looms'll creak
So we'll go and climb up Pendle cheek
And rest us limbs

We'll roam in t'woods and we'll sprawl in th' hay
And watch grey clouds swing up at play
Aye and if they burst we'll turn that way
And taste clean rain

We'll follow rivers up to't sky
And we'll watch great fishes swimming by
And we'll sup from brooks if we get dry
And we'll stand up men

We'll have days care free till Jack, downcast
from watching larks and linnets racing past
Hear's the hooter's moan through the linnet's blast
To hell wi t' looms

Cause Monday'll see us back in t' sheds
Watching shuttles spewing out miles and miles of thread
And we'll be weaving fifty one weeks of bread
And just one of life

I wouldn't say that it was from the period of the cotton famine but really a general song from the time when the whole town closed down for the mill to have maintenance done to the machines and the boilers. Each town had a different 'wakes' week where the population would go to Blackpool or Morecambe or wherever for a week's holiday. In the case of 'me and Jack' it was a case of not having the money to go away and so they scraped together what money they could and went into the hills away from the town to have one week of freedom away from the fifty one weeks of labour.

I can't think who actually wrote it although I think Stan Ellison put the tune to it. No doubt someone will let us know before I get home and have a look through my records.

The songs that we perform on the CD are from the period of the cotton famine - Shurat Weaver's song, Hard Times in Dixie, Alabama, Sewing Class Song, Marching Through Georgia, Humanity is Calling, and other poems and readings of the period.

Cheers
Mark