Sometime around 1952, I was digging through the record bins in Campus Music and Gallery for folk albums and ran across a 10" LP by a fellow named Joe Hanson (or Hansen, I don't recall which now). Joe H. had a sort of reedy sounding light baritone, and the drawing on the cover—no photograph—depicted him accompanying himself on the autoharp—not cradled in his left arm, Stoneman or Carter family style, but laying flat on his lap. He did pick out melodies a bit, but mostly he just strummed chords.

I was there on a buying spree, looking for records I could learn songs from (this was during those wonderful days of yesteryear when you could take a stack of records into a listening booth and audition them before buying). I had already picked out several and wanted this record too, but since I had already busted the budget badly, I figured I'd come back for it. But when I came back, someone had beaten me to it.

Some of the songs on the record (maybe eight or ten altogether) I've since learned were from Cecil Sharp's One Hundred English Folksongs:   songs such as "The Drownèd Lover" and "The Sheep-Shearing," He also did a sort of fast, almost jig-time version of "Greensleeves" (more verses than you really wanted to hear), "The Bold Princess Royal," and a couple Welsh songs. One of them was "All Through the Night."

The other was "Venture, Gwen." And that's what prompts this inquiry.

The melody is stuck solidly in my head. I can sing the melody right on, no problem. But I can't remember more than a very few of the words that Joe H. sang. I've searched the Cat and I've googled like mad, but all I have been able to come up with are references to the song, plus "Mentra Gwen," which appears to be essentially the same song. But the only lyrics I've found are in Welsh. No English words, at least English words that I can wrap my mouth around. I've googled for Joe Hanson (or Hansen) and come up with zippo, nada, nuttin'. No references to him or to the record, which I think was on Obscurity Label rather than Elektra or Riverside or any of the usual suspects. Definitely not Folkways.

The general thrust of the song is that someone is courting a girl named Gwen. Many lines end with "dearest Gwen, fairest Gwen." There is a line that says "my men-at-arms surround thee," and it refers to his castle, which he seems to be offering her if she will take him as her lover or husband. And it ends with a sort of triumphant, "Thou hast ventured, ventured, Gwen!"

I will be most grateful to anyone who can give me some information about this song and/ or Joe Hanson (or Hansen).

And I will be eternally grateful to anyone who can supply me with the set of words that Joe H. sings.

"Thank you, thank you in advance!!" he said, his eyes glowing with eager hope and his lower lip a-tremble.

Don Firth