did his father Will ever actually sing Eppie Morrie to the ONE·&·ONLY tune Bronson gives, or did Ewan make it up"
Ewan was infuriatingly vague about the sources of his songs; I don't believe this was deliberate - it never really seemed to interest him too much.
I have to admit I used to be agnostic to his claims of family repertoire until I got a chance to talk to several of his contemporaries from Salford; mainly Eddie Frow, who set up The Working Class Library there.
Eddie and others described William as a singer with a great number of 'unusual songs' but mainly fragmentary. I know his mother Betsy sang as she did so for me on a number of occasions, (to the accompaniment of that bloody minah bird who persisted in whistliing the first five notes of the Internationale). There is an album of Ewan and Betsy singing together (A Garland For Betsy)
I now believe that Ewan learned many bits of songs from his home environment and filled them out from printed texts.
I really don't know about Eppie Morrie - but I have to say that, having listened to Traveller John Reilly's repertoire (and Duncan Williamson's) I have come to believe that anything is possible.
I can't stress enough that I never heard Ewan claim the title 'traditional' for himself (or his family).
"And Jim C - it might be sum total of your sporting knowledge"...
My lack of sporting knowledge is legendary among my friends; something to do with being over-fed on a diet of football in the city with the two greatest teams (Liverpool and Liverpool reserves, I'm led to understand)
There is a family story of my travelling on a bus with my father past Goodison Park and asking "What's that big building".
A man in the seat behind tapped my father on the shoulder and said "Hey mate, are you bringing up a ******* atheist
Jim Carroll