The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127154   Message #2833052
Posted By: Emma B
08-Feb-10 - 01:14 PM
Thread Name: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
Subject: RE: Anti-Heroines in Traditional Song?
Solvay, or the Female Highwayman.

"Another girl who dressed in men's clothes, high-spirited this time to a dangerous degree. The heroine of this piece has been called "the kinkiest girl in folk song". It's not quite clear whether her name is really Sylvie or Sophie, but of her fortright and adventurous character there can be no doubt.
Lucy Broadwood found this "an exceedingly favourite ballad with country singers", and every collector of prominence has found versions of it. The good Dorian tune here is akin to the one Sharp published to the words of The Flash Lad (he called it The Robber) in his Somerset series, Vol. V, and is substantially the same as H.E.D. Hammond's Sovie tune from Long Burton, Dorset." Bert Lloyd's sleeve notes