The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #131549 Message #2971206
Posted By: MGM·Lion
23-Aug-10 - 12:58 PM
Thread Name: Traditional singer definition
Subject: RE: Traditional singer definition
==Which composed songs have made it into trad? My nominee is "She Moved Through the Fair."==
I think not. I repeat here something I have put on other threads, but make no apology for the repetition as it fits here so well.
The 'traditional' claims of "She Moved Thru Fair" {possibly based on tradition but an original reworking in the version we have in mind here by Padraic Colum & Herbert Hughes [see informative Wiki article]} are based largely on the version sung in late 50s in London by Irish Traveller Margaret Barry, who had been discovered in Ireland by one of the English collectors of the time {I forget which] & brought over. We were all, under her influence, singing this song with heartbreaking expression wherever we went in all the clubs & venues.
Interviewed by Karl Dallas, and asked where she had got her fine version ~ from her own family tradition? from other Travellers? ~ she replied casually, "Oh no. I got it off of a gramophone record by Count John McCormack."!
~Michael~