Another setting of one of Ron Baxter's songs inspired by the culture and history of the Fleetwood fishing industry. This one's a little different, concerning a piece of sensitive folklore from the perspective of a bereaved widow. Consequently, Rapunzel's setting is just as sensitive. Mother Carey Chicks are storm petrels.
; the song tells of their signicance to fisherlore.

We featured it on the Dark Brittanica Volume 2 CD (Cold Spring) in a recording with Ross; and you can listen to Rapunzel and I doing it here in a rehearsal demo from December: http://soundcloud.com/rapunzel-and-sedayne/mother-careys-chicks


In the gale the spray was flying
All along the foreshore
With her window's weeds a-weeping
A lonely woman I saw.
She said as she stared across the bay
Aboard The Belfar he went down;
Though his body's gone forever
I know where he will be found

He flies with Mother Carey's Chicks
He flies with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them his soul is born

No marble cross, no marking stone,
For those lost to the sea -
But I know where my lover's gone
For the good lord he decreed
That the souls of all drowned fishermen
To heaven would not ascend
But fly above the rolling tide
Til time itself will end

They fly with Mother Carey's Chicks
They fly with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them their souls are born

So he called on Mother Carey
And his orders to her he gave
Your daughters will carry
All those lost out on the waves
For their lives were on the ocean
So in death still let them roam
Over their own fishing grounds
Until I call them home

They fly with Mother Carey's Chicks
They fly with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them their souls are born

She turned to face the driving spray
And the wind streamed through her hair
She said though I know you're not coming home
I know that you are still there
Oh I know that you're not returning
And your face I'll never more see
But where the stormy petrels fly
I know that's where you'll be

You fly with Mother Carey's Chicks
You fly with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them your soul is born

*

I might add we'll be doing this as part our Fleetwood 175 show which we'll be doing at the Fylde Festival. Those who saw our Demdyke show at the last two Fyldes will have heard it there too.