THREAD DRIFT ALERT
Suibhne - the source for the version of "Out With My Gun" on the Woodbine and Ivy Band album is the Musical Traditions CD "A Story to Tell: Keith Summers in Suffolk 1972-79" where it's sung by Jimmy Knights.

Now I like my jovial country life
Happy at home with my home and wife.
Some people are rich but I envy none
I'm rich enough with my dog and gun.
Early in the morning I leave my home
That is the time in the fields to roam.
Down in the valley my house you'll see
Folks say it's small but it just suits me.

Chorus:
Then I like my wife, my pipe and my glass
Gaily along life's road do I pass.
Jolly and free it just suits me
And out with my gun in the morning.

Oh I'd lie in bed when the lark sings high
up in the blue and cloudy sky.
Gay as a bird to the fields I go
Back I'll return with the sunset glow.
My dear little wife as she crossed the stile
She welcomed me home with a loving smile.
Perhaps other women would fairer be
But she is my own and she just suits me.

Then I like my wife ...

Now the winter may come and the winds may blow
Safe at home from frost and snow.
By my fireside with my wife I'll sing
I would not change with a crowned king.
Happy am I in my little cot
Contented I'll be with my humble lot.
Some people may sneer at my low degree
They say I'm poor, but it just suits me.

Then I like my wife ...

The sleevenotes contain a brief exchange between Jimmy and Keith Summers:

JK: "Did I tell you where I got it from?"
KS: "No. Who from?"
JK: "Charlie Baldry!"
KS: "Did you?"
JK: "I did."
KS: "Is that one you learnt off him?"
JK: "No. The old man writ that out for me."
KS: "Did he?"
JK: "Yes, when they lived in Bredfield."
KS: "Yeah? And how old would he have been?"
JK: "Oh, he was bloody near eighty when he writ that out."
KS: "Was he?"
JK: "Poor old bugger used to stand up and try to sing it. Laughs." Everybody wanted him to sing it, you know. And a ... he didn't write it out. His daughter did for me."
KS: "He didn't live in Melton then?"
JK: "No. Old Charlie? You didn't know him?"
KS: "No."
JK: "No. Blast you wouldn't know him boy. He was dead before you was bloody well born. Yes."

Apart from Alfred Williams' inclusion in his MS of this song from a Mrs Phillips of Burton, Wiltshire, the only other singers cited by Roud are Charlie Baldry's son Jim, and Jimmy Knights! And the only broadside listed is that in the G R Axon Collection, Chetham's Library, Manchester - so this is a very rare song.

Now back to Ewan McColl.