The Animals' Carol: Christmas carol sung by field mice in Kenneth Grahame's book The Wind in the Willows (1908). I wrote a jaunty Mixolydian tune for it; no significant revisions to the text.

First lines: Villagers all, this frosty tide, / Let your doors swing open wide
Mudcat thread: Wind in the Willows carol: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=134368#3272400 (lyrics, ABC with lyrics)
My Skydrive repository: Song settings (MIDIs, PDF)
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Click Clack: a poem about a miller who loves his late wife, his daughter and his maid, but they share a common failing: they never shut up (reminding him of the perpetual noise made by his mill). Charles Dibdin, jr wrote it, probably as a light theatrical song, and published it in his poetry collection Mirth and Metre (1807)--this is the only trace I've encountered of it. I wrote the patter chorus and musical setting, and made some wording changes to the text.

First lines: A miller I am, well-respected my name, / And it's three or four years since I buried my dame;
Mudcat thread: Click Clack: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=139941 (original and modified texts, ABC with full lyrics, MIDI)
My Skydrive repository: Song settings (MIDIs, PDF)
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The Good Old Concertina (A.B. Patterson, 1891): in this Australian bush song, Patterson waxes nostalgic about evenings spent singing bush songs round the campfire to a concertina accompaniment. My setting includes a reel (used as an introduction and break) and a polka (played afterward).

First line: 'Twas merry when the hut was full of jolly girls and fellows
Mudcat thread: The Good Old Concertina: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=11304
The thread includes Bob Bolton's setting (with ABC) and mine (with ABCs for the song, reel and polka).
My Skydrive repository: Song settings (MIDIs [with combined version], PDFs)
DigiTrad (lyrics, MIDI for Bob Bolton's setting): The Good Old Concertina
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[There's] Life in the Old Dog Yet: A jovial codger outlines the approach he took to ensure a satisfying life in the well-seasoned years. The song was written by Joseph Edward Carpenter, by 1878. Finding no music, I wrote a tune for it; text unaltered.

First lines: They call me "old fellow" and only because / My beard has some patches of grey;
Mudcat thread: Life in the Old Dog Yet: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=144052 (text, ABC with full lyrics)
My Skydrive repository: Song settings (MIDI, PDF)
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Lone Dog: A mongrel revels in his tough outcast life. The tune (sort of radio-cowboy) is mine, the text is unaltered.

First lines: I'm a lean dog, a keen dog, / A wild dog and lone
Mudcat thread: Lone Dog (lyrics, ABC, MIDI)
Rutherford: Songs to Save a Soul (1916; p. 89): Lone Dog (poem)
My Skydrive repository: Song settings (MIDI, PDF)
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Streams of Crimson Blood: A young man (John Stacey) breaks into an old man's home and brutally murders him and his housekeeper. He is tried for the murders and sentenced to be hanged.

This ballad was printed in an 1829 broadside along with an account of the true story it describes. Paul Slade researched the story and wrote an article about it for the murder ballads section of his PlanetSlade web site. In response to Paul's request for people to set and record versions of these murder ballads (bringing them back to life, as it were), I tried my hand at this one, and Paul posted my recording on the Tindeck site. I wrote the tune and refrains, and did some minor rewording of the original text.

First lines: A barbarous, foul and horrid deed / I shortly will recite
PlanetSlade article, with the original broadside text
Recording on Tindeck: http://tindeck.com/listen/oirv
Mudcat thread: PlanetSlade Gallows Ballad Project: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=143241
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