The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #164332 Message #3931569
Posted By: Jim Carroll
18-Jun-18 - 03:43 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Child Ballads in Ireland
Subject: RE: Origins: Child Ballads in Ireland
Hope his song was more interesting than 'The True Lover's Discussion' (the one Martin sang) which was a debate between the merits and demerits of their different religions We have a recording of Martin singing it at a session at the local Summer School In deference to the unfamiliar listeners, he decided to halt the song before the end (it's that sort of song) The locals who were familiar with the song howled in protest that he should finish it - he grinned and pushed on to the end I have to say that, while the subject matter doesn't interest me particularly, Martin's singing always brought the song alive for me.
MaColl told us how, when he first started singing big ballads in public, he used to divide his longest, 'Gil Morice' into two halves, part before the interval, part after. One night, a somewhat tipsy regular approached him in the in the interval and berated him for the practice - "it's like waiting for the other ***** shoe to drop" Several singers (including Ewan) have told us that if you can get a song to work for you, you can get it work for whoever is listening. Jim