Broadside Songs The Halliard Molly Music MMCD04 (Songbook with CD, UK, November 2005)

From the group’s collection of their scribbled manuscripts and old copies of broadside sheets, Dave Moran has brought together 30 broadsides set to original tunes composed by himself and Nic Jones, together with one of Nigel Paterson’s original tunes and an instrumental variation by Paterson/Jones. There are words, music, chords, articles, a history, song notes and much more. Here you will find the true origins of the tunes to songs like Boys of Bedlam, Lancashire Lads, Calico Printer’s Clerk, Ladies Go A’Thieving (often referred to as Ladies Don’t Go A’Thieving) and Workhouse Boy, which have long been sung around the folk scene, plus many others.

The Halliard: Broadside Songs (Molly Music MMCD04)

1. Calico Printer's Clerk (Roud 13210) (3.09)
2. Ladies Don't Go A-Thieving (Roud V28087) (2.43)
3. Tae the Weavers Gin ye Go (instrumental) (2.20)
4. Going for a Soldier, Jenny (Roud V1224) (2.21)
5. The Workhouse Boy (3.13)
6. A Thousand Miles Away (Roud 1778; G/D 6:1102) (3.30)
7. The Last Farewell of Frost, Jones & Williams (3.30)
8. The Diggins O! (3.27)
9. British Man of War (Roud 372) (4.25)
10. Boys of Bedlam (Roud V16366) (3.23)
11. The Victory (Roud 2278) (5.41)
12. Clever Tom Clinch (3.10)
13. Durham Militia (3.09)
14. Collier Lass (Roud V7863) (5.48)
15. Bold Nevison (Roud 1082) (2.48)
16. Jullien's Original Polka (4.07)
17. Lancashire Lads (Roud 588; G/D 1:89) (3.19)

Tracks 1-2, 6-9, 12, 14, 16-17 tune Dave Moran
Track 3 trad. Nigel Paterson, Nic Jones
Track 4 tune and chorus Nic Jones
Tracks 5, 11, 15 tune Nic Jones
Tracks 10, 13 tune Nic Jones, Dave Moran

Dave Moran writes;

Nic [Jones] and I and mandolin/guitar player Nigel Paterson made up the Halliard. We were looking to develop some new music and we took the advice of song-writer Leslie Shepard. We decided to add tunes to Broadsides that we discovered, uncovered or collected – we checked out the Harkness Collection at Preston and the collections in Manchester etc. Nic and I wrote all the tunes together, usually sitting in the front of the Mini and singing and working out tunes as we drove – as the mandolin was the smallest instrument and Nigel was in the back, he always played the tunes. 'Jones and Moran' wrote a heap of songs like this including Lancashire Lads, Going for a Soldier Jenny, Miles Weatherhill, Calico Printer's Clerk etc. We wrote the tunes to fit the words and sometimes added or altered words, as in The Workhouse Boy.

From the liner notes of Unearthed by Nic Jones;

Possibly to the consternation of some, I often deliberately altered or re-wrote words and tunes of traditional songs, although I did try to keep it very much in sympathy with the original. Broadsides, however, offered a good source of ballads without such constraints and gave me the freedom to compose around the text without offence. Described on a broadsheet as A New Song — Bonaparte's Escape from Russia, I added a few extra words, wrote a tune and called it The Warlike Lads of Russia.