The comment with the midi was mine, based (not quite accurately) on what Martin and Norma said about the song last time I heard them play it. I couldn't be more specific because that's all I remembered, but a recent discussion on rec.music.folk reminded me that they had learned it earlier than the trip to Cape Breton. What actually happened was that the song came up in the conversation while they were staying with some people there, and that those people subsequently discovered that they were closely related to the maker of the song. Eliza Carthy confirmed the story, and seemed to imply that the writer was still living, but I may have misunderstood that.

Tony Cuffe and Norma Waterson both learned the song from Songs of Deep Cove. Presumably, any changes to text and tune from the published set are their own.






! I'm almost sure that the subject came up somewhere round here quite recently (and that Eliza Carthy had something to say about it) but I can't find it now. Maybe it was all a dream...