Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please

Subject: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: GUEST,Lou
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 08:03 AM

Hi there, I wonder if anyone out there can help. I am trying to get the basic chords for Bleacher lassie of kelvinhaugh and caledonia as sung by Emily Smith. I am trying to practice singing these to introduce in to our bands set list but could do with practicing with the guitar to get enough confidence to sing them for the guys in the band! If anyone can help it is the mudcat crowd! Thanks in advance, i have put the youtube links if anyone has the time to have a look.

Thanks, Louise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPbkzIUXtK8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tonPy3e9MA

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 03:01 PM

Is this the performance on the Rik Palieri show that you asked about on Footstompin already?

If so, I repeat - why on earth would you want to play such a godawful twiddly irrelevance? It adds NOTHING to the song (and Emily Smith herself seems to have decided to emulate a third-rate Irish pub singer for this occasion, she can do much better).

Here's a chording from the 1960s. It's already an ugly overcomplicated mess.

  X:1
  T:The Bleacher Lassie of Kelvinhaugh
  S:Carlton Folk Songs
  M:3/4
  L:1/8
  Q:1/4=120
  K:C
  CEG   |"C" c2 "Dm"dc "G7"BA|"C"G2E
  CEG   |"Am"c2 "Dm"dc "G7"BA|"F"A3
  B"C"cG|"C"E2      GE "E7"DC|"G7"D2"C"E
  G"F"cA|"C"G2      EC "G7"DE|    C3  |]

What did this song do to deserve so many appallingly tasteless arrangements?

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: GUEST,lou
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 04:45 PM

Thank you for taking the time to reply, again, I am back playing traditional music after a 15 year break. I am just trying to introduce something different into a set that the band plays that I am part of. I am not very knowledgeable, I guess from your reply that this shows. Maybe I should stop trying to ask for help from people that are experienced and just go ahead and make an idiot of myself by playing/singing something on stage before asking for help/opinions.

I will stop posting on forums and go elsewhere for help unless I could be offered some constructive advice with suggestions of what else I could try if these songs/arrangements are so awful...........

Cheers!

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 05:43 PM

It's a fine song that doesn't need to be messed about with. Surely you could do a better arrangement on your own?

One thing to remember: I think you're in the US, and while the language of that song is not hard-core Scots, there will be words it's difficult for an American audience to catch ("bleacher" is not something you sit on at baseball games). An over-fussy look-at-me accompaniment will mean a lot of people will lose track of the story.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: Jack Campin
Date: 09 Feb 09 - 07:04 PM

I had a think about what it is I don't like about some of the complex arrangements of this song I've heard.

Look at the notes in it. It's hexatonic - no F. That's a fairly common mode in Scottish music, ambiguous between lydian and major. But the chords in that anonymous arrangement include the out-of-mode F almost all the time and obscure what's going on melodically. You don't always need to avoid out-of-mode notes, but with a simple but subtle tune telling a simple story, they don't help.

How would it work if you restricted yourself to C, G, and Am, and only let the accompaniment emphasise beats that correspond to emphases in the text (i.e. beats 1 and 3)?

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: Abdul The Bul Bul
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 04:36 PM

Lou, if you pm your email address I can send you a scan from the Carlton Folk song book.

Al

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 06:48 PM

Lou - IF you join Mudcat (Its Free) the Personal Message becomes available . And DONT mind Jack - He is one of our resident Curmudgeons .

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: Jack Campin
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 07:13 PM

The ABC I posted has all the musical information from the Carlton Song Book except for the fretboard diagrams. Paste it into one of the ABC converters at folkinfo.org or concertina.net.

Smith's accompanist uses a lot more rhythmic complication than is indicated in the Carlton arrangement. I don't think the harmony is quite the same either.

Leadfingers, I have actually tried to HELP the original poster and spent about an hour coding up that ABC for him and testing out variants of it on different players. Just what the fuck have YOU done to get him anywhere nearer what he wants?

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 07:36 PM

PM Sent

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: GUEST,Chris Gilbert
Date: 14 Apr 15 - 10:00 PM

Best version of this song I know is by Ewan MacColl...you can hear it on youtube here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEf7RM3_ous

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Emily Smith tunes chord request please
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Apr 15 - 03:25 AM

"why on earth would you want to play such a godawful twiddly irrelevance? It adds NOTHING to the song"

Having tried to listen to both songs it I would wholeheartedly agree. If that is the style she chooses to sing then she would be far, far better off without accompaniment. One other thing, maybe just an idiosyncrasy of mine but, if you are going to sing a song then at least sing it in a manner in which those listening can actually hear the words being sung.

"What did this song ("Bleacher Lassie) do to deserve so many appallingly tasteless arrangements?"

Again I agree - best rendition of this song that I have ever heard by a country mile is the version performed and recorded by Ian Bruce.

Unfortunate enough to have played on the same stage as Emily Smith (First time was when she turned up with "her band"; second when she was accompanied by Jamie McClennan) On the first occasion all who were performing that night were asked to turn up at 5 o'clock for sound checks, the doors were to opened at 7:30pm for an 8 o'clock start. Emily Smith and co littered the stage with their kit started their sound check (with their own "sound engineer") at 5 and finished it "sort off" at 7:15 even then she wasn't 100% happy - everyone else just had to "make do" with rudimentary line checks once they got on stage to perform, fortunately the sound guys engaged by the festival organisers were really on top of their game and for all the other bands they proved to be the stars of the night. Second occasion more of the same except this time no "personal sound man" the one engaged by the those organising the festival after having been basically screwed around for an hour, just called a halt to it and told both the artists up on the stage during the sound check to get their act together, decide once and for all what they wanted and to start behaving in a professional manner.