Lyr Req: Reed Cutter's Daughter (Moore Moss Rutter

Subject: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: r.padgett
Date: 01 Jul 15 - 05:07 PM

.


Right song lyrics and tune needed, although I may well have been gazumped

by young thrusters, Moore Moss Rutter ~ Tom and Bertha Brown sang the

Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way and a lad who was chauffeur in

London sang it at folk festivals, and I never managed to get tune or lyrics anyone know? if recorded anywhere?

Ray

Subject: Lyr Add: THE REED CUTTER'S DAUGHTER
From: GUEST,#
Date: 01 Jul 15 - 06:42 PM

The following is from

http://www.veteran.co.uk/vtc6cd_words.htm

Reed Cutter's Daughter

Come all you young fellows who intend to start roaming,
Pray pay attention and listen to me.
For I once loved a girl and I would have married
But I belonged to the road and I had to be free.
For I was a tinker a-fixing and mending
Camped by a village and earning my pay,
While she had a house and a father to care for,
The reed cutter's daughter from Hoveton way.

For the times they are hard when a girl loves a rover,
When really she shouldn't and knows that it's so.
Each night as the sun set to me should wander,
Each morn as it rose to the house she would go.
I knew that some day we'd be sad for the parting
Each morn I would wish and each night I would pray,
So happy together with this blue-eyed maiden,
The reed cutter's daughter from Hoveton way.

When I think of the short time that we spent together
Often a frown passes over my brow.
She told me that some day I'd grow to forget her
But many's the time that I think of her now.
I was cruel to be kind when the time came for parting
With a kiss and a smile and "I'll see you again".
But just as I found her I left her a-standing
The reed cutter's daughter from Hoveton way.

Yes, I thought it was cruel, now I see it was kindness.
She could not leave there and I could not stay.
But oft times I wonder if I'm still remembered
By the reed cutter's daughter from Hoveton way.
By the reed cutter's daughter from Hoveton way.

(recorded at Whittlesbury, Northamptonshire by John Howson, 1988) This is probably quite a recent composition. Jeff heard it being sung on the television. Originally the story was told from the girl's point of view, but Jeff changed it round, making the boy the storyteller. Hoveton, mentioned in the song, is near Wroxham in the Norfolk Broads.

Song transcribed by Dan Quinn
Song notes: Mike Yates

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,#
Date: 01 Jul 15 - 06:52 PM

Wrong song, huh?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: Brian Peters
Date: 02 Jul 15 - 12:45 AM

From Jeff Wesley - who does it really well.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 02 Jul 15 - 03:02 AM

Yep this is accord with information I have on my fb page and certainly is the song in question!

Barbara Brown has offered both versions and I look forward to comparing the lyrics etc

Thanks

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 02 Jul 15 - 06:13 AM

Recorded by Jeff Wesley on Brisk & Bonny Lad. Veteran Tapes. VT 116. Check John Howson's Veteran site. The song, or possibly the entire cassette, may have been reissued on CD.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,Ian
Date: 03 Jul 15 - 03:32 AM

Ray. I'll try and dig out an MP3 of Tom singing it at Worksop Folk Club circa 1981. I think it is in the archives somewhere. (Not all have been taken off 1/4" reel yet.)

If I can find it, I'll pm you (not logged in on this computer.)

As Tom used to tell us he learned his songs at his mother's knee, it reminds me that Mitch pointed out that when she passed on, he had her knee pickled and opened the jar occasionally to learn a new song.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 03 Jul 15 - 04:22 AM

Thanks Ian, fond memories of Tom and Bertha and the Worksop folk club people!

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 03 Jul 15 - 11:40 AM

I must admit that given the Norfolk references in this song that I thought it might have come originally from Tom Brown (and his mother's knee!), but clearly it was Jeff Wesley who created it from a song heard on a TV programme.

Just to muddy the waters a little more a search of the Mudcat archives led me to a post by Steamin' Willie who was an old friend to Tom and Bertha Brown, and a former radio presenter with BBC Radio Sheffield, I think. He once interviewed Fred Jordan for his programme, and asked Fred to sing Reedcutter's Daughter, to which Fred replied that it was Tom Brown's song - the joke apparently being that Tom had got it from Fred in the first place, but still claimed that he learned at his mother's knee. It seems this was a standard humourous introduction by Tom to any song which he reckoned as 'old'.

So, is there any recording of Fred Jordan singing The Reedcutter's Daughter?

Matthew

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 03 Jul 15 - 03:19 PM

Good question Matthew, curiouser and curiouser!

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,Ian
Date: 04 Jul 15 - 02:13 AM

"Steamin' Willie" was the moniker Ron Howard used. Ron is no longer with us and Mandy, his wife, gave me his piles and piles of 1/4" tapes and cassettes of interviews and recordings, many of which I was involved with.

I don't think I was with him when he interviewed Fred Jordan although I was at the festival, I recall. (Yet I don't know which festival! All a blur.). Tom and Bertha were there too and Tom introduced Ron to lots of singers for him to interview.

Who knows? Fred might be singing it in a box in my attic.... I do know he sang his "catch you out" version of Grandfather's Clock. Don't ask me how I know that. Ron must have mentioned it and like some shopping lists, has stayed in my memory. Fred didn't just sing songs he learned as a boy from local tradition so this song may have appealed to him in the same way as Tom's Mum's pickled knee?

Just a fond thought.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Aug 15 - 01:05 PM

JP Slidewell sings a version of it. It is available via Michelle Holding. She has copies of the Album 'Sailors, Lads, sons and lovers' released by Holding/Slidewell on Palatine Records 2008. She sells it on her music website. Don't know what happened to Mr Slidewell - Is he still out there playing?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 31 Aug 15 - 01:33 PM

Thanks guest above

Just had promise of a recording and hope to hear it shortly

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: Vic Smith
Date: 31 Aug 15 - 02:57 PM

Fred wrote
Recorded by Jeff Wesley on Brisk & Bonny Lad. Veteran Tapes. VT 116.   

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: Jack Campin
Date: 01 Sep 15 - 05:29 AM

I heard somebody singing it at the "Half Day at the Bay" afternoon last Friday at Whitby Folk Week. Same tune as "The Red Headed Anne", which I guess came first?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Sep 15 - 12:04 PM

I don't know which came first, but it seems to me that the Reedcutter's Daughter deserves its own tune, so I wrote one, which I will send in for posting here.

It will seem a little too bouncy, but remember that it softens when being sung.

---

Reed Cutter's Daughter, composed by Leeneia:

Click to play (joeweb)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Sep 15 - 01:55 AM

I posted Leeneia's MIDI, with a link in her post above.

Here's a recording of the song by Moore Moss Rutter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeZzesQlJ6I

This is the only recording of the song I could find on YouTube or Spotify. The song isn't on Fred Jordan's excellent Shropshire Lad collection.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 02 Sep 15 - 03:31 AM

Thanks Joe

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 02 Sep 15 - 10:03 AM

I listened to a few lines of Moore Moss Rutter. I think (but I haven't pecked it out to make sure) that the song has too big a range for most people.

I do know that I'm tired of that anguished, abject style of singing. If a person wrote a song about how a drunk driver killed his little daughter, he could use that tone. For a week-long dalliance long ago - no.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Reed Cutters daughter from Overton way
From: GUEST,padgett
Date: 02 Sep 15 - 02:22 PM

Tend to agree leeneia, I will check out Jeff Wesley's rendition as well your own tune

Ray