Lockerbie concert Cowdeknowes

Subject: Lockerbie concert Cowdeknowes
From: GUEST,Weasel
Date: 08 Nov 20 - 09:37 AM

Some years ago a concert in aid of the Lockerbie bombing appeal was broadcast on television. Does anyone know who the performer was who sang "Broom of the Cowdeknows"? Any other information about the perfomers in that broadcast would be welcome.

Thanks.

Weasel

Subject: RE: Lockerbie concert Cowdeknowes
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Nov 20 - 09:43 AM

I hope the following post from Mudcat will be of help:


"Subject: RE: Broom O' the Cowdenknowes on Youtube
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 08:30 PM

Aye! The first version aah heard of this delightful song was by Archie Fisher at the 'Folk Aid For Lockerbie' concert and it just blew me away. Aah learned it from the video of the concert.

Silly Wizard also did a tremendous version with Andy M Stewart up front on vocals"

Subject: RE: Lockerbie concert Cowdeknowes
From: GUEST,guest Stephen
Date: 08 Nov 20 - 09:57 AM

I remember The McAlmans singing Mothers daughters Wives and Dougie Maclean singing Green Grow the Rushes O

Subject: RE: Lockerbie concert Cowdeknowes
From: keberoxu
Date: 08 Nov 20 - 10:12 AM

Welcome, GUESTS,
and why don't you join?

Subject: RE: Lockerbie concert Cowdeknowes
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 Nov 20 - 01:43 PM

can somebody please confirm which of the 3 Brooms this one was?

Subject: RE: Lockerbie concert Cowdeknowes
From: MartinNail
Date: 08 Nov 20 - 04:48 PM

There is a video on YouTube of Archie Fisher performing the Allan Ramsay song 'How blythe ilk morn was I to see' (Roud 8709), so I assume that's what he perfomed on the occasion in question. And there's one of Silly Wizard doing the same song.

The song was very popular and printed in lots of Scottish songbooks in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but doesn't seem to have shown up after that until the 1970s. One of the first to record it was Archie Fisher -- was he in fact *the first*? And was he the first to change the sexes or the protagonists to make it a man's song rather than a woman's?

Subject: RE: Lockerbie concert Cowdeknowes
From: GMGough
Date: 09 Nov 20 - 08:47 AM

confirming the information attributed to Georgie-Peorgie,
my notebook mentions that the film of The Aid for Lockerbie Concert 1989
included "Broom O' the Cowdenknowes" by Archie Fisher.
Kathryn Tickell played "Otterburn", and Iain Mackintosh sang "The Glasgow That I Used to Know".
(There were many other performers but regretfully no more information in the notebook).

Subject: RE: Lockerbie concert Cowdeknowes
From: Reinhard
Date: 09 Nov 20 - 01:36 PM

Martin, I have only nine recordings of Roud 8709. Of these, Archie Fisher's is indeed the first of seven with the swapped genders of the protagonists. Only two (Concerto Caledonia and Ivan Drever) seem to have the original roles.

I've also split the Roud 8709 versions from Roud 92/Child 217 and put then into a file of their own: The Broom of Cowdenknowes / How Blythe, Ilk Morn, Was I to See.

Subject: RE: Lockerbie concert Cowdeknowes
From: MartinNail
Date: 09 Nov 20 - 05:07 PM

Reinhard, you've saved me emailing you to suggest the split! It makes a lot of sense.

Just one thing: How Blythe Ilk Morn does not come from the Gentle Shepherd (see Bruce Olson's 1999 post in another thread). It was first published in Ramsay's Tea-table miscellany in 1723; this is not online but the virtually identical 1724 edition is.