Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)

Subject: Pre-Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Jun 21 - 05:55 PM

Again With One Voice: British Songs of Political Reform, 1768 to 1868, by Dick Holdstock, Loomis House Press, 2021.

If Faith Petric was the matriarch of the San Francisco Folk Music Club, many might agree with me that Dick Holdstock is the patriarch. I met them both in about 1995. Faith is gone now, but I've had a lot of contact with Dick and his wife Carol through the years. Dick has lived in Northern California forever, but he's from Kent and never lost his accent.

I knew a lot about Peter, Paul, and Mary when I joined the Club in the 1990s, but that was about it. Through the years, Dick encouraged and challenged me and others to learn the tradition, and we did learn. And all the time I've known him, Dick has been writing a book. He was almost done with the book back in the 1990s, a collection of songs from seamen of the British Merchant Marine, since British military sailors didn't sing. Then it took a turn toward including labor songs, and now the book has arrived with the title, Again With One Voice: British Songs of Political Reform, 1768 to 1868. I feel like I've grown up with this book, and I'm so happy to see it come to fruition after all these years. And all through these years, I've heard Dick sing these songs he collected, experimenting with various melodies when he couldn't find the "real" melody.

And it has been so much fun - especially in recent years, when Dick has called me and asked ME for advice about one thing or another. I think I'm the one who convinced him to get the book published at Loomis House Press, and the results are excellent.

I haven't read the book yet, but I think I've heard most of the songs and narratives over the years. The book feels like a chronicle of my friendship with Dick over 25 years, because this book is an adventure that Dick shared enthusiastically with all of us. And now it's finished. The narratives and songs are fascinating, the illustrations are vivid and interesting, and the book is laid out beautifully. I suppose it's strange to post a book review before actually reading the book, but I think I can say I've lived this book with Dick for 25 years, and I know it well. I'm proud of my friend Dick, and I feel privileged to have been able to travel with him on at least part of his adventure of producing this wonderful book.

The Chapters:

1. Liberty: 1768-1781
   
2. Revolution: 1780-1789
   
3. Paine: 1789-1795
   
4. Insurrection: 1796-1799
   
5. War: 1800-1815
   
6. Suppression: 1815-1819
   
7. Gagged: 1819-1830
   
8. Union: 1830-1836
   
9. Charter: 1837-1851
   
10. Reform: 1851-1868

The Songs:

An African’s Appeal to the British Nation
The African’s Complaint
“All round my hat,” or a Corporation Turn-Out
Answer to the Threats of Corruption
The Battle of Blorris Moor
Battle of Waterloo
Billy is Sick of the War: By Mr. Dyke
Bold Robert Emmet
Bonaparte’s Farewell to Paris
Bonaparte’s Farewell to Paris
Btitannia’s Lamentation On the Devastation War
Britannia’s Wish: A New Song No 33
British Tars Rewarded
Briton’s Pilot The Patriot King
Burdett Our Leading Star
Catholic Rent
The Champion of Reform
The Chartist Song
The Corn Laws
The Cotton Lords of Preston
The Cotton Spinners Farewell
The Countryman’s Frolick; or, Humours of an Election.
The Coventry March
Dark Bonnymuir
Dialogue and Song, Between Captain Swing and ]oan o’Greenfield
The Dispersion of the British Convention
The Dudley Boys
Edmund Burke: To The Swinish Multitude
Edward
England Demands Reform And Reform She’ll Have
The Fatal English Poor Law Bill Or, The Ways of the World
Father Murphy: Or the Wexford Men
The File Hewer’s Lamentation
The French Invasion
Frost, Williams, and ]ones’s Farewell to England
Gagging or The Worst Robbers of All
The Gathering of the Unions
General Ludd’s Triumph
The Genius of Britain
God Save Great Thomas Paine
The Great Battle For Freedom and Reform
The Great Liberal Majority of 110
Great Naval Action Between The Kearsarge and The Alabama
The Great Reform Meeting December 3rd 1866
The Handloom Weavers Lament
The Harvest of Corruption
Hunting a Loaf “
I’d Be A Reformer
Isle of St. Helena
]ohn Bull and the Unions: Unity is Strength
]ohn Bull in a Rage at the Corn Laws
The Knight-errant or The Distressed Queen
Lock ]aws: A Ballad
Lord Cornwallis’s Surrender
The Meeting at Peterloo
The Men of Forty Eight
The Mitred Majority
The Muse’s Friendly Aid
Napoleon Buonaparte’s Exile To St. Helena
Negro Slavery
Nelson’s Death and Victory
A New Ballad: On the Birth... of Mr. Edmund Burke’s Brat
The New Bunch of Loughero
A New Chartist Song
The New Irish Drum
A New Liberty Song No 44
A New Song
A New Song Called the Tradesmen’s Lament
A New Song on Lambton’s Motion for Reform
A New Song on the Great Demonstration... on Kersal Moor
A New Song on the Great Lock-Out and Strike
A New Song, called The French Kings Blood Crying for Vengeance
A New Song: By Phelemy Freebairn
A New Song: I Wish the Wars Were all Over
A New Song: Lately composed on Castle Island
A New Song: Pitt and the Union
The Nottingham Tragedy!!! Lines to Their Memory
O’Connell’s new Song on Emancipation
Old Middlesex, Burdett, and Freedom For Ever!
On Peace, By Mr. Fox
The Ploughman’s Ditty
The Pop-Gun Plot Found Out: Or, Ministers in the Dumps
Present Times or Eight Shillings a Week
President Parker
The Queen or the Birth, Rise, and Progress of The Green Bag!!!
Queen Victoria
The Rats and the Ferret
The Reform Battle in Hyde Park
The Reform Demonstration in Hyde Park, May 6th, 1867
Removal of Napoleon’s Ashes T
Resignation Of His Majesty’s Ministers
Rouse, Hibernians
Serjeant Kite’s Invitation to the Swinish Multitude
The Shan Van Vocht
Short Time Come Again No More
The Silent Cell
The Song of the Lower Classes
Song of the Volunteers of 1782
Song on the Death of Her Royal Highness The Princess Charlotte
Striking Times
The Suffering of the British Army in the Camp Before Sebastopol
The Tara Monster Meeting
The Tenders Hold, “Or Sailors Complaint”
To the Chartists of Shropshire
To The Commons: On Meeting After The Recess
To The Electors of Great Britain Reform Song
Tone’s Grave
The Tradesmen’s Complaint
Transports and Old Baileys
The Tree of Liberty
True Reformers
Verses On the Death of Queen Caroline
The Voice of Africa
When We Get ]ohnny’s Reform
The White Cliffs of Albion
Wilkes and Glyn: A new song
Wilkes and Liberty: In Honour of No 45
A Word of Advice to Reformers of England
Working Men of England
Yankee Doodle: Or The Negroes Farewell to America

Patience Young did the editing, June Nishimoto the musical notation, and Steve Roud wrote the foreward.

---

Recordings of Songs 1-60: https://dickholdstock.bandcamp.com/album/free-first-verse-songs-1-to-60

Recordings of Songs 61 to 120: https://dickholdstock.bandcamp.com/album/free-first-verse-songs-61-to-120

Subject: RE: Pre-Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 03:25 PM

I've known about this ms. for yonks, and I've read some of the chapters. I'm so glad it's out - kudos to Dick for such a long sustained effort. Question: where can one buy it that'll do most good to Dick? I'd like a signed copy, too, for old times' sake. Joe, please give my best to Dick.

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Pre-Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 07:48 PM

The book is selling at Barnes and Noble, and it's available on Amazon for about $30 (shipping extra). Looks like a great resource to have.

Subject: RE: Pre-Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jul 21 - 02:22 PM

You can also order directly from the publisher in Minnesota, Loomis House Press , and most, if not all, independent bookstores are able to order titles in for you. I think those suppliers might be more in line with the spirit of the book, and certainly offer the most support to Dick as the author.

Subject: RE: Pre-Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)
From: Stewart
Date: 04 Jul 21 - 11:13 AM

On sale from Bookshop.org. No reason to go to Amazon
https://bookshop.org/books/again-with-one-voice-british-songs-of-political-reform-1768-to-1868/9781935243809

Paperback $29.95

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Pre-Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)
From: GUEST,Modette
Date: 04 Jul 21 - 12:18 PM

... and I wouldn't buy it from Bookshop.org either.

New Statesman - Why bookshop.org is not the saviour the book world needs

Subject: RE: Pre-Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)
From: GUEST,Rosie Upton
Date: 06 Jul 21 - 11:25 AM

In the UK it's available via Blackwell's price £23.36 including postage and packaging. I'll be ordering one and look forward to reading it and looking at the illustrations. It will be of great interest to anyone like me who has an interest in music and like my alter-ego Rosie MacGregor in politics and protest.

Subject: RE: Review: Again With One Voice (Dick Holdstock)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Feb 22 - 04:58 PM

Dick recorded the first verse of all 120 songs:

Recordings of Songs 1-60: https://dickholdstock.bandcamp.com/album/free-first-verse-songs-1-to-60

Recordings of Songs 61 to 120: https://dickholdstock.bandcamp.com/album/free-first-verse-songs-61-to-120