Who sang Sovay?

Subject: Who sang Sovay?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Jul 24 - 06:52 AM

I seem to remember a female pop singer maybe in the 70s, but who was it. Youtube doesn't help nor the threads here.

Subject: RE: Who sang Sovay?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 11 Jul 24 - 07:36 AM

Are you thinking Isla St Clair?

Robin

Subject: RE: Who sang Sovay?
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 11 Jul 24 - 09:26 AM

Possibly Anne Briggs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRoRnKsd-_4

Subject: RE: Who sang Sovay?
From: GUEST,John from "Elsie`s Band"
Date: 11 Jul 24 - 10:49 AM

Martin Carthy recorded it on a Fontana album, in the sixties, titled just "Martin Carthy"

Subject: RE: Who sang Sovay?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Jul 24 - 02:11 PM

"Are you thinking Isla St Clair?

Robin"
Yes that may be the name I was searching for. Thanks

Subject: RE: Who sang Sovay?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 11 Jul 24 - 02:17 PM

And even Youtube finds it now I know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlVjApz6HVg

Though the link maker doesn't seem to be working

Subject: RE: Who sang Sovay?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 11 Jul 24 - 03:20 PM

Not a patch on Carthy's version.

Subject: RE: Who sang Sovay?
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 12 Jul 24 - 02:50 PM

All the versions I've heard, including this one, seem to be based on Bert Lloyd's adaptation of the tune, and probably came via Martin Carthy.

Subject: RE: Who sang Sovay?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 12 Jul 24 - 06:00 PM

From Mainly Norfolk, with thanks; George Dunn [of Quarry Bank, Dudley] sang The Female Highwayman in 1971 to Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. This recording was included in 2002 on his Musical Traditions anthology Chainmaker. Roy Palmer noted:

Under various names, including Priscilla, Zillah, Sylvia, Sovay, Sovie and Cecilia, our female highwayman tests her true love’s allegiance in a song with a soppy scenario but a good tune which commanded widespread admiration for a couple of centuries. Almost all Roud’s 62 examples are from southern England — but I also collected a version from one J Francis, from nearby Castle Bromwich, Warwickshire, in 1974.

There are only two other British recordings of this song known to Roud; by Timothy Walsh, of Devonport, and Mabs Hall, of Billingshurst, Sussex [1888-1992, the mother of Gordon Hall].