ADD: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter/Rapunzel)

06 Apr 11 - 07:09 AM (#3129740)
Subject: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Another setting of one of Ron Baxter's songs inspired by the culture and history of the Fleetwood fishing industry. This one's a little different, concerning a piece of sensitive folklore from the perspective of a bereaved widow. Consequently, Rapunzel's setting is just as sensitive. Mother Carey Chicks are storm petrels.
; the song tells of their signicance to fisherlore.

We featured it on the Dark Brittanica Volume 2 CD (Cold Spring) in a recording with Ross; and you can listen to Rapunzel and I doing it here in a rehearsal demo from December: http://soundcloud.com/rapunzel-and-sedayne/mother-careys-chicks


In the gale the spray was flying
All along the foreshore
With her window's weeds a-weeping
A lonely woman I saw.
She said as she stared across the bay
Aboard The Belfar he went down;
Though his body's gone forever
I know where he will be found

He flies with Mother Carey's Chicks
He flies with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them his soul is born

No marble cross, no marking stone,
For those lost to the sea -
But I know where my lover's gone
For the good lord he decreed
That the souls of all drowned fishermen
To heaven would not ascend
But fly above the rolling tide
Til time itself will end

They fly with Mother Carey's Chicks
They fly with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them their souls are born

So he called on Mother Carey
And his orders to her he gave
Your daughters will carry
All those lost out on the waves
For their lives were on the ocean
So in death still let them roam
Over their own fishing grounds
Until I call them home

They fly with Mother Carey's Chicks
They fly with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them their souls are born

She turned to face the driving spray
And the wind streamed through her hair
She said though I know you're not coming home
I know that you are still there
Oh I know that you're not returning
And your face I'll never more see
But where the stormy petrels fly
I know that's where you'll be

You fly with Mother Carey's Chicks
You fly with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them your soul is born

*

I might add we'll be doing this as part our Fleetwood 175 show which we'll be doing at the Fylde Festival. Those who saw our Demdyke show at the last two Fyldes will have heard it there too.

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06 Apr 11 - 07:49 AM (#3129756)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Should be: Mother Carey Chicks are storm petrels, and the song tells of their signicance to fisherlore.

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06 Apr 11 - 07:59 AM (#3129759)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Windows Weeds? Sorry Ron & Rapunzel! Haven't quite woken up yet...

It should, of course, be widow's weeds...

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06 Apr 11 - 09:10 AM (#3129807)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: Charley Noble

Nice work, gang.

There's a painting by Winslow Homer titled "The Gale" featuring a fisherman's wife carrying her child while walking along the shore looking out to sea which you might find useful for illustrating this song.

Charley Noble

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06 Apr 11 - 09:29 AM (#3129821)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Cheers Charlie! Did you know Winslow Homer used to live near my homeland when he stayed at Cullercoats? He stayed in the old Bay Hotel, later home on the legendary Bay Hotel Folk Club, alas long since demolished and replaced by a new block of sea-side flats called... Winslow Court. I think The Gale was painted at Cullercoats - references say Tynemouth which is only a few miles away, but Cullercoats was his haunt, and a thriving fisher community in its day. Even now the atmosphere is very strog in that respect - you'd love it...

Not sure when The Belfar was lost, but I think the song has a more modern feel than Winslow's Cullercoats painting. You get the sense here in Fleetwood of a deeper, more lingering lore of personal grief & loss - just look at how the promenade sculpture of the mother and her children waving out to sea has become a shrine for floral tributes.

http://www.fredmoor.com/thefylde/pix/wave.htm

It's not a million miles from the Wimnslow Homer painting either...

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06 Apr 11 - 02:37 PM (#3129997)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Not the best of pics. Here's a better one:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1324/5107338213_d86d48bee7.jpg

The sculpture is called Welcome Home, with the figures near the lower light looking out up the Wyre channel. As you can see it's never without its floral tributes...

I wonder if Winslow Homer ever came to Fleetwood during his time in England?

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07 Apr 11 - 08:53 AM (#3130440)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: Sailor Ron

As you can see both figures are rather scantily clad. During the first winter after they were placed there someone , thinking of theJan/Feb gales took pity on them and stitch an old parka on 'the mother', and clad the child in a cardigan!

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07 Apr 11 - 09:03 AM (#3130444)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Am I right in saying Belvar there, Ron? Any details?? Cheers!

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07 Apr 11 - 09:05 AM (#3130446)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: Ross Campbell

Winslow Homer - The Gale

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07 Apr 11 - 09:26 AM (#3130465)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: Charley Noble

Ross-

Thanks for the link to "The Gale."

I had that image in mind as a header graphic for "Fisherman's Song" by Andy M. Stewart which my group Roll & Go recently recorded on Look Out!: Click here for song

Click on the MP3 sample for a listen.

Charley Noble

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07 Apr 11 - 10:05 AM (#3130486)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Definitely Cullercoats / Tynemouth though; you never get seas like that in Fleetwood even on stormy day, way too shallow; hence the lack of sheltering piers in these parts, just pleasure piers, erstwhile or otherwise...

For more on Cullercoats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullercoats

Little boats too; the once ubiquitous coble, as you can see in the Carmichael painting. Once a real feature of the NE coast, though you don't see so many of them now. In the words of the old Newcastle folk song:

There's Tynemouth and Cullercoats
And North Shields for sculler-boats
Westhoe lies iv a nuek;
South Shield's the place for muck

Sculler-boats? No idea; racing sculls just don't fit with the area. I've heard it sung as shuggy-boats which I associate more with Tynemouth (and Cullercoats if I remember right) than North Shields (the town of my birth).

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07 Apr 11 - 10:30 AM (#3130511)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: Charley Noble

Speaking of monuments, here's a link (loads slow) to the "Spirit of the Sea" fountain that my grandfather designed and donated to the City of Bath (Maine): click here for photo

She is even more scantily attired than your Fisherman's Friend monument, and has certainly attracted her fair share of attention from generations of teenagers; we've seen her equipped with various brasseries, sweaters, and scarfs. And she's still looking good!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

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07 Apr 11 - 10:13 PM (#3131006)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: Ross Campbell

Rachel's setting of "Mother Carey's Chicks" is a very poignant arrangement - a great contrast to some of the more rough-and-ready tunes I have used for much of Ron's fishing output. The name "Belfar" I think is Ron's eccentric spelling in operation. It occurs as "Belavar" in Ron's memorial to all the vessels from Fleetwood which went down with loss of life, the song "Lost", which will also feature in "The Golden Dream" our show for Fleetwood's 175th anniversary this year. (Is there an on-line version of us singing "Lost", Sean?) Listed as "Belovar" on the Fishermen's Memorial near the Lower Light, her details follow:-

BELOVAR: February 06 1913 Lost with all hands (10) North of Barra Head

S.T. Belovar GY109

Technical

Official Number: 122715
Yard Number: 94
Completed: 1906
Gross Tonnage: 242
Net Tonnage: 94
Length: 125 ft
Breadth: 22 ft
Draught: 11.8 ft
Engine: 65 NHP T.3-cyl by Charles D. Holmes & Co Ltd, Hull
Speed: 10.5 knots
Built: Cook, Welton & Gemmell, Beverley

History

29.11.1905: Launched by Cook, Welton & Gemmell, Beverley (Yd.No.94) for Alick (Alec) Black, Grimsby as BELOVAR.
1.2.1906: Registered at Grimsby (GY109).
2.1906: Completed.
1909: Sold to Walter M. Olney, Grimsby (Alick (Alec) Black, manager).
1.1912: Transferred to Iceland, salting (Sk. Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson).
6.1912: Returned to Grimsby.
1912: Transferred to Fleetwood.
31.1.1913: Sailed Fleetwood on 12 day trip to Rockall grounds (Sk. George Schofield); ten crew.
4.2.1913: Reported fishing at Muldonich, Hebrides.
6.2.1913: Posted missing; crew lost.
8.4.1913: Grimsby registry closed.

Note: One source lists her as wrecked north of Barra Head

Crew List
George Schofield
James Johnson
James Adams
Frederick Allet
George Salmond
Harry Clarke
Samuel Farrow
Richard Wright
Robert Wright
Frederick Kidd

Details from http://www.fleetwood-fishing-industry.co.uk/fleetwoods-trawlers-lost-at-sea/ . From fishing smacks in local waters to steam and motor trawlers in middle and distant waters, this page shows the attrition which affected both ships and men in this most dangerous trade.

Charley, if you haven't already found the Fleetwood Maritime Heritage Trust sites, these links might provide some interesting reading:-

http://www.fleetwood-trawlers.info/ ("The Bosun's Watch")

http://www.fleetwood-fishing-industry.co.uk/ ("Fleetwood Motor Trawlers")

Also http://float-trawlers.lancashire.gov.uk/index.php ("Fleetwood On-line Archive of Trawlers" - created by Fleetwood Museum to make available the photographic archives of Peter Horsley and Wilfred Dodds).

Ross

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08 Apr 11 - 04:22 AM (#3131121)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Talking it over last night with Rachel she said what she sings is Belovar rather than Belfar - my mistake. That said, originally Ron's lyric named The Lois, but as that loss didn't involve bereavement he changed it to Belovar, which begs other questons too I suppose, but as Ron won't be within the vicinity of a computer until Monday I guess we'll have to wait.

As for Lost, it used to play just fine at the old Fleetwood Folk Club Myspace page, but who knows what will happen now that Myspace has so spendidly shot themselves in the foot?

Here's the link anyway: http://www.myspace.com/fleetwoodfolkclub

It's the first song on the player & it plays okay for me:

Lost - Words: Ron Baxter / Music: Ross Campbell

Ross - cittern & voice
Rapunzel - voice
Sedayne - voice & muted low whistle

Other version by Pint and Dale...

As a few of you will have seen, for the last two years we've done Lost as part of Ron's Heritage Walk on the Saturday of the Fylde Festival - it's the perfect anthem for those lost trawlers and men, and the musical counterpart of the memorial sculpture which stands on the pomenade. Mother Carey's Chicks is the sequel!

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08 Apr 11 - 06:58 AM (#3131192)
Subject: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter)
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

So, those lyrics again, corrected throughout...

MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKS
[Words - Ron Baxter / Music & Adaptation - Rapunzel (AKA Rachel McCarron)]

In the gale the spray was flying
All along the foreshore
With her widow's weeds a-weeping
A lonely woman I saw.
She said as she stared across the bay
Aboard The Belovar he went down;
Though his body's gone forever
I know where he will be found

He flies with Mother Carey's Chicks
He flies with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them his soul is borne

No marble cross, no marking stone,
For those lost to the sea -
But I know where my lover's gone
For the good Lord he decreed
That the souls of all drowned fishermen
To heaven would not ascend
But fly above the rolling tide
Til time itself will end

They fly with Mother Carey's Chicks
They fly with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them their souls are borne

So he called on Mother Carey
And his orders to her he gave
Your daughters will carry
All those lost out on the waves
For their lives were on the ocean
So in death still let them roam
Over their own fishing grounds
Until I call them home

They fly with Mother Carey's Chicks
They fly with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them their souls are borne

She turned to face the driving spray
And the wind streamed through her hair
She said though I know you're not coming home
I know that you are still there
Oh I know that you're not returning
And your face I'll never more see
But where the stormy petrels fly
I know that's where you'll be

You fly with Mother Carey's Chicks
You fly with them across the foam
On the stormy petrel's wings
With them your soul is borne

*

And the Soundcloud link once again:

http://soundcloud.com/rapunzel-and-sedayne/mother-careys-chicks

This is a live take with Rapunzel playing her Daisy Rock electric guitar through the same amp as I'm playing my kaossilator, but we took great care in recording it, as we always do. The CRWTH is integral to the whole thing too, although without Ross's contrapuntal cittern it's a good deal more languid than the version we featured on the We Bring You a King With a Head of Gold - Dark Brittanica 2 CD.

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08 Apr 11 - 07:32 AM (#3131211)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks
From: Charley Noble

I always impressed with the level of creative energy you folks put into your songs and folk operas.

And, Ross, thanks for the links.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

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08 Apr 11 - 05:21 PM (#3131548)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter)
From: Joe Offer

Intriguing song, Suibhne.

Since it appears you have a definitive version of the lyrics posted, I standardized the title and songwriter formatting.

-Joe-

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09 Apr 11 - 03:51 PM (#3132075)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter)
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Cheers, Joe - maybe you could have Rapunzel's name in the thread title as well? After all she set it & made it into what it is!

As I've explained before, when Ron writes a lyric he has a traditional tune in his head, but he never tells you what that tune is. Either you must somehow divine it, or else come up with something entirely different, traditional or otherwise. The one I'm most proud of that I've set is The St Anne of Dunkirk, although the tune came out of the ether really. Mother Carey is a little different (?) in terms of subtlety and sophistication reflecting the personal over the historical (Ron's a History Man basically) - in the 'Process' these things change...

For a further selection of other settings of Ron's lyrics see the Fleetwood Folk Club Myspace link above which features a few, one of which is actually in the Digital Tradition - Paddy Doyle, as sung there (& set) by the late Phil Ryan - something of a theme tune for the FFC that one I think!

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11 Apr 11 - 07:52 AM (#3132956)
Subject: RE: ADD: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter/Rapunzel)
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Ta!

And anyone passing by might have a listen, ignoring the various Folk Unfriendly adjectives we've been picking up of late (wierd, scarey, otherworldly) - as a piece of Folk Moderne this one's a well-crafted wee beauty, haunting, moving, touching....

Mother Carey's Chicks

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11 Apr 11 - 09:53 AM (#3133018)
Subject: RE: ADD: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter/Rapunzel)
From: Charley Noble

Gorgeous work!

Well sung, played, and recorded.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

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12 Apr 11 - 01:19 PM (#3133805)
Subject: RE: ADD: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter/Rapunzel)
From: Ross Campbell

Might be time to start the long-promised Fleetwood Fishing Songs Permathread which I proposed a while back as a repository for the work of Ron Baxter, Dick Gillingham, Dave Pearce and others, material connected with Fleetwood and its fishing industry (could extend to Grimsby and Hull, and anywhere else with similar history).

Ron Baxter's first effort, "Lord Middleton", must be getting on for forty years old - there was a bit of a gap, then a flurry of activity with Fleetwood Folk Club's production "The Final Trawl" (1982), and since then Ron has continued to produce a constant stream of songs on this and many other topics.

Joe, I'll PM you with my ideas for that.

Ross

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12 Apr 11 - 07:08 PM (#3134019)
Subject: RE: ADD: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter/Rapunzel)
From: Charley Noble

Excellent idea.

Charley Noble

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13 Apr 11 - 10:41 AM (#3134360)
Subject: RE: ADD: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter/Rapunzel)
From: Sailor Ron

Lord Middleton was writen on board the M.V. Clan Malcolm, it was my 2nd deep sea trip.

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13 Apr 11 - 10:47 AM (#3134364)
Subject: RE: ADD: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter/Rapunzel)
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

So how many times did you cross to Knot End in all, Ron?

I jest of course; but what are they doing with that rig out in Canshe Hole right now? Making it deeper?

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13 Apr 11 - 11:36 AM (#3134393)
Subject: RE: ADD: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter/Rapunzel)
From: Sailor Ron

I guess so. For those not in the know, the Canshe Hole is a deep patch in the Wyre, where, before the Fleetwood docks wer opened large sailing vessels would anchor & dischange into barges. At present a rather wierd looking vessel, with 'legs' & two larde cranes, is sat there. To bring this conversation back to the original thread, this is some 200 yards from the spot where "the lonley woman, with her widow's weeds a'weeping" stood.

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06 Oct 16 - 11:26 AM (#3813089)
Subject: RE: ADD: Mother Carey's Chicks (Ron Baxter/Rapunzel)
From: GUEST,Guest Allan

I can't get or find Mother Carey's Chicks song anywhere, the links go to Soundcloud but Soundcloud says cannot find the track, have you it anywhere else? cheers Allan

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