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About the songs and artists

Barbara Allen - Lucy Wainwright Roche

First found on black-letter broadsides from the 17th century. In January 1666, Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he had heard Mrs Knipp, an actress, "singing her little Scotch song of 'Barbary Allen'". This suggests that it perhaps originated on the stage.

It remained in print in England, Scotland, and America, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Lucy Wainwright Roche, the daughter of ex-Roche Suzzy Roche and Loudon Wainwright III, is a former teacher who has followed in her family footsteps.

After singing backup with her brother, Rufus Wainwright, during 2005 and 2006, she decided to take some time off from the classroom to explore her life-long relationship with singing and songwriting. Described by the New York Times as having the best qualities of both her parents and a voice "clear as a bell", Lucy has also sung with sister Martha and spent time on the road with her Dad.

Of her choice of song for this album, she relates: "In December of 2006 I was travelling with my mom and my aunt Terre. We got stuck in the middle of a bizarre windstorm driving north through California, and had to stop and spend the night in a little motel on the side of the highway. The three of us spent the evening passing around the guitar and singing all of the different songs we could think of. One that Aunt Terre played was 'Barbara Allen'. In the weeks following I found myself thinking of the song again and again, and how much there is inside the short story that it tells. When the opportunity came along to record for this collection, it seemed like a great time to explore the song further."
 

Long Lankin - The Devil's Interval

Also known as 'Lamkin', this ballad can be traced back to the 18th century in both England and Scotland, with the earliest-known printed version appearing in London in the early 19th. Attempts to link it to actual places and events have proved fruitless, and the motivation for Lankin's crime continues to intrigue and baffle folk scholars. The repertoire of Lauren McCormick, Jim Causley, and Emily Portman ranges from sumptuous tales of heartbreak to gory murder ballads to the "simply downright dirty".

The trio are regulars on Waterson: Carthy's Frost & Fire tours of seasonal songs. Emily tells us that the first published version appeared in Bishop Percy's collection of 1775, but the song is likely to be much older. "Our version was sung to Cecil Sharp by a nun, a Sister Emma of Clewer, Berkshire. The subject could have been a stone mason with a grudge, but Jim prefers the theory that Mr. Lanky was a leper who sought the folk cure of babies' blood caught in a silver bowl.

The arrangement for this song was born in the dungeons/practice-rooms of Newcastle University where we studied. There was no natural light and so we decided to practice in pitch darkness at the recommendation of some free improvisation students. Unfortunately we scared ourselves so much that we discarded 'Long Lankin' for a few months after that. But by virtue of our devilish nature we couldn't resist its morbid charms for long."
 

Geordie - Madeleine Worral and The Green House Band

Scottish writers have seen this story as an account of the life of George Gordon, fourth Earl of Huntly, who was imprisoned in 1554 for offending the Queen Regent. In Scottish versions, his wife pleads successfully for his life, an idea that seems more imaginative than historical.

In English and American versions, 'Geordie' tends to be a criminal, and his lover's pleas are in vain. When she was small, Madeleine remembers her mother and friends playing their fiddles and recorders in the sitting room on a Saturday night. She sang before she spoke a word and now makes her living as an actress, performing in plays alongside actors such as Kristin Scott Thomas and Brian Cox, as well as working in radio, film, and television.

She and the band (a cast list of '70s British folk rock) recorded this gentle and slight take, which contrasts with their more complex arrangements of John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, and Martin Simpson.
 

The Outlandish Knight - James Raynard

'The Outlandish Knight' is part of an extensive group of mediaeval European ballads detailing a resourceful young woman's escape from a murderous suitor. The story seems to have originated in the Netherlands in the 13th century. Despite its ancient origins, there is only a single printed broadside version thought to date from before the 19th century.

It is not a supernatural story nor is the Knight outrageous: 'outlandish' simply means 'a stranger'. English folk singer, guitarist, and fiddle player James Raynard had heard the majority of his folk heroes tackle the song at one point or another and felt he would eventually record his own version. "It was a rite of passage, if you like. For me, 'The Outlandish Knight' constitutes a folk classic, the origins of which are now lost in the mysteries of time, but which boasts a life in tradition going as far back as any other. I had always found the story quite eerie and wanted to use a tune that could reflect this. I put it to a particularly haunting mediaeval tune I had been dying to use for some time, although I had to do a lot of bending to accommodate the words."
 

Pleasant and Delightful - Noel Harrison

A poignant ballad of enforced separation, particularly popular with East Anglian singers, this song has been mostly collected in England, with a few examples from Scotland and Canada. The earliest broadside version was printed in London at the beginning of the 19th century.

Though well known as an actor, Noel Harrison began his career as a night club entertainer in Europe and performed in cabaret for 12 years before moving to the US. He continued his career in music while co-starring with Stefanie Powers in NBC TV's The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and recording three albums as well as the 1968 Oscar-winning hit single 'The Windmills of Your Mind' on the sound track of the original film version of The Thomas Crown Affair.

During the 1970s and '80s Noel sang with country, folk, and bluegrass bands with a repertoire ranging from simple country tunes to sophisticated standards and the songs of Jacques Brel, Charles Trenet, and Edith Piaf. "The first thing I told Peter Muir was that I didn't know any English folk songs except stuff we sang at school in the '40s like 'Oh, No John, No!'

So he sent me the entire collection covered in The Folk Handbook and I picked this. I had fallen in love with it, and I told my daughters that I had 'discovered' this absolutely beautiful song and sang it to them. It quickly transpired that they already knew it as they used to sing it in the pub as teenagers. I realised it has had a long and successful life."
 

Poison In A Glass of Wine - Julie Murphy

'Poison In A Glass Of Wine' is a classic tale of jealousy, collected in England, Scotland, Ireland, North America, and even Tristan da Cunha in the south Atlantic. Also known by many other titles, it may have originated with the broadside trade, and was widely printed throughout the 19th century.

Although singers have often claimed that the story was true, it has no known factual basis. Julie's fans include music legends like Robert Plant and Danny Thompson, both of whom have recorded with her. While she is perhaps best known for her work with Welsh innovators Fernhill, Julie has two solo albums out, one a collection of dark folk ballads from Britain and the Appalachians, and a successor that drew comparisons with Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Her version here is a collage of the English song 'Oxford City' and its Appalachian cousin 'Poison In A Glass of Wine'.

"Since I first discovered and started singing folk songs I have been especially fascinated by how the same song turns up in different places, countries even, always transformed in some way. The dark subject of a possessive love leading to destruction belongs to any time. I love the mix of conversational language and strangeness. In the final verse there are resonances of the night visit motif, where lovers must part at dawn when the cock crows. In my head that links it to Patti Smith singing 'Because The Night Belongs To Lovers' - except Patti's lovers are ecstatic and liberated rather than doomed."
 

A Blacksmith Courted Me - Lisa Knapp

Collected only in England, 'A Blacksmith Courted Me' shares a tune with 'Our Captain Called All Hands', from which Ralph Vaughan Williams acquired the melody he used for his setting of the hymn 'To Be A Pilgrim'. Although it has a few lines in common with some 18th century broadside songs, the only surviving printed version of this song was produced in London towards the end of the 19th century.

Lisa Knapp merges a radiant style of traditional folk and self-penned song, with fiddle, hammer dulcimer, strings, banjo, and sonic delights from the technological age. Lisa released this version of 'Blacksmith', re-mixed by Youth, as a single off her 2007 album, Wild & Undaunted. 'I first heard the song on Steeleye Span's Please To See The King, she recalls. "The jangly rasping of Martin Carthy's guitar and Maddy Prior's soaring vocals ensured the song stayed with me as did that whole album ever since I first heard it. It was the first song I ever professionally recorded. That makes it particularly special for me."
 

John Barleycorn - Barry Dransfield

One of the best-known songs in praise of beer, 'John Barleycorn' is also one of the oldest and most complicated. The earliest traces are found in a Scottish manuscript of the 16th century, and a more recognisable version was printed in London as early as 1624. The song has been widely collected from singers across the English-speaking world.

Early folklorists were convinced that the song related to pagan beliefs about the death and resurrection of the old corn god, but such ideas have long fallen out of favour. Barry has been a professional folk singer since 1965. His first recording success came with brother, Robin, in 1970. He started restoring instruments in 1986 after returning from Tahiti, where he played the part of the blind fiddler, Michael Byrne, in the Dino de Laurentiis movie The Bounty, with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. His latest album Unruly is a natural hybrid of folk, classical and modern genres.

Barry clearly loves his song, seeing 'John Barleycorn' as a "symbol of freedom in a world where Puritanism is ever a threat". He tell us: "This anglicised version of a Scots original echoes the same feelings that writers have expressed since the beginning of civilisation. More than two thousand years ago Plato said 'Unmitigated seriousness has no place in human affairs' and more recently Laurence Durrell was afraid that missionaries would leave people in a 'cold paved place'.

Falstaff and Toby Belch are vital characters to our lives and with these two jolly lads Shakespeare drove home the importance of 'cakes and ale'. John Barleycorn is kept alive and well by the will of people who love freedom and the right to get 'unwound' after a hard day's work - long may he live."
 

Edward - James Yorkston & The Athletes

One of the most famous of murder ballads, 'Edward' was first published in Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). Several Scandinavian ballads deal with the same story, equally enigmatically, and the motive for the murder has provoked much scholarly dispute.

The song has been collected in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but has been especially popular in the USA: Cecil Sharp collected it from a dozen different singers in the Appalachians in 1916-18. A native of Fife, Scotland, singer-songwriter James Yorkston was an integral early member of the Fence Collective, whose reach across contemporary music continues to lengthen. King Creosote, The Aliens, and KT Tunstall all share both Fence roots and a shackles-off mentality with Yorkston.

"I learned 'Edward' from the singing of Jean Ritchie, the great Appalachian dulcimer player and singer," he says. "Like so many old songs it seems to have a few sources, one of which being the Pentland Hills, which are visible from my window as I type. We thought it'd be a nice wee nod to Jean Ritchie if we had some dulcimer on the recording, but as I can't play dulcimer, and neither can anyone in my band, we opted instead for the harpsichord that resides at Bryn Derwen studios, where the track was recorded.

The wine glass idea was stolen from my pal King Creosote, who did an album of W(h)ine Glass Symphonies. Everything else was just built around my initial guitar arrangement. The overall idea was to make the tale foreboding and gothic. Did we succeed? Or does it sound like an episode of Robin Hood? You decide. We also did a version of 'The Snow It Melts The Soonest' for that album, which sounds like Motorhead. Those were the days."
 

What Is The Life Of A Man? - Michael Weston King

A vernacular English memento mori, 'What Is The Life Of A Man?' uses the imagery of the seasons to suggest the inevitability of decline and death. While it probably dates from around the beginning of the 19th century, the idea was not a new one, appearing in Homer's Iliad and the Bible. Michael Weston King came to prominence as founder, leader, singer, and songwriter with Britain's premier 'Alt. Country' band, The Good Sons. Over the past five years he has toured all over Europe and America.

Personal loss drew him to this song. "I was initially struck by the title," Michael relates. "Some sad, recent events had really got me thinking about mortality, and so the title just leapt out at me. Added to that, there is a fabulous and very poignant lyric. Simply stated, as often is the case with the best songs, but undoubtedly true, and it just appealed to me, my way of thinking, and my current state of mind. I recorded the song in a small studio in Denmark, midway through a lonely solo tour, on and off planes, trains and buses, cold and wet a lot of the time, and with far too many very early starts. The song seemed to really suit the weariness I was feeling."
 

The Little Gypsy Girl - Robin & Bina Williamson

'The Gypsy Lass' or 'The Gypsy's Wedding-Day' is first known on an 18th-century broadside. It has been widely collected in England and the USA, often from Gypsy singers, as might be expected. But the song is by no means restricted to any particular group, with plenty of male as well as female performers. Robin was a founder member of the influential Incredible String Band in the 1960s and of the Merry Band of the 1970s.

Since the 1980s, he has been a key figure at the forefront of the storytelling revival in Europe and America. British Asian Bina, born in East Africa, has been performing and recording for a number of years, touring with Robin not only as a duo, but also with the Just Like Ivy Band and reformed Incredible String Band.

The two have been touring and recording original songs and texts with a mythical and spiritual slant, as well as folk and roots material deriving from English, Celtic, Indian, Old Time American, and other traditions. Their concerts are seasonal celebrations of the turning year and their performance style has been described as 'Indo-Celtic-Delta' or 'Country and Eastern'. "We sing a lot of songs in the car travelling up and down on tour," says Robin. "This intriguing love song is one we've really enjoyed singing for a while now. We love its sense of mischief and romance."
 

The Bonny Labouring Boy - Sabbath Folk

'The Bonny Labouring Boy' provides a classic example of the 'family opposition to lovers' theme that is so common in English folk song, and it has been widely collected in England, Ireland, and North America. Unusually, it has not been collected in Scotland, although one of the surviving broadsides was printed in Glasgow. "Rudy and I have been in bands together since our early teens," says Jo Bartlett. "We play in The Yellow Moon Band together now and decided to record 'The Bonny Labouring Boy' as a two-piece under the name Sabbath Folk.

As a child I lived in a large house, facing the village green and constantly in bustle and full of joy. My mother ran the local nursery school and my father was the local doctor. Of Irish and Scottish descent, their house was also full of music. One night my parents went to see The Boys of The Lough at a hall a few miles away.

The group came back to our house after the show; those of us in bed were woken up, neighbours called and a heck of a party followed. I remember Cathal singing 'The Bonny Labouring Boy'. It made an impact on my 12-year-old self and has remained a lovely reminder of childhood days. The Boys stayed overnight, and watching them trip over small children, amazed at the transformation of the party venue into a nursery the next day, was a sight worth seeing."
 

Come Write Me Down - Serafina Steer

One of the great English love anthems, associated especially with the Copper family, but collected from a number of other singers in England, Scotland, and North America, 'Come Write Me Down' also appeared on broadsides under a variety of titles, such as 'Second Thoughts Are Best', 'The Lamenting Lovers', 'The Powers Above', and 'The True Lovers'.

An original artist with a growing following, London-based harpist Serafina Steer has been compared to Brian Eno, Ivor Cutler, Joanna Newsom, and The Flying Lizards. Her debut album Cheap Demo Bad Science, is co-produced by Mike Lindsey of Tunng and Capitol K. "I was unsure if I could take part in this project because I find it weird singing things that I haven't written, and the tone of many of the songs I searched through seemed archaic or alien to me," she relates. "But the version I heard had a lovely breathless old woman singing it [Mabs Hall] and there's subtlety in the male and female roles in the lyrics. It's sort of defiant but also gentle and wise. And I like secrets and diamonds."
 

The Unquiet Grave - Circulus

'The Unquiet Grave', is one of a group of ballads that feature a ghost, or more precisely a living corpse, bringing a message from beyond the grave; in this case it warns that excessive grief disturbs the sleep of the dead. It has been widely collected from singers in England, with occasional records from North America and Scotland, and was printed on broadsides of the early 19th century under the titles 'Cold Blows the Wind' or 'The Weeping Lover'.

Described variously as "a tripped-out prog homage to both '70s psych and 12th-century chamber music" and "psychedelic, open-minded and idealistic", Circulus employ modern and medieval instruments to dramatic effect, with sight-lines to cult catalogue acts such as Trees and Amazing Blondel. Michael Tyack found this version of the song on a journey into his band's recorded hinterland.

"This is something that happened just before we started. It was produced by Martin Turner from Wishbone Ash and has been lying in a cupboard since 1996 along with several other tracks for an unreleased album, so it's the first time it's seen the light of day," he explains. "The lady singing with me is called Genevieve Appleby and we've known each other since we were teenagers. The lyrics to the song are very strange. In fact I'm still quite scared of their prophetic threat."
 

The Banks of Sweet Primroses - Tom Paxton

A classic English folk song, 'The Banks of Sweet Primroses' was collected by all the important collectors, with both text and tune remaining remarkably stable. Although there have been occasional examples from Canada and Scotland, it has mostly been found in England and Wales, where it has always been exceptionally popular with singers.

Tom Paxton's place in folk music is secured not just by hit records and awards, but by the admiration of three generations of fellow musicians. In addition to songwriting, Tom has written many critically acclaimed children's books, some of which were inspired by his songs for children. "I confess that for one who loves English folk song, this was a new song to me," Tom says. "I sang it to myself, trying to get the freedom of the notation and found I couldn't get it out of my head.

As in many, many folk songs, there's a host of logical inconsistencies; one verse sometimes makes no sense when compared to another. As a long time lover of these songs, this never bothers me. In the great American ballad, 'Shenandoah', the subject is in one verse the object of the singer's affection, an 'Indian Maiden', and in the next he's her father! So what? says I. 'Banks Of Sweet Primroses' has that same feeling of passing through generations of singers and emerging for us as a polished gem."
 

The Broomfield Wager - Jacqui McShee's Pentangle

In folk songs, the 'broom' is a favourite place for sexual liaisons. Widely collected in England, and also in Scotland, Ireland, and the USA, 'The Broomfield Wager' was printed on various broadsides of the 18th and 19th centuries. The original Pentangle, comprising Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, Danny Thompson, and Terry Cox, was the most creative and innovative band on the folk scene in the late 1960s and early '70s.

Two key elements of Pentangle were the unique vocal talent of Jacqui McShee and the fusion, not of folk and rock, but folk and jazz. These elements are as strong as ever in the latest evolution of the band, known now as Jacqui's McShee's Pentangle, in a new line-up including Jacqui, Gerry Conway, Spencer Cozens, Gary Foote, and Alan Thomson. Jacqui specially selected their version of 'The Broomfield Wager'. "It fits the remit of this project quite aptly," she observes.
 

Adieu To Old England - Shirley Collins

This enigmatic song seems to have been largely confined to England, with one stanza from Scotland and one report from the USA. Few singers of the English folk revival have attempted as much on record as Shirley Collins. One of Britain's most respected traditional singers, her distinctive voice is to be found on seminal releases over past decades both solo, in collaborations (notably with her sister Dolly), and as a member of the Albion Country Dance Band. She has an inevitably well-informed take on 'Adieu…' "It's a sombre and bleak prison and transportation song and it's a rarely found one," she explains "Cecil Sharp collected just three, and all in Somerset.

This variant he took down from the singing of Jacob Giblett of Westhay in the January of both 1906 and 1907. Ashley Hutchings came across it while searching through Sharp's manuscripts at The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, back in the 1970s. Sharp's other two sources were Charles Ash of Crowcombe, and Mrs Lock of Muchelney Ham. Harry Cox, the fine Norfolk singer, had three verses, but with a rather cheerier tune.

Transport songs, for example 'Van Dieman's Land', are generally told from the position of the poor, the underdogs, poachers, petty thieves, and they often deliver a warning to the listener to keep clear of such offences. But in this song, the prisoner awaiting transportation had once been a wealthy man, with a carriage and money, and used to having servants. I wonder how he would have coped without them in a penal colony?"