> Folk Music > Records > John Roberts & Tony Barrand: Dark Ships in the Forest

John Roberts & Tony Barrand: Dark Ships in the Forest

Dark Ships in the Forest Ballads of the Supernatural John Roberts & Tony Barrand Folk Legacy Records FSI-65 (cass., USA, 1977) Folk Legacy Records CD-65 (CD, USA, 1997)

See also Tony Barrand's Dark Ships in the Forest webpage with notes and song lyrics.

Tracks

1. Oak, Ash and Thorn (2:36)
2. Broomfield Wager (4:11)
3. The Wife of Usher's Well (2:43)
4. Tom of Bedlam (3:57)
5. The Dreadful Ghost (4:18)
6. The Foggy Dew (5:06)
7. The Derby Ram (3:27)
8. The Maid on the Shore (3:41)
9. Reynardine (3:01)
10. The False Lady (3:21)
11. Polly Vaughn (3:18)
12. The Two Magicians (5:19)

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> Folk Music > Records > John Roberts & Tony Barrand: Heartoutbursts

John Roberts & Tony Barrand: Heartoutbursts

Heartoutbursts English Folksongs collected by Percy Grainger John Roberts & Tony Barrand Golden Hind Music GHM-103 (CD, USA, 1998)

See also Tony Barrand's Heartoutbursts webpage with notes and song lyrics. Compare to this Unto Brigg Fair, an LP with Joseph Taylor and other traditional Lincolnshire singers recorded in 1908 by Percy Grainger.

Tracks

1. Brigg Fair (1:27)
2. Seventeen Come Sunday (2:58)
3. Creeping Jane (3:36)
4. Turpin Hero (3:02)
5. The White Hare (2:23)
6. Rufford Park Poachers (5:23)
7. Lord Bateman (6:19)
8. The Gipsy's Wedding Day (1:51)
9. A Fair Maid Walking (2:48)
10. The Lost Lady Found (3:11)
11. Sprig of Thyme (2:00)
12. Riding Down to Portsmouth (2:55)
13. Horkstow Grange (2:53)
14. The “Rainbow” (2:37)
15. William Taylor (4:24)
16. Lord Melbourne (3:05)
17. Lisbon (3:24)
18. Died for Love (0:58)

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> Folk Music > Records > John Roberts & Tony Barrand: Across the Western Ocean

John Roberts & Tony Barrand: Across the Western Ocean

Across the Western Ocean Songs of the North Atlantic Sailing Packets John Roberts & Tony Barrand Swallowtail Records ST-0004 (CD, USA, 2000)

See also Tony Barrand's Across the Western Ocean webpage with notes and song lyrics.

Musicians

John Roberts, Tony Barrand
with David Jones, Gerret Warner, Jeff Warner;
Narration by Gerret Warner, Jeff Warner, and Susan Warner

Tracks

1. Introduction /
   New York Girls (4:37)
2. Captain Samuels on his sailors (0:36)
3. Blow the Man Down (3:33)
4. Impressions of a first voyage /
   The Crayfish (2:18)
5. The Black Cook (4:06)
6. The Lime-Juice Ship (2:26)
7. The wreck of the Staffordshire (1:17)
8. The Flying Dutchman (2:46)
9. Get Up Jack, John Sit Down (3:35)
10. The Flying Cloud (4:13)
11. Immigration conditions (1:20)
12. Heave Away My Johnnies (3:53)
13. Perils of transatlantic dalliance (0:47)
14. Maggie May (2:48)
15. Peter Street (4:22)
16. The Seamen's Hymn (1:29)

Sleeve Notes

The songs sung on board the packet ships can be roughly divided into the categories of shanty and forebitter. The shanty was a work song used exclusively to provide the rhythm for the crew working on deck or up in the rigging. Some jobs were long, slow and arduous but maintained an even rhythm. Here the shantyman would set the tempo with a fairly long shanty, usually telling a coherent story. The shantyman's art was a delicate one: he had to draw the line between the pace the men wanted to work and the speed the mate required.

The forebitters were sung in a more relaxed athmosphere, in off-duty hours in the crew's cramped quarters beneath the forecastle head. These were often popular ballads from the shore, and many would have been accompanied with fiddle, banjo or other portable instrument.

Our selection includes both kind of song, though the shanties are not sung exactly as they would have been rendered on deck. The sets have been chosen as both typical of the period and relevant to the conditions of the time.