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(Down) By the Green Groves / One May Morning Early

[ Roud 356 ; Ballad Index RcTBiITS ; trad.]

Bob and John Copper sang By the Green Grove on their 4 LP box set, A Song for Every Season. Bob, John, Jill and Lynne Copper and Jon Dudley sang this song again in 1987 on the anthology LP Square Roots: An Unlikely Selection from the Pages of Folk Roots Magazine, and Bob, Jill and John Copper and Jon Dudley sang it in 1995 on their CD Coppersongs 2: The Living Tradition of the Copper Family.

Peter Bellamy sang this song as Down By the Green Groves with Chris Birch on his cassette Fair Annie: English, Irish, Australian and American Traditional Songs. This recording was also included on the Fellside anthology Voices in Harmony: English Traditional Songs.

Bellowhead sang this song under the title One May Morning Early on their CD Burlesque. In their liner notes they cite the Copper Family as their source and inspiration for this song.

Lyrics

Peter Bellamy and Chris Birch sing Down By the Green Groves

One May morning early I chanced for to roam
And strode through the fields by the side of a grove.
It was there that I did hear the harmless birds sing.
𝄆 And you never heard so sweet, 𝄇
You never heard so sweet as the birds in the spring.

At the end of the grove I sat myself down
And the song of the nightingale echoed all around.
Their song was so charming, their notes were so clear,
𝄆 No music, no songster, 𝄇
No music, no songster could with them compare.

All you that come here the small birds to hear
I will have you pay attention so pray all draw near.
And when you are growing old you'll have this to say:
𝄆 That you never heard so sweet, 𝄇
You never heard so sweet as the birds on the spray!

Bellowhead sing One May Morning Early

One May morning early I chanced for to roam
And strode through the fields by the side of the grove.
It was there that I heard the harmless birds sing.
And 𝄆 you never heard so sweet, 𝄇
You never heard so sweet as the birds in the spring.

At the end of the grove I sat myself down
And the song of the nightingale echoed all around.
Their song was so charming, their notes were so clear,
𝄆 No music, no songster, 𝄇
No music, no songster with them can compare.

All you that come here the small birds to hear
I'll have you pay attention so pray all draw near.
And when you're growing old you'll have this to say:
𝄆 You never heard so sweet, 𝄇
You never heard so sweet as the birds on the spray!