Year: 2021

Charles Robert Watts was an English drummer who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Rolling Stone. He was one of the band’s longest serving members, joining in January 1963 and remaining a member until his death in 2021. Originally trained as a graphic artist, he started playing drums in London’s rhythm and blues […]

We have spent the last two days travelling across the country so with that in mind we are going to begin a series on travel by first considering the compass. So today our theme is North. The word north is related to the Old High German nord, both descending from the Proto-Indo-European unit *ner-, meaning […]

After a season of ballads colected by Francis Child, I thought as it was Sunday that I turn our attention to another ballad, this time composed by Lord Byron and based on Psalm 137. This psalm has been for centuries a favourite with poets and poetical translators, and its pathos appealed to Lord Byron when […]

For our final dip (for the moment) into the amazing bag of ballads collected by Francis Child I have chosen “The Fair Flower of Northumberland” (Child No. 9, Roud 25).This ballad is refered to in Deloney’s book Pleasant History of John Winchcomb, in his younger yeares called Jacke of Newberie. According to Child the book […]

Bessy Bell and Mary Gray are “twa bonnie lassies”, is the subject of Child Balad No. 201. According to the ballad, Bessy and Mary were daughters of two Perthshire gentlemen, who in 1666 built themselves a bower to avoid catching a devastating plague. The girls were supplied with food by a lad in love with […]

“Geordie” is an English language folk song concerning the trial of the eponymous hero whose lover pleads for his life. It is listed as Child No. 209 and No. 90 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The ballad was traditionally sung across the English speaking world, and was performed with many different melodies and lyrics. […]

Sir Thomas de Ercildoun, better remembered as Thomas the Rhymer (1220 – 1298]), also known as Thomas Learmont or True Thomas, was a Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston (then called “Erceldoune”) in the Borders. Thomas’ gift of prophecy is linked to his poetic ability. He is often cited as the author of the English […]

“The Twa Magicians”, “The Two Magicians”, “The Lady and the Blacksmith”, or “The Coal Black Smith” (Roud 1350, Child 44) is a British folk song. It first appears in print in 1828 in two sources, Peter Buchan’s Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland and John Wilson’s Noctes Ambrosianae No. 40. It was […]

We begin the week with a futher dip into the Francis Child bag of ballads. “Lord Randall“, (Child 12, Roud 10) is an Anglo-Scottish Border ballad consisting of dialogue between a young Lord and his mother. Similar ballads can be found across Europe in many languages. The Italian variants are usually titled “L’avvelenato” (“The Poisoned […]

I am taking a break from my Child Ballad series to celebrate the life of Nanci Griffith, who sadly died on Friday. She was a singer, guitarist, and songwriter, raised in Austin, Texas, who lived in Nashville, Tennessee. Her career spanned a variety of musical genres, predominantly country, folk, and what she termed “folkabilly.” Griffith […]