A third visit to the wild world of the the ‘Hare’ for another collection of songs.
“The Hi Ho Hare” John Kirkpatrick sang this song on his 2017 Fledg’ling CD ‘Coat-Tails Flying’, where he noted: I fell in love with a song called On Yonder Hill There Sits a Hare, recorded from the Irish singer Geordie Hanna in County Tyrone in 1977. He’d learned it from the singing of his father and his Uncle George, but they seem to be the only people who were aware of the song, apart from a mention in an obscure book published in London in the 1820s. Fans of the Irish style of singing will be appalled to learn that in living with the song for a while I’ve ironed out Mr Hanna’s ornamentations and dramatic pauses. Not only that, but I also felt the heroic hare’s exploits needed a couple of extra verses to emphasise the sweet triumph of the tale.
“The Brown Hare of Whitebrook” This is a dialect poem written by Ammon Wrigley of Denshaw, Saddleworth (1861-1946). It was a long-standing favourite of Holme Valley hunt sings. Laura Smyth sang The Brown Hare of Whitebrook on her and Ted Kemp’s 2017 CD The Poacher’s Fate. They noted: Wrigley wrote this song drawing on the local landscape of his native Saddleworth—the Yorkshire parish with Lancashire people. A number of his songs entered the oral tradition and are still being sung today. We first heard this being sung by [Will Noble’s son] Cuthbert Noble and subsequently learned the song from the Leader recording of the Holme Valley Beagles. We particularly liked it because the sentiments expressed towards the hare, which receives a well-deserved amnesty in the end. No one is sure who wrote the tune.
“The Innocent Hare” a song from the repertoire of the Copper Family. Bob and Ron Copper sang this song in a 1955 recording by Peter Kennedy. The Young Tradition sang this song on their eponymous debut album of 1966. They also sang it in November 1968 at their concert at Oberlin College, Ohio, that was published in 2013 on their Fledg’ling CD Oberlin 1968. Their original album’s liner notes commented: A typical English hunting song, charming despite its bloodthirstiness. We learned it from the singing of Bob and Ron Copper, and it is probably closer to the Copper sound than anything else in our repertoire. Royston’s bass line is not, however, the same as that used by the Coppers, and Heather’s harmony is a definite addition to the Copper pattern. After hearing our arrangement described, Ron Copper said to us: “I’ve been telling Bob for years we should have a young lady sing with us!”
“Tortoise Regrets Hare” is the first single by James Yorkston taken from his fifth album. James Yorkston has an impressive back catalogue of fragile folk with a reassuring twinge of Scottish self-deprecation.This time round he’s built himself a rock-solid foundation of material. Like it was spindle woven by some heavenly entity, the delicate instrumentation on ‘Tortoise Regrets Hare’ whispers of the rolling landscape on an evening in Fife.
“The Hare in the Corn” is a popular Irish jig. In Galloway the reaping of the last standing corn is called “cutting the Hare.” The mode of cutting it is as follows. When the rest of the corn has been reaped, a handful is left standing to form the Hare. It is divided into three parts and plaited, and the ears are tied in a knot. The reapers then retire a few yards and each throws his or her sickle in turn at the Hare to cut it down. It must be cut below the knot, and the reapers continue to throw their sickles at it, one after the other, until one of them succeeds in severing the stalks below the knot. The Hare is then carried home and given to a maidservant in the kitchen, who places it over the kitchen-door on the inside. Sometimes the Hare used to be thus kept till the next harvest.
