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 […]
The Maid Freed from the Gallows
“The Maid Freed from the Gallows” is one of many titles of a centuries-old folk song about a condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner. In the collection of ballads compiled by Francis James Child in the late 19th century, it is indexed as Child Ballad number 95; 11 variants, […]
The Elfin Knight
“The Elfin Knight” (Child 2; Roud 12) is a traditional Scottish Folk Ballad of which there are many versions, all dealing with supernatural occurrences, and the commission to perform impossible tasks. The ballad has been collected in different parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, the US, and Canada. As is the case with most traditional folk […]
Sir Patrick Spens
“Sir Patrick Spens” is one of the most popular of the Child Ballads (No. 58), Roud (No.41), and is of Scottish origin. It is a maritime ballad about a disaster at sea. It remains one of the most anthologized of British popular ballads, partly because it exemplifies the traditional ballad form. The strength of this […]
John Barleycorn
“John Barleycorn” is an English/Scottish folk song listed as number 164 in the Roud Folk Song Index. John Barleycorn, the eponymous protagonist, is a personification of barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it: beer and whisky. In the song, he suffers indignities, attacks, and death that correspond to the various stages of barley […]
Tam Lin
Today we visit with another of my early folk favouriites, again first encountered on the legendary ‘Liege and Lief’ album by Fairport Convention. Tam (or Tamas) Lin (also called Tamlane, Tamlin, Tambling, Tomlin, Tam Lien, Tam-a-Line, Tam Lyn, or Tam Lane) is a character in a legendary ballad originating from the Scottish Borders. It is […]
Matty Groves
“Matty Groves”, also known as “Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard” or “Little Musgrave”, is a ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a young man and a noblewoman that is ended when the woman’s husband discovers and kills them. It is listed as Child ballad number 81 and number 52 […]
Rainbow
Our final saunter around the world of colourful songs ends approriately with the Rainbow. A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows caused by […]
Colours – Honourable Mentions
Today we have a collection of colourful songs which I am entitling ‘Honourable Mentions’ this is because there were not enough entires to warrant to a separate post but it would be a shame if they were not celebrated in some way. So today we will bring to light some of the lesser or more […]
Black
Black is a colour which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic colour, without hue, like white and gray. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have often been used to describe opposites. Since the Middle Ages, black has been the symbolic […]