Although songs about boxers and successful racehorses were common in the nineteenth century, few are performed by current singers. In particular fox-hunting is considered politically incorrect. The most famous song about a foxhunter, "D'ye ken John Peel" was included in The National Song Book in 1906 and is now often heard as a marching tune. A. L. Lloyd recorded two EPs of sporting ballads; "Bold Sportsmen All" (1958) and "Gamblers and Sporting Blades (Songs of the Ring and the Racecourse)" (1962). The High Level Ranters and Martin Wyndham-Read recorded an album called "English Sporting Ballads" in 1977. Logan English recorded an album American Gambling Songs in the 1950s. John Jacob Niles recorded American Folk and Gambling Songs. The Prospect Before Us (1976) by The Albion Dance Band contains two rarely heard hunting songs.
In the UK, The Watersons are the best-known performers of hunting songs. They sang "Dido, Bendigo" and "The White Hare of Howden" on their second album "The Watersons" (1966). The ballad " I'Anson's Racehorse" appears on A Yorkshire Garland (1966). Steeleye Span recorded "The Hills of Greenmore", an Irish fox-hunting song on their first album. "Skewball" is a song about a racehorse. Notable versions include those by Woody Guthrie, Peter, Paul and Mary, Lonnie Donegan, Steeleye Span and Joan Baez. "Morrisey and the Russian Sailor" (Roud 2150) recounts a Bare-knuckle boxing match between an Irishman and a Russian. As a folk-song it has been found in Ireland, the USA, Canada and Australia. It has been recorded by Joe Heaney. A well-known Irish reel "The Foxhunter" was recorded as an instrumental by The Chieftains, Lúnasa and many others.
Gambling songs often present the situation from the point of view of a repentant, aging gambler, looking back on his wasted life. The most famous such song is "The House of the Rising Sun". Lonnie Donegan recorded "Gamblin' Man" as the B-side to "Putting on the Style" and took "Jack O' Diamonds" to number 1 in the UK in 1957. Other games such as tennis, boating and croquet were middle-class pursuits and are not mentioned in folk-songs. However, a collection of Victorian and Edwardian parlour songs, Play the Game was recorded by Ian Partridge, Peter Savidge and Jennifer Partridge with The Song and Supper Club in 2001. Whaling could be considered a type of hunting, but whaling songs are usually classed as sea shanties.
The obvious successors to these songs are football songs, but they rarely describe actual matches. There are a number of Irish songs written by amateur songwriters from Ireland which celebrate notable achievements in hurling and Gaelic football. Rugby songs tend to be obscene. Country music songs such as "Those Gambler’s Blues” (1930) by Jimmie Rodgers continue the tradition of lamenting the effect of gambling.
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition and variation of sections.
Anthony James Donegan, known as Lonnie Donegan, was a British skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the "King of Skiffle", who influenced 1960s British pop and rock musicians. Born in Scotland and brought up in England, Donegan began his career in the British trad jazz revival but transitioned to skiffle in the mid 1950s, rising to prominence with a hit recording of the American folk song "Rock Island Line" which helped spur the broader UK skiffle movement.
Steeleye Span are an English folk rock band formed in 1969. Along with Fairport Convention, they are among the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat". They had four Top 40 albums and achieved significant sales of "All Around My Hat".
Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and later artists such as Richard Thompson, since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of the folk revival.
Madelaine Edith Prior MBE is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the police drama Z-Cars. She was married to Steeleye bass guitarist Rick Kemp and their daughter, Rose Kemp, is also a singer. Their son, Alex Kemp, is, like his father, a guitarist and has deputised for his father playing bass guitar for Steeleye Span. She was part of the singing duo 'Mac & Maddy', with Mac MacLeod. She then performed with Tim Hart and recorded two albums with him, before they helped to found the group Steeleye Span, in 1969. She left Steeleye Span in 1997, but returned in 2002, and has toured with them since. With June Tabor she was the singing duo Silly Sisters. She toured with the Carnival Band, in 2007, and with Giles Lewin and Hannah James, in 2012 and 2013. She has released singles and albums as a solo artist, with these bands and in several collaborations. She runs an Arts Centre called Stones Barn, in Bewcastle, in Cumbria, which offers residential courses.
Albert Lancaster Lloyd, usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the British folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. While Lloyd is most widely known for his work with British folk music, he had a keen interest in the music of Spain, Latin America, Southeastern Europe and Australia. He recorded at least six discs of Australian Bush ballads and folk music.
"The Three Ravens" is an English folk ballad, printed in the song book Melismata compiled by Thomas Ravenscroft and published in 1611, but it is perhaps older than that. Newer versions were recorded right up through the 19th century. Francis James Child recorded several versions in his Child Ballads.
John Jacob Niles was an American composer, singer and collector of traditional ballads. Called the "Dean of American Balladeers," Niles was an important influence on the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, with Odetta, Joan Baez, Burl Ives, Peter, Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan, among others, recording his songs.
Mr Fox were an early 1970s British folk rock band. They were seen as in the 'second generation' of British folk rock performers and for a time were compared with Steeleye Span and Sandy Denny's Fotheringay. Unlike Steeleye Span they mainly wrote their own material in a traditional style and developed a distinct 'northern' variant of the genre. They demonstrate the impact and diversity of the British folk rock movement and the members went on to pursue significant careers within the folk rock and traditional music genres after they disbanded in 1972 having recorded two highly regarded albums.
"Allison Gross" is a traditional ballad, catalogued as Child Ballad #35. It tells the story of "the ugliest witch in the north country" who tries to persuade a man to become her lover and then punishes him by a transformation.
Skewball was the name of an 18th-century British racehorse, most famous as the subject of a broadsheet ballad and folk-song.
"The Twa Sisters" is a traditional murder ballad, dating at least as far back as the mid seventeenth century. The song recounts the tale of a girl drowned by her jealous sister. At least 21 English variants exist under several names, including "Minnorie" or "Binnorie", "The Cruel Sister", "The Wind and Rain", "Dreadful Wind and Rain", "Two Sisters", "The Bonny Swans" and the "Bonnie Bows of London". The ballad was collected by renowned folklorist Francis J. Child as Child Ballad 10 and is also listed in the Roud Folk Song Index. Whilst the song is thought to originate somewhere around England or Scotland, extremely similar songs have been found throughout Europe, particularly in Scandinavia.
Live at Last is a live album by the British folk rock band Steeleye Span. It is the first live album the band issued, after eight years of performing and releasing 10 studio albums. It was originally intended to be a farewell album. "This then is our eleventh and final album. Steeleye Span amicably disbanded five days after making this recording for reasons that are irrelevant here.”
Tempted and Tried is the 13th studio album by British folk rock band Steeleye Span. The album was recorded after a three-year hiatus after the release of Back in Line. After releasing ten albums in fairly rapid succession during the 1970s, the band entered something of a creative dry spell, with 'Tempted' being only their 3rd album in 10 years. The album cover proclaims the album a "20th Anniversary Celebration", and the band was clearly eager to commemorate their anniversary, since strictly speaking the band had only been rehearsing in 1969, and didn't record until 1970.
"The Maid and the Palmer" is a murder ballad with supernatural/religious overtones. Because of its dark and sinister lyrics, the song was often avoided by folk singers.
"The Sweet Trinity", also known as "The Golden Vanity" or "The Golden Willow Tree", is Child Ballad 286. The first surviving version, about 1635, was "Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing In The Lowlands ".
The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood is Child ballad 132, featuring Robin Hood. It is a traditional version of Robin Hood Newly Revived.
Jack of Diamonds is a traditional folk song. It is a Texas gambling song that was popularized by Blind Lemon Jefferson. It was sung from the point of view of a railroad man who had lost money playing conquian. At least twelve artists recorded the tune before World War II. It has been recorded under various titles such as "A Corn Licker Still in Georgia" and "Rye Whiskey".
Tradition Records was an American record label from 1955 to 1966 that specialized in folk music. The label was founded and financed by Guggenheim heiress Diane Hamilton in 1956. Its president and director was Patrick "Paddy" Clancy, who was soon to join his brothers Liam and Tom Clancy and Tommy Makem, as part of the new Irish folk group, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Liam Clancy designed the company's maple leaf logo. Columbia University Professor of Folklore Kenneth Goldstein was also involved in the early creation of the company, which operated out of Greenwich Village, New York, United States.
The Cutty Wren and its variants such as The Hunting of the Wren are traditional English folk songs. It is also the territorial song for the British overseas territory of Tristan da Cunha. The origins and meaning of the song are disputed. It is number 236 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
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