Reviews -- CDs: The Barley Mow
2015; Volume: 10; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2056-6166
Autores Tópico(s)Diverse Musicological Studies
ResumoThis CD and DVD set represents a very welcome reissue of recordings made by Peter Kennedy in the Blaxhall Ship pub, Suffolk, in the mid-1950s. It is part of Topic Records' Voice of the People series, and is welcome on any number of counts. The CD contains a variety of traditional songs and music of the highest quality, enhanced with a DVD of some of the performances, representing a typical Saturday night's entertainment by locals at an East Anglian 'singing pub'. Added to this are recordings of other local singers not present at the session, such as 'Jumbo' Brightwell with his spirited rendering of the comic military song 'Muddley Barracks' (Rou.d 1735). The recordings have been technically enhanced--I found them very clear--without affecting too much the atmosphere of the session, such as chairman Alfred 'Wickets' Richardson banging on the table and calling for 'lovely order'. I already owned many of these recordings from Peter Kennedy's Folktrax cassette Down at Old Blaxhall ship. However, this set is well worth buying for the DM, the additional tracks, the very informative notes by Reg Hall, and the inclusion of song lyrics and photographs, most of which have not been available before. Along with this, John Howson of the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust has provided a copious guide to singing, playing, and collecting in East Anglia, long seen as a fruitful area for traditional music. The booklet totals a generous sixty-six pages. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The late Keith Summers heard Cyril Poacher sing The Nutting Girl' on the Topic LP Songs of Seduction in 1968 and it was enough to ffizike him hitchhike up the Al2 from his home in south Essex to Blaxhall just to meet these singers, most of whom were still around. The performances are simply outstanding in terms of ability and sheer variety. Cyril Poacher contributes 'The Nutting Girl' (Roud 509) with the full participation of his audience in the choruses and in repeating the last few words of some lines, and he gives yet another sterling performance in 'The Broomfield Wager' (Roud 34, Child 43), that ancient and mystical ballad. Wickets Richardson performs 'Fagan the Cobbler' (Roud 872), and even acts out the part, pretending to cobble shoes While he sings. For me, however, the master performer here is Bob Scarce, a traditional singer of the old school, with a very wide and interesting repertoire. He gives a superb performance of the highwayman ballad 'Newlyn Town' (Roud 490) and I have never heard a version to equal this from anyone, except perhaps Harry Cox of Norfolk. Consider the last verse, when the executed highwayman muses on his death, 'And now I am dead, and in my grave, / The grass grows over me in great big blades / And when I am gone, they will tell the truth, / Here lies the wild and the wicked youth.' Bob's use of the present tense gives it a stark immediacy. Most singers describe 'Ned Fielding's gang', who capture the highwayman, as 'that cursed crew', but Bob Scarce calls them 'that snaky crew' (wrongly transcribed in the notes as 'naked). He actually .calls Fielding 'Fieldman', but this was a real historical figure, either the novelist Henry Fielding or his brother John, founders of the Bow Street Runners, London's earliest police force, which dates the action to sometime after 1749. …
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