"Back In The Airly Days"
CD on Waterbug Records WBG0044
in 1998
Reviews
Dry Stone Walls
A Tale Of The Airly Days
Another Man's Wedding
The Frog's Wedding
Gosford's Fair Desmene
The Pinery Boys
William Hall
The Bass Viol (story)
A&F Reel
Fair Fanny Moore
Republicans and Democrats (story)
Goodbye My Lover I'm Gone
Disheartened Ranger
Going To Kansas
Loch Maree
Johnny Doyle
I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat
Cranberry Song
Texans in Maine (story)
Down The Road
About the stories ...
SARA GREY: TRAD. STORY (top of page)
A Tale Of The Airly Days
SARA GREY: VOCAL, BANJO
"A Tale Of The Airly Days" is the tide of a poem from the 1860s collection Riley's Farm Rhymes by the folk poet from Indiana, James Whitcombe Riley. Carl Jones from Macon, Georgia set the words to music and I learned it "straight from the horses mouth" so-to-speak at Pinewoods Music Camp, summer of 1997. This poem embodies for me the reason why some of us love to sing old songs and care about our past. (top of page)
Another Man's Wedding
SARA GREY: UNACCOMPANIED
This dates probably from the eighteenth century It is an English ballad sung in various versions in many parts of Ireland. From the 1850s it became the object of Anglo Irish literary adaptation and Irish airs were often used. The narrative is simple and clear: textual variation consists mainly of lyric embellishment of the theme. This version, from Magilligan in Northern Ireland, comes from the singing of Eddie & Robert Butcher. (top of page)
The Frog's Wedding
SARA GREY: VOCAL, JOAN SPRUNG: CHORUS, ELLEN CHRISTENSON: CHORUS, IRENE SALETAN: CHORUS
An Irish version of a very old children's song from a most amazing singer from Boho in County Fermanagh, Annie McKenzie. (top of page)
Gosford's Fair Desmene
SARA GREY: UNACCOMPANIED
I learned this lovely Irish song from one of Northern Ireland's finest singers, Sara Ann O'Neill, sister of the late Geordie Hannah. SaraAnn is from Armagh City Co. Armagh. I will never forget watching her sing this at the 1996 Innishowen Traditional Singers Festival in Donegal. Her appearance is not unlike the late Sarah Cleveland - lovely round rosy-checked face topped by snow-white hair - and every time she went for the high notes her little shoulders seemed to lift the notes into place. She was and is sweetness personified in song. Gosford is a small town near Armagh City and a desmene is a word used in Ireland for the land, surrounding a castle or large house, retained by the landlord for his own use. (top of page)
The Pinery Boys
SARA GREY: UNACCOMPANIED
Also called "Shantyman's Life" or "The Shanty Boys and The Pine" - from the singing of Emery de Noyer in 1941 in Wisconsin. He was a blind singer who entertained in the logging camps of northern Wisconsin. He pin-pointed the locality in the last verse where he mentions "Pelican Drive" which was the river flowing into Wisconsin at Rhinelander. There are several versions supposedly composed in different shanties throughout the state and in Michigan. However Charles Ring of Hayward, Wisconsin claimed he learned it from his mother and that it was composed on the St. Croix river. His version is the same as de Noyer's text and tune. It gives the best kaleidoscopic account of the loggers daily lives I've heard in song. (top of page)
William Hall
SARA GREY: UNACCOMPANIED
From the Folk Legacy 1964 field recording of Beech Mountain, North Carolina and the singing of Hattie Fresnell. I love the Irregular rhyme patterns and quirky tune of this broken-token song. (top of page)
The Bass Viol
SARA GREY: TRAD. STORY
A&F Reel
SARA GREY: BANJO JEFF DAVIS: MANDOCELLO
I learned this tune from Carl Jones of Macon, Georgia, one of the finest banjo players I've ever heard. Carl put it so well, "It's the slow tunes that show up the little lifts in the tune" - this one does just that. (top of page)
Fair Fanny Moore
SARA GREY: VOCAL & BANJO, JEFF DAVIS: GUITAR
One of my favourite obscure ballads collected from Mrs T. N. Taber of Chandier, Omahoma from Ballads and Folksongs of the Southwest (Ethel & Chauncey O'Moore). It opens with the murder and works backyard. A story filled with all the emotions of jealousy, revenge and menace. (top of page)
Republicans & Democrats
SARA GREY: TRAD. STORY
Goodbye My Lover I'm Gone
SARA GREY: VOCAL, BANJO ELLEN CHRISTENSON: BANJO, CHORUS
I learned this great song several years ago from a tape of a collection of old-time singers and I believe, it was sung by Mike Seeger. (top of page)
Disheartened Ranger
SARA GREY: VOCAL JEFF DAVIS: FIDDLE
A great song filled with sardonic commentary on the politics of the day It shows the Texas Ranger's great disdain for Native Americans, politicians and most things. They were filled with macho self-importance and showed it off to the full in this delightful song. It comes from the singing of Mrs Lula Sublet of Fort Gibson. She was born in Kentucky and came to The Indian Territory in 1885. (top of page)
Going To Kansas
SARA GREY: VOCAL JEFF DAVIS: FIDDLE PETEE SUTHERLAND: CHORUS
From the singing of Everett Pin of Upper Saddle River; New Jersey Also known as "The Honest Farmer" or "De little Cabins Am Empty Now" This is derived from a dialect song by Thomas P Westendorf. How or where it has lost almost all traces of dialect and was set to a completely different melody; who can tell? Westendorf's tune was quite jaunty and had some of the plaintive quality of Everett Pitt's tune. This exquisite jewel of a song says it all about the westward movement, sharecroppers, farmers and others leaving their homesteads to head west. (top of page)
Loch Maree
SARA GREY: VOCAL JEFF DAVIS:GUITAR JOAN SPRUNG:CHORUS ELLEN CHRISTENSON: CHORUS IRENE SALETAN:CHORUS PETE SUTHERLAND: CHORUS
I had to sing, for sentimental reasons, a song that was sung by Donald MacAskill, a friend and wonderful singer. from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. Be lives in Dingwall, Ross-shire, not far from where I lived in Strathconon for several years. This little song is really an 'ode' to perhaps the finest of all the lochs in Scotland. Loch Maree. II was also played on the pipes and, some say, was composed by Bob Hendry a fine piper from Scardroy, Strathconon. I can't sing this song without tears in my eyes for the most beautiful place on this earth. (top of page)
Johnny Doyle
SARA GREY: UNACCOMPANIED
Another one of my favourite ballads from the Folk Legacy 1964 field recording of Beech Mountain, North
Carolina. Buna Hicks sings it with such an undercurrent of menace. The ballads from this region have such a straight forward, almost naive, narrative with irregular verses like the spoken word rather than something tightly structured. There is no overt mention of rape but the implication is there - what a graphic description:
when they a'menaced me, I entered the door my ear-bobs they bursted and fell unto the floor. Into sixty two pieces my stay-laces flew: I thought my poor soul, my poor heart was broke in two
The much more complete Scottish version from the Duncan-Greig collection completely skirts the subject of rape. (top of page)
I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat
SARA GREY: UNACCOMPANIED
"I'll Sell My Hat, I'll Sell My Coat" comes from the singing of Mrs Pearl Borusky, Antigo, Wisconsin in 1940.11 is derived from "ShuleAroon" from the collection Old Irish Folk Music & Song James Joyce reckoned it dated back to late 1600s. in the Irish version the young girl sells her spinning wheel to buy her love a sword of steel and in the American version it is associated with westward expansion, the girl sells her hat and vest to get enough money to go out west. Over a period of years the Irish chorus was lost as the Wisconsin singers started to substitute words they though they were hearing, hence the appearance of the word "barbecue" in the chorus. (top of page)
Cranberry Song
SARA GREY: UNACCOMPANIED
Sung by Mrs Frances Perry at Black River Falls, Wisconsin in 1946. Cranberries are an important crop in Jackson County where she grew up. She attributed the song to Barney Reynolds and said that each year in the "marshes" new verses were composed and added. Romances, accidents, humorous incidents are incorporated and changed each year. This one is supposed to be the original and is a dear tune. (top of page)
Texans in Maine
SARA GREY: TRAD. STORY
Down The Road
SARA GREY: VOCAL, BANJO JEFF DAVIS:GUITAR JOAN SPRUNG: CHORUS . ELLEN CHRISTENSON: CHORUS IRENE SALETAN: CHORUS
A great little old-time song with lots of floating verses. I learned it from Joe Newberry of Durham, North Carolina. I maintain that the gentle little songs are the best. Verses for this were contributed by Joan Sprung, Wally MacNow and Bob &Julie Walser. (top of page)
ABOUT THE STORIES...
My dad was a good fiddler and an even better story-teller. After several years of people cajoling me into putting some of my dad's "Down-East" stories into a recording, I finally decided the best way was to intersperse them with songs and tunes so that the old stories become an integral part of the old songs.(top of page)