About Me

I first sang in a folk club in 1968, and had my first paid engagement a year later. Since then, making a recording is about the only thing I haven’t done. So here, at last, is my first C.D., drawn from a back catalogue of nearly forty years. Much of my material comes from printed sources; the songs are often my own collations from different versions. All arrangements are my own

THE VALIANT SAILOR is from the Oxford Book of Sea Songs (Ed. Roy Palmer; recently updated and re-issued as ‘Boxing The Compass’). It originates from a mid- 18thC broadside, and is probably better known in a slightly different version, as ‘Polly on The Shore’. Accompanied on Harmonium.

SAM HALL. This song was being sung by a couple of singers around the Merseyside folk clubs in the late 1960s –Willy Russell and Bill Bracken – and I just absorbed it. From what I can remember, this version is closer to what Bill sang; I think Willy’s version had more ocular condemnation, and is possibly the song sung by music-hall entertainer C.W. Ross in the mid-19thC. There are numerous versions in circulation. The song is about Jack Hall, who, it is said, was sold as a boy to a chimney sweep, for one guinea. He later became a notorious burglar, and was hanged at Tyburn in 1701 (although the location changes with different versions). The word ‘cow’ as used in the second verse, was thieves’ slang for a sixpence. Guitar, tuned DADGBE.

THE LAKES OF PONCHARTRAIN. I absorbed the tune from hearing it sung; the words are one of several sets to be found on Mudcat Café, along with a discussion of the song’s possible origins, about which there are differing opinions. It appears to be American, perhaps dating from around the time of the Civil War, but is thought by some to be Irish, or possibly written by an Irish immigrant worker in the New Orleans area around the 1830’s. It was certainly in circulation in Ireland at least a century ago, and was collected there by Sam Henry. Accompanied on Harmonium.

POLLY VAUGHAN. From ‘Marrow Bones’(Ed. Frank Purslow; songs from the Hammond/Gardiner manuscripts). This song may derive from mediæval changeling ballads; possibly Celtic in origin. Accompanied on Harmonium.

SKIPPIN’ BARFIT THRO’ THE HEATHER. From ‘101 Scottish Songs’(Ed. Norman Buchan, who quotes Jessie Murray as his source). Accompanied on Bina.

LORD GREGORY. I learned this from the singing of Shay Black, with whom I worked in the group ‘Il Danach’ in the early 1980s. Guitar, tuned CGDGBE.

HORSE AND WAGGON. Words and music by John Kelly, 1969. Guitar, tuned CGDGBE.

THE HUMOURS OF BALLYLOUGHLIN. I originally learned this from a recording of flute player Matt Molloy, who quotes piper Willy Clancy as the source. My whistle- playing style comes from efforts to copy the staccato piping style of John Murphy - also of Il Danach. Whistle/Bodhran.

SPENCER, THE ROVER. From ‘The Foggy Dew’, another of Frank Purslow’s editions of songs from the Hammond and Gardiner Manuscripts, although versions of it have been collected all over the country. There is a suspicion that it may have been the work of an Irish writer. I originally sang this with ‘The Wakes’ in the 1970s, with Tom Brown playing the harmonium. Accompanied (by me this time!) on Harmonium.

THE MAGDALEN GREEN. This is from ‘The Scottish Folksinger’ (Norman Buchan/Peter Hall). The title refers to an area of Dundee close to the river. Accompanied on Harmonium.

THE BONNIE, BONNIE BANKS OF LOCH LOMOND. I got this from an extremely tatty old song book which turned up in a piano stool which my wife had inherited from an aunt. The outer covers of the book are missing, so I don’t know the title, date or publisher. Guitar, tuned DADGBE.

THE SWAN SWIMS BONNY. Another from ‘The Scottish Folksinger’, although there are numerous other versions – Child includes no fewer than 26, and there are still others. The song also appears as ‘The Cruel Sister’ or ‘Binnorie’. Guitar, tuned CGDGBE.

THE BORDER WIDOW’S LAMENT. Yet another from ‘The Scottish Folksinger’, although I have found the same set of words in various other books. The song is believed to relate to James V’s campaign, in 1529, to introduce the novel concept of Law and Order to the Scottish Borders, and to rid the area of the freebooters, cattle rustlers and horse thieves who had held sway for centuries. They surprised the freebooter Perys Cockburne of Henderland at dinner, and hanged him from the gate of his own tower, his wife, Marjory, fleeing to a den in the forest close to a cataract, to escape the sounds of his execution. Accompanied on Bina.

ANDREW ROSE. I learned this from a 1960s E.P. of sea songs sung by Liverpool singer and songwriter Stan Kelly (no relation – real name Stan Bootle), having, at about the same time, read the story in Richard Whittington-Egan’s ‘Tales of Liverpool’. The song tells the true story of Andrew Rose, who signed on board the barque ‘Martha and Jane’ in Barbados, bound for Liverpool. While still in port, the second mate, Charles Seymour, gave him a flogging over some dissatisfaction with his work. Rose jumped ship, but was brought back, and given another flogging by the second mate, and also by the first mate, William Miles, and the captain, Henry Rogers. Thus began a sustained campaign of floggings and pitiless cruelty which continued throughout the voyage. Rose was put in a barrel and lashed to the bulwarks for 12 hours; he was made to eat his own excrement; for singing a hymn one Sunday morning, he was gagged with an iron bolt; the captain’s dog was trained to attack him on sight, tearing pieces out of his flesh. Eventually, he was hanged from the mainmast until he nearly choked. After this, he went mad, and died. His body, by now a mass of open, infected wounds, was dumped overboard, his death recorded as from his having gone rotten inside. The terrified crew, on arrival in Liverpool, went to the police with a different tale, as a result of which, the two mates were sentenced to life imprisonment, while the captain was hanged, in September 1857.

MATT HYLAND. What – a happy ending? Have I gone soft? I originally half – learned this from a singer called Barbara Slaughter, from Newcastle, who was studying in Liverpool in the late ‘60s. I sometimes accompanied her on this song. I later learned the full version from Robin Morton’s ‘Songs Sung in Ulster’. Guitar in open B tuning – BF#BF#BD# The Harmonium is a pedal – powered reed organ. Strictly speaking, this one is an American Organ, but I like to call it a harmonium. It is a collapsible model, bearing the name ‘Nishikawa & Son, Yokohama, Japan’. I had assumed that this was the maker, but now have reason to suspect that it was a supplier, and that the organ may have been made by the American firm Mason & Hamlin., probably in the late 19thC.The Bina is an Indian Harmonium. This is a small hand –pumped form of harmonium originally introduced into India by Missionaries. This one is a three-voice model with five drones, by Dwarkin & son, Calcutta. The Guitar is a Fylde ‘Falstaff’, C1979. The Whistle is by Dave Shaw. The Bodhran is of unknown make. The scary face on the front cover was re-drawn from a 10 foot high original, which I drew on my bedroom wall in a fit of insomnia, in about 1967.

John Kelly

August 2007