1. |
The Hungry Forties
05:08
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The hungry forties is our time their harvests poor our crops are thin
Us farmers lads like this young Tom we feel the hurt within
No future on the land for me though I is strong and I am brave
No brother can my burden share no ties left here my life to save
Its drudgery for me, the Union and a pauper’s grave
No more I’ll see the sparkling sun rise up over the moor
No more I’ll see the salmon run in Torridge and in Taw
My spirit once so free now bound by Master Surman’s law
The Northam women said she’d fall said she had no will at all
All the men would stand and stare gazing at her long dark hair
Then all on one dreadful day although to her own god she prayed
She found that she was great with child found her mother so reviled
Her wilful Emma so much so that she told her to go
No more she’ll spend my days out beside the harbour view
No more she’ll see the trawler lads or watch the lifeboat crew
Her hair cut short, her face once brown now wears the workhouse hue
Now Brother Fulford lent a hand condemned the Union and its ways
Condemned how wicked Surman made his inmates there to pay
He knew ships to Prince Edwards Isle sailed out from Appledore
He paid for Tom and Emma’s passage out aboard the Baltimore
They sailed out and they would see their native shore no more
They spend their days on fertile land no longer lost and poor
Like many from North Devon who had sailed out there before
And plough the land and build the ships beside Prince Edwards shore
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2. |
Cider makers
03:42
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In fields down to the river
On the heaving orchard boughs
In mounds beneath in garnered heaps
The crimson apples flame
By the farmer and his horses
In the last light of the day
The crimson tide is gathered up
In woven horse hair grey
And the tide of life is turning
Where the grinding presses run
By a patient blindfold pony
In the light of the setting sun
With the carts now deep and harvest full
To Townstal home again
To where the presses grip and crush
And the juice in rivers flows
Long into the dark of night
The faithful pony turns
In slow and placid circles
As the golden liquid churns
And the tide of life is turning
Where the grinding presses run
By a patient blindfold pony
In the light of the setting sun
On their polished elm in rays of light
Stand carved on the timber frame
The names of pals who went to France
But won’t come back again
When at last the weary beams are still
The cider amber bright
They drink and they remember
Deep into the starry nights
And the tide of life is turning
Where the grinding presses run
By a patient blindfold pony
In the light of the setting sun
Red eye sun in low November
And the boughs are bright with frost
Vault doors fast put home long since
And the pony is at rest
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3. |
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4. |
The Widecombe Lovers
02:42
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Whitlock Smerdon come from t’other side of Hameldon
He courted Sibley Shillingford and how they loved each other
A steady and a kindly love her simple heart had won
Like two halves of a flail they were - one nought without t’other.
Whitlock knew the hour had come her father for to face
He’d learned his lines fair word for word the night before he came
To Blackslade where the master sat the table for to grace
Where 7 generations there had held the title claim
Mr Shillingford he said I’ve got a startler here for you
Humble as a worm I stand before you on your land
But I will uplift myself as all true lovers do
For I have a fierce and fearful love to drive on my demand
I’d be proud as a turkey cock to ‘ave your daughter's hand
That scratches in the farmyard dust and struts his head held high
I’m cruel poor but I’ll work hard to earn her wedding band
I ban’t of much account I know but I will be by and by
I’ll make her such a husband as is not known in this land
Except for tales in story books and songs the choir do sing
This love I have for her will move the tors come presently
If twill only move you first to give consent to me
Twas just then that his daughter ran into her father’s arms
She was on his breast so instantly her hair across his face
Oh father dear I love him for his kindness and his charms
I pray you’ll let me ‘ave him for no-one can take his place
A kindly but a proud man old Shillingford was he
He lived his life so righteously all Webburn men could see
He said to Whitlock now there young man although you speak so free
An honest, fair and loving man I’m certain that you be
‘E gave consent and they rejoiced, and married they’ll be soon
And news of their betrothal spread across the vale by noon
And as these two lovers stood contented arm in arm
A sunset smile lit up the whitewashed face of Blackslade farm.
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5. |
Henry Brown
04:16
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1. There’s an old house at the corner just beyond the Rose and Crown
There’s a low wall all around it you can see
And now the gate is rusty and it’s almost broken down
And the little bit of garden’s full of weeds
And standing in his slippers in the shadow of the door
There is an old man there called Henry Brown
Ch. And you wouldn’t think to look at him that he was once well known
You wouldn’t see him if he passed you on the street
You wouldn’t think that he was once the hero of renown
But some folks still remember Henry Brown
2. It was in the height of winter over 50 years ago
A gale blew from east on to the shore
The fishing boats and trawlers all tied up along the quay
The waves crashed 50 feet above the wall
The people in the cottages there were huddled round their fires
Waiting for the day to come around
3. There really was no warning – no shout, no light or bell
To tell them that a nightmare had begun
The wall was breached down by the shore the sea was in the street
There was nothing that the people could have done
And all in that dreadful night so many people might have drowned
But a score or more were saved by Henry Brown
Ch
4. And all throughout the bitter night he fought against the tide
And all night the raging sea denied
Cradling the women and the children that he found
And carrying them up to the higher ground
He didn’t stop his work until the day at last came round
And the sea receded from the broken land
And every year round Hallsands when November comes around
And the gale blows from the east so wild and free
And the gannets and the gulls are driven hard against the cliffs
And the boiling waves blow spume across the Ley
The people raise their glasses all remembering the time
When their lives were saved that night by Henry Brown
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6. |
Seasons
03:32
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From Hartland Quay we watch the summer sun go down all pink and gold
The curlew’s startled cry around us as they rise up from their fold
Come with me my true companion
Wherever that we roam
Walk together onward home
At the seasons turn, at the seasons turn
The river by the old black bridge all autumn brown and raging free
Watching all the spreading water over meadows over lea
From Winsford Hill we watch the valley in the chill of winter morn
Filled with mist, a rolling blanket, hear the birds of early dawn
In Orleigh wood the spring is coming, green of bud and shoot and spur
Promise of the year around us, feeling all our hopes return
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7. |
One April Morning
02:46
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'Twas on an April morning, just as the sun was rising,
'Twas on an April morning, I heard the small birds sing.
They were singing Lovely Nancy,
For love it is a fancy
And sweet were the notes that I heard the small birds sing.
They were singing Lovely Nancy,
For love it is a fancy
And sweet were the notes that I heard the small birds sing.
Young men are false and are full of all deceiving;
Young men are false and they seldom will prove true.
For they're roving and their ranging
Their hearts are always changing,
Seeking to find out some other girl that's new.
Young men don't you spend all your long long time in courting?
Young men don't you spend all your long long time in vain.
For I don't intend to marry,
I'd rather longer tarry.
So young man, don't you spend all your long long time in vain.
O if I had but my own heart in keeping
O if I had but my own heart back again
Safe in this breast I'd tether
And I'd lock it there forever
And pray it would never stray far from me again.
'Twas on an April's morning, just as the sun was rising,
'Twas on an April's morning, I heard the small birds sing.
They were singing Lovely Nancy,
For love it is our fancy
And sweet were the notes that I heard the small birds sing.
They were singing Lovely Nancy,
For love it is our fancy
And sweet were the notes that I heard the small birds sing.
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8. |
John Barleycorn
05:51
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There came three men from out of the west their victory to try
And they have taken a solemn vow John Barleycorn should die
They took a plough and ploughed him in, and harrowed clods on his head
And then they took a solemn vow John Barleycorn was dead
There he lay sleeping in the ground til rain from the sky did fall
Then Barleycorn he sprung up his head and he soon amazed them all
There he remained till midsummer and looked both pale and wan
Then Barleycorn he got a beard and he soon amazed them all
Then they sent men with scythes so sharp they cut him off down by the knee
And so poor little Barleycorn they served him barbarously
Then they sent men with pitchforks strong to pierce him through the heart
And like a dreadful tragedy they bound him to a cart
And then they brought him to a barn a prisoner to endure
And soon they fetched him out again and laid him on the floor
And they sent men with the holly clubs to beat him flesh from bones
But the miller he served him worse than that for he ground him between two stones
Oh Barleycorn is the chiefest grain the was ever sown on land
It will do mare than any grain by the turning of your hand
It will make a boy into a man and a man into an ass
It will change your gold to silver and your silver into brass
It will make the huntsman hunt the fox that never wound his horn
It’ll bring the tinker to the stocks the little Barleycorn
It’ll make the maids stark naked dance as they were ever born
It will help them get a job by chance this little barleycorn
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9. |
Jacky Tar/ Sunshine Cafe
05:04
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10. |
Angel Hill
04:18
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A sailor came walking down Angel Hill
He knocked on my door with a right good will
With a right good will he knocked on my door
And he said "My dear friend, we have met before"
No never said I
He searched my eye with his sea blue stare
Laughed out loud on the cold Cornish air
On the Cornish air he laughed aloud
And he said my dear friend you have grown too proud
No never said I
In war we swallowed the bitter
Bread, drank of the brine the sailor said
We took of the bread and we tasted the brine
And I bound your wounds as you bound mine
No never said I
By day and night on the diving sea
We whistled the sun and the moon said he
Together we whistled to moon and sun
And vowed that our stars should be as one
No never said I
No never said I
Now he said that the war is past
Come to your heart and home at last
Come to your home and heart to share
Whatever good fortune waits for me there
No never said I
I have no wife nor son he said
No pillow on which for to make my head
No pillow abide, no wife, nor son
Till you shall give to me my own
No never said I
His eye it flashed like a lightning dart
And still as a stone it stirred my heart
A heart like a granite stone was still
And he said my dear friend but I think you will
No never said I
The sailor smiled, turned in his track
Shifted the bundle all up on his back
And I heard him sing as he strolled away
You'll send in your fetch for me, one fine day
No never said I
No never said I
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11. |
A Dartmoor Stream
04:26
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When Shakespeare wrote you sang the song I still hear
And when Eliza reigned your linted locks
Flashed where they flash today among the rocks
And showered their tresses twined into the brown pool clear
The bear it lapped your waters on his rounds
The stricken elk beside you dropped at last
A flint in his shoulder thrust home deep and fast
To smear your emerald moss in red of wounds
And there were children in your lap beside
The early men of stone whose lodges stand
Like mushroom circles high up on the land
Above the cotton grass that made your cradle wide
Their ruins sink below now; foxglove springs
Above the roofless hut and smelting place
No more the shadows fall upon your face
Or medieval chimes of pick and hammer rings
You danced and flung your foam upon the fern
And sang along your green and granite ways
Even as now, in far off summer days
When toiled the Tinner man beside your your heathery urn
Where once the silver wolf pack hunting went
Their cries unearthly through the snowy nights
Now driven roads cut through the moorland heights
Your peace destroyed just as the earth is rent
But the days are quiet now your banks around
Your gentle murmuring and birdsong sound
Is all we hear beside the waving ferns
Times flow full circle in these closed down days
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12. |
Cousin Jack
05:08
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This land is barren and broken,
Scarred like the face of the moon
Our tongue is no longer spoken
And the Towns all a-round face ruin
Will there be work in New Brunswick?
Will I find gold in the Cape?
If I tunnel way down to Australia
Oh will I ever escape.
Where there's a mine or a hole in the ground
That's what I'm heading for that's where I'm bound
So look for me under the lode and inside the vain,
Where the copper the clay the arsenic and tin
Run in your blood and under your skin
I'll leave the county behind I'm not coming back
Oh follow me down cousin Jack.
The soil was to poor to make Eden,
Granite and sea left no choice
Though visions of heaven sustained us,
When John Wesley gave us a voice
Did Joseph once come to St Michaels Mount
Two thousand years pass in a dream
When you're working your way in the darkness,
Deep in the heart of the seam.
Where there's a mine or a hole in the ground
That's what I'm heading for that's where I'm bound
So look for me under the lode and inside the vain,
Where the copper the clay the arsenic and tin
Run in your blood and under your skin
I'll leave the county behind I'm not coming back
Oh follow me down cousin Jack.
I dream of a bridge on the Tamar
It opens us up to the East
And the English they live in our houses
The Spanish fish in these seas
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13. |
Innocents Song
03:35
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Who's that knocking at the window?
Who's that standing at the door?
What are all those presents laying on the kitchen floor?
Who is the laughing stranger with his hair as white as gin?
What is he doing with the children?
Who could have let him in?
Why has he rubies on his fingers?
Gold crown on his head.
Why when he caws his carol
Does the salty snow run red?
Why does he ferry my fireside
As a spider on a thread,
His fingers made of fuses
And his tongue of gingerbread?
Why does the world before him
Melt in a million suns,
Why do his yellow, yearning eyes
Burn like saffron buns?
Watch where he comes walking
Out of the Christmas flame,
Dancing, double-talking:
And Herod is his name.
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14. |
A Country Lad am I
04:04
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Come farmer lads and lasses all and listen unto me
Theres fun alike for great and small with me you must agree
Why should the farmer hand his head when he ought to wear a smile
We’ll sing and shout the harvest bread that feeds Great Britain’s Isle
Then its all among the farmers the harvest home we’ll cry
I can plough and sow and reap and mow for a country lad am I
They say there’s something in the wind now mark you what I say
The farmer’s men refuse to work for 18 pence a day
If you don’t mind what you’re about they’ll toddle bye and bye
You’ll have to plough the lands yourself and that will ope your eye
Then its all among the farmers the harvest home we’ll cry
I can plough and sow and reap and mow for a country lad am I
Now farmers keep your spirits up before it gets too late
The young folk they will marry soon and then will emigrate
If you don’t raise their wages soon they mean to do the grand
In a great big they’ll emigrate out to a foreign land
Then its all among the farmers the harvest home we’ll cry
I can plough and sow and reap and mow for a country lad am I
Then Master Henry has to throw aside his dog and gun
To hedge and ditch no matter which he will find that no fun
No more at the piano will Emily sit and scream
She’ll the to milk the cows herself and likewise skim the cream
Then its all among the farmers the harvest home we’ll cry
I can plough and sow and reap and mow for a country lad am I
Look at the price of everything the farm produces now
With mutton and beef don’t soil your teeth but just look on the cow
And bear in mind if farmers grind they’ll soon be left alone
With help from the state to emigrate each man will farm his own
Then its all among the farmers the harvest home we’ll cry
I can plough and sow and reap and mow for a country lad am I
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15. |
Full Sou' Wester
05:02
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In the hollows on the blacklands snow was lying until May
The young folks they have nothing left up there to make them stay
The first frosts of the autumntide they won’t be far away
Their crops be bad, their corn sells low, their bills they cannot pay
There’s nort here in North Devon for the husbandmen to do
Their children they are hungry and their pleasures they are few
And the shadow of the Workhouse hangs upon them every day
Although they love our country they are forced to sail away
But when there’s a full sou’ wester and ees blowing strong and free
When they see the Lundy lighthouse playing out across the sea
And the swallows in the rawdage sing of springtime on its way
It’ll tell them if they come home there’s a welcome here for they
When us old men we were young we built the warships for the fleet
With timber that our own ships brought from far across the sea
A hundred vessels rose up all along the Torridge strand
Built by our own sweat and toil with hammers in our hand
But now the war is over and the hammers have grown cold
There’s no longer any work here and the yards they have been sold
Our shipwrights they are leaving too off to Prince Edwards shore
In Canada were Devon men are building ships once more
But when there’s a full sou’ wester and ees blowing strong and free
When they see the Lundy lighthouse playing out across the sea
And the swallows in the rawdage sing of springtime on its way
It’ll tell them if they come home there’s a welcome here for they
Those of us who are staying behind we’re all along the quay
5000 strong we’re watching as the three ships head for sea
And our lads and lasses there on board to leave they are resigned
To cross the raging ocean for a better life to find
Now it is just us old folks left back here to spend our days
Watching out to sea as for their safety we do pray
We keep a candle in our windows as we look out from the shore
And we pray the day will come when they’ll return once more
And when there’s a full sou’ wester and ees blowing strong and free
When they see the Lundy lighthouse playing out across the sea
While the swallows in the rawdage sing of springtime on its way
It’ll tell em that if they come home there’s a welcome here for they
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16. |
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Me and my mate we set out on the moor
From Scorriton right up to Sourton Tor
Past Poundsgate and Widecombe, our way we found
Up over Hameldon down through Grimspound
And then as sun it went down in the west
We knew we were done we had given our best
Although we were 16 we thought it no sin
To find our way into the Warren House Inn
The 5 pints of cider that we put away
Were causing the walls of the bar for to sway
We picked ourselves up and went out the back
And found a few beers there to fill up our sack
We found that the mist on the moor had come down
And made us pitch our tent on uneven ground
To trip on the guy ropes it was no disgrace
Cos you couldn't see your hand in front of your face
Early next morning our heads they felt dire
There was plenty of groaning as we lit the fire
Bacon and baked beans was our breakfast choice
When outside of our tent we heard a loud voice
Its Dartmoor police here are you lads alright?
Be assured I do not mean to give you a fright
But a man has escaped from the Princetown Mens Club
And we think that he nicked a few beers from this pub!
He’s out on the moor
He’s out on the moor
That’s why we’re searching the cleaves and the tors
For its the mad axemen that we’re looking for
Frank Mitchell is out on the moor
Now this man Frank Mitchell he likes robbing banks
He’s mean and he’s nasty, he’s built like a tank
Extortion and torture are his stock in trade
The screws let him run free cos they are afraid
In case that he finds you and follows your tracks
I think that i ought to tell you this fact
The book that he frequently reads to relax
Is “101 Things To Do With an Axe”!
He’s out on the moor
He’s out on the moor
That’s why we’re searching the cleaves and the tors
For its the mad axemen that we’re looking for
Frank Mitchell is out on the moor
We got rid of the empties and stood by the Cross
To make the long wait for the bus to come past
In the ghostly old mist there as it swirled around
We feared there a mad axeman’s face would be found
We vowed that we’d never drink cider no more
We’d nick no more beers from the Warren House store
And we vowed to ourselves we would never no more
Take the long route from Scorriton to Sourton Tor…
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17. |
The Old Road
04:02
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How short the road with you my friend,
How short the road with you
The tors and vales, the heights and dales
And each unfolding view
For side by side and foot by foot
Though long that summer noon
The twilight fell too soon my friend
The twilight fell too soon
Oh the twilight fell too soon
How far the road alone my friend
How far the road alone
The tors how steep the dales how deep
Their ancient magic flown
For now the way together trod
You cannot tread again
In sunshine or in rain my friend
In sunshine or in rain
Nor In sunshine or in rain
Still winds the patient road my friend
Still winds the patient road
Whereon I go, now high, now low
With my appointed load
And glories shared I felt were gone
For ever when you passed
Have brought you back at last my friend
Have brought you back at last
They have brought you back at last.
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Alan Courtney England, UK
I've decided to collect here all my solo recordings from 2002 onwards, when I left my job and started to work for
myself.
I was born and raised in Devon, but have lived the last 40 years in Malvern. I've played folk music in clubs, sessions, festivals etc since the age of 15.
I played in rock n blues, then folk bands Malthouse Passage and Set em up Joe. I've recorded many albums showcased here
... more
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