Irish/british – Roger McGuinn's Folk Den

Scottish Reel

It is the Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and time for a Scottish Reel to dance in the refreshing season filled with birds, flowers and love. A wee bit of a dram might make it all the more delightful.

My wife Camilla suggested that the Rickenbacker 12-string with electronic compression sounds like a bagpipe and indeed it does!
Happy Spring!

Lyrics:

Instrumental Music

John Peel

Mp3:
Do You Ken John Peel – Click To Play

I learned this song in glee club at the Latin School of Chicago in the mid 1950s. The verses are a bit bloody so I left them out. If you really want them click on “Lyrics” Lyrics:

[D] Do you ken John Peel at the break of day
[A7] Do you ken John Peel with his coat so grey
[D] Do you ken John Peel when he’s [G] far far [D] away
Or the fox in his [A7] lair in the [D] morning

May Morris Dance

Mp3:
Morris Dance – Click To Play

There are more songs written about the month of May than there are about Christmas. This comes from the 17th century as a celebration of Spring. It is also a Morris Dance. The origin of Morris Dance is unclear but many think it comes from the Middle East. Lyrics:

[Dm] Come ye young men, come along,
With your music and [A] your [Dm] song.
Bring your lasses in your hands
For ’tis that which [A] love [Dm] commands.

[F] Then to the maypole haste away
[C] For ’tis now our [F] holiday

‘Tis the choice time of the year
For the violets [C] now appear.
Now the rose receives its birth
And the pretty primrose decks the earth.

And when you well reckoned have
What kisses you your sweethearts gave,
Take them all again and more,
It will never make them poor.

When you thus have spent your time
Till the day be past its prime
To your beds repair at night
And dream there of your day’s delight.

Bold Archer

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mp3:
Bold Archer – Click To Play

Known in Scotland as “Archie O’ Cawfield” this song tells the story of an outlaw who is aided in escaping prison in the late 1700s and has a very happy ending! It has been well documented: [ Roud 83 ; Child 188 ; G/D 2:244 ; Ballad Index C188 ; Bodleian Roud 83 ; Mudcat 9037 ; trad.]

Lyrics:
[D] It was in the chil-ly month of March
[G] Just as the flowers grew under the arch,
[G] A castle was built upon Kensal Green
[D] All for to put Bold Archer in.

Now our brother in prison do lay
Con-demned to die is he
If I had e-leven such brothers this day
It is Bold Archer I’d set free.
–
Eleven, says Richard, is not enough
Full forty brave la-ds there must be;
The chain and the bars will have to be broke
Before Bold Archer – you can set free.

Ten for to stand by our horses’ reins
And ten for to guard us round about,
And ten for to stand by the cas-tle door
And ten for to bring Bold Archer out.
–
Now Dickie broke locks and Dickie broke bars
Dickie broke every-thing he could see
He took Bold Archer under his arm
And carried him off most manfully.

They mounted their horses, away they did ride
Archie, he mounted his horse likewise.
They rode till they came to their fa-mily
And there they dismoun-ted bold and free.

And th-ere they ordered the music to play
It played so sweet and joy-fully
The very first dancer of that day
It was Bold Archer, whom they’d set free.

Banish Misfortune

CLICK TO PLAY – Banish Misfotune:

This is my interpretation of an old Irish fiddle tune “Banish Misfortune”.

This is an instrumental:

Billy Boy

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Mp3:
Billy Boy – Click To Play

The terms “Hillbilly” and “Red Neck” both originated during the Battle of the Boyne. England’s Dutch born King William III was known to his Protestant Irish followers as “Billy Boy” and his followers were called “Hill billys” and “Red Necks.”

There’s a bit of irony in the last verse where Billy Boy is asked about the age of his fiancée. He states that she is “Three times six and four times seven, twenty-eight and eleven,” which adds up to 85, hardly a young thing!

Lyrics:
[D] Oh, where have you been, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Oh, where have you been, charming [A7] Billy?
I have been to seek a wife, she’s the [D] joy of my life,
She’s a young thing and [A7] cannot leave her [D] mother.

Did she ask you to come in, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Did she ask you to come in, charming Billy?
Yes, she asked me to come in, there’s a dimple in her chin.
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

Did she set for you a chair, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
did she set for you a chair,Charming Billy.
Yes, she set for me a chair, there are ringlets in her hair,
she’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

Can she make a cherry pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
Can she make a cherry pie, charming Billy?
She can make a cherry pie, quick as a cat can wink an eye,
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

How old is she, Billy Boy, Billy Boy,
How old is she, charming Billy?
Three times six and four times seven, twenty-eight and eleven,
She’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother.

Road Through The Woods

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Mp3:
Road Through The Woods – Click To Play

This is a famous poem by Rudyard Kipling set to a traditional folk tune. The arrangement is new in the style of the Byrds with rolling Rickenbacker backing and lead 12-string guitars.

Lyrics:
[E] They shut the [B7] road through [E] the woods
[A] Seventy years [E] ago.
[A] Weather and rain have [E] undone it again,
[F#m] And now you would never [B7] know

There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.

Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.

BREAK

Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate,

(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few.)
You will hear the beat of a horse’s feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,

Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods.

They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know

Macpherson’s Lament

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m4v:
Macpherson’s Lament – Click To Play

Jamie Macpherson was a Scottish robber, born in 1675, the illegitimate son of a Highland laird and a gypsy woman.
When his wealthy father, who had raised him in his house was killed by cattle thieves, he went to live with his gypsy mother. Growing up in that culture led him to a life of crime although he was more like Robin Hood in that he didn’t rob the poor and disadvantaged.

Jamie was unusually strong and skilled as a swordsman and a violin player.

He was arrested for bearing arms at a market and sentenced to death by hanging on November 16, 1700.

There was a pardon on the way but the town advanced their clock 15 minutes so the hanging would take place before the pardon arrived. The town left the clock in that position for many years.

While in prison the night before his execution he composed this song. Before he was hanged, he played this tune beneath the gallows, and then, after playing his song, he offered his fiddle to his clansmen to play it at his wake. No one came forward, and so he broke the fiddle across his knee, throwing the pieces to the crowd, saying, “No one else shall play Jamie Macpherson’s fiddle”.The Clan Macpherson Museum in Newtonmore houses what remains of his fiddle.

In the folk process many elements of melodies are similar and interchangeable. There is a resemblance in this to “I Heard The Voice of Jesus.” Click Here For: I Heard The Voice of Jesus

Lyrics:
[F] Farewell ye dungeons [C] dark and strong
[F] The wretch’s [Dm] destiny
[F] MacPherson’s life will [C] no’ be long
[F] On yonder gallows [C] tree

[F] Sae rantingly, [C] sae wantonly
[F] Sae dauntingly gaed [Dm] he
[F] He played a tune and he [C] danced aroon
[F] Below the gallows [C] tree

Oh what is death but parting breath
On mony’s the blood plain
I’ve seen his face and in this place
I scorn him yet again

Sae rantingly, sae wantonly
Sae dauntingly gaed he
He played a tune and he danced aroon
Below the gallows tree

I’ve lived a life of grief and strife
I die by trechery
But it breaks my heart, I must depart
And not avengá¨d be

Sae rantingly, sae wantonly
Sae dauntingly gaed he
He played a tune and he danced aroon
Below the gallows tree

Gae take these bonds from off my hands
And bring tae me my sword
And there’s no’ a man in all Scotland
But I’d brave him at his word

Sae rantingly, sae wantonly
Sae dauntingly gaed he
He played a tune and he danced aroon
Below the gallows tree

Whiskey-O

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mp3:
Whiskey-O – Click To Play

Whiskey-O is a halyard chantey for raising the yards that hold the sails on the old sailing ships. The chantey man would sing the verse and the crew would pull the ropes on the chorsus.

Lyrics:
Whiskey is the life of man
Always was since the world began