My answer to a creative challenge posed by the very talented Ali English - create *something* around the theme of Seers...

Seer

I got old mountain 'love song' from Sheila Kay Adams. One of those songs that, once heard, demands to be learned. 

Pretty Saro

A recording from one of our practices. We got this from the Sacred Harp, a very fine collection of sacred songs and spirituals, usually sung in spine-tingling four part harmony by a roomful of people sat in a hollow square. 

We have quite a few hymns in the repertoire. The religious have been nicking tunes from the secular for years, so turnabout is fair play.

Wayfaring Stranger

Trad. arr. Chantelle Smith.  2015

Bruton Town is one of the more recent ballads I've learned to date; I first heard a version called 'Strawberry Town' at the Swindon Folk Club and the imagery in it struck me so that a few months later I went searching for versions of it.

The words are mainly based on a version of Bruton Town collected from George Digweed by H.E.D Hammond in March 1906, with further additions from material collected from Mrs Baggs in August 1907 by H.E.D. Hammond and the version in The Wanton Seed (ed. Malcolm Douglas and Steve Gardham).  The tune, on the other hand, is heavily influenced by two tunes of the ballad 'Seaport Town' collected in the Appalachians by Cecil Sharp  1918 from Julie Boone and Florence Fitzgerald respectively.

Bruton Town

First attempts to record with the concertina.  

The Rose

Growing (The Trees They do Grow High)

A quick test of my shiny new Shure MV88

This is one of those songs that folkies learn by osmosis. Seek out Sam Larner's version on Now Is The Time For Fishing if you want a real treat.

And now it's updated with the full recording

Pleasant and Delightful

No effects, no autotune, no overdubs.  Just attempting to remember who I was once.  It's raw, yes.  But very, very real.

SilverSpringsAnnie

So this came about (after, of course, watching the excellent The Witcher TV series) with me wondering what folk music in the world of The Witcher could be like and also what the Battle of Sodden Hill would have been like for the random background NPCs so I wrote this song.

It uses a lot of references from English folk idiom but references things from the world of The Witcher.

This is a rough(in both voice and hot-off-the-press newness) recording for FAWM; I hope to do a better one at a later date as I'm really enjoying this song.

Tune and words by me, completed 1st February 2020

Bruton Town

Chantelle Smith

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