Sparrow written and performed by Clementine Lovell (vocals and accordion). A song about feeling the pull of freedom alongside the love for family. This is a solo version of the song with vocals and accordion only, live version with band (piano, fiddle, drums) to be uploaded soon...

If I were a sparrow I would follow the route south,
If I were an elver I'd find the river's mouth,
If I was a nightingale I'd sing until the morn,
Watch every night sky turn to dawn,
If I were a wild horse I'd run across the plain,
But I know that it's here I will remain,
But I know that it's here I will remain.

If I was an otter I'd dive beneath the wave,
If I was a bear I'd find a deeper cave,
If I was a skylark I'd soar into the blue,
But I'd never leave them and I'd never leave you,
For a little turtle dove builds a nest and keeps it warm,
Spreads her wings and keeps her babies sheltered from the storm.

If I were a sparrow I'd follow the route south,
If I were an elver I'd find the river's mouth...

SPARROW

The traditional English folk song Polly Vaughn reworked, arranged and performed by Clementine Lovell (accordion and vocals). A young man goes hunting for birds and accidentally shoots his true love as she shelters under her apron from the rain. He runs home to his uncle, who persuades him not to run away before the trial, as 'they never will hang you for the killing of a swan'. At the trial Polly Vaughn appears as a ghost, begging for her love to be let free.

POLLY VAUGHN

Reworking of the traditional English Folk ballad Turtle Dove (or Fare Thee Well). Arrangement by Clementine Lovell, vocals and accordion. Recorded live at the Islington Folk Club June 2023.

Clementine Lovell - vocals, accordion
James Keay - piano
Scarlett Alexander - drums
Tom Leary - fiddle

TURTLE DOVE (Live recording)

A reworking of the 18th century Broadside ballad Newlyn Town, arranged by Clementine Lovell and James Keay. Recorded live at Islington Folk Club in June 2023.

Broadside ballads such as this were sold at public executions as a kind of criminal's last farewell or confession. Our antihero robs from the rich to keep his young wife in jewels and to take her to the opera at Covent Garden, where he is taken down by Ned Fielden's gang. Henry Fielden was an author and a magistrate at Bow Magistrate Court, and set up what was effectively London's first police force. 

Clementine Lovell - vocals
James Keay - piano
Scarlett Alexander - drums

NEWLYN TOWN (Live recording)

Land Army Girl written and performed by Clementine Lovell. A live recording from a gig June 2024 (Clementine Lovell - vocals and accordion; Carmen Ruiz Vicente - percussion; Duncan Menzies - fiddle).

I wrote this song about my maternal grandmother, who was born in Putney but came to Herefordshire just after WW2 as a Land Army Girl, where she met my Grandad. They came together in the face of adversity, and really were the most in love couple I've ever known. This song is a celebration of her, and of my roots, and the beautiful apple orchards of Herefordshire.

She was a Putney Girl,
He was a farmer's son,
Though the war was over
There was man's work to be done,
She came to do the haymaking,
Pick potatoes out of pie,
Land army girl with her chin held high

Chorus:
Oh thistle bodging, stone picking,
Stacking shieves of corn,
Out in the fields til evening,
Up early in the morn,
May Hill in Autumn bathed in red and gold,
She was only eighteen years,
Beautiful and bold.

Milk the Guernsey cows, walk the frosty fields,
Apple blossom springtime brought the autumn yields,
They met down at the village dance,
She wore a dress of blue,
He fell in love at first sight, 
Somehow he just knew.

His mother had a farming girl lined up for him to wed,
She didn't think that London lass should make the marriage bed,
She had her moved away to a hostel in the town,
But dawn he'd take the bus up there and evening cycle down.

The hostel warden she was smart and she could clearly see,
That London lass with cheeks all pink,
Was smitten same as he,
She had her moved back down again to digs much closer by,
Land Army Girl with her chin held high.

And so in her eighteenth year, when he was just nineteen,
They made sweet hay all wreathed in may,
Nought else could come between,
She was a Putney queen, 
He was a handsome farmer's son,
Oh the sweetest couple ever seen,
And now my story's done.

Land Army Girl (Live recording)

My version of Ruby Tuesday by the Rolling Stones, recorded live in June 2024. Clementine Lovell (vocals, accordion), Carmen Ruiz Vicente (percussion) and Duncan Menzies (fiddle).

Clementine Lovell

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