Written by Iona Fyfe

Physical CD of 'Away From My Window' album: 
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Lyrics
By the river, the children are playing
The sun and its heat growing strong
But around them the bullets are raging
And we don’t speak of who they come from

On the banks of the Tigris, we don’t speak of who they come from

In the West Bank town of Qayyarah,
It’s river it now runs with red
The young men are ghting their battles
And the children they walk among dead

On the banks of the Tigris, their children they walk among dead

Their fathers, their brothers, their husbands,
Their sons and their lovers they mourn
Their faces and names unascertained
And we don’t know of where they belong

On the banks of the Tigris, we don’t know of where they belong

Mosul, she now lies in ruins,
Her people have all gone and fled,
Our headlines are written in anger,
And we judge only what we have read

On the banks of the Tigris, we judge only what we have read

The survivors they still have their tongues tied
And they won’t talk of what they have seen
The enemy lines always changing
In this battleground, no hands are clean

On the banks of the Tigris, in this battleground, no hands are clean

The powers declared liberation,
But what are the people freed from?
Not the bullets, the fighting, the bloodshed,
Of a battle that’s hardly begun

On the banks of the Tigris, the battle has hardly begun

By the river the children are playing,
War silently floats by their eyes,
Oh what will become of our children,
As destruction, it lurks in the skies

On the banks of the Tigris, destruction it lurks in the skies

Away From My Window

Banks of the Tigris

Aidan Moodie: Guitar / Vocals
Callum Cronin: Double Bass
Madeleine Stewart: Fiddle
Ross Miller: Whistle / Vocals

Lonely In The Bothy

'Away From My Window' out 24th March 2018

1.  Guise of Tough
2. Glenlogie
3. Banks of Inverurie
4. The Swan Swims
5. Away From My Window
6. Bonny Udny 
7. Take Me Out Drinking
8. And So Must We Rest 
9. Banks of the Tigris
10. Pit Gair

Pre-order the full album, and get Banks of Inverurie.
iTunes: https://apple.co/2BmQVYX 
Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/2BmiVvG 
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2F78r5o 

Recorded at Gran’s House Studio
Produced, engineered  and mixed by Jani Lang 
Mastered by Chris Waite at Gran’s House Studio

© Cairnie Records
www.ionafyfe.com

Away From My Window Album Taster

Away From My Window, the debut album from folksinger, Iona Fyfe is out now on all major digital platforms. As heard on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio Scotland.

Bandcamp: bit.ly/2BmiVvG
Google Play: bit.ly/2F78r5o 
Amazon Music: amzn.to/2IFHpVJ
Spotify: spoti.fi/2HZ72zw
Birnam CD: bit.ly/2u2KMT2

Luc McNally: Guitar
Jani Lang - Fiddle
Graham Rorie - Mandolin
Tim Edey - Melodeon, Nylon Guitar
Charlie Stewart - Double Bass
David Foley - Bodhran
Cameron Nixon - Vocals

Iona Fyfe Trio on tour now: www.ionafyfe.com/tour

Guise of Tough

This version is an amalgamation of text from Jeannie Robertson’s Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard and Version A from Cecil Sharp’s English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Sharp’s A Version was collected from Mrs Becky Griffin in Big Laurel, North Carolina on 17th August 1916. I got the melody from bothy ballad singer, Moira Stewart, who often sung the Matty Groves at ballad competitions in Scotland.

A classic murder ballad, Lady Darnell, convinces Mattie Groves (or Little Musgrave) to sleep with her. A foot-page is standing by and runs to tell Lord Darnell. Lord Darnell discovers Matty and his wife, and challenges Matty to a duel. Matty is killed, and the Lady states that she likes Matty better than Darnell and all his kin. In some versions, the wife is killed. 

The Kist o’ Riches archive features two versions sung by Aberdeen singer, Jeannie Robertson from 1960 and 1962, where she sings “Lord Donal ain’t at home”, which is unusual for Jeannie’s vocabulary and more typical of versions collected in America. The ballad was printed on broadsides as early as the 1660’s, with three copies at the Bodleian Library Broadsides collection. One version, from the collection of Anthony Wood, has a handwritten note stating that “the protagonists were alive in 1543’. 

One day one day one holyday, 
The first one of the year
Little Matty Groves has went to church 
The Holy Word to hear, to hear
The Holy Word to hear, to hear

Lord Darnell’s wife was standing by,
She cast her eye on him 
Go home with me, little Matty Groves
A wedded wife to be, to be 
A wedded wife to be 

I can’t come home, and I won’t come home 
I cannot spare my life 
But by the rings upon your hands
You are Lord Darnell’s wife, his wife 
You are Lord Darnell’s wife

It’s if I am Lord Darnell’s wife, 
Lord Darnell’s gone today
He’s across the waterside 
He’s gone over there to stay, to stay 
He’s gone over there to stay

But the little foot-page was standing by
And hearing what was said
He swore Lord Darnell he would know 
Before the sun was set, was set
Before the sun was set

He ran till he came to the riverside
He bent his breast and swam 
He swam till he came to the other side 
And he picked up his heels and ran and ran 
Picked up his heels and ran

When he came to Lord Darnell’s haa
He tinkled at the pin
Lord Darnell he was ready there
For to rise and let him in, him in
To rise and let him in

Oh is my bower a falling down,
Or does my castle burn
Or is my lady lighter yet 
Of a daughter or a son, a son
A daughter or a son

Oh no your bower’s not fallin’ down
Or does your castle burn
But little Matty Groves he sleeps tonight 
Keeping your lady warm, her warm
Keeping your lady warm

Then Lord Darnell took his men
And lined them in a row
The orders that he gave to them
That ne’er a horn should blow, should blow
That ne’er a horn should blow

Matty Groves he was laid down
He took a little sleep
And when he woke Lord Darnell,
He was standing at his feet, his feet
He was standing at his feet

Rise up rise up, Little Matty Groves
Rise up as quick as you can 
It shalln’t be said in old Scotland
I slew a naked man, a man 
I slew a naked man

Oh, I can’t get up, and I won’t get up 
I cannot spare my life
For you have two swords by your side
And I have ne’er a knife, a knife
And I have ne’er a knife

It’s I’ve got two swords by my side
They cost me from my purse
And you can have the very best 
And I shall have the worst, the worst
And I shall have the worst

Matty struck the very first blow
He wounded Darnell sore
Lord Darnell struck the very next blow
Little Matty struck no more, no more 
Little Matty struck no more

Then Lord Darnell took his wife 
He sat her on his knee
Sayin’ who do you like best of all 
Little Matty Groves or me, or me?
Little Matty Groves or me?

Very well I like your rosy cheeks,
Very well I like your skin
But better I like little Matty Groves 
Than you and all your kin, your kin
Than you and all your kin

Dark Turn of Mind

Little Musgrave

I found this song in the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, an archive of almost 1600 Ozark Mountain folk songs, recorded between 1956 and 1976. The collection is a joint project between the Missouri State University Department of Music and the Springfield-Greene County Library in Springfield, Missouri, where the permanent collection is housed. Materials on this website were transcribed and digitised from Max Hunter’s original reel-to-reel tapes and handwritten lyrics. Alternative titles for the song, #1034 in the Roud Index, include Adieu to Cold Weather, My Love is on the Ocean, My Love is Like a Dewdrop, Cold Winter, Fare Thee Well and Farewell He.

I collated verses from two texts found in the Max Hunter Folk Song collection and wrote the melody. Rest for The Weary (1484) was collected by Max Hunter from a singer named Reba Jenkins from Wheatland, Missouri on January 27th, 1973. The chorus that I’ve used for the song was taken from a two-verse text, Adieu to Cold Winter (0023) which was collected from Mr. Frank Pool in Fayetteville, Arkansas on 6th January 1958

The song is “considered to belong to the group of songs found in tradition as Farewell He, Fare Thee Well Cold Winter and so on; examples of which are known from Ireland, England and Scotland; and of course, America and Canada. (Mudcat) A Scots version titled Let Him Gang can be found in Volume 2 of David Herd’s Ancient and modern Scottish songs, Heroic Ballads. This dates from 1776, which suggests that the floating verses which feature in both variants of the song, may have originated in Scotland. Another version of the song features in Frank Kidson’s 1929 ‘English peasant Songs’ collection. The text also appears in Gardiner and Chickering’s 1939 collection, Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan. The song is featured in the Bodleian Library, with four variants dating between 1813 and 1850.

The first verse is a floating verse which also features in the Aberdeenshire love song, Bonny Udny. 
“It was on a Sunday, my love and I did meet,
Which caused me on Monday, to sigh and to weep
O to weep is a folly, is a folly to me. 
Sen he’ll be mine nae langer, let him gang, farewell he”

I’ve renamed the song “Let Him Sink”, owing to the text of the chorus:
If he’s gone, let him go, let him sink or let him swim
He don’t care for me and I don’t care for him

My love’s on the ocean
He can sink or he can swim
He don’t care for me 
An’ I’m sure I don’t for him
There’s plenty more without him
As nice young men as he 
An’ I can find another
Since he’s gone back on me

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him

And away with cold winter 
Adieu to cold frost 
I’ll laugh and be happy 
As the dear lad I lost 
I’ll sing and be merry 
As the whistling bird in June
For I can catch another
Before tomorrow noon

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him

The last time I saw him
T'was in the shady grove
He tipped his hat so gently
An' offered me a rose
He thought that I'd accept it
But he could plainly see
I had grown cold
Since he went back on me

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him

But men they are deceiving 
They think they know it all 
They think we girls are stuck on them
Think we look at them at all 
But they are quite mistaken 
As you can plainly see
They don’t know the meaning 
Of the world left

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him

His love was like a dew drop,
That falls upon the ground
It came on Sunday evening
And left on Monday morn
His love was in his pocket 
His love was in his heart 
To me he gave a little
To the other girls part

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him

Let Him Sink

The Golden Vanity is an oikotypical ballad which has been collected in Aberdeenshire, the Scottish Borders, England, Ireland, Canada and the Appalachians. The ballad dates back to 1685 when it was published in the Pepysian Collection at Magdalene College, Cambridge under the title “The Ballad of Sir Walter Rauleigh His Lamentation” or “Sir Walter Raleigh Sailing In The Lowlands” (1635). In later texts, no reference to Sir Walter Raleigh can be found. Tristram Potter Coffin states: “In America, Sir Walter Raleigh is no longer connected with the song, the ships have “Golden Vanity” and “Turkish Revelee” names which names which may vary with historical circumstances, and a more positive ending.” 

The Golden Vanity, otherwise known as The Sweet Trinity or Golden Willow Tree, features in Volume 5 Francis James Child’s The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. The ballad has long been procured in the North East of Scotland and features in Volume 1 of the celebrated Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection. 
The ballad is found in the Missouri State Max Hunter Folksong Collection Archive. The ballad features in John Ord’s Bothy Songs and Ballads as well as Gavin Greig’s Folk-Song of the North East.

Jean Ritchie recorded the ballad on her 1961 Folkways album, British Traditional Ballads In The Southern Mountains Volume 1. Jean’s version, which she learned the from her mother, corresponds with Story Type A found in Tristram Potter Coffin’s The British Traditional Ballad in North America. The refrain “As she sailed upon the low, and lonesome low, She sailed upon the lonesome sea” seems to be typical of variants of the ballads recorded and collected in the Ozarks and Appalachian mountains and references The Merry Golden Tree, Weeping Willow Tree, or Green Willow Tree as the ship. 

The version featured on my Dark Turn of Mind EP is an amalgamation of verses from the text featured as Version A in Cecil Sharp’s English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians and from Version B of Child’s Popular Ballads. The Golden Vanity is one of many classical ballads which ably showcases the global universalism of ballads. 

There was a gallant ship, and a gallant ship was she 
And the name of the ship was the Golden Vanity 
Sailin’ on the low, the lowlands low
She sailed upon the lowlands low 

She hadn’t sailed a league, a league but only three, 
When she was overtaken by a Spanish gallee
Sailin’ on the low, the lowlands low
She sailed upon the lowlands low

Up spoke the captain, and up spoke he
Oh who’ll sink for me that Spanish gallee
Sailin’ on the low, the lowlands low
She sailed upon the lowlands low

Up and spoke, a little cabin boy
Sayin’ what will you give me, if I will them destroy
I’ll sink her in the low, the lowlands low
I’ll sink her in the lowlands low

I will give you gold, and I’ll give you a fee 
I will give to you my daughter aye and married you shall be
Sailin’ on the low, the lowlands low         
She sailed upon the lowlands low

He bent to his breast and away swum he,
He swum and sunk the ship of the Spanish gallee
Some were playing cards and some were playing dice
And the boy he had an auger and he bore three holes at twice
Sailin’ on the low, the lowlands low
She sailed upon the lowlands low

He bent to his breast, and back swum he 
Right back to the ship of the Golden Vanity 
Now throw me up a rope, and take me on my board
For I have been aye true, aye an true unto my word
I sunk her in the low, the lowlands low
I sunk her in the lowlands low

I’ll not take you up, the captain he replied,
But I’ll shoot you, and I’ll drown you and I’ll send you with the tide
Sailin’ on the low, the lowlands low
She sailed upon the lowlands low

He turned upon his back, and down went he,
Down, down, down to the bottom of the sea
Sailin’ on the low, the lowlands low
She sailed upon the lowlands low
Sailin’ on the low, the lowlands low
She sailed upon the lowlands low

The Golden Vanity

I first heard the song when it was featured on the hit American TV show, Californication (How very traditional!) If I Go, I’m Goin was written by Gregory Alan Isakov and released on his 2009 album, This Empty Northern Hemisphere and was rereleased on his 2016 album, Gregory Alan Isakov with the Colorado Symphony.

This house, she’s holding secrets
I got my change behind the bed
In a coffee can, I throw my nickels in
Just in case I have to leave

And I will go if you ask me to
I will stay if you dare
And if I go I'm goin shameless
I'll let my hunger take me there

This house, she's quite the talker
She creeks and moans, she keeps me up
And the photographs, know I'm a liar
They just laugh as I burn her down

And I will go if you ask me to
I will stay if you dare
If I go I'm goin on fire
I'll let my anger take me there

Shingles man they're shaking
Back door's burning through
This house she's quite the keeper
Quite the keeper of you

And I will go if you ask me to
I will stay if you dare
And if I go, I'm goin crazy
I'll let my darlin take me there
And if I go, I'm goin crazy
I'll let my darlin take me there

If I Go, I'm Goin

An Appalachian song from the singing of Jean Ritchie, I first heard Swing and Turn (Jubilee) from Laura Cortese at Orkney Folk Festival in 2017. The song can be found in Jean’s own book “Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians as Sung by Jean Ritchie” reissued by the University of Kentucky Press in 2016. The song features on Mudcat Café, an online discussion group and song and tune database. Jean stated on the forum: “Jubilee is a Ritchie family gamesong, but I never did a copyright on it because it was collected from another source in the community – everyone around knew it. A lady named Marian Skein wrote it down at Ary, Kentucky and it was published by Lynn Rohrbough, Cooperative Recreation Service, Delaware, Ohio in 1939.” Lorraine Lee Hammond states that the tune for Swing and Turn (Jubilee) is a common tune of choice for the ballad, Gypsy Davy. In Jeannie Robertson’s “distinctly Scottish version of The Gypsy Laddies, the opening line of the verse is again the familiar musical phrase used by Jean Ritchie and Woody Guthrie.

It's all out on the old railroad,
All out on the sea,
All out on the old railroad,
As far as I can see. 

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee 

The hardest work I ever done, 
Workin' on a farm, 
Easiest work I ever done,
Swingin' my true love's arm

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee 

If I had a needle and thread, 
As fine as I could sew, 
I'd sew my true love to my side 
And down the creek I'd go.

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee 

Coffee grows on a white oak tree,
And sugar runs in Brandy,
Girls are sweet as a lump of gold,
Boys as sweet as candy

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee 
Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee 

Some will come on Saturday night
And some will come on Sunday 
If you give ‘em half a chance,
They’ll be back on Monday 

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee 

If I had no horse to ride,
I’d be found a-calling
Up and down this rocky road,
Lookin’ for my darlin

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee 

It's all out on the old railroad,
All out on the sea,
All out on the old railroad,
As far as I can see. 

Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee 
Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee 
Swing and turn, Jubilee
Live and learn, Jubilee 
Swing and turn
Live and learn

Swing and Turn

Written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and released on Gillian’s 2011 album, The Harrow and The Harvest. It has since been performed and recorded by artists such as Chris Thile and Josienne Clark and Ben Walker.

Take me and love me if you want me 
Don’t ever treat me unkind
Cause I’ve had that trouble already 
And it left me with a dark turn of mind 

Now I see the bones in the river 
And I feel the wind through the pine
And I hear the shadows a-calling
To a girl with a dark turn of mind

Oh ain't the night time, so lovely to see
Don’t all the night birds sing sweetly,
You’ll never know how happy I’ll be
When the sun’s going down

And leave me, if I’m feeling too lonely
Full as the fruit on the vine
You know some girls are bright as the morning
And some have a dark turn of mind
You know some girls are bright as the morning
And some have a dark turn of mind

Written by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and released on Gillian’s 2011 album, The Harrow and The Harvest. It has since been performed and recorded by artists such as Chris Thile and Josienne Clark and Ben Walker.

Words: Violet Jacob
Melody: Carole Prior

My dainty lass, lay you the blame
Upon the richtfu’ heid;
‘Twas daft ill-luck that bigg’d yer hame
The wrang side o’ the Tweed.
Ye hae yer tocher a’ complete,
Ye’re bonny as the rose,
But I was born in Baltic Street,
In Baltic Street, Montrose!

Lang syne on mony a waefu’ nicht,
Hie owre the sea’s distress,
I’ve seen the great airms o’ the licht
Swing oot frae Scurdyness;
An’ prood, in sunny simmer blinks,
When land-winds rase an’ fell,
I’d flee my draigon on the links
Wi’ callants like mysel’.

Oh, Baltic Street is cauld an’ bare
An’ mebbe no sae grand,
But ye’ll feel the smell i’ the caller air
O’ kippers on the land.
‘Twixt kirk an’ street the deid fowk bide,
Their feet towards the sea,
Ill neebours for a new-made bride,
Gin ye come hame wi’ me.

The steeple shades the kirkyaird grass,
The seamen’s hidden banes,
A dour-like kirk to an English lass
Wha kens but English lanes;
And when the haar, the winter through,
Creeps blind on close and wa’
My hame micht get a curse frae you,
Mysel’ get mebbe twa.

I’ll up an’ aff the morn’s morn
To seek some reid-haired queyn,
Bauld-he’rted, strang-nieved, bred an’ born
In this auld toon o’ mine.
And oh! for mair I winna greet,
Gin we hae meal an’ brose,
And a but an’ ben in Baltic Street,
In Baltic Street, Montrose!


Iona Fyfe: Vocals
Aidan Moodie: Guitar
Graham Rorie: Mandolin

Produced, Engineered and Mixed by Graham Rorie at Rumley Sounds
Mastered by Chris Waite
Illustration and Design by Orla Stevens

Baltic Street

One of the most well-known of Aberdeenshire songs, I got this from the singing of Sam Kelly, who recorded 'The Bonnie Lass of Fyvie' on his album titled “Pretty Peggy”. Bob Dylan recorded “Pretty Peggy-O” on his 1962 debut album and performed the song with a more traditional melody on 18th April 1997 in State University of New York, Albany. 'Pretty Peggy O' was collected by Cecil Sharp from Mrs Combs, Knott County Kentucky in 1908.

The ‘Bonnie Lass of Fyvie’ details the failed romance between a soldier and ‘Peggy’. Versions can be found in the form of ‘Pretty Peggy’ or ‘Fennario’ in the Appalachians, ‘The Maid of Fife’ in Fife, and the localised ‘Pretty Peggy o Derby’ in England. Variants are set within the time period of American Civil War in 1812, but in the North East, the song dates back to 1644, when the Marquess of Montrose’s Royalist Army invaded Fyvie Castle.

There are over twenty versions of the song in Volume 1 of the Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection. The earliest manuscript is a Bodleian Broadside from before 1839. The earliest recorded North East version of the song comes from Fyvie-man John Strachan who sung it to Hamish Henderson in 1952, the next being from John MacDonald, the famous Morayshire melodeon-playing mole-catcher who sung it to Hamish Henderson in 1954.

As we rode oot by Fyvie-o,
as we rode oot by Fyvie-o
Well I fell in love wi a lady like a dove
And her name it wis caad pretty Peggy-o

There’s mony a lass in Auchterlass,
there’s mony a lass in the Garioch-o
There’s mony I’ve seen in the streets o’ Aiberdeen
Bit the flooer o’ them aa’s pretty Peggy-o

Woah, pretty peggy, woah bonny lass of Fyvie X2

Well if you wid mairry me pretty Peggy-o
If you wid mairry me pretty peggy-o
Well if you wid mairry me, then a’ll set yer city free,
And a’ll spare aa the people o Fyvie-o

A’ll gie ye ribbons an a’ll gie ye rings
A’ll gie ye a necklace o’ amber-o
I’ll stitch ye a dress, silk and flooers on it’s chest
If you a foreign sodger for tae mairry-o

Woah, pretty peggy, woah bonny lass of Fyvie

Well I wida mairried you sweet William-o
Well I wida mairried you sweet William-o
Well I wida mairried you, afore my brithers hairt you slew
Noo I’ll tak nae foreign sodger for tae marry-o

Come steppin doon the stairs, pretty Peggy-o
Come steppin doon the stairs, pretty Peggy-o
Come steppin doon the stairs, and bind up yer yellow hair
Tak a last fareweel o yer Daddy-o

Woah, pretty peggy, woah bonny lass of Fyvie

It wis early last mornin fin we mairched awa,
The captain said he wis sorry-o
Well the drums they did beat like the grun aneath oor feet
And the band played The Bonnie Lass o’ Fyvie-o

If niver I return pretty Peggy-o
If niver I return pretty Peggy-o
When I see the morning dew,
Oh I will think of you
My bonnie lass o’ Fyvie-o

Woah, pretty peggy, woah bonny lass of Fyvie

Well lang ere we cam tae Aulmeldrum toon
Oor captain we had to carry-o
Bit when we returned tae the streets o’ Aiberdeen
Oor captain we had to bury-o

Green grow the birk upon Ythanside
And low lie the lowlands o Fyvie-o
Oor captain's name was Ned and he died for a maid
He died for the bonnie lass o Fyvie-o

Woah, pretty peggy, woah bonny lass of Fyvie
Woah, pretty peggy, woah bonny lass of Fyvie
Woah, pretty peggy, woah bonny lass
Woah, pretty peggy, woah bonny lass of Fyvie-o



Iona Fyfe: Vocals
Aidan Moodie: Guitar, Harmony Vocals
Graham Rorie: Mandolin

Produced, Engineered and Mixed by Graham Rorie at Rumley Sounds
Mastered by Chris Waite
Illustration by Chris Riddell
Design by Orla Stevens

Bonnie Lass of Fyvie

Aberdeenshire Folksinger | MG Alba Scots Singer of the Year | Debut Album Away From My Window 24.3.18 https://ionafyfe.bandcamp.com/

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