Ca’ the yowes is often attributed to Robbie Burns but it was written by Isobel Pagan towards the end of the eighteenth century. Isobel Pagan was a disabled single parent with a liking for strong liquor and a good song. She ran a howff (essentially a drinking den) for aristocratic huntsmen from her cottage on the banks of Garpel Water in Ayrshire in Scotland and she would entertain her customers by reciting her poetry and singing her songs – including this one, about a shepherd and his lass. Isobel sang well and composed lots of songs and poems, but she could not write. Eventually the local tailor wrote all her material down for her and Isobel’s poems became a book.

Ca' the yowes

Annan Water was effectively written by Nic Jones. Some of the lyrics of this version appear in an appendix to Volume Four of the Child Ballads but Nic added to them and partly borrowed and partly wrote the tune. He made a great song out of it all. Annan Water rises under Hart Fell in Scotland’s Southern Uplands and runs into the Solway Firth. It is a fearsome river in spate. The dangers the brave young man and his horse face in this song are a reminder of what people had to do to stay in touch in times before there were roads and bridges.

Annan Water

You rambling boys of pleasure is about youth, travel, the corrupting influence of money, the healing powers of alcohol – and love. What’s not to like? I have this version from the impeccable singing of Andy Irvine. Rumour has it that Yeats heard ‘You rambling boys of pleasure’ being sung by an old woman in Sligo and, half remembering the lyrics, turned it into ‘Down by the salley gardens’. ‘Salley’, in this context, means ‘willow’, used for thatching, and to give him credit, Yeats did originally call his poem ‘An old song re-sung’.

You rambling boys of pleasure

Molly Ban is one of many songs about shape shifting and the magical crack between the worlds that occurs at the setting of the sun. In these songs, girls in wooded areas change into white deer at the end of the day. In the marshes and fens, they become swans or wild geese. I made this version of the song, using an Irish tune, deliberately to maintain the mystery of whether Molly, with her beauty ‘like a fountain of snow’, truly does change into a swan at nightfall. 

Molly Ban

5 You Gentlemen All

4 Some Faraway Shore

3 The Flower Of Sweet Strabane

2 The Turning Of The Year

1 The Wealthy Squire

I sing and play songs from these islands – either traditional songs or songs that draw from the tradition.

I am a member of Bury Folk Collective – a group of folk performers and enthusiasts promoting the very best of grass roots folk music. The Bury Folk Collective is based in Suffolk where we put on a range of folk-related events – check out the website for more detail at www.buryfolkcollective.co.uk.


Richard Byers