This song is based on a real piece of folklore from Norfolk, England. Mister Hickathrift was probably a real person and the story tells us he was from the time of William the Conqueror. A hero from the rebellion of Hereward the Wake in 1071 ? Maybe ? However the first time we encounter him in the written form is in the 17th century, this song focuses on his battle with a greedy giant. It may also incorporate other local legends?
Mr Hickathrift by Wergulu Blue

Well
I was the semi finalist
In the seventeenth Cambridgeshire
Stick snapping championship
I was only bettered by the winner
Yes everyone else cracked willow thinner
Except that prodigious giant killer Hickathrift 

Now some folk called him Thomas 
And others called him John
But I always called him Eugene
’Cause he claimed he was high born

And I had a shinning wagon
And a hardworking heavy horse
When we embarked on our bold venture
In the world of ale transports

And with Mister Hickathrift
God’s Good was always given
To anyone that wanted some
Fine ale in good condition

We got working for a brewer
Way over near Kings Lynn
And we took his ale to Wisbech
And brought the empties back again

And it was over twenty mile
Each and every day 
And so we had to cut some corners
If this job was going to pay

And in between the seven towns
Stood the shinning plain of Smeeth
Where all liberties were taken
By a cruel and greedy thief

But if we could but sneak across it
We’d cut the journey down to ten
And we’d get home in time for dinner
And get back on the ale again

’Cause with Mister Hickathrift
God’s Good was always given
To anyone who wanted some
Fine ale in good condition

A feast day sun was rising
As we cut across the Smeeth
And the shadows they were dancing
And tripping up our feet
(Fe Fi Fo)

We saw a mighty tree
Adorned with heads hung high
And I thought that this might be
The day that we would die
(Fe Fi Fo)

Then Eugene turns to me and says
‘’I wouldn’t give this thief a fart
And I’ll put him in his church hole
If he touches your horse and cart’’
(Fe Fi Fo)

Then out his filthy pig hole 
Come this robber twelve feet tall
And he says he’d dash our brains out
Once he’d drunk up all our ale
(Fe Fi Fo)

Then Eugene did retort
“If you fight me you will lose
’Cause these firkins aren’t for the taking
So a turd in your teeth for your news’’
(Fe Fi Fo Fum)

’Cause with Mister Hickathrift
God’s Good was always given
To anyone who's wanting some
Fine ale in good condition

And then Eugene upended my cart
And took the wheels off the pole in between
And by spoke he beheld a round shield
And I cried “Careful with that axle Eugene”

Then this robber he got in a passion
And our future it hung by a thread
But when he tried to darken my daylights 
Mister Hickathrift knocked off his head

Such a ding then a bang loud as thunder
By God’s body I says that went well
And he sunk in the marsh six feet under
Still are souls are as thirsty as hell

But with that Mister Hickathrift
God’s Good was always given
To anyone that wanted some
Fine ale in good condition

And good riddance to that greedy tyrant
And farewell to the next one as well
A well swung cart axel might kill you
But it’s your greed that will take you to hell

Cause he ate a cow
And a calf
And an ox
And a half
And the church 
And the steeple
And then he ate all of the people 

And still he had
Yet still he had 
Yet still he had 
Yet still he had 
Not enough

And there was gold and silver in great store
But worth twice as much more
Was the land from the Ouse unto the Nene
That Hickathrift made common land again

To Mr Hickathrift, raise your glass
To Mr Hickathrift, come on and raise your glass
To Mr Hickathrift, raise your glass
To Mr Hickathrift, come on and raise your glass.

Wergulu Blue

Mister Hickathrift

𓂃 Episode 08-- Ireland Free┈┉ Ireland free  ┈┈a collection of revolutionary speeches and poems read by Michael MacLiammoir (English/Gaelic) ꒱꒱

━┈━here moving in a psych galaxy- blending acid folk with liquid drum&bass for a kaleidoscopic journey through words of freedom.


Broadcasted on Radio Alhara ━┈ 16.04.2025━═

Morning Mantra w/ Amanita • Ireland Free ┈ Revolutionary Speeches & Poems

From the Rif Mountain compliation "Echoes From The Mountain"

When I Cease To Care (Wizz Jones cover)

A Radio High Life show with DJ Doug,  packed full of top quality international good-grooves , taking in charity shop Brit Funk, 80’s Sythpop , smooth 70s Soul, Brazilian and West African sounds, a tribute to Amadou, as well as some awesome new music from Warby Bridge, J Stacey & Star Anice and Fiction Party

Radio High Life Ep 133 (Soul Roots Radio) ; Brit Funk, Synthpop, Amadou Tribute & new groovesl

Byrd

“Home is what you take with you, not what you leave behind.” ― N.K. Jemisin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Track list and start times:
00:00  Malady of Knots – Roads like seas like fossilised thought (excerpt)
04:50  Ramón Sánchez – Orbiting Mendacem
13:39  Night Note – The past, immutable (Naviarhaiku 588 )
19:05  Andrew Lang – Regime Shift
24:14  Pendro – Red Veils and Black Sands
29:22  Kazuya Ishigami – kiii
37:30  Helena Espvall / Ernesto Diaz-Infante / Marjorie Sturm – night in our eyes
44:21  fr0ggy5 – my father's antique cowbells FOUR
46:42  Ian Craig – Ghost of the Radiophonic Workshop on LV-426 (Emporium Edit v8c) (excerpt)
56:02  Laboratorium Expiravit – Wormhole Freedive
1:02:53  Battle Elf – Behind the Wilderness
1:12:30  Plague Relic – Storm Wizards Madness
1:16:44  Kloob & Onasander – Khthon
1:23:33  Monogoto – In Situ - Upper Air (deletion 19)
1:31:01  vheissu77 – touching the water (naviarhaiku581)
1:35:05  Kazuya Ishigami – Cancel Again
1:40:00  loscil – Lake Fire
1:46:47  Jaime Munarriz – The Little Travels Of Delia Derbyshire
1:49:57  Jonah Segers – Mesozoïcun
1:53:34  Helena Espvall / Ernesto Diaz-Infante / Marjorie Sturm – we fall into heaven
2:05:34  Un Festin Sagital – Bajo un Sol Inclemente
2:23:00  T – Endmix
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Eclectic current – For a moment we thought we were home

A raw and unflinching meditation on isolation and reckoning, At The Prow Of The Lifeboat is the first glimpse into flakebelly’s forthcoming album, The Boy In The Diving Bell. Stripped-down yet searing, the track drifts between hushed, palm-muted acoustic guitar and an aching string quartet, all anchored by flakebelly’s intimate, unvarnished vocal delivery.

A reflection on a lifetime of social missteps and unseen struggles, At The Prow Of The Lifeboat channels the weight of unfinished business into something both deeply personal and quietly vengeful. It’s a reckoning, a release, and a question left hanging in the air - what happens when you come calling for the ghosts of your past?

The album as a whole grows from the alt-folk roots of At The Prow Of The Lifeboat to more experimental, psych-folk territories, blending raw acoustic textures with surreal, otherworldly soundscapes. With its lo-fi aesthetic, first-take performances, and the imperfections of an ancient analog Akai tape machine, The Boy In The Diving Bell embraces its rawness, mistakes left in, and a uniquely unpolished atmosphere. For those drawn to the stark honesty of Elliott Smith or the simmering intensity of early Nick Cave, At The Prow Of The Lifeboat offers a haunting introduction to the diverse and immersive sonic world of The Boy In The Diving Bell.


At The Prow of The Lifeboat

Buy on Bandcamp

So I put on Syd Barrett's spectacles, and this is what happened... 

As one of the fathers of psych folk and lo-fi, here's an improvised instrumental lo-fi psychedelic folk piece in honor of the genius that is Syd Barrett.

First take improvisation, played on my 28.6" scale 4 string Ibanez GSRM20B Mikro Bass, equipped with just a single bridge EMG Geezer Butler J pickup, from the P/J set, wired directly to the output jack socket, and tuned in B standard tuning (baritone tuning), recorded through my "amp-less" setup directly into my Zoom H4n handheld recorder, and only edited through a simple Wav editor.

Syd Barrett's Spectacles

En lo más hondo de un bosque húmedo y retorcido, bajo la niebla perpetua que aún guarda los secretos del mundo antiguo, se reunía nuestro privado cónclave, en una pequeña cripta velada por la hiedra y el incienso traído de lejos. Nos mirábamos a los ojos a través de nuestras máscaras y nuestros sombreros, y el vino de nuestras copas temblaba mientras hablamos de lenguas muertas, ruinas romanas, en invocábamos el nombre prohibido del único dios verdadero; Abayago Magadonis. 
Todo iba bien hasta que esa extraña niña apareció de entre los helechos, montada en su burro.

Laguna 1

Abayago Magadonis

Máquina de vapor

El bardo

Musgo

Laguna 2

Castillo

Playa

@heyyoulistentothis plays his debut with an hour of 60’s and 70’s psychedelia and spiritual jazz. Easy, mellow, lucid listening for any time. A varied expansion on some of the music shared on the Hey You Listen to This blog


Hey You Listen To This w/ James Elliot 03/07/25 - [Voices Radio]

Story telling rooted in a sense of place and time,  a little trip down the sunken lane of folklore.

❉ dj & party dealer ❉ 

━┈𖦹 psychedelic ambient ┈━ ritual downtempo  ┈━ leftfield trance ࿐

Morning Mantra 🌞 every 3rd Wed. of the month on @radio_alhara

Proud mommy of 
࿐ ࿔  @sinestesie_s ~ collective and party series based in Bologna
࿐ ࿔ @carpet-airlines ~ experimental cosy-dancefloor project based in Berlin 

chats & bookings 》》 amanita.contact@gmail.com

DJ Doug has been DJing since the early 90s pursuing a passion for the exploration, though  vinyl, of the groovy place  where Latin, Caribbean and African sounds meet Disco, Funk, Soul, Jazz and Dance. He runs the ever popular Feet to the Floor nights in Totnes,  as well as the sadly missed High Life parties, and is part of the RPM vintage vinyl collective.  

He has supported Mulatu Astatke,  Seckou Keita, Orchestra Barbaro, Family Atlantica  and Sona Jobarteh, & appeared at a number of  festivals including Camp Bestival, Lounge on the Farm and Global Picnic, and venues across the  SE: Jazz Cafe, Ronnie Scott's and many others

His Radio High Life show is on SoundArt Radio,  Soul Roots Radio and South Devon Sound. On SoundArt he also co-hosts Feet to the Floor bi-weekly with Georgie

Sweet, sweet noises... 

Experimental dark drone/ambient - Alternative folk - Psychedelic electronic

-

This is where almost all my music related output ends, from solo projects, sound tests of gear, to just stuff made for the sake of the experiment or fun of it....

-

Enjoy!

-

(The following links are to some of my more serious projects, which material for most parts is also to be found here. The Bandcamp pages provide free downloads of all tracks):

UK creatives should listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK4wBWiozyM

You must hear this: https://vimeo.com/52766051

*****

Ed Brunsden was kind and patient enough to interview me for  his blog Desert... Mountain... Dust...  - you can read it at https://desertmountaindust.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/tuonela-primitive-progressive.html

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. ~ Aldous Huxley

All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it. ~ Jean Cocteau

All music is beautiful. ~ Billy Strayhorn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've become addicted to drone. Again. I was the kid with his head on the piano, listening to the overtones die away, or pressing his ear to the steel hull of the ferry, enthralled by the sounds it created. I was the kid who formed wordless songs to accompany the sound of train wheels on a long journey, or hummed along with the fan on a hot day.

In the 60s I used to play my 45s on 16, or backwards, or by hand using razor blades as stylii.

I made cut-up tapes on a cheap cassette recorder in the 70s and experimented with reel-to-reel in the 80s. 

Thank you Subotnick, Lygeti, Coltrane, Jimi, Mimaroglu, Eno, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle...

I am not a musician. I am a scavenger of sounds. I use the most basic software to process those sounds, stretching and filtering until something emerges that makes a joyful noise. Or not...

Your Favourite DJ's Mom's Favourite Station.

Broadcasting live from Coal Drops Yard, London Tues-Sun 11-11

Indie, Acoustic & Psychedelic music from The Western Isles of Scotland.

Elusive songsmith flakebelly defies genre norms, fusing psychedelic indie rock and acoustic folk-jazz. His sound is an intricate blend of folk-inspired acoustic warmth, blues-drenched guitar riffs, and ambient, psychedelic textures. Layered with jazz-infused piano melodies and indie rock nuances, his music forms a rich, genre-blurring tapestry that immerses the listener in an experimental and evocative journey. With In Parks Of Tall Trees recently playing on Tom Robinson's BBC 6 Music Introducing Mixtape, flakebelly's distinctive songwriting is beginning to build ripples from an avalanche of pebbles.

Learning guitar in the early 2000s, his musical journey led to an indie-folk EP in 2022, Behaviours, followed by Lo Fidelity in 2024. That same year, he released Apprentice Green, a genre-hopping album of psychedelia, folk, funk, dream-pop, jazz, and indie, 20 years in the making. Now, his most ambitious project yet, The Boy In The Diving Bell, arrives in August, preceded by the first single, At The Prow Of The Lifeboat, on May 23rd.

Taking a stand against exploitative streaming platforms, The Boy In The Diving Bell and its singles will not be available on Spotify or Apple Music. Instead, all releases will be exclusive to Bandcamp, with CDs and vinyl available through ElasticStage.

Flakebelly records & produces alone in his home studio, embodying a creative evolution that is always transitory.

All socials: @flakebelly //

"Extensive and wildly eclectic sonic adventures" - Tom Robinson, BBC 6 Music

"Refreshingly individual and very likeable" - Neil March, Trust The Doc Media

New tracks tagged #psych folk