A song of Spring and the turn of the year - Written by Jehanne Mehta, my son's Godmother.

GREEN JACK (Jehanne Mehta)
Wind to North East, snow on the crest
Winter takes a longtime to be gone.
Lambs in the fold, safe from the cold,
April past & May coming on.
But pray lend an ear, this music to hear,
Cold winds be gone give Jack but a chance.

Hey come along, hey come along
Come along & join in the dance.

O have you seen Jack in the Green
Footing it so lightly on his toes.
Buds in the trees, blossoms & leaves,
Springing out where ever he goes.
For he who was slain with the harvested grain
Is born anew & bids summer advance.

Bird song at dawn, up with the morn,
Throwing off the years two & three.
Old Mrs. Jones stretches her bones,
And put the whistling kettle on for tea.
Then she sweeps up the dirt & gathers her skirt
And away with Green Jack she does prance.

Morris men all, Squire & the fool
Cut a merry caper on the green.
Come maids & young men Let the dancing begin
For the living Earth our fair queen.
Then footing it still, make a ring round the hill
And light up the sky with your chants.

Repeat 2nd verse.

Green Jack

A song written some 50 years ago by school teacher/Musician - Rick Keeling, then of Hythe Hampshire, for his weekly Radio programme on Radio Solent out of Southampton. I first heard and met Rick at The Cutty Wren Folk Club in Hythe in the early 1970's and I later received permission from his estate to record the song on my "Home From Home" CD in 2005.


LYMINGTON ROUND & ROUND. (Rick Keeling)

Lymington harbour, the yachts & the boat yards, 
The ropes & the sails & the cobblestone quay.
And those millionaire sailors, boys in their dinghies,
All edging their way past the sand to the sea,
Everyone's going but me.

Chorus:	
But if you can see the island, 
They say it will rain before dark.
I suppose it could be, but it seems to me, 
You don't need to look that far.

Lymington High Street on Saturday morning,
The hustle, the bustle, the gay repartee.
And those bric-a-brac stalls with their bargains & offers,
The masts are a dream way out to the sea, everyone's laughing but me.

Lymington High Street, the bow fronted windows,
The bookshops, the chain stores, the cream cakes & tea.
And those ladies that dress in the latest of fashion, 
There's boots & sou'westers still wet from the sea, 
Everyone's going but me.

Lymington pavements are cold in December,
And only a few leave the chair by the fire.
And the last time I saw you on Lymington Station,
You didn't have time to wave me goodbye,
Everyone's saying goodbye.

Home From Home

Lymington Round & Round

This song as sung was collected in 1906 from ex- seaman Frederick White aged 82 while in Southampton Workhouse Infirmary; White was born in Australia. 
This is a very uncommon song, the only other English collected version was a fragment also collected in Hampshire from Mr Goodyear of Axford. 
There seem to be No printed broadsides of the song....That was also collected once in Scotland, once in Ireland, a couple of times in Maine, USA and several times in The Canadian Maritimes....and it has been suggested that was its origin,  but that is only conjecture.
Bold Manning - Frederick White – Roud 673 – Southampton - Collected by Dr. George Gardiner (GG/1/17/383) – Tune & Text – White - 21 Jun 1906

Bold Manning

This song was written by my son's Godmother -Jehanne Mehta.
Jehanne currently lives near Stroud in Gloucestershire, UK
In this version I do Not sing the chorus after every verse...which in performance I would normally do

For England

Brave Arthur the King (Mehta)

Recording made in 1974 for Forest Tracks....."Folk Songs from Hampshire". Collected in 1906 by Dr. George Gardiner from David Clements of Basingstoke.

THE FACTORY GIRL.                         
The sun was just rising one fine summer's morning
The birds from the bushes so sweetly did sing.
And the lads & the lasses so merrily were moving 
To yonder large building their work to begin.

I spied a fair damsel more brighter than Venus
Her cheeks like the roses that none could excel
Her skin like the lilies that grows in yon valley
This blooming young damsel was a factory girl.

I stepp'd up to this beautiful creature
She cast upon me a proud look of distain.
Stand back sir she cried & do not insult me
I'm poor but in poverty there is no sin.

I stood in a flutter knowing what was the matter
The God of love Cupid my heart had trepanned
I said lovely fair maid if you'll not be my bride
My life I will waste in some far foreign land.

What pleasure or treasure is love when tis wanton
Your love upon me has now cast a spell
I'll marry you speedily & make you my lady
If you'll be my own dearest factory girl.

She gave her consent & license was purchased
That very same day the bells merrily did ring
To church then they went & when they returned
The brave men & maidens so sweetly did sing.

Folk Songs from Hampshire

The Factory Girl

The Rolling of the Stones...I recorded this on my Home From Home CD. ....Concertina - Ian Robb, and Cittern - James Stephens....
A version of "The Two Brothers" (Child Ballad 49) with text from Maine USA.

The Rolling of The Stones

A "humanistic" version of the Wexford Carol. The tune is traditional Irish with new words by John Renbourn. This is another studio mix with my wife's group Passacaglia. 

The Wexford Lullaby

Collected in Bartley, Hampshire by Dr. George Gardiner from New Forest Gypsy - Albert Dow...Child Ballad 106.

The Flower of Serving Men

Collected in Adderbury, Oxfordshire by Janet Blunt from William Walton in December 1917. I have been meaning to learn this song for over 30 years and have finally got around to it!

Tim Radford

Adderbury Wassail

Song collected by Dr. George Gardiner from Frank Harrington of Bartley, Hampshire.
Sung by Tim Radford.
Welcome The Harvest Home - Frank Harrington - Roud 1294
(GG/1/20/1243) – Tune & Words – Harrington – Sep 29 1908


Now come let us taste how your liquors be
Fill up your glasses and drink to the lasses
And merrily jog them on your knee
For it makes them a kinder grow.*

Chorus
For we are all the lads of the heigh down derry
Drinking beer as brown as a berry
It’s a good strong beer that’ll drown dull care
For to welcome the harvest home, home, home
For to welcome the harvest home.

Now Tom and Sue come tumbling in
With a large brown jug so neatly trimmed
And then the barleycorn was in
For this night they’d merry, merry be.
Chorus

Now Tom and Sue they call for a dance
It was agreed that they should by chance
To have it upon the grass
For this night they’d merry, merry be.
Then every lad took his lass,
Gently led her down the dance
Round went their tails like windmill sails
For to welcome the harvest home, home, home
For to welcome the harvest home.

Now just before the dance was done
You’re out, cries Dick, and you’re wrong cries Tom
And the fiddler he’s played it wrong cries John
And we’ll have it all over again.
Chorus

* Manuscript line is: For it gives them a kind of galore.

Welcome the Harvest Home

A great song written by Les Sullivan about the terrible losses at the Battle of Jutland. I have learnt this because the First Sea Lord at the battle was Lord Jellicoe who was born in Southampton, where to some he is treated as a hero. You can make your own mind up about that.

Battle of Jutland

I learnt this Transportation song many years ago from the singing of Martin Carthy, but it was originally collected from Henry Hills of Lodsworth, Sussex by W. Percy Merrick.
It can be found in The Journal of The Folk Music Society 1 (1901) p. 135 and
is also in - Sharp, English County Folk Songs (1908 - 1912 / 1961) pp. 226-228.

Here's Adieu to all Judges and Juries - Hills

This is a second version of Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries, this one from  the singing of George Blake of Hampshire collected by Dr. George Gardiner in May 1906. 
This version can also be found on my CD - "George Blake's Legacy" on Forest Tracks.

Adieu to All Judges and Juries

A version of a ballad first published in the 17th Century - Child 26 and Roud No. 5 - printed in the song book Melismata by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1611, but likely to be older than that.
I first heard it over 50 years ago sung by George Deacon and accompanied by Marion Ross on harmonium...I think. I wanted to be George when I first started singing on my own...

The Three Ravens

A short song from various locations. The first two verses and chorus are from Sam Bennett of Ilmington, Warwickshire and collected by James Madison Carpenter. 
The third verse was collected by Cecil Sharp from Joseph Alcock at Sibford Gower, Oxfordshire and the final chorus, again by Sharp from Mrs Stanton and Mr. Hands at Armscote & Blackwell, Warwickshire. 
The tune is a version of the country dance The Dorset Triumph; that is also used in Bampton for the Morris Dance - Step and Fetch Her and in Abingdon for the Morris Dance - Sally Luker....so a tune used for many traditional customs.

The Dusty Miller (Triumph) & Step & Fetch Her.
- From Sam Bennett, Ilmington

I'll have a dance with a dusty miller 
Johnny with his blue coat on
I'll have a dance with a dusty miller
Johnny with his blue coat on

Down the middle, down the middle
Play your fiddle, pretty little dear
Up the middle, hey diddle diddle
Fetch her back, pretty little dear

If you're young and wish to marry
Who'll you choose to be your wife
If you marry John Brown's sister
She will plague you all your life

Don't you tease her, try to please her
For she is my pretty little dear
Don't you tease her, try to please her
For she is my pretty little dear

– Joseph Alcock - Sibford Gower

I’ll go dance with the Dusty Miller
I’ll go and dance with that young man
I’ll go and dance with the dusty Miller
O The lad with the breeches on….

Step and Fetch Her
Step and Fetch Her
Step and Fetch Her
Pretty little dear

Don’t you tease her
Try to please
Step and fetch her
Pretty little dear/girl…

(Last two stanzas – Mrs Stanton/Mr. Hands
Armscote & Blackwell Warks – Sharp)
Roud 5959

Dusty Miller

Roud 17811 - collected from Fred Osman of Lower Bartley Hampshire by Dr. George Gardiner in November 1908. The only other version of this song was collected a few miles away at Stoney Cross, but this was only a fragment. 
The song is included in the book - Southern Songster - published in 2020 by Boutle at  https://francisboutle.co.uk/    This song also appears on my CD of Maritime Songs collected in Hampshire - "From Spithead Roads"   

The Fair Maid of Bristol - Roud 17811- Fred Osman - Bartley
(GG/1/20/1316) – Tune & Text – 3 Nov 1908

It was of a pretty fair maid in Bristol did dwell,
She was courted by a sailor and he loved her full well.
She was courted by a sailor when sixteen years old
Come you listen, fair maiden, and the truth I will unfold.

It was early one morning to his lover he went,
It was to inform her of his full intent,
Crying, Polly dearest Polly, don’t you let it give you pain,
For I’m just a going to leave you across the wide main.

Then on board the old rover he quickly set sail,
And left her a weeping her tears to prevail,
As she stood on the beach me boys, her white hands did wave,
May the heavens protect him from a watery grave.

Then a twelve month passed over when a little or more,
When a letter was conveyed to the old British shore,
That William her sailor boy in the wars he was slain,
And his body they buried in a watery main.

Through the fields and green meadows all day I will roam,
Through the fields and green meadows by myself all alone,
To the loud roaring billows and the seas I will complain,
For the loss of my true lover on the watery main.

Also collected (1 verse) from Frank Philips, Stoney Cross
- he was a Broom maker.

From Spithead Roads Mix #5

The Fair Maid of Bristol

Another chanty collected from James Bounds of Portsmouth ...... described by Dr. Gardiner as "A capital singer of chanties....the man literally throbbed with the music.." 
I am joined in the chorus by my good friends - Jacek Sulanowski and Tom Goux, well known American sea music singers.

Blow Boys, Blow – Roud 703 - James G. Bounds –Portsmouth
(GG/1/14/881) – Tune & Text – Bounds – 14 Aug 1907

Blow my boys for I long to hear you
Blow boys blow
Oh blow my boys for I long to hear you
Blow, my bully boys blow

We blew today and we blew tomorrow,
We blew today and we blew tomorrow.

Oh, a Yankee ship came down the river,
Oh, a Yankee ship came down the river.

How do you know she’s a Yankee packet?
She fired a gun and I heard a racket

And who do you thing is the first mate of her
California Jack, the one-eyed bugger.

Now who do you think is the second mate of her?
Boston Jack, the great big sluggard

Now what do you think we had for dinner?
Some old dead crow and a monkey’s liver.

Now what do you think we had for supper?
Then strike me blind and kick me in the gutter

It may blow today, it may blow forever,
It may blow today, it may blow forever.

(Some language “cleaned up” – Tim Radford)

Blow Boys Blow

Another chanty collected from James Bounds of Portsmouth ...... described by Dr. Gardiner as "A capital singer of chanties....the man literally throbbed with the music.."
I am joined in the chorus by my good friends - Jacek Sulanowski and Tom Goux, well known American sea music singers.
This is on my "From Spithead Roads" recording.

Come Roll the Cotton Down  
James G. Bounds - Portsmouth Workhouse

As I was a walking out one morn (day)
	Come Roll the Cotton Down
A fine (fair) young girl I chanced for to meet
	Come Roll the Cotton Down

Good morning to you, my pretty maid
Oh where are you going to, my pretty maid?

I’m going a-milking, Sir she said
Can I come with you, my pretty maid?

You can come if you like, kind Sir she said
So he took her in tow and away did go

Now what is your father, my pretty maid?
My father’s a farmer, Sir she said

And what is your Mother, my pretty maid?
The same as my Father, Sir she said

And what is your fortune, my pretty maid?
My face is my fortune, sir she said

Then I can’t marry you, my pretty maid
Nobody asked you, Sir she said

As I was a walking out one morn (day)
	Come Roll the Cotton Down
A fine (fair) young girl I chanced for to meet
	Come Roll the Cotton Down

Roll the Cotton Down

My version of a well known and much loved song that has many versions. This is from my Home From Home recording. This song was collected throughout Hampshire & Dorset by the Hammonds and Gardiner and is even common in North America.
My text is from Mr. Miller of Wootton Fitzpaine, Dorset, via Frank Purslow's book “The Constant Lovers,” but my tune is probably influenced by a Roy Bailey version.
Assistance was given here from the Canadian Group - Finest Kind and a wonderful brass player from Ontario, Brian Sanderson.

JOHN BARLEYCORN.

Two hired men came from the north, their victory to try
And they did make a solemn vow John Barleycorn should die.

Chorus:
To me rite fol dol the diddle lol the day
To me rite fol the diddle dol the dey.

They ploughed the ground & harrowed him in, threw clods upon his head
Then they did both rejoice & sing, John Barleycorn is dead.

There he lay all underground, till rain on him did fall
Then Barleycorn sprung up again & so he done 'em all.

There he stood till midsummer, till he grew pale & wan
And Barleycorn he grew a long beard & so became a man.

They hired men with scythes so sharp to cut him off at knee
And the women with their forks & rakes they used him bitterly.

They hired men with prongs so sharp to stab him to the heart,
And like a thief or felon, they did bind him to a cart.

They wheeled him round & round the fields till they came to a barn
And there they made a mow of him to keep him from all harm.

Then hired men with long staffs came To beat him skin from bone,
But the miller he served him worst than that 
For he ground him between two stones.

Put brandy in a keg, me boys, put cider in a can,
But Barleycorn in an old brown bowl will floor the strongest man.

He'll turn your gold to silver, your silver into brass,
He'll make a boy become a man, and a man become an ass.

John Barleycorn

Being born in January, I have always had a great
affection for this song. The way the story is told as
a third party means it can be sung by a man or a
woman and still make sense, and this is a common
device in traditional songs that makes them more
accessible. Learned originally from the singing of
Sarah Makem, I recently augmented it with a verse
from Peter Kennedy's "Folk Songs of Britain & Ireland,"
where it is called “The Forsaken Mother and Child.”

THE MONTH OF JANUARY.
(Sarah Makem and  Folk Songs of Britain – Kennedy)

It was in the Month of January,
the hills were clad with snow,
And over hills & valleys I carelessly did go.
It was there I spied a fair pretty maid
with a salt tear in her eye,
She had a baby in her arms,
and bitter she did cry.

O cruel was my father who barred to door on me,
And cruel was my mother  this dreadful crime to see,
But cruel was my own true love
to change his mind for gold,
And cruel was the bitter night
that pierced my heart with cold.

For the taller that the palm tree grows
the sweeter is the bark,
And the fairer that a young man speaks,
the falser is his heart,
He will kiss you & embrace you
‘til he thinks he has you won,
Then he’ll go away & leave you all for some other one.

O hush my little baby boy & lay closer to my breast,
How little does your father know
this night we’re in distress,
He kissed me & embraced
me till he had my favor gained,
Then he went away & left me in sorrow grief & shame.

So come all you pretty fair young maids
a warning take by me,
And never try to build your nest on top of a high tree,
For the leaves they will all wither
& the branches will decay,
And the beauties of a false young man
will all soon fade away.
(In Purslow CL33 - The Fatal Snowstorm
Kennedy - The Forsaken Maid)

The Month of January

I am an English singer, living since 1996 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. I was born in Hampshire, England on the edge of The New Forest, and then lived in North Oxfordshire for 25 years. There I was Squire and Foreman of The Adderbury Morris Men from the revival of the village dances in 1974, till I moved to the USA.
I have been singing all my life, but in recent years have been doing more since I have given up dancing.
I have recordings out on both Fallen Angle Music in Canada (see - http://www.ianrobb.com/)  and Forest Tracks Records in the UK - but that organisation has been wound up and no longer exists - I do still have some recordings but alas, very few.

Tim Radford

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