Not a Bard

Another traditional song from Ireland, this one probably dates back to the 18th Century. It’s a little bawdy, but I’d say PG at the most. This is another song I got from one of my favorite resources, “Soodlum’s Irish Ballad Book.” In general I prefer to learn songs from printed music, in large part due to my history and schooling in music education. I feel I can look at what the composer was writing but come up with my own take on it.

Pretty slow time for SCA events but things will pick up in January. =)

The Jolly Beggarman

The Jolly Beggarman by Glen E Hammer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Posted in Song of the Week
Tags: SCA, Song of the Week, Traditional Song

This week’s song is a traditional piece from Ireland. I have hesitated to record it because it is one of those songs that has many different versions. The main story concerns a man who, along with a lady he may (or may not) have just met, is sentenced to be shipped to the colony of Australia. This was a common practice in England and Ireland in the 19th Century. The earliest recorded versions of this song date to between 1837 and 1853.

This song is fairly popular in Meridies. I find myself doing it several times during any event I attend there. I imagine one of the reasons is that it is a song that people know and so they feel comfortable selecting it. Which brings me to my topic for tonight; Why do you keep picking the same old songs? I understand that some people have a favorite song and that I am quite possibly the only person who can or will perform that song for them. (Raven Banner, Your Grace?) However, I think most people are simply daunted by the long list of songs I carry around. (170+ songs and what a great shtick it is to flip it out for someone’s perusal.) Because of my nature and choice of persona, I prefer to look for songs I haven’t heard. And to be honest it gets a little dismaying at times when I have spent 25+ years collecting the best songs that I can find that seem to go well with the SCA experience only to have someone say, “Oh, I’ve heard Loch Lomond before, do that one.”

So, all I can say is I almost never bite, and very seldom growl. Please feel free to look through my list and pick something you haven’t heard before that catches your eye. In all likelihood it will be something that enhances your experience and hopefully, if you can get past my singing =), helps create the mood of “we could be back in that time”. Worried about picking something embarrassing? Well, if you’ve seen my list you know it is broken down into categories. Just stay away from the bawdy songs and you are probably safe on that score. Of course, if you really do want to hear Loch Lomond please feel free to request it. It’s on the list because it is actually a very pretty traditional song, full of lovely and loving imagery and, being a Scottish ballad, death, of course. =)

The Black Velvet Band

The Black Velvet Band by Glen E Hammer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Posted in Song of the Week
Tags: SCA, Song of the Week, Traditional Song

This is another Traditional song from Scotland. It refers to many places found along the way as you travel the road.

This was also one of the first dances I learned in the SCA in Sentinel’s Keep. However, they did it to the tune of Scotland the Brave. I offered to play it once so that folks could dance to the actual song but it turns out that there are four more bars in each verse of Scotland the Brave so the choreographers had added an extra set of spinning and crossing at the end of each verse. I tried to convince them that they could just drop that extra set and everything would work fine but they didn’t get it. I did try to hold a strict rhythm when I recorded this so you can try it yourself if you know the dance.

Road to the Isles

Road to the Isles by Glen E Hammer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

I’m planning to be at Castle Wars in Meridies next weekend, then I get some time off.

Posted in Song of the Week
Tags: SCA, Song of the Week, Traditional Song

I surprised a few people last weekend by showing up at an event in the Midrealm. (I’m from Trimaris.) I took some friends from the area to their first event as an introduction and they enjoyed it even though it was smaller than everyone hoped. Also sprained my ankle rather severly but it’s healing up pretty well. Next weekend is Trimarian Crown here then off to Meridies for Castle Wars.

This weeks song is a Traditional work also known as “The Hunter.” I’ve been able to find very little else about it except that it seems to have been first recorded by The Weavers. The idea behind the song is the King’s gamekeeper fetches the deer back to the preserve to protect them from poachers. In my case, this is another song I learned from that book of campfire songs which “Old King from the Northern Sea” came from. However, my last verse is different from every other version I’ve found and I have no idea where I got it. It has a response part on the chorus and I altered the speed on the recorder so it gives a little different tone. I sometimes get creeped out by people singing both parts to a song. =)

The Keeper

The Keeper by Glen E Hammer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

I guess I’ll be here for a while, I just noticed as I was uploading that I am using less than 1% of the space available on the site. =)

Posted in Song of the Week
Tags: SCA, Song of the Week, Traditional Song