> Folk Music > Records > Bob Hart: Songs from Suffolk
Bob Hart: Songs from Suffolk
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Songs from Suffolk Topic Records 12TS225 (LP, UK, 1973) |
Recorded by Tony Engle in the singer's home in Snape, Suffolk, in July 1972;
Produced by Tony Engle;
Notes by A.L. Lloyd;
Sleeve design and front cover photograph by Tony Engle
Musicians
Bob Hart, vocals
Tracks
| Side 1 | Side 2 |
|---|---|
|
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All tracks trad. except
Track 5 Harry Wincott;
Track 11 Will Godwyn, Leo Dryden, 1891
> Folk Music > Records > Bob Hart, Percy Webb, Ernest Austin: Flash Company
Flash Company
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Flash Company Topic Records 12TS243 (LP, UK, 1974) |
Bob Hart was recorded by Tony Engle in the singer's home at Snape, Suffolk, September 1973;
Ernest Austin was recorded by Tony Engle at Bentley, Essex, November 1973;
Percy Webb was recorded at The King's Head, Upper St. Islington, 1968;
Production and sleeve design by Tony Engle;
Sleeve notes by Mike Yates;
Photographs by Alan Martindale (Bob Hart), Tony Engle (Ernest Austin), and
East Anglian Daily Times (Percy Webb)
Musicians
Bob Hart, vocals [1-2, 7-8, 10, 12];
Percy Webb, vocals [3-6];
Ernest Austin, vocals [9, 11]
Tracks
| Side 1 | Side 2 |
|---|---|
|
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All songs trad.
Sleeve Notes
Seventy years ago Ralph Vaughan Williams collected his first folksong when he noted Bushes and Briars from Mr Pottipher of Ingrave, near Brentwood in Essex. To Vaughan Williams it was a labour of love. “I could imagine a much less profitable way of spending a long winter evening,” he wrote, “than in the parlour of a country inn taking one’s turn at the mug of ‘four-ale’ in the rare company of minds imbued with that fine sense which comes from advancing years and a life-long communion with nature—and with the ever-present chance of picking up some rare old ballad or an exquisitely beautiful melody, worthy, within its small compass, of a place beside the finest compositions of the greatest composers.” Although collectors were then active in other parts of England time has shown that it is only in East Anglia that such traditions now remain to anything like a similar extent.
The Irish composer E.J. Moeran, who had collected songs from Harry Cox in the 1920s, returned to Norfolk and Suffolk in 1948 and was surprised to find at least one Suffolk pub where “every Saturday night the company, male and female, assemble in a low ceilinged room, and through a haze of smoke from strong shag tobacco the chairman can be seen presiding over the singsong (or ‘frolic’ in local parlance) calling in turn for a contribution on those of the company he sees fit to honour.” On this present recording the singers are elderly and it is interesting to note what Moeran had to say on this subject. “One of the singers there was a man of about fifty who learned his songs from his father. The latter was also present, singing in the quavering and asthmatic tones of old age, but it was only recently that he had allowed the young man of fifty … to ‘perform in public’ for he was determined that he must acquire the true traditional style, uncontamined by outside influences, before so doing.”
Ernest Austin is now 83 years of age and he lives in a small village to the east of Colchester in Essex. He left school at 12 to work as a kitchen boy in a farmhouse, earning 3/6d in return for a 60-hour week. For most of his early life he worked on the land as a farm labourer until, with experience, he became an agricultural engineer, retiring at the age of 70.
Percy Webb has also spent most of his working life on the land. He was born in 1897 at Herningstone, a small Suffolk village where his father was a shepherd. Percy fought in the Great War as an infantryman in the Royal West Kents, seeing service in France and later in India. On his return he settled for agricultural work and joined the Framlingham Horse Society in 1937, the experience that he had gained working with horses standing him in good stead. Now aged 77 he still works in a chemist’s shop in Woodbridge. Percy learnt most of his songs from his father, who not only sang but played the concertina, accordion and mouth organ as well and, like his father before him, he may still be heard singing at weekends in his local pub.
Bob Hart is another singer who likes to perform in company. He was born in 1892 and, although originally a farm worker, he left home to work on the steam trawlers that fished the east coast of Britain from Grimsby to the Shetlands and back. His songs, and he knows more than a few, were picked up from work mates and casual acquaintances as well as from friends and relatives at home. A further selection from his repertoire can be heard on his solo album Songs from Suffolk.
> Folk Music > Records > Bob Hart: A Broadside
Bob Hart: A Broadside
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A Broadside Musical Traditions Records MTCD301-2 (2 CD, UK, 1998) |
All tracks recorded by Rod and Danny Stradling in Bob Hart's home in Snape, Suffolk, on 8 July 1969 except
Tracks 2-3, 5, 8, 10-11, 14, 17, 19, 21-22, 27, 34, 38-44, 46
recorded by Bill Leader in Bob Hart's home later in 1969
Musical Traditions booklet notes by Rod Stradling
Musicians
Bob Hart, vocals
Tracks
| Side 1 | Side 2 |
|---|---|
|
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All tracks trad. except
Track 5 Will Godwyn, Leo Dryden, 1891;
Track 24 Harry Wincott;
> Folk Music > Records > Bob Hart
Other records with Bob Hart
Various Artists,
The Larks They Sang Melodious,
LP, Transatlantic XTRA 1141, 1974
Various Artists,
Chants de Marins IV: Ballads, Complaintes et Shanties des Matelots Anglais,
2 LP, Le Chasse-Marée SCM 005, 1984
Various Artists,
Blow the Man Down: A Collection of Sea Songs and Shanties,
CD, Topic TSCD464, 1993
Various Artists,
Hidden English: A Celebration of English Traditional Music,
CD, Topic TSCD600, 1996
Various Artists,
My Ship Shall Sail the Ocean
(The Voice of the People Vol. 2),
CD, Topic TSCD652, 1998
Various Artists,
Come All My Lads That Follow the Plough
(The Voice of the People Vol. 5),
CD, Topic TSCD655, 1998
Various Artists,
A Story I'm Just About to Tell
(The Voice of the People Vol. 8),
CD, Topic TSCD658, 1998
Various Artists,
Who's That at My Bed Window?
(The Voice of the People Vol. 10),
CD, Topic TSCD660, 1998
Various Artists,
We've Received Orders to Sail
(The Voice of the People Vol. 12),
CD, Topic TSCD662, 1998
Various,
Rhythms of Labour: Music at Work in Britain,
2 CD, Harbourtown HARDCD055, 2013
Various Artists,
Wait Till the Clouds Roll By,
3 CD, Musical Traditions MTCD518-0, 10 June 2020