Recorded at ‘The Flat Above the Cafe’ in North Manchester;
Mastered at Futureworks, Manchester, with Chris Mayo;
Front cover sketch, ‘Folly’, by John Collier a.k.a. Tim Bobbin (1708-1786)

Musicians

Simon Jones, harp, guitar, viola;
Andy Smith, banjo, melodica, guitar, programming;
Martin Purdy, vocals, glockenspiel, accordion, harmonica, keyboards

with
Year 7 (CBS) pupils and teachers from North Manchester High School for Girls, vocals [4]

Tracks

1. The Soldier’s Song (4.20)
2. A Better Life (The Bride’s Lament) (3.40)
3. The Willow and the Ghost (3.08)
4. Katy’s Twinkly Band (3.50)
5. Old Wives’ Tales (3.51)
6. Absent Father (Letter from a Falkland Veteran) (3.45)
7. Blind Mice (3.46)
8. Polite Society (2.13)
9. Harp and a Monkey (Home for Tea) (3.34)
10. Digging Holes (2.49)
11. Serenade for a Winter’s Day (4.32)

Songs, words and sounds by Harp and a Monkey;
Track 8 is based on Mauro Giuliani’s Andante in C

Recorded and mastered at ‘The Flat Above the Cafe’ in North Manchester;
Front cover ‘Tge dog with posy’, from a 1920s family photo album

Musicians

Simon Jones, harp, guitar, viola;
Andy Smith, banjo, melodica, guitar, programming;
Martin Purdy, vocals, glockenspiel, accordion, harmonica, keyboards

with
Isobel and her mother Leanne, intro [1];
Hamish, age three and a bit, young voice [3]

Tracks

1. Walking in the Footsteps of Giants (4.08)
2. Manchester Angel (Roud 2741) (3.16)
3. Tupperware and Tinfoil (3.17)
4. Bolton’s Yard (Roud 5313) (3.49)
5. Pay Day (2.51)
6. Dear Daughter (3.38)
7. The Gallipoli Oak (3.32)
8. Molecatcher (Roud 1052) (3.43)
9. Doolally Day Out (4.31)
10. The Pilgrims’ Cross (4.05)

Songs, words and sounds by Simon Jones, Andy Smith and Martin Purdy except
Track 1 memories of the International Brigade recruitment and march over the Pyrenees by the late Albert Charlesworth, of Delph, Saddleworth;
Tracks 2, 4, 8 trad. songs / poems rearranged and rewritten by Simon Jones, Andy Smith and Martin Purdy

Recorded and mastered at ‘The Flat Above the Cafe’ in North Manchester;
Front cover: image of the slaughtered bird found in a book of nursery rhymes printed in the early Edwardian period, used to illustrate the tale of Who Killed Cock Robin?

Musicians

Simon Jones, harp, guitar, viola;
Andy Smith, banjo, melodica, guitar, programming;
Martin Purdy, vocals, glockenspiel, accordion, harmonica, keyboards

with
Connie Noble, storytelling [7]

Tracks

1. Banks of Green Willow (4.00)
2. Soldier, Soldier (4.08)
3. Broken Men (3.38)
4. Charlie Chaplin (Roud 10558) (2.56)
5. A Young Trooper Cut Down (Roud 2; Laws Q26/B1; G/D 7:1404; Henry H680) (3.34)
6. Raise a Glass to Danny (2.58)
7. The Long, Long Trail (Roud 23525) (3.24)
8. The Postman’s Song (3.38)
9. Ghosts Round the Table (3.55)
10. Flanders’ Shore (Roud 2636) (4.51)

Songs, words and sounds by Simon Jones, Andy Smith and Martin Purdy except
Tracks 2, 4, 5, 7, 10 trad. or popular songs and poems of the day, rearranged and rewritten by Simon Jones, Andy Smith and Martin Purdy;
Track 2 Rudyard Kipling, Peter Bellamy;

Recorded at ‘The Flat Above the Cafe’ in North Manchester;
Mixed by Darren Jones

Folk Radio UK review by Thomas Blake

Musicians

Simon Jones, harp, guitar, viola;
Andy Smith, banjo, melodica, guitar, programming;
Martin Purdy, vocals, glockenspiel, accordion, harmonica, keyboards

Recital of The Prince’s Progress (by Christina Rossetti) during Early One Morning courtesy of Hamish, age eight

Tracks

1. A Naked Man in Paradise (3.17)
2. Calico Printer’s Clerk (Roud 13210; G/D 8:1900) (3.17)
3. The Jolly Grinder (Roud 24792) (3.37)
4. Glossop Road (3.58)
5. The Returned Convict (Roud V9114) (4.30)
6. Ten Shilling Wife (Roud V11971) (4.52)
7. Bendigo (Roud V7648) (3.30)
8. Early One Morning (Roud V9617) (3.20)
9. Victorians (3.24)
10. Bonnie England (1.54)

Track 2 Harry Clifton;
Track 4 Joseph Bryan Geoghegan (1860s);
Track 10 Sidney Ward (1890);
New and trad. songs and poems arranged anr rewritten by Simon Jones, Andy Smith and Martin Purdy

Video

Harp and a Monkey sing A Naked Man in Paradise: