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Son of Morris On

Ashley Hutchings et al: Son of Morris On (Harvest SHSM 2012)

Son of Morris On
Ashley Hutchings and others

Harvest SHSM 2012 (LP, UK, 3 December 1976)
EMI Harvest CZ 535 / 7243 8 29861 2 6 (CD, UK, 1994)
Talking Elephant TECD051 (CD, UK, 21 April 2003)

Ashley Hutchings et al: Son of Morris On (Talking Elephant TECD051)

Produced by Ashley Hutchings
Tracks 1-18 engineered by Vic Gamm at Sound Techniques & Olympic No 1 Studios, London
Track 20 recorded at Chipping Norton Studio, Oxfordshire
Front photo by Peter Vernon

Musicians

Albion Morris Men [1-2, 11, 15];
Adderburry Village Morris Men with James Pester: fiddle [5];
David Armitage (dancer from the Hammersmith Morris Men) [8];
Eddie Upton (dancer from Chanctonbury Ring Morris Men) [17];
John Tams: vocals [4, 12, 19], spoken vocals [7], dialogue [9], concertina [4, 16], melodeon [5, 16, 19];
Shirley Collins: vocals [12, 16], dialogue [9];
Martin Carthy: vocals [14], guitar [3, 8, 14, 18];
John Watcham: concertina [1-2, 6, 11-12];
John Rodd: concertina [8, 14, 16-17, 19];
Philip Pickett: bagpipes [2], curtal [4-6, 13, 16, 19-20], recorders [9], shawm [15];
Ian Cutler: fiddle [10];
Ric Sanders: fiddle [20];
Simon Nicol: guitar [1-2, 4, 6, 10-12, 15-17, 19];
Graeme Taylor: guitar [20];
Pete Bullock: keyboards [20];
Ashley Hutchings: bass [1-2, 4, 6, 8, 10-12, 14-17, 19-20];
Michael Gregory: drums [1-2, 6, 10-12, 15-17, 19-20], percussion [4], tabor [5, 13], tambourine [12];
Dave Mattacks: drums [8, 14, 17]

Tracks

LP Side 1

  1. Winster Processional (0.56)
  2. Monck’s March (2.53)
  3. Old Hog or None (1.15)
  4. As I Was Going to Banbury (1.23)
  5. The Happy Man (3.02)
  6. Fieldtown Processional / Glorishears (2.50)
  7. Bob and Joan (0.15)
  8. Ladies of Pleasure (1.38)
  9. Bring Your Fiddle (2.17)
  10. Jockey to the Fair / Room for the Cuckolds (2.36)

LP Side 2

  1. Saturday Night (2.20)
  2. Roasted Woman / Rigs of Marlow / Getting Upstairs (3.06)
  3. Ye Wild Morris / The Wild Morris (1.39)
  4. The Postman’s Knock (Roud 13177) (1.59)
  5. Ring o’ Bells (2.41)
  6. The Gallant Hussar (Roud 1146; G/D 5:982; Henry H243a) (3.21)
  7. Bonnets So Blue (1.54)
  8. Old Hog or None (reprise) (1.17)

CD Bonus Tracks

  1. Y’Acre of Land (Roud 21093; TYG 23) (3.34)
  2. Cotswold Tune (2.59)

Tracks 1-2, 11 trad. arr. Ashley Hutchings, John Watcham, Albion Morris;
Tracks 3, 8, 14, 18 trad. arr. Martin Carthy, Ashley Hutchings;
Tracks 4, 19 trad. arr. John Tams;
Tracks 5, 10, 16-17 trad. arr. Ashley Hutchings;
Track 6 trad. arr. Ashley Hutchings, John Watcham;
Track 7 trad. arr. Ashley Hutchings, John Tams;
Track 9 trad. arr. Ashley Hutchings, John Tams, Shirley Collins;
Track 12 trad. arr. Ashley Hutchings, John Tams, John Watcham;
Track 13 trad. arr. Philip Pickett;
Track 15 trad. arr. Ashley Hutchings, Albion Morris;
Track 20 Ric Sanders

Notes

Winster Processional

From Winster, Derbyshire.

Monck’s March

From Sherborne, Gloucestershire. A toe-heel-toe step dance which is said to be a satire on Colonel / General Monck, who, sympathised with the Royalists but fought on the side of the Roundheads. His solution to the dilemma was to march to battle so slowly that by the time he arrived it was all over. (Well, at least it makes a pretty story.)

Old Hog or None

Martin Carthy’s interpretation of a “Morris Air” taken down by Cecil Sharp from Charles Bunyan of Oxford. Although the tune was not ascribed to a particular dance tradition, it may have been played for dancers at Brill, Buckinghamshire.

As I Was Going to Banbury

A “nonsense” song which uses a similar bar structure to the Black Joke family of Morris tunes.

The Happy Man

One of the song-dances from the Adderbury, North Oxfordshire, tradition. Noted by Janet Blunt from William Walton, the last of the old dancers, in 1917. Miss Blunt says it was “especially sung by old Solomon Lines… he was a noted singer and his neighbours called him ‘The Happy Man’ because of this song.”

Fieldtown Processional / Glorishears

Two tunes from Fieldtown (now Leafield), Oxfordshire. The second tune is sometimes called Leapfrog, that being the main feature of the dance.

Bob and Joan

A piece of doggerel from Charles Tanner, one-time Bampton, Oxfordshire, dancer

Ladies of Pleasure

A solo jig from Bledington, on the Oxfordshire-Gloucestershire border. Also often called Ladies Pleasure.

Bring Your Fiddle

A pastoral dialogue taken from a printed broadsheet.

Jockey to the Fair / Room for the Cuckolds

The first is a wide-spread Morris tune, found in many versions. The second comes from Bucknell, Oxfordshire.

Saturday Night

From Bucknell, Oxfordshire.

Roasted Woman / Rigs of Marlow / Getting Upstairs

A Headington, Oxfordshire, medley. The Roasted Woman was sung by the Fool in the latter part of the last century.

Ye Wild Morris / The Wild Morris

The first tune comes from Moffat and Kidson’s book Dances of the Olden Time. The other was played as a “Morris Off” by Charles Baldwin, formerly musician for Cliffords Mense, Gloucestershire.

The Postman’s Knock

Another Adderbury song-dance from the same source as the The Happy Man.

Ring o’ Bells

From Lichfield, Staffordshire.

The Gallant Hussar

This version of the song The Gallant Hussar was collected from a Shropshire man, Arthur Lane, by Fred Hamer. It strongly resembles the Bledington dance tune of the same name which follows.

Bonnets So Blue

A solo jig from Bucknell, Oxfordshire.

Y’Acre of Land

A variant of Scarborough Fair arranged in the Morris style.

Cotswold Tune

An original tune composed by Ric Sanders in the Morris style.