Musicians

A.L. Lloyd: vocals;
Alf Edwards: English concertina [2, 6, 9, 11, 13];
Al Jeffery: banjo [1, 3, 5, 7-8, 10, 12, 14], harmonica [4]

Tracks

Side 1

1. The Derby Ram (Roud 126; G/D 3:645; TYG 59) (3.22)
2. The Foggy Dew (Roud 558; Laws O3; G/D 7:1495) (3.24)
3. Maggie May (Roud 1757) (2.06)
4. When Johnson’s Ale Was New (Roud 139; G/D 3:561) (2.21)
5. The Butcher and the Chamber Maid (Roud 167; G/D 7:1466) (2.07)
6. A Jug of Punch (Roud 1808; Henry H490) (3.05)
7. The Parson and the Maid (Roud 116; Child 276) (1.42)

Side 2

8. Three Drunken Huntsmen (Roud 283; G/D 2:283) (2.06)
9. All for Me Grog (Roud 475; G/D 3:580) (2.12)
10. The Drunken Maidens (Roud 252) (1.47)
11. Rosin the Beau (Roud 1192; G/D 3:698; Henry H698) (4.43)
12. The Farmer’s Servant (Roud 792) (2.23)
13. John Barleycorn (Roud 164; G/D 3:559) (2.48)
14. A Jug of This (Roud 1191) (2.11)

All tracks trad.

Sleeve Notes by A.L. Lloyd

There are songs men sing by the kitchen fireside and songs they sing at the tail of a plough. There are also the songs they bawl round the barroom table of a little country alehouse on a Saturday night, when the place is too crowded for playing darts or the silly game called Bumblepuppy.

The songs in this album come from such an alehouse on the gusty East coast of England. Its name is The Eel’s Foot, but its address is a secret; the regular customers don’t want a lot of tourists coming to spoil the singing and drink all the beer.

To The Eel’s Foot on a Saturday night the farmworkers bring their songs and match them against the songs of sailors and cattle-dealers and travelling tinsmiths. Everything is formal. A chairman keeps good order, with a cribbage-maker for a gavel. No one sings unless called upon, but each gets his turn. Mostly the songs are of the “Saturday night” kind that the genteel would call “bacchanalian”. These are not drinking songs in the strict sense—not songs merely in praise of liqueur—for in England such songs usually are made by men of booklearning who fancy themselves as rakes, and the folk will have none of them.

The beer drinkers at The Eel’s Foot like their songs to tell a bit of a story. And they like the singing to go on till closing time … and a little after. Here are some of the songs they sing… songs as sly as a tinker’s wink, as rough as a ploughman’s hand, songs as snug and social as The Eel’s Foot itself with the wind and the rain outside and the firelight and music within.

Notes

Nowadays, The Eel’s Foot Inn in Eastbridge near Leiston, Suffolk isn’t secret any more.

More songs from the same inn can be found on Jumbo Brightwell’s album Songs From the Eel’s Foot and on the album Sing, Say and Play: Traditional Songs and Music From Suffolk.

This EP is a six-song extract of the Riverside LP English Drinking Song above.

Musicians

A.L. Lloyd: vocals;
Alf Edwards: English concertina [1-2, 4-5];
Al Jeffery: banjo [3, 6]

Tracks

Side 1

1. All for Me Grog (Roud 475; G/D 3:580) (2.12)
2. The Foggy Dew (Roud 558; Laws O3; G/D 7:1495) (3.24)
3. The Butcher and the Chamber Maid (Roud 167; G/D 7:1466) (2.07)

Side 2

4. John Barleycorn (Roud 164; G/D 3:559) (2.48)
5. A Jug of Punch (Roud 1808; Henry H490) (3.05)
6. The Drunken Maidens (Roud 252) (1.47)

All tracks trad.