Martin Carthy > F.J. Child Discography
The Watersons > F.J. Child Discography

The Child / Carthy / Watersons Discography

This document cross-references songs that Martin Carthy and/or The Watersons and Eliza Carthy have recorded and which are in or related to the Child collection: Francis James Child [1882-1898], The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, New York : Dover, 1965.

Ballads

Child 2: The Elfin Knight

Martin Carthy recorded some of the Elfin Knight material with Bert Jansch as The Elfin Knight on Acoustic Routes (soundtrack recording), 1993, and this version is the last track on The Carthy Chronicles. Martin Carthy has also recorded some of the Elfin Knight material as Scarborough Fair which is on the first Martin Carthy album. Scarborough Fair is also on Wood Wilson Carthy; that version was re-released on The Carthy Chronicles (2001) as the first track. Finally, An Acre of Land is on Brass Monkey’s Sound and Rumour.

Child 3: The Fause Knight on the Road

False Knight on the Road is sung by Martin Carthy with Steeleye Span on their albums Please to See the King (1971) and Live at Last (1978). The latter version is on The Carthy Chronicles (2001).

Child 4: Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight

The Outlandish Knight is on Martin Carthy’s album Shearwater and on Waterson:Carthy’s A Dark Light.

Child 6: Willie’s Lady

Willie’s Lady is on Martin Carthy’s Crown of Horn.

Child 10: The Twa Sisters

Two Sisters is sung in an Appalachian version by Roger Wilson on Wood Wilson Carthy.

Bows of London, on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s Life and Limb and on their video 100 Not Out, is related to The Twa Sisters. Another version, with Norma Waterson & Eliza Carthy, in a live US recording by Peter Bellamy in 1991, is on The Carthy Chronicles (2001).

Child 11: The Cruel Brother

The Rose and the Lily is on Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson’s Gift.

Child 12: Lord Randal

Lord Randal is on Martin Carthy’s Shearwater, and on The Carthy Chronicles (2001). A different version on Martin Carthy’s Because It’s There.

Billy Boy, treated as a sub-set of Lord Randal (according to Malcolm Douglas), is on Martin Carthy’s Sweet Wivelsfield, on Wood Wilson Carthy, and on Eliza Carthy’s Red Rice.

Child 16: Sheath and Knife

(See also: Child 15: Leesome Brand, which includes the "sheath and knife" figure.)

Sheath and Knife is on Eliza Carthy’s Heat Light and Sound.

Child 18: Sir Lionel

Rackabello is on the second Waterson:Carthy CD, Common Tongue.

Child 20: The Cruel Mother

The Cruel Mother is on Martin Carthy’s Landfall.

Child 21: The Maid and the Palmer

The Maid and the Palmer is sung by Martin Carthy with Steeleye Span live on Live at Last (1978) and on The Journey (1999) and by Martin Carthy with Brass Monkey on their first album Brass Monkey, and also on The Carthy Chronicles (2001).

Child 22: St Stephen and Herod

Related to St Stephen and Herod is Herod and the Cock which is on the Watersons’ Frost and Fire.

Child 24: Bonnie Annie

Banks of Green Willow is on Martin Carthy’s Shearwater.

Child 32: King Henry

King Henry is on Martin Carthy’s Sweet Wivelsfield, and on The Carthy Chronicles (2001).

Child 33: Kempy Kay

King Knapperty is on Martin Carthy’s Crown of Horn.

Child 39: Tam Lin

Tamlyn [also Tamlin, Tam Lyn etc.] is on the Mike Waterson LP and CD and also on the Watersons’ Pence and Spicy Ale CD. Tamlyn is also on the CD Classic A. L. Lloyd. There is a whole Tam Lin website devoted just to this one song.

Child 43: Broomfield Hill

Broomfield Hill is on the first Martin Carthy LP, and also on Martin Carthy’s Landfall.

Child 44: The Twa Magicians

The Two Magicians is on the first Martin Carthy LP. A. L. Lloyd has recorded the song, for example on Classic A. L. Lloyd. Here’s his note about the song.

There may be a distant relationship between The Twa Magicians and Jack Rowland, which is on Martin Carthy’s Out of the Cut. See the page for that song for Malcolm Douglas’s note.

Child 48: Young Andrew

Death of Young Andrew is on Martin Carthy’s Because It’s There.

Child 50: The Bonny Hind

The Bonny Hind is on Martin Carthy’s Signs of Life.

Child 51: Lizie Wan

Lucy Wan is on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s Byker Hill, on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s Skin and Bone, on their video 100 Not Out, and also on The Carthy Chronicles (2001).

Child 53: Young Beichan

Lord Bateman is on Wood Wilson Carthy.

Child 54: The Cherry-Tree Carol

The Cherry Tree Carol is on Waterson:Carthy’s Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man.

Child 55: The Carnal and the Crane

The related song King Pharim, is on the Watersons’ For Pence and Spicy Ale LP and CD.

Child 58: Sir Patrick Spens

Sir Patrick Spens is on Martin Carthy’s Signs of Life, and on The Carthy Chronicles (2001).

Child 65: Lady Maisry

There is a distant relationship between this and Mother, Go Make My Bed, which is on Eliza Carthy and The Kings of Calicutt. For further information, see the notes on the song’s page.

Child 67: Glasgerion

Martin Carthy sings this as Jack Orion on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s But Two Came By, on the 1971 compilation The Bonny Black Hare, and also on The Carthy Chronicles (2001). It is also on Classic A. L. Lloyd.

Child 69: Clerk Saunders

Eliza Carthy sings Clark Saunders on Heat Light and Sound.

Child 73: Lord Thomas and Fair Annet

Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor is on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s Straws in the Wind (2006).

Child 75: Lord Lovel

There is a distant relationship between this and Mother, Go Make My Bed, which is on Eliza Carthy and The Kings of Calicutt. For further information, see the notes on the song’s page.

Child 82: The Bonny Birdy

The Bonny Birdy is on Ray Fisher’s The Bonny Birdy LP, the notes to which state that the "form of the ballad contained here is initially the brainchild of Martin Carthy" (thanks Dave McGlade).

Child 83: Child Maurice

Bill Norrie is on Martin Carthy’s Right of Passage.

Child 84: Bonny Barbara Allen

Barbary Allen is on Norma Waterson’s Bright Shiny Morning and on Martin Carthy’s Signs of Life.

Child 92: Bonny Bee Hom

Child’s notes to this song (Malcolm Douglas points out) include a quotation from the Lowlands of Holland, which is on Martin Carthy’s Second Album. A different version of Lowlands of Holland is on the second Waterson:Carthy CD Common Tongue.

Child 93: Lamkin

Long Lankin is on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s But Two Came By.

Long Lankin is included in R. Vaughan Williams & A. L. Lloyd, The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, 1959: 60-61, as collected on paper by Cecil Sharp from Sister Emma, in Clewer, Berks, in 1909; and has been recorded, among others, by Steeleye Span, on Commoner’s Crown. Bob Copper in Hampshire in the 1950s tape-recorded George Fosbury’s version, as False Lanky.

Child 95: The Maid Freed From the Gallows

The Prickle-Holly Bush is on the Watersons’ Green Fields LP and CD. A previously unreleased recording with the Watersons (including Rachel Waterson) is on The Carthy Chronicles.

Child 98: Brown Adam

Brown Adam is on Martin Carthy’s Landfall.

Child 104: Prince Heathen

Prince Heathen is on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s album Prince Heathen, and also on Martin Carthy’s Signs of Life. A previously unreleased recording for The John Peel Show BBC is on The Carthy Chronicles. He also sang it live at the Sunflower Folk Club, Belfast, in 1978. A recording of this concert was released in 2011 as The January Man.

Child 106: The Famous Flower of Serving Men

The Famous Flower of Serving Men is on Martin Carthy’s Shearwater, and on The Carthy Chronicles (2001). A different version of Famous Flower of Serving Men is on Martin Carthy’s Kershaw Sessions. He recorded it again for Waiting for Angels.

Child 112: Blow Away the Morning Dew

Blow the Winds is on Eliza Carthy’s Rice.

Child 170: The Death of Queen Jane

Death of Queen Jane is on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s Straws in the Wind (2006).

Child 192: The Lochmaben Harper

Lochmaben Harper is on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s Life and Limb and on their video 100 Not Out.

Child 200: The Gypsy Laddie

Seven Yellow Gypsies is on the Mike Waterson LP and CD also on the For Pence and Spicy Ale CD. A different version of Seven Yellow Gypsies is on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s Prince Heathen.

Raggle Taggle Gipsies is on The Waterson Carthy Band’s Broken Ground.

Child 201: Bessy Bell and Mary Gray

Betsy Bell and Mary Gray is on Martin Carthy’s Shearwater.

Betsy Belle is on Lal and Norma Waterson’s A True Hearted Girl LP and CD.

Child 209: Geordie

Geordie is on Martin Carthy’s Crown of Horn. Another version, sung live on the John Peel Show, is on The Carthy Chronicles.

Georgie is on Martin Carthy’s Signs of Life.

Child 216: The Mother’s Malison, or, Clyde’s Water

Clyde’s Water is on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s Skin and Bone.

Child 217: The Broom of Cowdenknows

The Broom of Cowdenknowes is on the Watersons’ New Voices LP and the Early Days CD.

Child 218: The False Lover Won Back

The False Lover Won Back was sung by Martin Carthy on BBC Radio 1 John Peel session in 1972. It was included as a bonus track on the 2005 CD reissue of Shearwater.

Child 220: The Bonny Lass of Anglesey

Bonny Lass of Anglesey is on Martin Carthy’s Crown of Horn.

Child 221: The Green Wedding

The Green Wedding was sung by Martin Carthy live at the Sunflower Folk Club, Belfast, in 1978. A recording of this concert was released in 2011 as The January Man.

Child 244: James Hatley

James Hatley is on Martin Carthy’s Waiting for Angels.

Child 248: The Grey Cock, or, Saw You My Father

The Grey Cock is on the first Waterson:Carthy CD. (Malcolm Douglas points out that this group of songs has a very complicated set of inter-relationships.)

Child 250: Henry Martin

The Lofty Tall Ship is on Waterson:Carthy’s A Dark Light.

Child 251: Lang Johnny More

Long John, Old John and Jackie North is on Martin Carthy’s Because It’s There. Martin Carthy’s own note says that his song "is a reworking of Long Johnny Mor", which is in Child.

Child 272: The Suffolk Miracle

The Holland Handkerchief is on Waterson:Carthy’s A Dark Light.

Child 275: Get Up and Bar the Door

John Blunt is on Martin Carthy’s Shearwater.

Child 276: The Friar in the Well

The Friar in the Well is on Martin Carthy’s Out of the Cut.

Child 278: The Farmer’s Curst Wife

The Devil and the Farmer is on Waterson:Carthy’s A Dark Light.

Child 279: The Jolly Beggar

(also known, says Bob Hudson, as The Gaberlunyie-Man) - a relation to The Gaberlunzie Man given in the Appendix to Child #279

Beggar Man (or Beggar Song) is on Lal and Norma Waterson’s A True Hearted Girl LP and CD and also on the For Pence and Spicy Ale CD.

Child 281: The Keach i the Creel

The Ride in the Creel is on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s Skin and Bone and on their video 100 Not Out.

The Keek (or Ride) in the Creel is on Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr’s Shape of Scrape.

Child 286: The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity [or, The Lowlands Low])

The Old Virginia Lowlands is on Brass Monkey’s Sound and Rumour.

Child 295: The Brown Girl

The Brown Girl is on Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick’s Skin and Bone.

Child 299: Trooper and Maid

The Light Dragoon is on the first Waterson:Carthy CD.

Acknowledgements

Thanks for starting me off on this to the producers of The Carthy Chronicles, with their extensive notes and discographies by Neil Wayne, Nigel Schofield and Colin Irwin (who also acknowledge David Suff’s work).

Garry Gillard would be grateful for any help with this. And is indeed especially grateful to Malcolm Douglas. And thanks also to Contemplator Lesley Nelson for putting so much of Child on the Web. Thanks for The Bonny Birdy to Dave McGlade.