FTX 056 - THE BRAMBLE BRIAR - Ballads of Britain - with pioneer folksinger, ALBERT LLOYD

Bert's interest in folksong dates from pre-war - particularly from a singing style and belief in socialism inherited from his parents. It was just after the war that he became a journalist contributing articles and books on folkmusic. Like Peter Kennedy, Bert was a member of the Editorial Board of The English Folk Dance & Song Society, and it was in 1950, with the arrival in London of the American collector, Alan Lomax, and the playwright, Jimmy Miller (later to become folksinger, Ewan McColl) that Peter introduced him to both of them and with whom Bert immediately became a working partner for the next few years. Many of the ballads sung here he learned from the outstanding collections by Alfred Williams, Lucy Broadwood and Frank Kidson, Guyer and Hammond, Sharp and Vaughan Williams but an important few were handed down in his own family.

1. Interview about his family and his singing by Alan Lomax - 4'04"

2. THE BRAMBLE BRIAR (Lloyd's family version) - 4'02"

3. BOLD SIR RYLAS or SIR LIONEL (coll by Alfred WILLIAMS FSUT 1923 pp118-9 #322 from Daniel Morgan, Braydon Wood, Wiltshire (words only) Lloyd's tune - 3'51"

4. THE CAPTAIN'S APPRENTICE (Lloyd's family version) - 2'15"

5. THE ROYAL DUKE OF GRANTHAM (coll by Percy Grainger from Joseph Leaning, Lincolnshire 1908 see FTX 135) /- 3'08"

6. THE SHOOTING OF HIS DEAR or POLLY VAUGHAN (from Harry Cox, Norfolk) - 3'03"

7. LORD BATEMAN (As #5) - 2'44"

8. THE BITTER WITHY or HOLY WELL (Lloyd's family version) - 2'11"

9. THE CARNAL AND THE CRANE or KING HEROD AND THE COCK (coll by Cecil Sharp from Mrs Plumb, Armscote, Worcestershire) - 1'18"

10. THE CHERRY TREE CAROL (Lloyd's family version) - 4'19"

11. CHRIST ME DID RANSOM (Lloyd's family version) - 1'22"

12. DOWN IN YON FOREST (coll by Ivor Gatty & R Vaughan Williams from John Hall/ also rec by PK from Elizabeth Hall 1957: FTX 309) - 2'42"

13. THE GRAND CONVERSATION OF NAPOLEON (Lloyd's family version) - 2'29"

14. THE HOUSE CARPENTER (coll by Henry Hammond from Mrs Russell, Upwey, Dorset) - 4'28"

15. SCARBOROUGH FAIR or THE ELFIN KNIGHT (coll by Frank Kidson from a street balladsinger in Whitby, Yorks 1891) - 2'17"

16. THE BANKS OF GREEN WILLOW or BONNY ANNIE (coll by Cecil Sharp from Louis Hooper and her sister, Lucy White, Hambridge, Somerset 1903) - 2'42"

17. LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ELEANOR (coll by Sharp from Mrs Pond, Shepton Beauchamp, Somerset) - 5'48"

18. THE FARMER'S CURST WIFE (coll by RVW from Henry Burstow, Horsham, Sussex) - 2'02

19. THE UNQUIET GRAVE (coll by Sharp from William Spearing, Ile Brewers, Somerset) - 2'19"

20. ROBIN HOOD AND THE TANNER (coll by Sharp from Henry Larcombe, Haselbury Plucknett, Somerset) - 3'32"

21. ROBIN HOOD AND THE BISHOP (coll by Hammond from George Stone, Wareham, Dorset) - 3'43"

22. GEORGE COLLINS (coll by Guyer from Henry Stansbridge, Lyndhurst, Hants) - 4'22"

23. ROBIN HOOD AND THE PEDLAR (tune coll by RVW from Mr Denny, Billericay, Essex/ text coll by Lucy Broadwood) - 4'58"

Recorded by Alan Lomax and Peter Kennedy, London April 1951