folktrax 147 - WAIT TO-DAY - UNTIL TO-MORROW - Clare CLAYTON and the KilBrides

1. Hebridean Weaving Lilt - 1'41"

2. There was once a girl - 1'10"

3. Pretty Susan, the pride of Kildare - 2'12"

4. The Wee Wee Hoosie by the Sea - 2'17"

5. Six Dukes went a-fishing - 2'11"

6. The Devil & the Farmer's Curst Wife - 2'49"

7. Shule Agra - 2'06"

8. Sleep my little child - 2'54"

9. Jimmy will be slain in the wars - 2'09"

10. Columcille - 1'30"

11. Three Crows sat upon a wa' - 1'02"

12. The Lost Lady Found - 2'32"

13. The Grey Hawk - 1'11"

14. My Bonny Boy is Young - 3'32"

15. As Joseph was a-walking - 1'14"

16. I sing of a maiden - 1'21"

17. The Shooting of his dear -1'56"

18. I wish I had the shepherd's lamb - 1'07"

19. The Two Sisters (Polly Vaughan) - 2'58"

20. The Week before Easter (False Bride) - 2'42"

21. She moved through the fair - 2'40"

22. Died for Love - 1'58"

23. When cockle shells (Waly Waly) - 2'33"

24. Down by the greenwood side-i-o (Cruel Mother) - 4'35"

25. King Arthur's Three Sons - 1'48"

At the request of Elsie Whiteman this recording was made at her home by Geoffrey Biggs, Hassocks, Sussex, April 1961.

CLARE CLAYTON was born Clare Kilbride 5th May 1929 at Ditchling Common, Sussex, she attended Dumbrells Primary, Glenliver Secondary and, after Highers at 18, The Queen's Cross (Sacred Heart Convent) Aberdeen. Clare’s introduction to singing was during the annual St Dominic’s day celebrations
on the 4th of August. Her father, as a silk weaver and church vestment maker, was a member of The Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, a group of Catholic craftsmen working near Ditchling in Sussex. The Guild celebrated with a morning service in the chapel, an afternoon of sports and then in the evening, beer and refreshments followed by a sing song. George Maxwell, the woodworker, Joseph Cribb, the stone carver had a large repertoire of songs, and her father Valentine KilBride, would also sing and Clare learnt the tunes and the words later.

Her move into singing in Folk clubs came via Square Dancing where the Benacre Band provided the music and the Misses Kathleen Church-Bliss and Elsie Whiteman encouraged Clare to attend the EFDSS singing weekends. Clare's first public performance was at a Hassocks Scout Camp where she was the cubmaster. In the early 60s she and her two brothers, Thomas and Gilbert KilBride sang at the Crawley Folk Festival. They sang “Lost Lady Found” and the Weaving Lilt, both learnt at school in Aberdeen, which led to the making of an EP record “The Singing KilBrides” on the Folk Bag label, and the three of them became residents at the Brighton Ballads and Blues club. Then she and a friend, Derek Lockwood, started their own “Sing and Play” at the New Inn in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. She participated in the Keele Folk Festival in 1966, Loughborough several years later and, at the Bromyard Festival in 1989.