This week we leave the Child ballads behind for the time being, as we begin the Green album. The Green album is going to consist mainly of love songs; there may be heartbreak and abandonment, there may very well be unplanned pregnancies, but there won’t be any deaths. For the next six weeks, nobody dies.
The song of the week is Searching for lambs. This is a wonderful song; if you don’t know it yet, I’m quite jealous. Melodica, zither, whistle.
Also this week, Master Kilby. There probably never was a Master Kilby, and this probably isn’t a complete song, but it’s survived as a kind of hymn to the dazzling power of love. Or possibly lust. Melodica and vocals, lots of vocals.
And Cupid’s Garden, which was probably not originally named after Cupid (whereas Master Kilby probably was). Boy meets girl, girl says that she’s guarding her virginity, boy goes off with someone else instead. A slice of eighteenth-century life. Unaccompanied.
Fifty-Two Folk Songs 