Conscription songs this week – in fact, two closely-related conscription songs.
The lowlands of Holland is a strange, almost dreamlike song – a great example of the way the folk process polishes away extraneous elements of a song (like the bits that make it all fit together) leaving only words and sound. After Martin Carthy; sung unaccompanied.
Shirt and comb, my first non-traditional song in a while, is a song by the great Peter Blegvad on a very similar theme; a kind of contemporary answer-song, in fact. Sung with drums, C whistle and I/V chords on English concertina.
Fifty-Two Folk Songs 