Week 51 has turned out to be two weeks long. Sorry about that – we went away for a week, and my best efforts to build up a backlog were defeated by various factors (choosing new songs with fiddly tunes, taking up new instruments, etc).
Here, anyway, are three songs for week 51; the songs for week 52 – the very last weekly songs – will follow some time in the next seven days.
What all these songs have in common is that the singers whose recordings I learned them from are among the real giants of the 60s/70s revival. Geordie is learnt from Peter Bellamy, who recorded it – or a very similar song called Georgie – in 1968. Gilderoy – which may be related to Geordie – was recorded by Shirley and Dolly Collins in 1978. Maid on the Shore, finally, was recorded by Martin Carthy (and Swarb) on Carthy’s Second Album back in 1966. Having (just about) learnt to play the tune on concertina, my respect for Swarb’s fiddle-playing is if anything even higher than it was already.
Fifty-Two Folk Songs 