Common Tongue
Released in 1996 on Topic Records TSCD488 (CD, UK)
Produced by Tony Engle.
Recorded by Panda Sound at Robin Hood's Bay.
Engineered and mixed by Oliver Knight with thanks to Ray Williams.
Photography by Tom Howard.
Digital Design by John Haxby@art.surgery.
Musicians
Martin Carthy: vocal, guitar, mandolin
Norma Waterson: vocal
Eliza Carthy: vocal, fiddle
Saul Rose plays melodeon on Rambleaway, Valentine Waltz, Rackabello, Lowlands of Holland, Wellington Hornpipe, Flash Company, and sings on Stars in My Crown.
MacLaine Colston plays hammered dulcimer on Lowlands of Holland, and Liverpool & Wellington Hornpipes.
Barnaby Stradling plays bass on Rackabello, Lowlands of Holland, and Liverpool & Wellington Hornpipes.
Lal Waterson and Maria Gilhooley sing with Norma and Eliza (The Waterdaughters) on American Stranger and on Rackabello. On Stars in My Crown they sing with the addition of Mike Waterson and Eleanor Waterson.
Track Listings:
1. Rambleaway / Valentine Waltz
2. Claudy Banks
3. Rackabello
4. Lowlands of Holland
5. Grand March in the Battle of Prague / Liverpool Hornpipe / Wellington Hornpipe
6. Meeting is a Pleasure
7. Hares in the Old Plantation
8. Flash Company (The Yellow Handkerchief)
9. Maid Lamenting
10. American Stranger
11. French Stroller
12. Polly's Love
13. Stars in My Crown
Tracks 1a, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 13 Trad. arr. Waterson:Carthy
Track 1b Trad. arr. Saul Rose
Tracks 5, 7, 11 Trad. arr. Martin Carthy & Eliza Carthy
Track 9 Trad. arr. Eliza Carthy
Track 10 Trad. arr. Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy, Elaine Waterson & Maria Gilhooley
Track 12 Trad. arr. Norma Waterson & Martin Carthy
Track Notes & extra details
Rambleaway / Valentine Waltz
Norma loves waltzes and so do we. The tune of Rambleaway is more usually associated with a song that I don't like much - called Old Mother Crawley - and it's an absolute peach. The character himself advertises himself for what he is and yet there is still somebody who falls for it. And, how they fall. You see people like him on Ricki Lake or Oprah Winfrey all the time. The audience boo and hiss and it makes not a ha'porth of difference. For him it's just another advert.
Saul (Rose) had the idea for Valentine Waltz - it's the morris tune, Valentine's Day, slowed right down.
Claudy Banks
Claudy Banks is a small pearl. We have (probably) Vaughan Williams to thank for recording this on a cylinder around 1908-10 from a sweet Southampton singer called Frederick White, whose recording survives rather damaged but still to be relished. It's one of the so-called Broken Token songs - albeit one that has no broken token!
Rackabello
Rackabello is found in F.J. Child as a single verse, so, with the help of every version I could lay my hands on, a shoe horn, a great tune from a Hertfordshire woman called Kathleen Williams (actually for the song The Crabfish) and a great band, the story of the slaughter of the giant's pet pig is given full rein. Don't know how long the victim was stuck up the tree, but the story doesn't stick around for the liberation, even if the victim has to. We'll never know.
Lowlands of Holland
The big mystery facing anyone who sings The Lowlands of Holland appears at the very moment that person tries to decide where they are; the Lowlands of Holland, that is. It was an extremely hot day in Holland when the sugar cane was plentiful and tea grew on trees. An alternative might be Australia (the fact that ti trees grow there is almost too tempting to ignore), but perhaps the Caribbean would be closer. Surinam perhaps. There were endless territorial squabbles among the British, French, Dutch and Spaniards, and the press-gang was always super-busy. Norma's way of doing it is based on a version in Pedlar's Pack found originally in Hull.
Grand March in the Battle of Prague / Liverpool Hornpipe / Wellington Hornpipe
The Grand March in the Battle of Prague, The Liverpool Hornpipe and The Wellington Hornpipe come from a collection called The Ironbridge Hornpipe from the manuscript of John Moore put together by Gordon Ashman, and are good examples of the kind of tunes assiduously being dug out by modern players looking for strong repertoire.
Meeting is a Pleasure
One of the locations which yielded rich pickings for the turn-of-the-century collector was the town workhouse, and Cecil Sharp met Mr Thomas Downey in the Marylebone Workhouse (where he met several wonderful singers) and learned, among other songs, Meeting is a Pleasure, a most Irish sounding piece. Hard to believe that the workhouse system survived until the 1950s and looks like making a comeback, sooner rather than later.
Hares in the Old Plantation
Mr Shadrach Haden, sometimes know as 'Shepherd', came from the village of Bampton in the Bush which is of course the home of the still famous and very independent morris team, and from him Cecil Sharp learned many great songs including Hares in the Old Plantation. It's quite unusual I think in the sense that it is a song about hunger for food, and I really can't think of too many others. It's also a favourite among gypsies, who generally sing a much more rambly tune than the one which Mr Haden had.
Flash Company (The Yellow Handkerchief)
Percy Webb was a favourite singer of Norma's, and of many others too. She and many other women loved his spunky way of singing and the fact that he remained a very sexy man right up until he died at a ripe old age. Flash Company was a favourite song of his and was regarded by many as his anthem. Norma's way of singing it owes a lot to him, but the tune actually comes from the Southampton singer Job Read who met the collector George Gardiner in 1906.
Maid Lamenting
Maid Lamenting is a piece of Yorkshire straighforwardness from the Frank Kidson collection, a songs stripped right down and with absolutely no illusions.
American Stranger
Cecil Sharp rarely made recordings of singers, but this is from one which he did make. The singer is a gypsy woman called Priscillia Cooper recorded encamped on Stafford Common in Devon, and although the cylinder is very badly damaged, it was there that Norma first encountered it.
French Stroller
French Stroller is an English hornpipe in 3/2 time. The dance is long lost I believe, but quite a number of tunes survive in manuscript and very beautiful some of them are.
Polly's Love
Jim Eldon is responsible for both Norma and her brother Mike learning Polly's Love because he sings a version which he collected in the East Riding. They both sing Jim's astounding Fair Maids are Shining first verse, and then go their own ways through this savage and riveting story.
Stars in My Crown
Stars in my Crown is number 787 in the Baptist Sankey hymnal and was brought to Norma's attention unconsciously while she was watching Dennis Potter's last interview with an extraordinarily sensitive Melvin Bragg. Leastways, she doesn't remember him saying '787', but he did. We had the hymnal, found the song and learned it. It was, of course, a feature of his last play Cold Lazarus. We enjoy singing hymns and it's a blast, whether it be Sacred Harp from USA, or black gospel, or English Baptist stuff.
Many thanks to Garry Gillard and Reinhard Zierke (and friends) for use of their album information. Check their site on the weblinks for more Waterson:Carthy history.
