Another Collection Of Traditional Folk Songs This Time From The Laws Index
From Mainly Norfolk Complete With Laws Numbers
Introduction
This piece was inspired by a comment by Sally Whytehead in The Ballad Tree: Traditional Folk Ballads and Songs who provided this link to
Index of Songs and Tunes from Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music
I am going to choose songs from the Laws Ballads link below which I got from the link above. The link to the song details will be in the "More Here" links under each song link.
Some of the songs are more modern rather than original recordings but they are all on the Laws Index and in the Spirit of the original.
The Laws Index is sectionalised and this is indicated by the letter preceding the number. I have concentrated on British or adapted for British songs.
Apologies I can't make the links open in new windows.
Jim Causely - "Twenty One years On Dartmoor" (Laws E16)
Laws Section - E: Ballads About Criminals and Outlaws
I visited Dartmoor once in my life, in 2010, but unfortunately can only find this picture of a dog near the prison.
Jim noted about this:
Written by Bob Miller (USA) and first published in 1930. It was a popular song that went on to become a traditional song in America, Ireland, Australia and England and became localised and much altered from the original version first recorded in the early 1930’s.
Shirley and Dolly Collins - "The Plains Of Waterloo" (Laws J3)
Laws Section - J: War Ballads
Roy Palmer commented about this song:
The battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) gave rise to several ballads, of which this starts the narrative two days earlier. It has been attributed to James Robertson, a bugler in the 92nd Regiment (later known as the Gordon Highlanders), to a Sergeant Grant of the same regiment, and to two anonymous soldiers of the Highland Brigade. It was printed on broadsides and in chapbooks, and enjoyed a long life in oral tradition on both sides of the Atlantic. Almost a century after the battle Greig and Duncan found a dozen versions in Aberdeenshire alone.
Nic Jones - "Barrack Street" (Laws K42)
Laws Section - K: Ballads of Sailors and the Sea
I heard this by Nic Jones on "Penguin Eggs" and found it very amusing, a drunken sailor taken advantage of by a lady he encountered.
Paul Wilson and Marilyn Tucker noted
First heard from the singing of Jim Payne, this song will forever remind us of that summer in 1983 when Jim, Rufus Guinchard and Kelly Russell introduced us to Newfoundland music.
Cyril Tawney - "The Nightingale" (Laws M37)
Laws Section - M: Ballads of Family Opposition to Lovers
An unaccompanied story of a drowned lover, shipwreck, and ghostly visitation
A L Lloyd noted:
The eighteenth century was a fat time for farmers and, it seems, a time when farm-workers pursued the daughters of rich men. At least, for a while, that was the dominant theme of broadside ballads. Stock reaction of wealthy parents was to have the young man pressed away to sea. Inevitably, he died in storm or battle and appeared as a ghost at his sweetheart’s bedside. Among scores of ballads telling this story, The Nightingale was a favourite. There’s a description of Somerset glove-makers singing it at work, humming a phrase between each line of text to spin the song out.
Anne Briggs - "Blackwater Side" (Laws O1)
Laws Section - O: Ballads of Faithful Lovers
I discovered Anne Briggs in one my earlier folk pieces and her voice is stunningly beautiful. I have heard many takes on this song but pairing her with it is perfection.
A L Lloyd Noted:
Some English singers know this as The False Young Man. It’s one of those pieces whose verses have floated in from half-a-dozen other songs. A form of it was published late in the nineteenth century by the London broadside printer Henry Such of Southwark. Anne’s version is the one popularised from a BBC Archive recording of an Irish traveller, Mary Doran. Anne says her accompaniment “is based on Stan Ellison’s version.”
David Milton - "The Watchet Sailor" (Laws P4)
Laws Section - P: Ballads of Unfaithful Lovers
John Howson commented:
Although Cecil Sharp collected three versions of this song—two in Somerset and one in Sussex—and Helen Creighton found it being sung as far away as Nova Scotia, this is not a particularly common song. Freda Palmer, an Oxfordshire singer, sang bits of it, unlike George who, thankfully, knew the song in its entirety.
George Maynard - "A Sailor in the North Country" (Laws Q6)
Laws Section - Q: Humorous and Miscellaneous Ballads
Vaughan Williams’ and Lloyd’s The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs commented:
We have not found any other published set of this song, either in British collections or those of the North Atlantic seaboard (though it is the kind of song that often found favour among the maritime communities of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia). It appeared not infrequently on nineteenth-century broadsides, though from its graces we presume it is of rather earlier composition. In her rendering of the opening verse of the song, Mrs Verrall may have had in mind her version of the tune of Salisbury Plain.
Ewan MacColl - "Turpin Hero" (Laws L10)
Laws Section - L: Ballads of Crime and Criminals
Richard Turpin (1705-1739) was a legendary English highwayman.
Ewan MacColl and A L Lloyd noted:
According to Chappell writing in Popular Music of the Olden Time this ballad was written in 1739. just before Turpin was executed. There are several broadside versions of it, the oldest of which is contained in a pamphlet entitled The Dunghill Cock, or Turpin’s Valiant Exploits.
"The Bonny Bunch of Roses O" (Laws J5)
Laws Section - J: War Ballads
This was covered by Fairport Convention on the album "Full House", but I've included the version by Dolores Keane.
This song of history is a dramatic dialogue between Napoleon Bonaparte’s son, the Duke of Reichstadt (1811-1832), and his widow, the Empress Mary Louise after Napoleon’s death. Don’t be like your father, she tells her son.
Julia Lane and Fred Gosbee - "Black-Eyed Susan" (Laws O28)
Laws Section - O: Ballads of Faithful Lovers
Jamie Roberts noted:
Having been originally written as a poem in 1720 by John Gay (who is best known for having written the ballad opera, The Beggar’s Opera), Sweet William’s Farewell to Black Eyed Susan was later set to music by Richard Leveridge in 1730 and gained popularity as a song for next 100 years or so.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading and hope you have enjoyed these. Please let me know what you think in the comments and let me know if I have got anything wrong.
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Comments (3)
Really thought out collection, beautiful songs. 
I thoroughly enjoyed those I could play (three would not). Loving this series, Mike.
These are all lovely! I especially enjoyed Blackwater Side and The Bonny Bunch of Roses O. The Nightingale and A Sailor in the North Country would not play for me, however. Thanks for including the notes reference the history and popularity of each song. I really enjoyed them.