The Beggars Chorus
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The Beggars Chorus
''The Beggars Chorus'' OR The Jovial Crew is an English broadside ballad from the mid-18th century. It celebrates the life of a beggar, and treats begging as a legitimate English trade. Sung to the tune o''A Begging We Will Go'' Copies of the broadside can be found in the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the Huntington Library. Synopsis This ballad tells the story of a beggar who was born lame and has a wooden leg. The beggar sings of his food, his drinks, and his dog. He sings of going to Pimlico with his fellow beggars, where they will all have drinks with girls. He brags of his skills as a beggar, and his ability to evoke pity in others. He lives in a hollowed out tree, and wonders why anybody would be a king when a beggar's life is so good. Historical and Cultural Significance Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth attributes the song to Richard Brome, from his 1642 play, ''A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars''. However, the words to the song do not appear in th ...
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Broadside (music)
A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly in Britain, Ireland and North America because they are easy to produce and are often associated with one of the most important forms of traditional music from these countries, the ballad. Development of broadsides Ballads developed out of minstrelsy from the fourteenth and fifteenth century. These were narrative poems that had combined with French courtly romances and Germanic legends that were popular at the King’s court, as well as in the halls of lords of the realm. By the seventeenth century, minstrelsy had evolved into ballads whose authors wrote on a variety of topics. The authors could then have their ballads printed and distributed. Printers used a single piece of paper known as ...
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Harry Boardman
Harry Boardman (1930–1987) was an English folk singer who was born in Failsworth, Lancashire. He sang both unaccompanied and accompanying himself on the Anglo concertina or banjo. "Boardman has specialised in the lore, songs and dialect poems of his native Lancashire. A fine singer, his recorded and printed work has done much to preserve the otherwise ignored aspects of his local tradition."—Fred Woods. He was active as a folk singer and collector of Lancashire folklore from the late 1950s with some collaboration from his wife Lesley. In 1991 the Harry Boardman Memorial Trust was established to increase public awareness of traditional music and related arts, including the folk music of the British Isles and local traditions of North West England. Harry appeared regularly, together with Dave Hillery and Terry Whelan at the Wayfarer's Folk Club, at various locations, including the Pack Horse Hotel in Bridge Street, Manchester from the late 1950s. Boardman was a folk club orga ...
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Hedonism (album)
''Hedonism'' is the third album by Bellowhead, released on 4 October 2010. It was recorded in Abbey Road Studios and was produced by John Leckie. The band also developed a new ale named after the album. Some of the band members took part in the brewing process. The album sold 60,000 copies, becoming the best-selling independent folk LP of all time. Track listing Bonus track (iTunes exclusive) Personnel *Jon Boden - lead vocals, fiddle, saw *Benji Kirkpatrick - guitar, bouzouki, mandolin *John Spiers - melodeon, Anglo-concertina *Andy Mellon - trumpet *Justin Thurgur - trombone *Brendan Kelly - saxophone, bass clarinet *Ed Neuhauser - Helicon, Tuba *Pete Flood - percussion *Rachael McShane - cello, fiddle, backing vocals *Paul Sartin - fiddle, oboe *Sam Sweeney Sam Sweeney (born 27 February 1989 in Nottingham) is a multi-instrumental English folk musician. Career Sweeney was introduced to folk music as a child via his parents' record collection and taught hi ...
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Bellowhead
Bellowhead is an English contemporary folk band, active from 2004 to 2016, reforming in 2020. The eleven-piece act played traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical styles and influences. The band included percussion and a four-piece brass section. Bellowhead's bandmembers played more than 20 instruments among them, whilst all performers provided vocals. Their third album, ''Hedonism'' (2010), is the highest selling independently released folk album of all time, having sold over 60,000 copies and earning the band a silver disk. The band parted after their final gig at Oxford Town Hall in May 2016. In 2020, the band reformed for a reunion concert and, as of 2022, are undertaking a reunion tour, visiting Portsmouth, Oxford, Leicester, Cambridge, London, Brighton, Southend-on-Sea, Ipswich, Bath, Plymouth, Cardiff, Birmingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Harrogate, Liverpool, Sheffield and Manchester. ...
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Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people and with few permanent ties. It involves musical, artistic, literary, or spiritual pursuits. In this context, bohemians may be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds. Bohemian is a 19th-century historical and literary topos that places the milieu of young metropolitan artists and intellectuals—particularly those of the Latin Quarter in Paris—in a context of poverty, hunger, appreciation of friendship, idealization of art and contempt for money. Based on this topos, the most diverse real-world subcultures are often referred to as "bohemian" in a figurative sense, especially (but by no means exclusively) if they show traits of a precariat. This use of the word in the English language was imported from French ''La bohème'' in the mid-19th century and was used to describe the non-traditional lifestyles of artists, writers, journalists, musicians, and actors in major European c ...
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Scottish Folk Music
Scottish folk music (also Scottish traditional music) is a genre of folk music that uses forms that are identified as part of the Scottish musical tradition. There is evidence that there was a flourishing culture of popular music in Scotland during the late Middle Ages, but the only song with a melody to survive from this period is the "Pleugh Song". After the Reformation, the secular popular tradition of music continued, despite attempts by the Kirk, particularly in the Lowlands, to suppress dancing and events like penny weddings. The first clear reference to the use of the Highland bagpipes mentions their use at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547. The Highlands in the early seventeenth century saw the development of piping families including the MacCrimmons, MacArthurs, MacGregors and the Mackays of Gairloch. There is also evidence of adoption of the fiddle in the Highlands. Well-known musicians included the fiddler Pattie Birnie and the piper Habbie Simpson. This tradition ...
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English Folk Music
The folk music of England is a tradition-based music which has existed since the later medieval period. It is often contrasted with courtly, classical and later commercial music. Folk music traditionally was preserved and passed on orally within communities, but print and subsequently audio recordings have since become the primary means of transmission. The term is used to refer both to English traditional music and music composed or delivered in a traditional style. There are distinct regional and local variations in content and style, particularly in areas more removed from the most prominent English cities, as in Northumbria, or the West Country. Cultural interchange and processes of migration mean that English folk music, although in many ways distinctive, has significant crossovers with the music of Scotland. When English communities migrated to the United States, Canada and Australia, they brought their folk traditions with them, and many of the songs were preserved by i ...
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Magpie Lane
Magpie Lane is an English folk group, based in Oxford, England. The musicians of Magpie Lane first came together in the winter of 1992–93 to record ''The Oxford Ramble'', a collection of songs and tunes from, or about, Oxfordshire. Originally conceived as a one-off recording project, the success of ''The Oxford Ramble'' and early concerts and appearances in Oxford and further afield led to the release of a second CD, ''Speed the Plough'', a year later. Further recordings followed, celebrating seasonal folk customs of the British Isles: a collection of traditional Festive songs and tunes in ''Wassail: a Country Christmas''; and ''Jack-in-the-Green,'' which celebrates customs around May Day and Midsummer. In 2000, the band were asked to record a companion album for ''A Taste of Ale'', a book by the author and folksong scholar, Roy Palmer. This album was one of two to feature Benji Kirkpatrick on vocals and string instruments. The band have continued to release albums and perf ...
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Frankie Armstrong
Frankie Armstrong (born 13 January 1941) is an English singer and voice teacher. She has worked as a singer in the folk scene and the women's movement and as a trainer in social and youth work. Her repertoire ranges from traditional ballads to music-hall and contemporary songs, often focusing on the lives of women. She is a key mover of the natural voice movement and is the president of the natural voice network, and has been a voice coach for theatrical groups, including at the National Theatre for 18 years. Involved with folk and political songs from the 1950s, she has performed and/or recorded with Blowzabella, The Orckestra (with Henry Cow and the Mike Westbrook Brass Band), Ken Hyder's Talisker, John Kirkpatrick, Brian Pearson, Leon Rosselson, Dave Van Ronk and Maddy Prior. She is blind from glaucoma. Biography Armstrong was born on 13 January 1941 in Workington, Cumberland. She moved to Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, as a young child. She began singing in a group with her ...
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Hang Up Sorrow And Care
''Hang Up Sorrow and Care'' is an album by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band. Released in 1995, it is a loose concept album, with renditions of songs that were written hundreds of years ago. Critical reception ''Stereo Review'' stated: "Ballads and dances to the heart and the bottle are expertly played in a trad setting that features such instruments as lute, recorder, hoboy, curtal, kazoo, and 'ye great dooble bass'." The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' deemed ''Hang Up Sorrow and Care'' "the most inspired drinking album of the digital era." AllMusic wrote that "Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band have made a real party album, of witty, upbeat traditional songs from the British Isles." Track listing #Prodigal's Resolution (Anon 18th century) #5 Playford Tunes (from Playford's "English Dancing Master") # The World is Turned Upside Down (Anon 17th century) #Jovial Beggar (Anon 17th century) #Leathern Bottle (Anon 17th century) #Iantha (Anon English 18th century) #An Thou were my ai ...
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Maddy Prior
Madelaine Edith Prior MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the police drama ''Z-Cars''. She was married to Steeleye bass guitarist Rick Kemp, and their daughter, Rose Kemp, is also a singer. Their son, Alex Kemp, is, like his father, a guitarist and has deputised for his father playing bass guitar for Steeleye Span. She was part of the singing duo 'Mac & Maddy', with Mac MacLeod. She then performed with Tim Hart and recorded two albums with him, before they helped to found the group Steeleye Span, in 1969. She left Steeleye Span in 1997, but returned in 2002, and has toured with them since. With June Tabor she was the singing duo Silly Sisters. She toured with the Carnival Band, in 2007, and with Giles Lewin and Hannah James, in 2012 and 2013. She has released singles and albums as a solo artist, with these b ...
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Bob Fox And Stu Luckley
Bob Fox is an English folk guitarist and singer, specialising in traditional and contemporary songs of the north-east of England and in particular, the coal mining communities thereof. He is noted for his collaborations with Tom McConville and Stu Luckley, and for solo performances since 1982. Biography Fox was born in 1953 in Seaham, County Durham, England. After discovering he could sing while in school he taught himself guitar and started singing in folk clubs while at the same time training to be a teacher in Durham, England, Durham, where he qualified in 1975. He commenced his singing career as a resident at the "Davy Lamp" Folk Club in Washington, Tyne and Wear in approx. 1970 and in 1975, teamed up to form a professional duo with fellow north-eastern singer (and fiddle player) Tom McConville for 2 years (1975–77). After this he formed a duo with ex-Hedgehog Pie singer, guitarist and acoustic bass guitar player Stu Luckley which performed all over the United Kingdom and r ...
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