Samuel James Larner (18 October 1878 – 11 September 1965) was an English fisherman and

traditional singer A traditional singer, also known as a source singer, is someone who has learned folk songs in the oral tradition, usually from older people within their community. From around the beginning of the twentieth century, song collectors such as Cecil ...

from Winterton-on-Sea, a fishing village in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

, England. His life was the basis for Ewan MacColl's song ''

The Shoals of Herring "The Shoals of Herring" (Roud 13642) is a ballad, written by Ewan MacColl for the third of the original eight BBC ''Radio ballads'' ''Singing the Fishing,'' which was first broadcast on August 16, 1960. Ewan MacColl writes that the song was based on ...

'', and his songs continue to be recorded by revival singers.Roy Palmer, ‘Larner, Samuel James (1878–1965)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 201
accessed 4 May 2017
/ref>

Early life

Sam Larner was born in 1878 to George Ezra Larner (1846-1925) and Jane Amelia Jones Larner () (1847-1926). He started singing from an early age, learning the songs his grandfather and others sang in the pubs at Winterton, and earning pennies by singing them to coach parties that visited the village. Fishing was an almost inevitable occupation for one of nine children of a fisherman father growing up in a village with a population of 800 people, 300 of whom were fishermen. Larner is quoted as saying "Why, for me and my brothers that was either sea or gaol, and that for my sisters that was service or gaol."Holderness, C; Sam Larner - the Winterton fisherman and his singing community; 2013 http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/s_larner.htm Accessed 2017/05/04 He first went to sea as a cabin boy on a lugger at the age of 13 and in 1894 signed as a deckhand on ''The Snowflake'', another sailing boat. From 1899 he worked on steam trawlers. As a fisherman he learned the songs fellow crew members sang pulling in the nets as well as in singing sessions in pubs in fishing ports the length of Britain. He won a singing competition in Lerwick in

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the n ...

in 1907, recalling the event years later:

''"And the Lerwick ladies, they had to judge, and the gentlemen to judge the singing. And I got the most encore of the whole lot for that song. They won't let me sit down. I had to sing them another song".''

During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Larner was in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

. In 1923 he married Dorcas Eastick (1878–1969) of

Great Cressingham Great Cressingham is a Norfolk village which lies about of Watton, south of Swaffham and only off the A1065 arterial road just north of Hilborough. It is north west by road from Little Cressingham. In 2007 it had an estimated population o ...

. He left fishing due to ill health in 1933, and spent some time unemployed as well as doing whatever jobs he could find, including road mending and forestry.

Repertoire

Larner knew roughly 60 traditional songs, which he learnt from many people including his father and fellow fisherman such as James "Old Larpin" Sutton (from whom Ernest John Moeran collected several songs). Some were old ballads such as " Henry Martin" ("The Lofty Tall Ship"), " Barbara Allen", " The Outlandish Knight", "

The Jolly Beggar The Jolly Beggar, also known as The Gaberlunzieman, is Child ballad 279. The song's chorus inspired lines in Lord Byron's poem " So, we'll go no more a roving". Synopsis A beggar comes over the hills one day, and knocks on the door of a local far ...

" and " Clear Away the Morning Dew". Others were sea songs such as "Windy Old Weather".

'''I soon picked up the old songs. The ruder they were the quicker I picked 'em up.''' - Sam Larner

As well as traditional songs, Larner knew sea rhymes and old pieces of fishing lore, and was a noted step dancer.

Folk-singing career

In 1956

Philip Donnellan Philip Donnellan (9 February 1924 – 15 February 1999) was an English documentary film-maker. Described in his ''Guardian'' obituary as "one of the greatest of all documentarists", Donnellan worked with the BBC for over four decades, producing ar ...

, then a radio producer for BBC Birmingham, met Larner in a pub. Donellan was looking for traditional singers to take part in radio programmes and recorded about 25 songs and speech from Larner in 1957 and 1958, using the material in two programmes, ''Coast and Country: The Wash'' (broadcast in 1957) and ''Down to the Sea'' (1959). Donellan brought him to the attention of Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker who were engaged in producing the first of the innovatory radio ballads which used songs, sound effects and music combined with the voices of people involved in an industry or common experience. Larner took part in the third programme in the series, ''Singing the Fishing'', about the East Coast fishing industry. MacColl's song "

", which describes a fisherman's progress from cabin boy to deckhand, largely based on Larner's life, was written for the programme. ''Singing the Fishing'' won the Prix Italia for radio documentary in October 1960. MacColl and Seeger recorded more material from Larner and he performed in their Ballads and Blues Club in London. In 1961 ''Now is the Time for Fishing'', an LP using some of the songs and speech they had recorded, was released by

Topic Records Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.M. Brocken, ...

. In 1964 he was featured with fellow Norfolk singer Harry Cox in a TV film by Philip Donnellan, ''The Singer and the Song''; this was released as an LP in 1966.

Death

Sam Larner died on 11 September 1965 in hospital in Great Yarmouth. He left £857, close to the average annual wage at the time. He was survived by his wife, Dorcas, who died in 1969. They had no children.

Legacy

Larner is considered a key figure in the folk revival of the 1950s and '60s. He endeared himself to both local audiences and important members of the folk revival with his vibrant personality as well as his songs. The folk singer

Martin Carthy Martin Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and later artists such ...

, who influenced

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

and

Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of ...

with his music, became a musician after being inspired by Larner's singing at a concert in London in the mid-1950s. There is a commemorative blue plaque on Larner's former home in Winterton.

'''The star of
East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
n folk singing. That's how I was described. An' my old chest went proud out there. I'll tell you'.'' - Sam Larner

Discography

;Solo albums * ''Now is the Time for Fishing'', Topic Records, 1961, re-released as a CD 1999. (Recordings made by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger) * ''A Garland for Sam'', Topic Records, 1974 (Recordings made by Phillip Donnellan) ;Radio ballad * ''Singing the Fishing'', Topic Records, 1960 ;Anthologies * ''Blow the Man Down'' Topic Records, 1993 * ''My Ship Shall Sail The Ocean - Songs of Tempest & Sea Battles, Sailor Lads & Fishermen ' (The Voice of the People Vol 2) Topic Records, 1999. * ''Come All My Lads That Follow the Plough - The Life of Rural Working Men & Women'' (The Voice of the People Vol 5) Topic Records, 1999. * ''We've Received Orders to Sail - Jackie Tar at Sea & on Shore'' (The Voice of the People Vol 12) Topic Records, 1999. * ''Good People Take Warning. Ballads Sung By British & Irish Traditional Singers'' (The Voice of the People Vol 23) Topic Records, 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Larner, Sam English male singers English folk singers 1878 births 1965 deaths Musicians from Norfolk People from the Borough of Great Yarmouth Topic Records artists