Brit Folk

The Watersons, Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, Kate Rusby, Jake Bugg, The Unthanks

Give Us a Tune: Sergeant William Bailey

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Lancum when they were Lynched

TRADITIONAL

Sergeant William Bailey was a man of high renown
Tooral looral looral looral loo
In search of gallant young recruits he used to scour the town
Tooral looral looral looral loo
His face was full and swarthy, of medals he had forty
And ribbons on his chest red white and blue
It was he that looked the hero as he made the people stare O
As he stood on Dunphy’s corner tooral loo

But alas for human greatness every dog he has his day
Tooral looral looral looral loo
And Sergeant William Bailey he is getting old and grey
Tooral looral looral looral loo
No longer youths are willing to take his dirty shilling
And things for him are looking mighty blue
In spite of fife and drumming no more recruits are coming
For Sergeant William Bailey tooral loo

Sergeant William Bailey what a wretched sight to see
Tooral looral looral looral loo
His back that once was firm and straight is almost bent in three
Tooral looral looral looral loo
Some rebel youths with placards have called his army blackguards
And told the Irish youth just what to do
He has lost his occupation let’s sing in jubilation
For Sergeant William Bailey tooral loo

Peter Brewis and Sarah Hayes on You Tell Me 

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We speak to Field Music’s Peter Brewis and Admiral Fallow’s Sarah Hayes – collectively known as You Tell Me – about meeting at a Kate Bush celebration, tour plans and recording their self-titled debut album

“I was in the house band. Peter was a visiting artiste.” Sarah Hayes, known to most as a founding member of Glasgow’s Admiral Fallow, is describing (with relish) her first encounter with Field Music’s Peter Brewis at an Emma Pollock-curated gig in September 2016. The two musicians – strangers then, collaborators and easy companions now – both performed as part of Running Up That Hill: A Celebration of Kate Bush in Aberdeen, alongside Kathryn Joseph, Kathryn Williams and other esteemed contemporaries (some of whom were not named Kathryn).

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Give Us a Tune: “Master Kilby”

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Cecil Sharp collected Master Kilby from Harry Richards of Curry Rivel in Somerset both on July 29, 1904 and on January 6, 1909. Nic Jones sang it on his album From the Devil to a Stranger. 

Traditional lyrics to “Master Kilby”

In the heat of the day when the sun shines so freely
I met Master Kilby so fine and so gay.

Well, I pulled off my hat and I bowed to the ground,
And I said, “Master Kilby, oh, where are you bound?”

“I’m bound for the west in hopes to find rest;
And in the arms of my dear Nancy I’ll build a new nest.

And if I was the master of ten thousand pounds
In bright gold and silver or in King William’s crowns,

I would part with it all with my own heart so freely:
It’s all for the sake of my charming Nancy.

She’s the fairest of girls, she’s the choice of my heart;
And her skin shines like silver in every part.

Oh, I gave her some kisses, it was down by the sea shore;
But still she lay asking, lay asking for more.