Give Us a Tune

The Child Ballads is the colloquial name given to a collection of 305 ballads collected in the 19th century by Francis James Child and originally published in ten volumes between 1882 and 1898 under the title The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Modern day folk singers who performed and recorded these songs include Nic Jones, Anne Briggs, Richard Thompson, Steeleye Span, June Taber, and Martin Carthy.
Here you will find music and lyrics to the Child Ballads and othertraditional British folk songs.

Give us a tune “Ca’ the Yowes”

by

1789 lyrics Robert Burns


Ca’ the yowes to the knowes,
Ca’ them where the heather grows
Ca’ them where the burnie rows,
My bonie dearie.

Hark! the mavis’ evening sang
Sounding Cluden’s woods amang,
Then a-fauldin let us gang,
My bonie dearie.

We’ll gae down by Cluden side,
Thro’ the hazels spreading wide,
O’er the waves that sweetly glide
To the moon sae clearly.

Fair and lovely as thou art,
Thou hast stown my very heart;
I can die—but canna part,
My bonie dearie.

Ca’ the yowes to the knowes,
Ca’ them where the heather grows
Ca’ them where the burnie rows,
My bonie dearie.

Give Us a Tune: Sergeant William Bailey

by
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

Give Us a Tune: “Master Kilby”

by

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.