Freeborn Man of the Traveling People

Last updated

Freeborn Man of the Traveling People is a folk ballad, written by Ewan MacColl for The Travelling People, which was first broadcast in 1964, one of eight BBC "Radio Ballads." [1]

It portrays the lifestyle of Ireland and Britain's nomadic people. [2]

It has been recorded by Dick Gaughan, Liam Clancy, Christy Moore, The Johnstons, Cherish the Ladies, Bobby Clancy, Patrick Clifford, The Southern Folk Four, Schooner Fare and Luke Kelly.

.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ewan MacColl</span> Scottish folksinger-songwriter and collector (1915–1989)

James Henry Miller, better known by his stage name Ewan MacColl, was a British folk singer-songwriter, folk song collector, labour activist and actor. Born in England to Scottish parents, he is known as one of the instigators of the 1960s folk revival as well as for writing such songs as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Dirty Old Town".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Clancy Brothers</span> Irish folk band

The Clancy Brothers were an influential Irish folk music group that developed initially as a part of the American folk music revival. Most popular during the 1960s, they were famed for their Aran jumpers and are widely credited with popularising Irish traditional music in the United States and revitalising it in Ireland, contributing to an Irish folk boom with groups like the Dubliners and the Wolfe Tones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Gaughan</span> Musical artist

Richard Peter Gaughan is a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs. He is regarded as one of Scotland's leading singer-songwriters.

Sweeney's Men was an Irish traditional band. They emerged from the mid-1960s Irish roots revival, along with groups such as The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers. The founding line-up in May 1966 was Johnny Moynihan, Andy Irvine and "Galway Joe" Dolan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Clayton (singer)</span> American musician

Paul Clayton was an American folksinger and folklorist who was prominent in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.

"Young Hunting" is a traditional folk song, Roud 47, catalogued by Francis James Child as Child Ballad number 68, and has its origin in Scotland. Like most traditional songs, numerous variants of the song exist worldwide, notably under the title of "Henry Lee" and "Love Henry" in the United States and "Earl Richard" and sometimes "The Proud Girl" in the United Kingdom.

"The Wind That Shakes the Barley" is an Irish ballad written by Robert Dwyer Joyce (1836–1883), a Limerick-born poet and professor of English literature. The song is written from the perspective of a doomed young Wexford rebel who is about to sacrifice his relationship with his loved one and plunge into the cauldron of violence associated with the 1798 rebellion in Ireland. The references to barley in the song derive from the fact that the rebels frequently carried barley or oats in their pockets as provisions for when on the march. This gave rise to the post-rebellion phenomenon of barley growing and marking the "croppy-holes," unmarked mass graves into which rebel casualties were thrown. To many Irish nationalists, these "croppy-holes" symbolised the regenerative nature of resistance to British rule in Ireland. Barley growing every spring was said by nationalists authors to symbolize continuous Irish resistance to British rule, particularly in nationalist literature and poetry written about the rebellion.

"Bonnie Annie" is a folk ballad recorded from the Scottish and English traditions. Scottish texts are often called Bonnie Annie or The Green Banks of Yarrow, English texts are most often called The Banks of Green Willow. Other titles include The Undutiful Daughter, The High Banks O Yarrow, The Watery Grave, Green Willow, There Was a Rich Merchant that Lived in Strathdinah and The Merchant's Daughter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Five Hand Reel</span>

Five Hand Reel was a Scottish/English/Irish Celtic rock band of the late 1970s, that combined experiences of traditional Scottish and Irish folk music with electric rock arrangements. The members of the band were Dick Gaughan, Bobby Eaglesham (1942–2004), Tom Hickland (1948–2020), Barry Lyons, Dave Tulloch and later Sam Bracken.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American folk music revival</span> 20th-century American musical movement

The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Richard Dyer-Bennet, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob Niles, Susan Reed, Paul Robeson, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Cisco Houston had enjoyed a limited general popularity in the 1930s and 1940s. The revival brought forward styles of American folk music that had in earlier times contributed to the development of country and western, blues, jazz, and rock and roll music.

Tradition Records was an American record label from 1955 to 1966 that specialized in folk music. The label was founded and financed by Guggenheim heiress Diane Hamilton in 1956. Its president and director was Patrick "Paddy" Clancy, who was soon to join his brothers Liam and Tom Clancy and Tommy Makem, as part of the new Irish folk group, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Liam Clancy designed the company's maple leaf logo. Columbia University Professor of Folklore Kenneth Goldstein was also involved in the early creation of the company, which operated out of Greenwich Village, New York, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Boardman</span> English folk singer

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 organiser from 1954 until the year he died; the home of his club in the 1970s and 1980s was the Unicorn Hotel in Church Street, Manchester. His interest in the songs of working folk came from his socialist beliefs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Butcher's Boy (folk song)</span> Song

"The Butcher’s Boy" or "The Butcher Boy" is an American folk song derived from traditional English ballads. Folklorists of the early 20th century considered it to be a conglomeration of several English broadside ballads, tracing its stanzas to "Sheffield Park", "The Squire's Daughter", "A Brisk Young Soldier", "A Brisk Young Sailor" and "Sweet William " and "Died for Love".

"The Shoals of Herring" is a ballad, written by Ewan MacColl for the third of the original eight BBC Radio balladsSinging the Fishing, which was first broadcast on August 16, 1960. Ewan MacColl writes that the song was based on the life of Sam Larner, a fisherman and traditional singer from Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk, England. Liam Clancy, who performed the song for decades, tells a more nuanced story, saying that MacColl "tape recorded all the old fisherman up along the east coast of England. And he never used one word of his own. ... He rhymed the lines that the fishermen had given him, and he made it into a song..."

<i>The Iron Muse</i>

The Iron Muse (A Panorama of Industrial Folk Song) is the title of two albums released by Topic Records, the first as a 12-inch Long Play vinyl record released in 1963 and the other as a CD released in 1993.

<i>Parallel Lines</i> (Dick Gaughan & Andy Irvine album) 1982 studio album by Dick Gaughan & Andy Irvine

Parallel Lines is a one-off album by Dick Gaughan and Andy Irvine, recorded in August 1981 at Günter Pauler's Tonstudio in St Blasien/Herrenhaus, Northeim, Germany, and released in 1982 on the German FolkFreak-Platten label.

Celtic Music is a British, Yorkshire-based publishing, distribution and record label, which specialized in folk and Celtic music recordings released between the 1970s to the early 2000s. As at 2018, the company still exists but its last release of original music was in 2007.

<i>Handful of Earth</i> 1981 studio album by Dick Gaughan

Handful of Earth is the fifth solo studio album by Scottish folk musician and singer Dick Gaughan, released in 1981 by Topic Records. The album was Gaughan's first after spending several years largely avoiding playing music while regaining his health following a mental breakdown in 1979. Containing an array of traditional and contemporary folk songs performed on guitar with open tunings, Handful of Earth was by far Gaughan's most political album to that point, and was inspired by the political turmoil in Scotland following the Conservative Party victory at the 1979 general election.

References

  1. Notes on the song, by Dick Gaughan.
  2. Notes on the song.