The ever popular song cycle of the ones that went to Gosport. Performed many times in clubs and elsewhere, it has now been remastered onto CD.
A heavy old boat is a Wherry,
To quant it that soon make you weary.
On the Bure and the Yare
They go everywhere
With cargoes that endlessly vary.
Alas no more, your only chance to hear again what was a rollicking good Ceilidh band in their prime. Star of the Show after all these years is still the foghorn.
The red and white lighthouse of Happisburgh,
that shimmer in the hot summer haze, bor!
But thas never as warm
when that blow up a storm
durin’ one of those cold winter days, brrr!
Songs old and specially written, with readings of letters etc of the time, that tell the story of Norfolk’s Greatest Hero, Admiral Viscount Nelson.
The sailors all loved their Admiral,
and although the battles were horrible
they fought like true Brits,
cheered him to bits,
then wept for him at his funeral.
Compiled to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the wherry ‘Albion’ this includes new and old songs all of which are about a wherry or wherryman, set on a wherry, commemorate a wherry, or just smell of one.
For me it has to be Albion,
for no other sailing craft shall be an
acceptable boat
for my holiday afloat,
yes, Albion’s the one that I shall be on.
Songs you might expect to hear performed on the Ukulele, songs you would not expect to hear on the Baritone Ukulele, and songs that should never be done on any sort of Ukulele; all done on a Baritone Ukulele. That’s anarchy really.
I’m at peace with my little Ukulele
as I sing and play so gaily.
Though small it is loud,
stands out in a crowd
and annoys the neighbours daily.
From C19 sailing craft to interstellar Space Arks; songs and tunes on Accordion, Ukulele and Voice; from Norfolk to the Hebrides, World War I to Christmas, Trafalgar to Middle Earth. They’re all in here somewhere.
From Lowestoft to Lagrangia
by way of a Bethlehem manger;
to Belgium and the Amazon,
Trafalgar and Hobbiton;
to far away places I’m no stranger.
Another rich mixture of songs about the Norwich Blitz, a Hebridean maritime tragedy, an over amorous Miller, a brave Medieval wife, a Suffolk horse, a packet of chewing gum in the Cairngorms, a load of old bells.
You’ll find the young female Cossack
for amusement never will lack,
for beyond the Urals
the Russian girls
play with dolls that cleverly stack.
Tunes from the ‘Social Harp’, an American 1855 Shape Note Hymnal, played on the Accordion as they never sounded in Chapel. Don’t tell the Vicar.
The Yankees and the Feds
were united in their homesteads.
They’d sing for ages
reading from pages
of notes with funny shaped heads.
Some old, some new, some borrowed, some blue - well, rock 'n' roll, at any rate.
You may wonder why Pomellen,
and the reason I’ll now be tellin’:
the border ‘twixt Germany
and Poland is where it be;
a long way from where I am dwellin’.
Songs about people, places and events of medieval Norwich from the siege of Norwich Castle in 1075 to the re-roofing of the Cathedral in 1463+. But don't worry, none of them are as dull as it sounds!
What medieval folk did you can't re-
member, so to make sure we shan't re-
count their deeds in vain
listen again and again
to this durable musical Chantry.
QCD 0407 - Various artists
What have we done with the world?
What sort of future do we face?
Any chance of learning from our mistakes?
Just a few of the unimportant little queries posed by songs on this CD.
PLUS some excellent highly-individual contributions by some great local guest artists.
The tunes are quite mundane
and the lyrics are mostly inane;
but what is much worse
is that verse after verse
the rhymes will make you scream!
Hawk & Harnser - Tune Book
ISBN 0-9549223-0-1
A compilation of Norfolk Dance Tunes as played by musicians of the past fifty years. 60 Tunes; some well-known; some not so; some never before published. Full details of sources, original recordings, the two Norfolk Dances and Biographies of Joan Roe and Norris Winstone.
I know a hawk from a handsaw,
said Hamlet
while plotting in Elsinore;
but the Bard sadly erred -
it was really a bird,
not a carpenter's tool
that the
Prince saw.
Du Diff'ren' - Tune Book
ISBN 0-9549223-2-8
These tunes are DIFFERENT!
They used to be Shape Note Hymn tunes, Northumbrian Pipe tunes, a Brandenburg Concerto and a bit of Vivaldi. One or two are Originals, but all have that necessary ingredient - out of the ordinariness!
You can sometimes be irreveren',
but never be indiff'ren'.
In Norfolk we say,
go your own way,
and always, and all ways, du diff'ren' !
QCD 0501 -
Various artists
A collection of local musicians, soloists and groups, playing tunes mostly from Hawk & Harnser in the way they have been played over the last 50 years, with Dulcimers, Fiddles, and Melodeons. Featuring the World Première of the Catfield Piano Trio!.
If traditional tunes drive your pulse in a
Jig or a Reel or a Waltz. In an
orgy you'll O/D on
fiddle, melodeon,
mouth-organ, whistle or dulcimer.
Alan Sissons
A fascinating collection of favourite melodies with a Latin American beat. Local Ceilidh Duo Small Fry consisting of the 2 Alans, Sissons and Helsdon show what they can do with some decidedly un-folky tunes.
In anybody's parlance
there is a wonderful balance
to this musical discussion
on Accordion and Percussion
performed by the two Small Fry Alans.
