It's not often that I'm stumped by a folk song, but this is one tricky little character. It is also beautiful, graceful and weirdly catchy... and extremely elusive.

Nonetheless, there's quite a bit to say about land, class and medieval shepherdesses, though surprisingly little about parted lovers. Given the setting and context, romantic heartbreak suddenly doesn't feel like the end of the world.

Somehow we end up in Scotland, though only tentatively, and discover a mystery. But then we get to hear the song itself which, as ever, is balm to the soul.

Music

A clip of Bridget Tunney singing As I Roved Out. See and hear the full version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOlZhqrVrQU

My Lagan Love (traditional, Donegal)

The Frost is All Over (traditional, Donegal)

L'autrier Jost' Una Sebissa (Marcabru, 1129-1150)

The Airy Bachelor (Traditional, Donegal)

All music performed by Jenny Shaw unless otherwise stated.

References

https://balladindex.org/Ballads/K150.html

David Hammond (1979) Review of “The Irish Song Tradition” by Sean O’Boyle. The Canadian Journal of Irish Stories, 5 (1) pp124-127

Land hunger, unemployment and poverty in pre-Famine Roscommon, Galway & Mayo | Divergent Paths

https://faculty.washington.edu/petersen/lba/marcabru.htm

Text of Robene and Makyne: https://ia600308.us.archive.org/29/items/robeneandmakynea00henruoft/robeneandmakynea00henruoft.pdf

George Collins is a handsome young man with his whole life ahead of him, so why does he die within a few short verses and leave a trail of devastation in his wake?

Today’s episode takes us back to supernatural legends from medieval Northern Europe, in which brave young men are easily seduced. We also travel across the Atlantic to meet a dying hobo who wandered into this song sometime in the late 19th Century.

In the end, these legends are a legacy of the things we didn’t properly understand. Nonetheless, if you do meet a beautiful maiden by the riverside it’s best just to back away, jump on your horse and ride home as fast as you can.

Music

Verses from two different versions of George Collins as recorded in the Folk Song Society Journey 1909: https://archive.org/details/sim_folk-song-society-journal_1909_3_13/page/300/mode/2up

Traditional Breton Tune

Faroese Folk Tune – Grímur á Miðjanesi

Incidental music – Rosebud in June

The historic American recording, and many others, can be found here: https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/collins.htm

Final song: This is the version sung by Shirley Collins on The Sweet Primroses, 1967. I’ve slowed it down and recorded it with a guitar accompaniment which is somewhat inspired by Dolly Collins’ beautiful organ arrangement.

References

Bluegrass Messengers - George Collins- Barbara M. Cra'ster 1910

https://archive.org/details/englishscottishp22chilrich/page/278/mode/2up?view=theater

https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/collins.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwerz_an_Aotrou_Nann

https://balladspot.blogspot.com/2016/03/sir-olof-and-elves.html

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xlIJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA161&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://archive.org/details/sim_folk-song-society-journal_1909_3_13/page/300/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/folksongsofsouth00coxj/page/110/mode/2up

What a time we had, talking about the bones and the spirit of the Wassail. The Lunatraktors, Carli and Clair, get right to the heart of things with their "Broken Folk" which provides an anchor, a refuge and solace, a shamanic art and a collective experience. They are experts at asking questions of our tradition, and passionate about telling the stories that have been hidden or lost.

The Wassail is about apples and cider and community and collectivism and so much more, and Lunatraktors' embodied approach to folk turns this an intense experience. We explore both the light and the dark of recent history and ask: what will be left when the apocalypse comes? Folk. The answer is folk, and it can be deeply healing.

But in the end you have to laugh. Their music can be dark and tragic but it is also playful and fun and, after we'd unpicked the state of everything, we were all gurning.

Content warning: This episode includes a discussion about suicide

Music

Now The Time

Rigs of the Time

Unquiet

Apple Tree Wassail

Songs are all from Lunatraktors, and if you want more please visit their website: https://www.lunatraktors.space/ or find all the points of connection on linktr.ee/lunatraktors