Green Grass Grows Over our Heads

Green Grass Grows Over our Heads – Digital Download Version

The original cassette version of this album made in 1992 is no longer available so this remastered digital download version has been made available.

Green Grass Grows Over our Heads – Review by Packie Byrne 14-2-92

Last Wednesday morning, I was about to have my breakfast when a small package came through my letterbox. Curiosity being one of my strong points, I opened it and found it to be a cassette recorded by John Waltham with backing by Pete Shutler. John is one of my favourite traditional singers so I had to hear it immediately. I can’t remember ever enjoying a tape so much. John’s soft lazy voice and Pete’s tasteful accompaniments work so well together, it’s unbelievable. I’ve known Pete for over twenty years, but only met John a few years ago when he took first place in the “Sidmouth Singer” competition. Since then, we have said some horrible things about each other and will continue doing so, I hope.

I would like to remind Messrs. Waltham and Shutler that they owe me one breakfast.

Credits

John Waltham – Voice

Pete Shutler – accordion, concertina, whistle, bowed psaltery

All songs traditional except “Courting Round Dorset” by kind permission of Tim Laycock.

Produced by John Waltham and Pete Shutler.

Recorded and engineered by Chris Hardcastle at The Studio, Rockwell Green, Somerset on 30th and 31st January 1992.

Cover photo by Packie McGinley.

 

Song Notes

 

The Seeds of Love

Although its chief claim to fame is that of being the first song collected by Cecil Sharp in 1903. it is still being sung in its native Somerset. notably by my fellow farmer and friend George Withers. and it remains a very enjoyable song to sing.

The Bark and the Tree

I first heard this sung by Mairead ni Dhomhnaill of Ranafast. West Donegal, some years ago and have since come across other versions from Ulster and Scotland. I have used Mairead’s fine air and have welded two sets of words together, both of which retain the powerful metaphor for the union of two lovers represented by a tree and its bark which first attracted me to the song.

Yarlington Wassail

I’ve known Tom House, now retired from farming at Yarlington in Somerset, for much of my life, but it was only in 1990 that I heard him sing this unique wassailling song. Wassailling of cider orchards ceased in Yarlington around 1930, but fortunately Tom remembered this song throughout the intervening years, as well as many fascinating tales connected with the custom.

The Lady and the Grenadier

Purse Caundle church has no working bells. so when my wife Mandy and I got married some years ago, some friends rang the tune of this lovely song on handbells. knowing it to be one of my favourites. It still is.

A Donkey, a Goat and a Dog

In the winter I often take a motorcycle trip to the lnishowen peninsula in North Donegal (an area notable for its many fine singers). and it was there that I heard Jim Doherty sing this amusing little rural horror story in McFeeley’s Bar, Clonmany. Also known as “The Salt Song”. Parts of it remind me of former employers of mine.

The Three O’Donnells

This superb song has survived by the thinnest of threads. being passed from the great fiddler John Doherty via Paddy Tunney to my good friend Jimmy McBride, from whom I learnt it. Hardly a song for an Englishman to be singing, but the wonderful air and the veiled allusions of the words make it irresistible. This song is for Jimmy and Moira. and for Packie and Brigid McGinley. Packie Manus Byrne and all the many friends I’ve met through them in the singing community of Donegal. with my thanks.

Courting Round Dorset

Tim Laycock·s brilliant round-up of rural Dorset strikes a particular chord for me. since it contains the only .. literary” reference to my native village. Purse Caundle, that I know of. So I just had to learn it for that reason, let alone the gentle comedy of its story.

The Wife of Ushers Well

(Child 79). One of the best of the narrative ballads and one of the most popular. I’ve married the words toan air used by the great Irish singer, Corney McDaid of Cockhill. Buncrana for False Lover John or the Outlandish Knight.

The Gay Goshawk

(Child 96). Like many of the big ballads. this one has a twist in its tail. and was evidently popular around the beginning of the nineteenth century, throughout Scotland and as far as County Meath in Ireland. This song played a large part in winning me the Sidmouth Singer award some years back, and I always enjoy singing it.