An Outbreak of Cats

I am an Anthropologist and Librarian by profession but I am also a composer, musician and writer by choice. I have also played melodeons for over 40 years for all types of English folk dance events including ceilidhs, barn dances and the Morris. Over the years have written many tunes, some of which have been transcribed by Richard Heacock and brought together in a tune-book, ‘The Lockkeeper’.  It contains 90 new English and European folk tunes including waltzes, mazurkas, jigs, hornpipes and reels, some ‘stuff’ and a couple of songs.

This CD contains a selection of the tunes which have been chosen by Becky Price and brought together under her musical direction. The arrangements have been created and played by ‘friends’ specially for this album

 

I hope you enjoy hearing the results as much as I did after I put them out ‘into the wild’ and other people, much better musicians than I, took them and owned them. Folk music always has a story behind every song and tune.  These are the stories behind my tunes.  Derek Shaw

The Musicians

Becky Price trained as a classical pianist before seeing sense & taking up the accordion aged 22. Her childhood & teen years had been steeped in ceilidhs, Blowzabella dances & Morris tours, her parents being keen dancers. She formed Finality Jack in 1996, Boldwood in 2003, made albums with 3 members of Blowzabella, was in an accordion trio with Hannah James & Karen Tweed and has been a regular guest tutor for the National Youth Folk Ensemble since its inception in 2016.

Matthew Coatsworth plays with the Warleggan Village Band and was a member of Boldwood. He has performed onscreen for the BBC TV series Poldark and for Netflix’s Bridgerton. Matthew has an interest in researching 17^th and 18^th century dance music, including producing four Boldwood Dancing Master books. Most recently he curated The Dancing Master – an exhibition celebrating the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Playford – at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

Richard Cox-Smith is a gifted exponent of many styles of guitar playing. First introduced to the instrument by his sister and greatly influenced by her folk orientated record collection he was, like many of his age, first inspired by Bob Dylan. As his playing grew more sophisticated the likes of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn became his role models, but it wasn’t until later that he developed the styles you hear today, following in the footsteps of Michael Chapman and John James. He is now a superbly talented player of blues, jazz and ragtime (without forgetting his folk roots), and over the years has enjoyed considerable exposure to the public eye, including spots on national TV and radio and touring with Richard Digance, Maddy Prior and Richard Thompson among Others.

Richard Haecock played fiddle in Boldwood for several years and produced their first CD “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now”. He also appeared as an on-screen musician in “Poldark” (BBC) and “Bridgerton” (Netflix.) He now plays for Regency dance in The Warleggan Village Band, and for sea shanties in A Band On Ship.

 

Track notes

1. Sarah’s Birthday Waltz/Julia’s Birthday Waltz

These two tunes for the two most important women in my life: Sarah and Julia. Sarah was 15 when I wrote this for her, Julia was not 15. Julia and I now live in Sussex by the sea. I didn’t know that we would live there when I wrote this tune down for her but the end phrase is Sussex by the sea, the march of the Sussex Regiment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_by_the_Sea.

2. Goldborough Chromatic Hornpipe/Halnaker Hop

One of my first tunes. Written on Goldborough Farm in Broad Town. Last evening of haymaking. I was standing on the drawbar of the tractor and hay trailer, Erica the border collie was running beside us, grandpa was driving the tractor going over north Wiltshire Ridge and Furrow from the big field to the paddock field. This gave the rhythm going to the yard to stack the bales and then to the farmhouse for a rub down with a damp towel to get hay dust off. A cup of tea and a slice of cake. A good job done,  watching the sun go down and with the smell of damp rising.

Halnaker is village east of Chichester.  The inhabitants were so poor that is was recorded in the doomsday book that they were half naked hence the name.

3. Outbreak of Cats/Landrace/Bookworms Jig

Outbreak of cats;  a pair of ragamuffin kittens from Cornwall,  chaos, carnage and cuteness. How do they wheedle their way into your heart. Landrace; locally grown and bred again written on one  of my work trips to Cornwall to be beside the Tamar.

I’m a librarian, and one day I saw some  young children skipping home from school with their book bags, happy to read and learn, me happy to see those bookworms and write another tune.

4. Nemesia/Summer Breeze

I enjoy gardening. The sight of summer annuals makes me smile. Nemisia is always a favourite as it evokes gently dancing at a summer party. My study faces the garden with a large door. I can watch the birds and flowers that inspire, and when the door is opened in summer the breeze brings in the scent of the citrus on the patio.

5. Les Glycines

I started writing Les Glycines in England, carried it on in Normandy and completed it back in England. We stayed in the lovely old cottage called Les Glycines.

6. Smile on My Face/Faccombe Hornpipe

It was early spring, walking from building to building fresh air, in between meetings, daffodils in flower and warmth on my back and a smile on my face. Faccombe is a village on the Berkshire downs on a hot summer’s day. We walked there watching red kites wheel overhead.

7. Newton St Loe Mazurka/Mrs Muttlebury’s Marines’ Mazurka

Newton St Loe is a village just outside Bath.  After playing for Mayday Morris I had the first phrase was going through my head so I had to write it out and this is the result. My friends (yes you…) know that I like language, Mrs Muttlebury’s Marines Mazurka is for a friend from work.

8. March of St Michael/Annabelle the Cannibal

Marks and Spencer’s shopping inspired the March of St Michael (if you know you know..), and no I don’t like shopping.

And Annabelle wasn’t a cannibal it just rhymes nicely – another weakness of mine.

9. Lazy J Waltz /Morning Mazurka

I woke up early to go to work when the mazurka was in my mind.  It was captured by 6:00 in the morning and I wasn’t late for work, that’s why it is called morning mazurka.

Lazy J was written immediately before lockdown. We were in Arizona and we heard that there was a new virus spreading. There were announcements in the local Dine language and then sanitization stations appeared in the trading posts.  We heard on television that people were buying guns, ammunition and loo rolls so we cut our holiday short, and driving down from the Grand Canyon to Flagstaff we passed a ranch called the Lazy J.  I thought that would make a good name for a tune and by the time we got to Flagstaff I had a cowboy waltz worked out.

10. Half Past Eight/Guilty Rabbit

A pair of Morris jigs. I have played for morris on and off for 40 years and have danced. It was inevitable that some stage Morris tunes would come  out when the handle was turned one more time.

Ilmington tradition has the Innocent Hare which can be referenced back to Shakespeare, so the Rabbit had to be guilty… and morris practice was Half Past Eight…obvious innit?

11. Butterdish/Lottie Dodds/Elephant Jig

Does toast inspire?  does kitchen equipment stir you to the heights of creativity? Some heights are quite low, so not so much culinary delights as kitchen jigs.

A newspaper article and an inspiration from a multi talented sportswoman gave me Lottie Dodds Jig. http://www.cc-publishing.co.uk/Archives/lottie.html

Many years ago I couldn’t play a tune and over time I simplified it so that I could play it. It became a new tune with a life of its own. I still think that it sounds like elephants trying to dance.

12. Burnham Waltz/Five Bells Waltz

I took  day off work to walk from Burnham to Berrow on golden Summer sands.

The 5 Bells was the pub  at the top of the road  where I lived.  It had good beer, fine company and live music.  This was written originally to be played on handbells.

13. Arrochar Jig/Bearwood Jig

I had many work trips to Arrochar and this brought out the latent Jimmy Shand Jigs. Good work, good people, breathtaking scenery and excellent food. Bearwood, the college not the wood, playing for many wonderful Burns nights there in the band.  None were  serious burns nights and I would drive home fizzing.  This is one of those tunes written on the drive home

14. Lament for William Mcgruer and Delia Elise Fraser

The cows were  being sold in the yard, the tractors and other equipment in the field. A  lifetime of toil going under the hammer to pay for retirement. The tune that started that day continued when the farmer’s wife died and was finished when the farmer eventually passed on. It was in my head all those years without being written down on that final day.