Songs of a Devon Man
by Dave Lowry
£9.99
Overview
An album showcasing the songs of a significant performer of Devon songs. Dave has been singing for over 50 years and during that time has made a significant repertoire of traditional songs mainly from Devon. It was felt that this collection should be recorded so that it could be a tribute to a great singer.
Dave was born in Peverell, Plymouth in 1943 during an air raid. He was brought up in Goosewell, Plymstock and arrived in Exeter in 1964. Having already played skiffle and Clancy Brothers material in a group, it did not take Dave long to locate the Folk Club at the Jolly Porter where he quickly established himself as a solo singer and popular club member. It was at the club that he met his future wife and lifetime soulmate Gill Causley.
His love of harmonies lead to him being a member of The Oakleaves, (a four-part harmony group) circa 1965, which he left to join The Journeymen. Around 1969 he joined Isca Fayre and in 2006 became a member of The Claque until their retirement in 2016.
A self-taught guitarist and melodeon player Dave is perhaps best known for his unique repertoire of westcountry songs, mainly (but not exclusively) from the Baring Gould collection. Many of his songs are not sung by anyone else.
Following his Parkinson’s diagnosis it was realised that as his condition advanced, these songs would be lost. It was during a conversation over a lunch in Dulverton with Tom & Barbara Brown in 2018 that Tom suggested that his company, S & A Projects, could take on the idea of producing a CD of Dave’s songs. Tom arranged for a recording session at Doug Bailey’s Wild Goose Studio in March 2019 where 22 songs were recorded and some previously recorded tracks were added.
The project then stalled due to illness and the Covid pandemic. Some more choruses were added in early 2023 when it also came to light that Phill Beer had recorded three songs from Dave some years before. These are included on this limited-edition CD which was finally completed in the Autumn of 2023. It is meant as an archive of some of Dave’s repertoire and his singing.
Grateful thanks to Dave, the late Tom Brown, Barbara Brown, Doug Bailey, Eileen Conn, Barry Lister, Phil Beer and The Claque.
Bill Crawford October 2023
1 Three Jovial Welshmen
Published in Sabine Baring-Gould’s (SBG) Songs of the West. Collected from ‘Old Capul’ Nankivel, Merivale Bridge. The song is widespread in various versions throughout England.
- Drink, Puppy, Drink (The Claque)
Written by George J. Whyte-Melville in 1874 and is widespread throughout English hunting communities. It appears in Tom Brown’s Schooldays and was first sung by Dave with The Oakleaves during the early days of The Jolly Porter folk club, Exeter.
- The Crafty Farmer’s Son
Dave learnt this song from a book he found in Exeter library; he only recalls that it wasn’t a folk song book.
- Egloshayle Ringers
Published in Canow Kernow and collected by SBG from John Martyn of Milton Abbot. The song can be traced back to 1810 and the gravestones of all the ringers mentioned can be found in the Egloshayle churchyard. Charlie Bate, the Padstow accordionist and singer had his own version and we are aware of at least three others. Dave first heard it sung by Brenda Wootton at Broadclyst Folk Club held in what is now the New Inn.
- The Cheerful Horn
Dave is unable to remember where he found this song but has been singing it for many years. Peter Bellamy, Notts Alliance, Fay Hield, Barry Skinner & Geoff Lakeman have all recorded versions. Bellamy attributed it to a Victorian parlour song printed in a picture book by Randolph Caldecott published in 1883.
- Caledonia
Written by the late Tony Goode, it refers to a ship, not Scotland. The instrument maker Dave Oddy gave Tony a passage from a book about Cornish shipwrecks with the comment “you could make a song out of this.” The Caledonia is one of the ships mentioned, and following the wrecking, its crew was interred by the Vicar of Morwenstow, Robert Stephen Hawker.
- Jan Knucky
This is a Cornish song Dave learnt from the singing of Brenda Wootton. It appears in Dunstan’s ‘Cornish Dialect and Folk Songs’.
- London Man of War
Dave got this from the book ‘The Wanton Seed.’ It was collected from Richard Hall of Itchen Abbas, Hants in 1905. Harry Cox had a version. Dave sang this with The Claque.
- Old Farmer Buck
Dave learnt this during music lessons while he was at Plymstock Secondary Modern School and has no idea of its origins.
- Parson Hogg
SBG learn this from his uncle, Thomas Franklin of Franklin House in Exeter – now a physiotherapy centre, and part of the NHS.
- Maggie May
Written by C.W. Blamphin and published in the 1860s in Pennsylvania. In Cornwall it was popularised by Charlie Bate and has become part of the standard repertoire of Cornish singers. It appears in Dunstan’s Cornish Dialect and Folk Songs.
- Jan’s Courtship
Baring Gould collected several versions of this song. Published in Songs of the West, this version was collected from R Rowe of Milton Abbot and has been in Dave’s repertoire for many years. This recording by Phil Beer.
- Admiral Benbow (with Barry lister)
The ballad refers to the action of August 10th – 24th in 1702, between Vice-Admiral John Benbow and Admiral du Casse, off Santa Maria. Originally a broadside, it was published in The Oxford Song Book volume 2 in 1931. This version from the Barry Lister album ‘Ghosts and Greasepaint’.
- A Week’s Work Well Done
From SBG Songs of the West, – The notes in that book state that it was collected from Richard Hard just before he died, but the fair copy manuscript attributes it to Robert Hard, stonebreaker of South Brent.
- The Warson Hunt
In the SBG manuscripts, Collected by him from James Parsons, Lewdown. Also from John Horn, innkeeper of Lydford and Richard Horn, miller of Lewtrenchard.
- Cottage Well Thatched with Straw
Collected by SBG from John Watts, of Alder, Thrushleton. There are variants as far away as Worcestershire. This version benefits from being in 9/8 rather than the more usual 6/8 time. We also know that this version was sung on Exmoor by Margaret Palmer’s grandfather. It’s found in Songs of the West. Gill Lowry learnt it at school.
- Prussia Cove
The song refers to the Carter family, two brothers well known for their smuggling activities, who lived in Prussia Cove, in Mount’s Bay, Cornwall. Dave learnt it from the singing of Brenda Wooton. This recording by Phil Beer
- Farewell to Kingsbridge
Dave learnt this from the SBG manuscripts and it was also sung by Cyril Tawney. It was collected from Roger Huggins, mason of Lydford, by Henry Fleetwood Sheppard in 1890.
- The Old Man Can’t Keep His Wife at Home
Published in Songs of the West. Collected from the old fiddler William Andrews, of Sheepstor, by SBG’s collaborator Mr Bussell. Andrews could not remember all the words but recounted the story. SBG confesses that he “reduced it to three verses and given it, from the man’s point of view, a happier termination.” The story can be traced all over Europe and SBG traces it as far back as Peter Alphonsus’ Disciplina Clericalis of 1062.
- Come to My Window
Dave learnt this with Dave Griggs while they were both living in Dave Lowry’s house in Roseberry Road, Exeter. They first recorded it with Isca Fayre, and it’s from Songs of the West. This version from the Barry Lister album ‘Ghosts and Greasepaint’.
- The Marigold
This is in the SBG manuscripts and published in Songs of the West. SBG got it from a friend who was the landlord of the Falcon Inn in Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornwall.
- Tom Bawcock’s Eve
Morton Nance was inspired to write a few verses about Tom Bawcock’s Eve (23rd December) and in The Cornish Song Book (1929), Ralph Dunstan set this to a traditional Cornish Tea Treat wedding march. For the uninitiated, the fish are: murgy (dog fish), lances (sand eels), scad (horse mackerel), fair maids (pilchards), ling, hake and running shark. Dave’s source was Brenda Wootton.
- Wreck Off Scilly
Collected from James Parsons, published in Songs of the West.
- Arscott of Tetcott
Published in Sabine Baring Gould’s (SBG) Songs of the West. Once widespread in the Tetcott area. It was certainly still sung by estate workers in the 1960s. SBG found or was given several versions and for publication ‘recast the conclusion of the song’. Dave used to sing it with the Oakleaves. This track has been included because it is important to Dave’s repertoire even though there is extraneous noise on the master recording.
- Hunting the Hare (The Claque)
Otherwise known as Ipperly Tout, found in the SBG manuscripts and collected from Nankivel of Merivale Bridge. One of the Claque’s favourite songs.
- Spanish Ladies
This song was given to Dave by an old lodging mate who was a postman on Exmoor. A client had given him his school song sheets containing Two Magicians, and another couple of songs including this one. They were collected by Cecil Sharp from a retired Captain Lewis of Minehead, Somerset. This recording by Phil Beer
- Devoran Smugglers (The Claque)
‘Canow Kernow’ gives one verse of this song collected from Capt. T Collett, in 1929, who learnt it from “Capp’n Jacky,” (John Gay) a bargee working out of Devoran in 1864, who was then about 70 years old. Capp’n Jacky could only remember one line. When Dunstan realised his ‘Cornish Dialect and Folk Songs’ book didn’t have a smuggling song he wrote this and included the original line. Also found in J.D. Tregurtlen’s Cornish Song Book. Sometimes known as Cornish Smugglers Song.
Reviews
Around Kent Folk
Dave Lowry ‑ Songs Of A Devon Man 27 Tracks S&AIWildgoose WGS443CD Many will recall Dave Lowry from his festival appearances with The Claque and earlier The Oakleaves and The Journeyman. This glorious collection of Dave’s repertoire was initiated through Bill Crawford’s lunch with Tom & Barbara Brown, who gladly (and fortunately for us, in the light of Dave’s advancing illness) took on production as one of their S&A projects. Recording at Wild Goose guaranteed a high standard of audio. It’s a fascinating collection, all sung in Dave’s warm and welcoming style; many songs originate from Baring Gould’s Songs Of The West, others are attributed to the singing of Brenda
Wootton, Victorian parlours or Exeter Library. Dave’s joy of singing is always evident, a real mastery of telling the story whilst reveling in the tune. He celebrates country ways: Drink Puppy Drink is a foxhunting song from 1874, The Crafty Farmer’s Son and The Cheerful Horn evoke Devon village lore. Parson Hogg would be familiar in many rural communities. There’s Devoran Smugglers from The Claque, and Hunting The Hare. If you want to know what happened in Prussia Cove, it’s here. Most of these songs have drifted out of the heard repertoire some time back, so it’s well worth seeking out this collection as source material. An excellent initiative and a worthy record of a true Devon voice.
Bob Kenward
Folking.com
Dave Lowry’s Songs Of A Devon Man is a CD project that has taken several years to come to fruition, a delay partly due to Covid and the sad death of one of the people behind it. For more than five decades, Dave Lowry has built his reputation as a singer, both as a soloist and as a member of a capella harmony groups including The Oakleaves, The Journeymen (briefly), Isca Fayre and The Claque. However, he has also built a major repertoire of songs from the West Country, especially Devon, and notably from Sabine Baring-Gould’s collection Songs Of The West.
Dave was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease some years ago: discussion between Bill Crawford, Barbara Brown and her late husband Tom Brown led to a CD recording session at Doug Bailey’s Wild Goose Studio, with the intention of preserving this unique repertoire in performance form. In Bill’s words, the final project “far [exceeded] my original plans to sit him down with a pint and a microphone in someone’s kitchen.” The songs from that studio session have been augmented with additional chorus work and some earlier recordings are also included, with tracks from the Claque album Sounding Now, the Barry Lister album Ghosts & Greasepaint (which strongly features other members of the Claque), plus three songs recorded by Phil Beer (‘Jan’s Courtship’, ‘Prussia Cove’, ‘Spanish Ladies’).
Since there are 27 songs on the album, I won’t attempt my customary track-by-track review, but here are some highlights.
- The tracks credited to The Claque are notable not only for the quality of the material, but also for some fine vocal ensemble work. They include ‘Drink, Puppy, Drink’, ‘Devoran Smugglers’ and ‘Come To My Window’. The latter is an interesting and wistful contrast to the more usual ‘Go From My Window’: in the Claque song, it’s clear that the night visitor would indeed find the lodging denied in the the other song. ‘Hunting The Hare’ comes from the Barry Lister album but features all four members of The Claque in fine form.
- ‘Admiral Benbow’ is a duet with Barry Lister: it’s not the well-known ‘Come all you seamen bold…’ song with which you may be familiar, but a rather fine text popular with broadside printers, expertly harmonized here.
- The tracks recorded by Phil Beer are a poignant reminder of what an accomplished singer Dave was before his illness took hold. I particularly like his handsome minor-key ‘Spanish Ladies’, collected by Cecil Sharp in Somerset, and ‘Prussia Cove’, a great smuggling song (using the tune commonly known as ‘The Lincolnshire Poacher’) that Dave learned from Brenda Wootton. Brenda was the source of several other songs in the collection.
Sadly, the more recent recordings suggest that his illness was already starting to impact on his singing by the time the session took place, but that doesn’t detract from the charm and importance of this collection. I particularly liked the late Tony Goode’s ‘Caledonia’ – I can never resist a shipwreck song! – and the song of naval battle ‘The Marigold’, but there is plenty of lighter material such as ‘The Cheerful Horn’ and ‘Tom Bawcock’s Eve’.
I should, perhaps, mention that the song ‘Maggie May’ in this collection is neither the Rod Stewart song nor the popular sea song, but a sentimental but charming 19th century ballad by G.W. Moore and Charles W. Blamphin, much heard nowadays in Cornwall and especially Padstow, having been popularized by Charlie Bate.
If you’re against hunting songs on principle, this album may not be for you, as it features several. But if you’re interested in unique versions of traditional material and some very classy harmonies, this is certainly worth your attention, as are the albums by The Claque and Barry Lister.
I gather that there aren’t many CDs left from this limited pressing, but the tracks are available for MP3 download.
David Harley
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