Helen Creighton - evergreentrad

22 May

Jocky to the Fair

Was on the morn of bright May day when nature painted all things gay,
Taught birds to sing and lambs to play and guide the meadow air,
Then Jocky early in the morn,
He rose and tripped it o’er the lawn,
His Sunday suit he did put on,
For Jenny had vowed away to run with Jocky to the Fair.

The village parish bells had rung with eager steps he trudged along,
His flowery garment round him hung that shepherds used to wear,
Tapped at the window, “Haste my dear,”
When Jenny impatient cried, “Who’s there?”
“It’s me my love, there’s no one here,
Step lightly down, you need not fear with Jocky to the Fair.”

“My dad and mother is fast asleep, my brothers are up and with the sheep,
So will you still your promise keep that I have heard you swear?
Or will you ever constant prove?”
“I will by all that’s good, my love,
I’ll never deceive my charming dove,
Return those vows in haste my love with Jocky to the Fair.”

Then Jocky did his vows renew, they pledged their words and away they flew,
O’er cowslip bells and balmy dew and Jocky to the Fair,
Returned there’s none so fond as they,
They blessed that kind perpetual day,
The smiling month of blooming May,
When lovely Jenny ran away with Jocky to the Fair.

[repeat first verse]

In the world of competitive Irish step dancing, the tune “Jockey to the Fair” is one of the seven approved and strictly regulated traditional set dances. The tune, it turns out, originated with a popular English song of the 18^th century. It is somewhat ironic that the melody has ended up on this short list of official tunes in a realm so historically sensitive to maintaining Irish cultural purity! Of course, recent cultural historians have been increasingly willing to admit that melodies (and lyrics) have travelled back and forth between the two islands for centuries and that the Irishness of a song or tune is complex to calculate (and possibly not worth the effort). To this day, “Jock(e)y to the Fair” is a favorite of uilleann pipers and Morris dancers all over the world.

The song that accompanies the melody (or at least a close variant of the dance tune) is rarely heard in Irish circles so it was interesting to find it in Helen Creighton’s Nova Scotia recordings as sung by Irish-Canadian Edmund Henneberry of tiny Devil’s Island—a now-deserted island in Halifax harbor. You can hear Henneberry sing it on the album Folk Music from Nova Scotia which is available online via Smithsonian Folkways. My transcription was made from that recording.

20 Jun

Jessie Monroe

As I went a-walking one fine summer’s morning,
Down by Leinster market I happened to go,
I spied a young female that pleas-ed my fancy,
I’ll tell you about her as far as I know.

Cho: Right fol duh die ay, right fol duh die addee
For she is my darling wherever I go.

I stepp-ed up to her saying “where are you going?
Who is your father I feign would know?”
“My father’s a blacksmith in the village of Leinster,
And I am his daughter young Jessie Monroe.”

I said now “miss Jessie it’s I have fine buildings,
They’ll all be on your side as well you know,
If you will consent for to lie in my arrums,
A lamb of my bosom young Jessie Monroe.”

Oh she said “Now young Johnny go away with your flattering,
For you have a sweetheart wherever you go,
Your buildings are haunted likewise they’re enchanted,
There’s a handsomer young man for Jessie Monroe.”

Oh I said “now miss Jessie since you’ve been so saucy,
Once more to my lovely Maggie I’ll go,
She’s ne’er quite so bonnie, she’s better for Johnny,
So go your way wandering young Jessie Monroe.”

We have a nice lilty story song of unrequited love this month that, again, comes from the wonderful repertoire of Charles Finnemore of Bridgewater, Maine who was recorded by Helen Flanders. The 1941 recording of Finnemore singing “Jessie Monroe” is freely available to listen to online as part of the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection on archive.org.

Finnemore’s melody here resembles the air sung in Ireland for the song “Bold Doherty.” Jessie Monroe (Munroe or Munro in other transcriptions) was collected from a handful of other singers around the Canadian Maritimes. Other versions have the place name Leicester instead of Leinster.

06 Mar

Barney Flew Over the Hills

’Twas a cold winter’s night and the tempest was snarling,
The snow like a sheet covered cabin and stile,
When Barney flew over the hills to his darling,
And tapped at the window where Katie did lie.

“Arrah jewel,” says he, “are you sleeping or waking?
The night’s bitter cold and my coat it is thin,
Oh the storm is a-brewing and the frost is a-baking,
Oh Katie avourneen you must let me in.”

“Barney,” cried she as she spoke through the window,
“How could you be taking me out of my bed,
To come at this time is a sin and a shame too,
It’s whiskey not love that’s got into your head.”

“If your heart it was true of my fame you’d be tender,
Consider the time and there’s nobody in,
Oh, what has a poor girl but her name to defend her,
No Barney avourneen I won’t let you in.”

“Acushla,” cried he, “it’s my heart is a fountain,
That weeps for the wrong it might lay at your door,
Your name is more white than the snow on the mountain,
And Barney would die to preserve it as pure.”

“I’ll go to my home though the winter wind slays me,
I’ll whistle the notes for I’m happy within,
And the words of my Kathleen will comfort and bless me,
‘Oh Barney, mavourneen I won’t let you in.’”

Canadian folk song collector Helen Creighton recorded this song in 1948 from fisherman Amos Jollimore of Terence Bay, Nova Scotia. In addition to the Canadian Maritimes, it was sung in Ireland and New England and it even travelled west where versions were collected in Ohio and Utah. Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill recorded a version with the band Relativity in the 1980s.

Though it begins like many other “night-visiting” songs, Katie’s good reputation and Barney’s threat to it play a bigger role in this story than most. His attempt at “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is met with a well-reasoned plea for restraint and, in the end, no means no and Barney proves to be a respectful suitor.