IAN BARTLETT
This is a recording of traditional English folk music .mostly over 200 years old…. except for “Diesel and Shale” (which is about the Royal Navy Submarine service in the 1950s).
Ian sings and plays a lot of traditional instuments … flutes,whistles,smallpipes,concertina,bodhran drums,tambourine,bells… and some more modern ….melodean… and keyboard.Jean Reid contributes guitar
Ian and Jean do this very well opening a window back to the past …. a feeling ofdancing to traditional music in an England over 200 years in the past.
These songs tell a story of daily life in the past
Three of them are about pirates and highwaymen “Newry Town” “William Kidd” and “Jack Hall” All three get caught and hung …The execution of criminals was public entertainment. what is not said is criminals picked the pockets of rich people attending the hanging. In fact you see the code of the highwayman in the American West over a hundred years later( Jessie James never harmed a woman or a child ,or robbed a poor man).
“The Noble Ann” is composed by Ian in the traditional style based on real events in history …Royal Navy pressgangs grabbing sailors from Tyneside….. for service in the Navy in the American war of independence.
“Gossip Joan” About everyting going wrong for a man… and drinking the
problems away with alcohol.
“Riding down to Portsmouth” about a man hiring a hooker for the night and
being robbed by her while he was asleep.
“Sussex drinking song” about the pleasures of drinking strong ale.
“Six feet of Mud” about a burial at sea.
“The Beaux of London town “ is a traditional morris dance tune.
“Moncks March” is an instumental based on a gereral who fought on both
sides in the English civil war… it is played slow because often Monck would
not arrive at a battle until it was over.
“An Curliffion/Lord Inchiquin” is thought to date from the time of Henry the
Eighth.
I can see the past in my minds eye … through the window opened by the music
GT
