Join us each month in song!
Since 2016—our designated Year of Song—CDSS has featured a traditional song each month. Lorraine Hammond spearheaded this effort, and it was such a popular feature that Judy Cook volunteered to continue the tradition in 2017 and beyond.
Note: Many of these old songs should be looked at as “fairy tales for adults” in that they often address very strong, and sometimes scary, subject matter. They allow us to deal with difficult situations and emotions with the distance afforded by putting it in a song. They are cautionary tales, and had their use as such.
This month’s song:
- October 2024: There Is a Tavern
Submitted by Peter and Barbara Snape
In 1975, Barbara was fortunate enough to meet a traditional singer named Emma Vickers. Emma was in her eighties and was living, as she had done all of her life, in the village of Burscough, situated on the Leeds to Liverpool canal in Lancashire, England. Emma was a warm and generous character, known locally as a “live wire of an old age pensioner,” and it was only later that the importance of the occasion was fully appreciated and realized.
One of the songs that Emma sang was a beautiful version of the song “Died for Love,” known all over the British Isles and America in many varied forms. Emma’s version was called “There Is a Tavern.” It was sung to the tune “McCafferty,” very similar to the “Lord Franklin” tune, widely used in traditional songs. There are lots of floating verses for this song, although the verse that starts “My heart is weary with all this grief” is not so widely known.
In the 1960s, Emma was visited by the folk song collector Fred Hamer, who later included some of her songs, including this one, in his Garners Gay song book.
In Burscough Wharf, once a busy canal trading center, there is a Blue Plaque installed on the canal side in honor of Emma Vickers, which recognizes her as a “community hero.”
Listen to Peter and Barbara singing “There Is a Tavern:”
Lyrics
There is a tavern in yonder town,
Where my false love goes and sits him down,
He pulls a strange girl upon his knee,
Oh don’t you think that’s a grief to me.A grief, a grief and I’ll tell you why,
Because she has got more gold than I,
But gold will waste and her beauty will blast,
And then, poor girl, she’ll come like me at last.He courted me when my apron tied low,
He followed me through all the frost and snow,
But now it ties underneath my chin,
He passes me by and says nothing.There is a blackbird in yonder tree,
Some say it’s blind and it cannot see,
I wish it had been so by me,
Before I kept my love’s company.Now all young girls be advised by me,
Never let a stranger take you on his knee,
He’ll court and kiss you, swear to be true,
And the very next moment he’ll bid you adieu.My heart is weary with all this grief,
For my false love was worse than a thief,
A thief will rob you then run away,
But a false young man he’ll lead you astray.Dig me a grave, long wide and deep,
Put marble stones at my head and feet,
Plant a red rose bush on the middle of me,
For I loved that lad, but he never loved me.Peter and Barbara Snape live in the northwest of England and perform traditional song from that area. They research songs with varied and interesting themes and perform them with commitment, passion and enjoyment. Closely aligned to their research and singing interests, Cotton Town Chronicles is a presentation of songs about working life during the age when cotton and coal where king in Lancashire; A Song Seeker Found tells the story of Fred Hamer and his Garners Gay English Folk Song collection; Three Yards a Penny, Song, Song, Songs explores the Ballad/Broadsheet printer John Harkness of Preston, the songs he printed, and the street singers who sang them; and Anne Geddes Gilchrist, OBE, FSA, Folk Song Collector and Scholar is an overview of a remarkable Lancastrian woman who became a pivotal figure both within the folk-song collecting community of the early 20th century and in the publication of the Journal of the Folk Song Society.
Past Songs
- September 2024: Waterbound
- August 2024: The Cuckoo
- July 2024: Matty Groves
- June 2024: Tree of Life
- May 2024: Seth Davy
- April 2024: Cobweb of Dreams
- March 2024: The Badger Drive
- February 2024: I Wonder When I Shall Be Married
- January 2024: The Hills of Tandragee
- December 2023: Christmas in the Trenches
- November 2023: The Handsome Cabin Boy
- October 2023: Seal Lullaby
- September 2023: Cock Robin
- August 2023: Dives and Lazarus
- July 2023: How to Make Love
- June 2023: The Lazy Farmer
- May 2023: We’re All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough
- April 2023: Reynardine
- March 2023: Free and Easy to Ramble Along
- February 2023: The Rose in June
- January 2023: Bed Is Too Small
- December 2022: Jack Ashton
- November 2022: Wild Mountain Thyme
- October 2022: I’ve Lived in Service
- September 2022: London Town
- August 2022: Yuba Dam
- July 2022: Bibble A La Do
- June 2022: The Golden Willow Tree
- May 2022: Ford o’ Kabul River
- April 2022: Bold Riley
- March 2022: The Foggy Dew
- February 2022: Scarborough Settler’s Lament
- January 2022: Tom o’Bedlam’s Song
- December 2021: We Shepherds Be the Best of Men
- November 2021: Catch Me If You Can
- October 2021: Somebody’s Waiting for Me / Country Garden
- September 2021: The Water Is Wide
- August 2021: Springfield Mountain
- July 2021: Shove the Grog Around (Shanty Song)
- June 2021: The Cruel Mother
- May 2021: Katie Catch
- April 2021: A Pilgrim’s Way
- March 2021: Glenlogie
- February 2021: Sprig of Thyme
- January 2021: Lord Bateman
- December 2020: Brave Boys
- November 2020: Abroad as I Was Walking
- October 2020: The Dowie Dens o’ Yarrow
- September 2020: The Setting of the Sun
- August 2020: Annachie Gordon
- July 2020: Stand Steady
- June 2020: Braw Lads of Galla-water
- May 2020: The Lincolnshire Poacher
- April 2020: The Hills of Mexico
- March 2020: I Saw Three Ships
- February 2020: The Trooper and the Tailor
- January 2020: Lost on the Lady Elgin
- December 2019: Bright Phoebe
- November 2019: Tickle Cove Pond
- October 2019: I’m Going Back to North Carolina
- September 2019: For the Company Underground
- August 2019: The Maid of Sweet Gurteen
- July 2019: Starving to Death on a Government Claim
- June 2019: Annan Water
- May 2019: The Shearin’s No’ For You
- April 2019: Shady Grove
- March 2019: Bedlam
- February 2019: The Bonny Bunch of Roses
- January 2019: Ambletown
- December 2018: Throw Open Your Shutters
- November 2018: The Wild Rover
- October 2018: She’s Like the Swallow
- September 2018: The Night Guard
- August 2018: Here’s Adieu to All Judges and Juries
- July 2018: Sailing
- June 2018: Earl o’Bran
- May 2018: Georgie
- April 2018: A Sailor’s Life
- March 2018: The Banks of Red Roses
- February 2018: The Boy That Wore The Blue
- January 2018: The Bay Of Biscay
- December 2017: Song, Composed in August
- November 2017: The Devil Buck
- October 2017: Double Sledder Lad
- September 2017: Sweet William’s Ghost
- August 2017: Welcome Home My Sailor
- July 2017: Drive Dull Care Away
- June 2017: When I Went for to Take My Leave
- May 2017: Bonnie Annie
- April 2017: The Death of Bill Brown
- March 2017: Money Is King
- February 2017: Tha Sneachd’Air Druim Uachdair
- January 2017: The January Man
- December 2016: Lamb and Lion
- November 2016: Farther On
- October 2016: Skin and Bones
- September 2016: Canaan’s Land
- August 2016: Farmer’s Daughter
- July 2016: Ladies Rejoice
- June 2016: The Press Gang
- May 2016: Dancing at Whitsun
- April 2016: Spring
- March 2016: The Bonnie Blue-Eyed Lassie
- February 2016: Paper of Pins
- January 2016: May It Fill Your Soul