'This Way Up, That Way Back' - sleeve notes

1.  Pitchpole Jack  A morris ditty which is the band’s theme tune.  This was sung in days of yore by Sam Bennett of the Ilmington Morris.

2. John Barleycorn  An unusual version of a well-known song from the George Gardiner Hampshire collection, collected from one Henry King of Lyndhurst in the New Forest.

3. Patrick Spencer The American songwriter Bob Coltman wrote this clever reworking of the classic ballad Sir Patrick Spens. It is surprising that such a powerful song has not been heard more in English folk clubs.   Lots of drownings in this one!

4. Scan’s stepdance/ Monkey Hornpipe  Two stepdance tunes from the playing of the iconic Sussex concertina player Scan Tester.  Many a Sussex hobnail boot would have rattled to these old tunes.

5. Mole in the Ground  A nonsense song from the American old-timey repertoire.     

6. Black Fox/Foxhunter’s Jig  A foxhunting song by Graham Pratt in which the fox turns the tables on the hunters, followed by a an Irish slip jig also on the theme of foxhunting.

7. Jolly Herring A gem of a version from the unpublished songs of the Gardiner collection, collected about 100 years ago from the singing of one James Brown (no, not that one) of Basingstoke. As an angler, Gwilym has caught many fish in his time but none that could be described as jolly.  

8. Merch Megan/Y Stwyffwl/ Croen y Ddafad Felen   Two waltzes and a hornpipe — three lovely tunes from Wales (Megan’s Daughter/The Doorstop/The Yellow Sheepskin) underlining our Welsh credentials.

9. We Poor Labouring Men  Collected from the Dorset gypsy Queen Caroline Hughes, with additional words from a Hampshire version.  

10. Swansea Town Yet another Hampshire song from the  Gardiner collection and yet another storm at sea!  Collected from William Randal of Hursley, near Winchester.  Clearly related to the Irish ‘Holy Ground’ and the English ‘Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy’ but with a character of its own.

11. Marrybones A fun version which Gwilym collected in West Virginia from the traditional singer Phyllis Marks.  Ironically, Phyllis is blind but had no qualms about singing this old chestnut about a wife trying to make her   husband blind. 

12. The Sheep Stealer  A wonderful yet haunting song collected by the Hammond brothers in Dorset in 1906 from Mrs Edith Sartin, reflecting a period when hard times sometimes called for desperate measures. 

13. Cuckoo’s Nest medley Three versions of the same tune – Nyth y Gwcw from Wales, a Morris version from Gloucestershire and the Irish reel Jacky Tar.  

14. Scarborough Fair A beautiful and unusual version ‘collected’ in the  Swindon Folk Song Club.

15. There was a woman An Appalachian version of the British ballad ‘The Wife of Usher’s Well’, learnt by Gwilym from a recording of the late Heidi West.