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The massacre of Glencoe took place on 13th Feb 1692, due to a Royal Ordinance from King William that every highland clan chief must abandon his loyalty to James II and swear an oath of allegiance to him by Jan. 1, 1691. But there were secret plans to punish some of the clans, including the small Glencoe branch of the macdonalds who were known to be cattle thieves who stole from their hereditary enemies, the neighbouring Campbells. The chief of the clan was an old man called maciain, who did ...

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The origins of this song have been debated, but so far appear to be inconclusive. It is generally thought to have come from the British music hall tradition, though there is a reference in "The Journal of the International Brotherhood of Boiler Makers and Iron Ship Builders of America, (Aug. 1, 1903)", to "Bro. Tommy Ward" singing a song called "We had to move Paddy's grave to dig a sewer." The song was apparently sung by British soldiers in WW2. Tom Paley sang it in 1955 and Peter Sellers ...

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This song was originally a parlor song, written in 1860 by Maud Irving, with music by Joseph Philbrick Webster (1819-1875), who also wrote "In the Sweet By and By" and "Lorena," which I uploaded a couple of days ago. You can hear a 1939 recording of the song, collected by John Lomax here: www.youtube.com It became part of the folk repertoire, with several changes, and gained wide popularity as "Wildwood Flower," when recorded by the Carter Family. I first heard it sung by Joan Baez. Woody ...

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Billy Edward Wheeler was born in 1932 in Boone County, West Virginia. His songs have been performed by more than ninety different artists, including Johnny Cash and Elvis. He has also written sixteen plays. This great coal-mining song tells the story of a miner who dreams of escaping the mines by thinking about the freedom of a flying bird, but the only way he can ultimately escape is by dying. It was covered a lot in the early 70s by artists such as Jefferson Airplane, Richie Havens and ...

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"The Maid Freed From the Gallows" is one of the most popular of the English and Scottish ballads collected by Francis James Child. There are thousands of versions of this song about a girl who has committed a crime, the nature of which is never revealed, and is waiting for somebody to come and pay a bribe in time to free her from the hangman. The song is also widely known throughout Europe, with fifty versions in Finland alone. The version known as "The Briery Bush", "Red Rosy Bush" or ...

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Rev. Henry De Lafayette Webster wrote these words after a broken engagement to his sweetheart, Ella Blocksom, who lived with her sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Blandy after the death of her parents. The family attended the Universalist Church in Zanesville, Ohio, where Webster was the minister. Henry Blandy, being a wealthy member of the community could not allow his sister-in-law to marry a poor preacher and insisted on Ella breaking the engagement. She later found a more ...

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This is Woody Guthrie's version of "Po' Lazarus", an old African-American prison work song. You can hear the original 78 RPM record here: www.youtube.com The song was popularised by Lonnie Donegan using the title "Dead or Alive." youtube songster and Canada's King of Skiffle, Lew Dite, does an excellent rendition of this song here: www.youtube.com and an even better one here: www.youtube.com You can see a playlist of my Woody Guthrie songs here: www.youtube.com For lyrics and chords of my ...

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This song tells of an explosion of either firedamp or coaldust which took place at the Trimdon Grange colliery in South County Durham on 16 February 1882. Seventy-four miners were killed. One of the common (but unofficial) fund-raising methods in such cases was to write and sell songs about the disaster on the streets. Tommy Armstrong wrote these lyrics to the tune of the ballad "Go and Leave Me If You Wish It" which is best known in America as "Columbus Stockade". Martin Carthy learned the ...

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This is another one of those cumulative songs like "The Bog Down in the Valley" and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and one which is very easy to adapt according to the singer's own circumstances. It began as a (low) German song "Wann Ich Vun Dem Land Rei Kumm" which was brought to Pennsylvania by European immigrants. There are records of it being sung in 1939., Oscar Brand heard it at the home of a family in Allentown and wrote his own version of it in 1948. The original melody was ...

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This 13th century Scottish ballad is based on a real person, Thomas Learmouth, who lived from about 1220 to 1298, and known as Thomas the Rhymer or True Thomas, because he could not tell a lie. He was thought to have supernatural powers and was famous for his prophecies. It is likely that the legend of Tam Lin is also based on his life. The ballad, like Tam Lin, deals with the supernatural subject matter of the fairy-folk. More generally it deals with themes of temptation and earthly ...

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