 |
 |
Sleeve Notes
AMONG folk singers there are none better known as artists, nor better liked as personalities, than Alex, Colin and Shirley. They are folk singers in the true tradition of itinerant strolling players. So much so, in fact, that it proved very difficult to get the three of them together for this recording. Colin and Shirley had just returned from Germany and were about to set off for France, whilst Alex was leaving for Europe and the States and won't be around again for another six months. So we feel entitled to congratulate ourselves on producing this record which we are sure will give delight to everyone.
The Bonnie Ship The Diamond: Alex starts us off with a song from his native Scotland, taught to him, so he tells us, by an American. The story is of a whaling expedition to the Arctic in the 1820's. The ill-fated Diamond was lost in the ice, along with seventeen others, in 1830.
The Blarney Stone: This song doesn't need any introduction, as those who have risked their necks to kiss the stone well know. This happy little song however, rather lets the business side down.
Johnny Lad is an old Glasgow street song. Its pastoral origins have been lost sight of, but it reflects the time when Glasgow was very much more of a country town than it is today.
Buffalo Skinners: Over to the States for our next song from Colin. The rather gruesome tale of Buffalo Skinners and their crooked employer. There's a moral here, I'm thinkin'.
Our last numbers are from Alex, both appeal to him very much and he has made them his own in a special way, Drinkin's Ow'er Risky and Tae the Beggin' I will go.
SIDE TWO
The Gallows Tree: For our first song we have an old Scottish Folk Song which Alex, strangely enough, learnt from an American folk singer. It tells the sad tale of one MacPherson who does his last dance under The Gallows Tree, and all because the clock was wrong and his reprieve arrived too late — too bad.
Our next song makes a happy change from the sad history of "The Gallows Tree", Colin and Shirley give us a most appropriate number Pleasant and Delightful.
The Carlton Weaver: This song from Alex concerns a weaver from the village of Carlton, which in days gone by, before it was swallowed up by Glasgow, had a fine and thriving weaving industry of its own.
Johnny Harg: tells the story of the impecunious soldier, the ambitious mother-in-law and the unfortunate girl in the middle, but promotion comes in the nick of time.
Another Military song, this time from Alex, The Gentleman Soldier, otherwise known as the Sentry box.
© ART AND SOUND LTD., LONDON, 1965