As I Cycled Out On A May Morning

It's Been One Hundred Years. 1903-2003

Talking Elephant TECD053 (CD, UK, 2003)

As I Cycled Out on a May Morning
The Cecil Sharp Centenary Collective

Talking Elephant TECD053 (CD, UK, 2003)

recorded at:Rooksmere Studios, Overstone, Northants.

July and August 2003

Engineer: Mark Hutchingson
New photographs: Ron Eamonson
Old photographs: Cecil Sharp
Booklet design: Malcolm Holmes

Musicians

Simon Care, melodeon, Anglo concertina;
Ashley Hutchings, vocal, acoustic bass guitar;
Emily Slade, vocal, acoustic guitar, banjo;
Roger Wilson, vocal, fiddle, Appalachian dulcimer, acoustic guitar

with
Brendan Power, harmonica;
Guy Fletcher, drums;
Kellie While, harmony vocals;
Mark Hutchinson, harmony vocals

Tracks

100 Years Ago
William Taylor
Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy
Country Dance Medley (Philibelua All The Way / Newcastle / Galopede)
The Trees They Do Grow High
Among the New Mown Hay
Crabfish
Rose Bud in June
Morris Dance Medley (Hunting the Squirrell / Constant Billy / Jockey to the Fair - from the Headington, Oxfordshire, tradition)
The Carter
Off to America
Wife of Usher's Well
Appalachian Front Porch Game
Matty Groves
Back to the British Isles
Bride of Kildare
100 Years Ago (reprise)

All track Trad. arr. Simon Care / Ashley Hutchings/ Emily Slade / Roger Wilson except
Tracks 1, 15 Trad. / Ashley Hutchings
Track 5 Trad. arr. Emily Slade
Track 8 Trad. arr. Emily Slade / Roger Wilson
Track 11 Trad. arr. Roger Wilson
Track 12 comp. Ashley Hutchings

On August 22 1903 Cecil Sharp noted his first folk song, The Seeds of Love, from John England in Hambridge village in Somerset.

Over the following couple of years Sharp, often assisted by his friend Charles Marson, the local vicar, collected 1,500 songs in the county, many of which were published in 5 volumes of Somerset Folk Songs. Further afield in England and in the USA, Sharp later collected another 3,000 songs. He was only one of several song collectors but he helped to regenerate The Folk Song Society and to revive these songs in new contexts especially in schools. In addition he collected and published morris dances, English sword dances and country dances. Indeed he founded the English Folk Dance Society in 1911. The fact that so many people, not just in Somerset but throughout the world, are still singing the songs and dancing the dances which he collected is an indication of just how important the first event turned out to be.

Now one hundred years later we have an opportunity to celebrate how significant this visit to Hambridge really was.

The First Song

Seeds of Love

I sowed the seeds of love
I sowed them in the springtime
Gathered them up in the morning so soon
While small birds sweetly sing
While small birds sweetly sing

My garden was planted well
With flowers everywhere
I had not the liberty to choose for myself
The flower I held most dear
The flower I held most dear

The gardener standing by
Three flowers he gave to me
He gave me the violet, the lily and the pink
But I refused all three
But I refused all three

The violet I did not like
Because it fades so soon
The lily and the pink I did over think
And vowed I would wait till June
And vowed I would wait till June

For in June is the red, red rose
And thats the flower for me
Oft times have I plucked that red rosy bush
And gained a willow tree
And gained a willow tree

Now the willow tree may twist
And the willow tree may twine
I wish I was lying in that young mans arms
That once held this heart of mine
That once held this heart of mine

Thyme is a precious thing
Its a root that the sun shines on
Its a root that will bring all things to an end
And so our time goes on
And so our time goes on

Its good to be drinking ale
Its better to be drinking wine
Oh better if I'd stayed in that young mans arms
Where I'd been many a time
Where I'd been many a time

Come all you false young men
Dont leave me here to repine
For the grass that may often be trampled under foot
Give it time it will rise again
Give it time it will rise again