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Sleeve Notes
The legendary "Folk Friends" recordings. A historical meeting of some of the best and most influential Folk Artists from England, Germany, Ireland, Scotland and the USA. All playing solo and in various combinations together. No sampler! 21 original and unique recordings in outstanding sound quality!
Two Hundred Miles Away — A song about the helplessness of actually helping a friend who doesn't know what to do. The lyrics of this song speak for themselves.
The World Turned Upside Down — "What the English call the "Civil War", which was in fact, the bourgeois revolution, produced many interesting experiments, one of the most inspiring of which was the attempt by a group of people who called themselves "Diggers" to restore common ownership of land, and create a classless society. After less than a year, they were forcibly driven off, but as the song says "the vision lingers on"."
Seamen Three — "I spent my youth listening to old records of Woody Guthrie. For years I learned to copy his guitar playing and singing and eventually had it down to a fine art. I was especially good at duplicating his mistakes! Jack Elliott once gave me a shirt that had belonged to Woody which I wore until it fell off my back. I learned this song one cold winter's day, many years ago in the day of "Sweeney's Men", sitting in the hovel we all shared, freezing and starving to death but burning bright with youthful idealism."
Columbus Georgia — "This is one of the few songs I always enjoyed to play. Don't know where I learned it first. It was way back in the 50s. I forgot singing it for a couple of years and got back to it recently. It's a lot of fun to do together with Wizz and Davey. It is probably a jailhouse song with a blue feeling from the South of the United States."
Born To Live With The Blues — "I've been playing these blues by Brownie McGhee for about a year. When I first heard it on a live Brownie record, I was immediately struck by the power of the melody. I had a similar experience with the lyrics after I managed to listen to the words on the record that were difficult to understand. Actually, this one is two verses longer, but I took the liberty of leaving these verses out and merging the lyrics and melody with my own style."
The Father's Song — A father sings this "goodnight song" to his son as he puts him to bed and tries to allay his fears. The darkness of the night is less to be feared than the sinister machinations of some people. He encourages his son to remain curious and to keep asking questions until he knows how the world is made and who rules it.
Yesterday's People — "This song is mostly by Mary Flaherty. She wrote it for her mother who is the owner of Flaherty's Pub in Dingle. Her generation has seen two wars and a lot of trouble in Ireland, yet still they are longing for peace. It's a song for young people, too. The young generation owes it to the old generation to talk to them, to love them, to make them feel useful and needed."
Take The Children And Run — "This is the best song we've heard yet against the dangers of nuclear power development. Although it is about the near disaster at Harrisburg, it could be at any of the plants around the world. Don Lage is a songwriter in California."
Thousands Are Sailing To Americay — "I have a lot of songs about emigration in my repertoire, not so much because I like singing about it, but because there are so many fine ballads on the subject, I can't resist them. This one always strikes me as being different! Most emigration songs are highly subjective. The unfortunate hero sings of saying goodbye to sweetheat and country this one appears to have been written by a poet or ballad-maker who stands apart and views the subject objectively. For me this gives it a very modern feel. The late Eddie Butcher of Co. Derry sang a version of this song one day when I went to visit him. Subsequently I heard another version sung by Robin Morton and Cathal McConnell which they had from John Maquire of Co, Fermanagh. I juggled the words about a bit, wrote a few more and put it to a tune of my own."
Es Ist Ein Schnee Gefallen — I liked this very German melody and this text by Franz-Josef Degenhardt, both of which are in the best tradition of German folk songs, so much that I put this song next to the friends' Anglo-American songs in the recording with Werner and Danny wanted. The poetic images - which could also come from old folk songs - and the simple, clear language allow traditions to live on, even though the song comes from the present.
Voices From The Mountains — "We learned this song about ten years ago from our friend Ruthie Gorton who visited the Appalachian coalfields from California. One reason we still sing it is that people in the mountains really like the song. Strip mining continues to be a serious threat to the farms and community members throughout the mountains."
Lassie Lie Near Me — "Culloden was the last battle fought in the series of events which really constituted the British Bourgeois Revolution (although British Historians would be horrified at the thought of calling the events of the late 17th early 18th centuries "revolution") and also the last battle fought on military lines on "British" territory. It signaled the end of Scotland as a self-determining country and the real beginning of British Imperialism. This song is from James Hogg's books, "Jacobite Relics", Volume II. Many of the Jacobite songs deal with the fate of the old Feudal Establishment, but this one deals with the problem faced by one of the Scots themselves, who had gone into exile after Culloden, but risked life to return for his loved ones."
The John MacLean March — "John MacLean was a prominent socialist leader in Glasgow who was imprisoned during the first World War for his beliefs in pacifism. When he was eventually released still at the height of jingoism, it is said that more than 100,000 people turned out in the streets of Glasgow to pay tribute to him. Hamish Henderson of the School of Scottish Studies, folkorist, poet, song writer and educationalist was the writer of this song."
Jamie Foyers — "There was a song during the Peninsular Wars which told of a Pertshire militiaman dying in far-off Spain. It turned up again during the Boer War and again in the African Zulu War. The version given here was written during the Spanish Civil War and makes use of the same opening verse and melody which have been common to all these songs." (Ewan MacColl)
Green Grows The Laurel — "This is a well known and popular song in Ireland. It was a Music Hall favorite and usually sung to fairly sentimental tunes. Dolores learned this setting from Mary Conway, a traditional singer from Dolores' home village. Most of Mary Conway's songs were in Gaelic and this was one of the exceptions. It has a fine traditional tune to it and the chorus has an allegorical reference in it not usually found in the Music Hall versions: "Never change the Green Laurel for the Red White and Blue." We take this to mean … "Never desert the Green flag of Ireland for the British Union Jack."
The Waterford Waltz — Finbar learned this 250-year-old tune in Dunmore East, Waterford from Tommy Carney, one of the oldest living Irish pipers. The "Waterford Waltz" is mainly widespread in the south of Ireland and is performed here by the "Celts" of the Folk Friends in a joint session.
Planet Without A Plan — During the recording of this album, Wizz completed his song about the "planet without a plan". Signs of the death of life on earth are accumulating around us, while politicians still argue about who is to blame for man's destruction of the environment and the ruthless exploitation of nature. The warnings of ecologists are being brushed aside by profit motives, while the feeling of the threat posed by nuclear power is becoming ever more widespread. The seemingly haphazard destruction of this planet must be countered by a plan for the preservation of life, which everyone can contribute to realizing.
The notes for this CD are in German and English. German translated via Google Translate.
