I was asked to be a judge in a ballad singing competition for teenagers and young adults. I have mixed feelings about this "competition" thing, but the end result is to get people singing, which I like. I promised I would do "Kemp Owyne," with which I have intense emotional connection dating back to early childhood. Apart from anything else, you ( Read more... )

Hold everything!

Courtesy of handful_ofdust, I just saw that

*kazoo fanfare*

KATE BEATON IS DOING HER THING AGAIN, ONLY THIS TIME WITH BROADSIDE BALLAD ILLUSTRATIONS and they are GLORIOUS check them out HERE

OK, you may proceed.

The house concert went damn well. I'm delighted with how neatly things worked out: aside from my housemates and the entertainers themselves, twenty-one people came as audience members, which is exactly the right size of crowd to pack our living room. We opening acts sounded pretty good, and the Banjo Apocalypse Crinoline Troubadours were fabulous: ( Read more... )

One day late for Saint Stephen's Day, a slightly rewritten ballad.  Now to find a good tune and learn it by heart--there aren't many people singing this one, even among ballad buffs.

Saint Stephen was a clerk once
In King Herod's hall,
He served him best at bread and cloth
As ever did befall.

( Read more... )

The Child Ballads: discuss.  Are they songs?  Stories?  Jacobean tragedies?  Poems?  Horror/SF/fantasy for a pre-cinema society?  As far as I'm concerned the answer is yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes, and YEAH for anybody who wants to sing me one.  Francis James Child (who was a Harvard professor and not the Englishman most people think him) did the ( Read more... )

It was on the 5th of August, the weather fair and fine,
Unto Brigg Fair I did repair; for love I was inclined.

I got up with the lark in the morning, with my heart so full of glee,
Expecting there to meet my dear; long time I wished to see.

I looked over my left shoulder to ( Read more... )

Dear f'list,

Every time I've posted here about a problem that I face, you've helped me in some way.

Currently, I'm trying to decide where to go to graduate school.  Although my undergraduate degree will be in history, folklore interests me more than any other form of study.  Songs and ballads, most of all, but traditional stories, fairy tales, epics ( Read more... )

A trifle late here, I know, but I've been away at a re-enactment.  (It was wonderful.  Proper post on that to follow later.)

First off, a PSA: if anybody on my f'list is moving to a different journal service, for fandom, plain blogging, or whatever, please comment here and let me know where you'll be.  I plan to stay right here for the meantime, ( Read more... )