Posted by: David Harley | July 31, 2023

Hands of the Craftsman album – expanded

The album Hands of the Craftsman has now been expanded to include some of the additional material made available in the book of the album. The number of tracks has been doubled, but the price hasn’t! That’s because although there are a couple of tracks there that were recorded recently, most of the additions are still from the 1980s sessions that were afflicted with ‘sticky shed syndrome’, which degraded the quality of the master tapes. (I’m not claiming that they were that good to start off with!)

In general, the additions weren’t specifically written for the revue, but were either written around the same time, or were written before or after but fit the theme.

The expanded version is still on Bandcamp: I may add the new tracks to streaming platforms in due course, but that’s not a priority. I expect to be long departed by the time Spotify etc. make enough out of me to send a payment…

David Harley

Posted by: David Harley | July 26, 2023

The Sheepstealer

I learned this from Ewan MacColl’s album ‘The Manchester Angel’, though, hearing that version again recently, I see I’ve changed the words slightly. I think he collected it from the Dorset singer Caroline Hughes in the 60s, but Hammond also collected two very similar versions, also in Dorset, in the first decade of the 20th century. I noticed around then that the tune is clearly related to one associated with the rather more spiritual The Carnal and the Crane and The Holy Well, though Martin Carthy also used it for a version of the less-than-spiritual ballad of adultery and murder Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard.

When I sang The Sheepstealer in the 70s, I always sang it unaccompanied, as did MacColl.

Much more recently, though, I started to play The Holy Well as an intro to my own Song of Chivalry (though not for the song itself, which uses a more-or-less original tune). Even more recently, when the Dorset song came up in conversation in a Facebook group frequented by Cornish songwriters, it occurred to me that a somewhat similar guitar part would work quite well with it. And I think it does: your mileage may vary, of course!

Same version, but tidied and remastered.

[backup]

If you’re familiar with my album So Sound You Sleep, you may notice that I used the same tune for my lyric about Twm Siôn Cati. (Which I also sang unaccompanied.) Fortunately, I also recorded a version using The Limerick Rake as an alternative tune: having rediscovered The Sheepstealer, I think I prefer to sing it as I learned it and use the Irish tune for the Welsh outlaw story.

You can find words to The Sheepstealer here on Mainly Norfolk.

Posted by: David Harley | July 26, 2023

The Book of the Album of the Revue

In the early 80s I contributed much of the songs and music (and some other bits and pieces) to a revue called Nice, if you can get it directed by Maggie Ford, which was centred on the world of work. Some of that material appeared more recently on the album Hands of the Craftsman. That album formed the basis of a book that’s just been published: however, the book includes much supplementary material. This includes not only historical and anecdotal material, but material that wasn’t included in the revue, and other material that wasn’t originally intended for the revue, but fits the topic. Some of this material has never been published previously in any form.

Available on Kindle or as a paperback. In due course, it may also be available on other platforms.  Meanwhile, I’m working on an expanded version of the album, when I have the energy.

David Harley

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