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The City Waites, The English Tradition: 400 Years of Music & Song from Medieval Times to Queen Victoria (ARC, 2000) |
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The City Waites, The English Tradition: 400 Years of Music & Song from Medieval Times to Queen Victoria (ARC, 2000) |
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Ireland has it. Scotland has it, too. Wales is struggling to get it. But England also has a musical tradition that deserves the same attention and acclaim that its neighbors have attained. The City Waites are doing what they can to achieve that lofty goal with The English Tradition: 400 Years of Music & Song. The album in 26 tracks stretches from medieval times to the days The band at its heart is a highly skilled quartet: Lucie Skeaping (solo voice, fiddle, rebec), Douglas Wootoon (solo voice, lute, guitar, cittern, banjo drums), Roddy Skeaping (fiddle, bass viol, rebec, accordion, voice) and Michael Brain (recorders, curtal, crumhorn, rauschpfeife, voice). Aiding them along the way are Michael Sargeant on bagpipes, David Chatterley on hurdy-gurdy and Alexander Skeaping on harpsichord. As they explain in copious liner notes, many English traditional pieces began life as "penny broadsides," cheaply printed and peddled on the streets of London. Music often crossed class lines, although certainly the style and instrumentation varied widely between base tavern and lordly manor. Accordingly, the music presented here ranges from regal to rowdy. Traditional tracks include "Cuckolds All in a Row," "The Two Magicians," "The Wanton Wife," "Hey Jolly Broom Man," "The Furry Day Carol," "The Miller of Dee," "Lumps of Pudding," "How to Court and Obtain a Young Lass," "The Fairy Round," "A Vindication of a Departed Maidenhead," "Martin Said to His Man" and even the oft-abused "Greensleeves." Each is a small slice of England's music heritage, and the City Waites have done a superlative job of lighting a spark beneath them -- a spark that could very well flare into England's own long-overdue folk music revival. - Rambles |
