David Herron's Chapbook

• BARING-GOULD, Rev. Sabine, Garland of Country Songs. Llanerch Publishers. Pbk £12.95 (ISBN 186143071X)
  Llanerch seem to have cornered the market with their attractive facsimile reprints. Garland was published a year after the better known Songs of the West. Introduction by Martin Graebe (TSF)
   
• BOYES, Georgina, The Imagined Village. Manchester University Press. Pbk £12.99 (ISBN 0719045711)
  An important background work, by a leading scholar in the field, on the beginnings of folk song collection in the British Isles with details of the collectors and the politics and ideologies that underlined their work.
   
• BROWN, Jeremy, Hampshire & Berkshire Folk Songs. J. Brown Portsmouth. Pbk £1.80 (ISBN 0951518739)
   
• BRUCE & STOKOE, Northumbrian Minstrelsey. Llanerch. Pbk £9.95 (ISBN 1861430396)
  Another Llanerch reprint containing, apart from the pipe tunes, a wealth of material from the Northeast.
   
• CARSON. Ciaran, Last Night's Fun. Pimlico. Pbk £10.00 (ISBN 0172662529)
  This little book has no music or song in it. But I would have felt unsatisfied if I had not included Carson's delightful account of growing up with and learning to play traditional Irish music. It's all here: the beauty of fugitive nights in pubs, honouring the memory of dead players - Seamus Tansey, Joe Cooley, & Seamus Ennis. For sheer lyrical writing and atmosphere I recommend it as ultimate bedtime reading for any folkie!
   
• CASTLE, Pete, Open the Door and Let Us In: Folk Songs for Children and Adults. Steel Carpet Music. Pbk £2.00 (ISBN 1871391008)
   
• CASTLE, Pete (ed), Kentish Songster: Folk Songs from Kent. Steel Carpet Music. £5.00 (ISBN 1871391148)
   
• CASTLE, Pete, False Waters: Ballads and Songs. Steel Carpet Music. £2.00 (ISBN 1871391083)
   
• COLONNE, Celia Morrison, Wiltshire Folk Songs. Wilts Folk Life Soc: Spiral. £3.00 (ISBN 0907756034)
   
• COPPER, Bob, A Song For Every Season. Coppersongs. Pbk £14.95 (ISBN 095262401X)
  Award winning account of Bob Copper's travels in Sussex and Hampshire collecting songs from traditional singers for the B.B.C. It captures a whole way of country life that has now all but disappeared. The book also includes a selection of songs from the repertoire of the famous Rottingdean family. Pure gold in every sense!
   
• COPPIN, JOHNNY, A Country Christmas. Windrush Press. Pbk £12.99 (ISBN 0900075775)
  An unusual compilation by the Gloucestershire singer formerly with Decameron, including verse, anecdotes, tunes, songs and carols drawn from the folk tradition and literature.
   
• DAVENPORT, Paul (ed), South Riding Folk Network Song Book. SRFN Pbk £6.95 (ISBN 0952985756)
  Songs from South Yorkshire and the Sheffield area with versions of well known songs, and some interesting regional material from the amazingly energetic South Riding Folk Network. Paul Davenport (TSF) is also responsible for two well-researched tune books with music from the area. ISBN 0952985705. Click here for more details and to order these books from SRFN
   
• DAWNEY, Michael (ed), Ploughboy's Glory: A selection of hitherto unpublished folk songs collected by George Butterworth.. English Folk Dance and Song Society. Pbk £1.00 (ISBN 0854181172)
   
• HEALY, James N (ed), Ballads from the Pubs of Ireland. Vol.1: Popular Songs and Ballads. Ossian Publications. £3.95 (ISBN 190042830X)
   
• HEALY, James N (ed), Ballads from the Pubs of Ireland. Vol. 2: Ballads from an Irish Fireside. Ossian Publications. £3.99 (ISBN 1900428350)
   
• HEALY, James N (ed), Ballads from the Pubs of Ireland. Vol. 3: Comic Songs. Ossian Publications. £3.99 (ISBN 1900428407)
   
• JONES, Lewis (ed), Sweet Sussex: Folk Songs from the Broadwood Collections. Ferret Publications. Pbk £3.95 (ISBN 0952636301)
  The result of Lewis Jones' (TSF) research into the tunes and music to the Broadwood collection.
   
• JONES, Lewis (ed), Miss Broadwood's Delight: Folk Songs from Sussex & other English Counties. Ferret Publications. Pbk £4.15 (ISBN 095263631X)
   
• JONES, Lewis (ed), Further collection available direct.
   
• KENNEDY, Peter, Folk Songs of Britain & Ireland. Oak Publications. Pbk £24.95 (ISBN 0711902836)
  Peter Kennedy's authoritative and comprehensive record of traditional singing in the British Isles largely based on the BBC sound archives from the 50s. Includes examples in Scottish & Irish Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh, Romany and Channel Islands French along with extensive notes on written and recorded sources. Invaluable and irreplaceable - 'the folk singers Bible'.
   
• KIDSON, Frank, Traditional Tunes (1891). Llanerch Pbk. £9.95 (ISBN 1861430817)
  Another classic reprint for Llanerch. Described by Lucy Broadwood as 'a turning point...the first book in which tunes and texts given in 'undoctored form' are accompanied by scholarly critical notes'.
   
• LOESBERG, John (ed), Folk Song & Ballads Popular in Ireland. Ossian Publications. £2.75 (ISBN 0946005001)
   
• LOESBERG, John (ed), Songs and Ballads ofIreland. Ossian Publications. £2.95 (ISBN 0946005532)
   
• LOESBERG, John (ed), More Songs and Ballads of Ireland. Ossian Publications. £2.95 (ISBN 0946005540)
   
• LOESBERG, John (ed), Traditional Folkongs & Ballads of Scotland Vol 1. Ossian Publications. £3.95 (ISBN 0946005788)
   
• LOESBERG, John (ed), Traditional Folksongs & Ballads of Scotland Vol 2. Ossian Publications. £3.95 (ISBN 0946005796)
   
• LOESBERG, John (ed), Traditional Folksongs & Ballads of Scotland Vol 3. Ossian Publications. £3.95 (ISBN 094600580X)
   
• McMAHON, Sean, Poolbeg Book of Irish Ballads. Poolbeg £4.99 (ISBN 1853711276)
   
• O'ROURKE, Brian (ed), Pale Rainbow: Gaelic Folk Songs with English Translations. Irish Academic Press. Cloth £15.00 (ISBN 0716524252)
   
• PALMER, Roy, Book of British Ballads. Llanerch. Pbk £9.95 (ISBN 1861430621)
  The first of three items by one of the most interesting contemporary folk song collectors and historians. It includes unusual versions of traditional ballads, street ballads and broadsides, Music Hall and contemporary ballads written today.
   
• PALMER, Roy, Bushes and Briars; Folk Songs collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Llanerch.Pbk £9.95 (ISBN 1861430728)
  First published by Everyman, Roy Palmer's selection of songs from the collection of Ralph Vaughan Williams. One hundred and twenty-one songs selected from a total of 810 making a wide-ranging and representative sample.
   
• PALMER, Roy, Sound of History. Pimlico. Pbk £14.00 (ISBN 0712673164)
  The most ambitious work from Roy Palmer, this volume explores English social history from the perspective of contemporafy song. Arranged by subject, from crime to sport, politics to the sexes, it covers songs of social comment from the last 400 years.
   
• REED, James, Border Ballads. Spredden Press £7.95 (ISBN 1871739225)
   
• SHARP, Cecil J., One Hundred English Folk Songs. Dover. Pbk £11.15 (ISBN 0486231925)
  The only book of Sharp's work as a folk song collector still in print. It includes notes and introduction by the best known figure in the history of folk music and dance in this country.
   
• SUMNER, Heywood, The Besom Maker. Llanerch. Pbk £5.95 (ISBN 1861430698)
   
• TOLMIE, Frances, One Hundred and Five Songs of Occupation from the Western Isles of Scotland. -Reprinted fom the Folk Song Journal of 1911. Llanerch. Pbk. £8.95 (ISBN 1861430388)
   
• VALLELY, Fintan & PIGGOTT, Charlie, Blooming Meadows: the world of Irish Traditional Musicians. Town House. Cloth (ISBN 1860590675)
   
• WALES, Tony, Ballads Bands and Bell-ringers. Field and Furrow Books £1.95 (ISBN 0950816620)
   

• CHAPPELL, William, Popular Music of the Olden Time. Vols 1-2. Dover. Pbk 1965
  As founder of the Musical Antiquarian Society, Chappell's interest and investigation into the history of the songs, ballads and dance tunes of England, led to the publication of Popular Music of the Olden Time between 1855-59.
   
• CHILD, Prof. Francis J., English & Scottish Popular Ballads. Vols 1-5. Dover. Pbk 1965
  The definitive work on ballads including variants and investigations into source and background. Still unsurpassed a century after publication.
   
• HAMER, Fred, Garners Gay. English Folk Dance & Song Society
  One ofthe many publications from the EFDSS sadly out of print. Fred Hamer recorded some wonderful singers during the '60s most of whom had been missed before. This was all the more remarkable as Fred was blind. An item to be treasured!
   
• LLOYD, A.L., Folk Song in England. Panther. Pbk 1969
  Although not a collection of folk songs, Bert Lloyd's book was a landmark in the examination of folk culture, bringing it alive and including many examples of traditional song as well as the new forms of song from industrial society.
   
• PALMER. ROY (ed), Oxford Book of Sea Songs. O.U.P. Cloth 1986 (ISBN 019214597)
  Another excellent collection from Roy Palmer tracing sea songs from the Middle Ages to the present. Some unique material and as usual supported by extensive notes.
   
• PURSLOW, Frank, MarrowBones (EFDSS 1965), Wanton Seed (EFDSS 1968), Constant Lovers (EFDSS 1972), Foggy Dew (EFDSS 1974)
  Frank Purslow's selections from the Hammond/Gardner manuscripts are still sought after and provided many a singer with a stream of material in the heyday of the early 70s.
   
• STUBBS, Ken, Life of a Man. English Folk Dance & Song Society
  Another collection from the EFDSS imprint, now sadly out of print.
   
• WILLIAMS, Ralph Vaughan & LLOYD, A.L., Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Penguin. Pbk 1975
  The book that launched a thousand folk singers and still one of the best selections to be found. Try the local library!
   
• WOODS, Fred (ed), Oxford Book ofTraditional Verse. O.U.P. Cloth 1983 (ISBN 019214597)
  Sadly no tunes are included in what is otherwise an excellent collection with some unusual variants and some very interesting items.