Southern Songster released: English Folk Songs From The Hammond And Gardiner Manuscripts

It is over 50 years since Frank Purslow edited Marrow Bones, the influential book of folk songs collected by Robert and Henry Hammond and George Gardiner in Hampshire and Dorset between 1905 and 1908. Purslow went on to produce The Wanton Seed, The Constant Lovers and The Foggy Dew (the last two reprinted in 2017 by Francis Boutle Publishers as Southern Harvest) – 350 songs in all out of a total of 2,400.  Now, Southern Songster makes available a further 100 songs and ballads that have not seen the light of day for over a century. There are some unique tunes and texts, as well as interesting versions of songs already visited by Purslow.

The songs were selected by Nick Dow, musical notation has been supplied by Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, and the song notes have been supplied by Steve Gardham, while Tim Radford introduces ten chanties.

The book is available from the publisher at www.francisboutle.co.uk or from Nick Dow directly, and costs £15.  Nick can be contacted on thetraditionbearer@hotmail.co.uk or nickdow67@gmail.com, and he is offering to send purchasers of the book the MIDI files for every song, especially useful for those who don’t read music.