Georgia's debut EP features the trio playing some of their favourite songs and tunes live in the studio! To purchase a digital download click the 'Buy Now' button below! (Due to unforeseen popularity, we have sold out of physical copies!)
"Young, exuberant & musically adept, Georgia Lewis & Friends ... trip through deftly arranged traditional & self-penned pieces with brio & intelligence, on her eponymous EP." – R2 Magazine, Rock'n'Reel (Vol.2, Issue 52)
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Track 1: Wife of Usher’s Well
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"The Wife of Usher's Well" is a traditional ballad, catalogued as Child Ballad 79, originally from Britain, and is more particularly considered a Scottish ballad, but also popular in North America. No complete original version has survived, but the song has been "remade" with our adaptations and self-penned tune.
The ballad concerns a woman from Usher's Well, who sends her three sons away to sea, and a few weeks after learns that they had died. The woman grieves bitterly for the loss of her children, cursing the winds and sea.
"I wish the wind may never cease,
Nor fish swim in the flood,*
Till my three sons come home to me,
In earthly flesh and blood."
*Original line is "Nor fashes in the flood" which is believed to be the frothing waves created during storms.
The song implicitly draws on an old belief that one should mourn a death for a year and a day, for any longer may cause the dead to return; it has this in common with the ballad "The Unquiet Grave". When the children return to their mother around Michaelmas 9th September (originally Martinmus 11th Nov) it is as revenants, not, as she hoped, "in earthly flesh and blood", and it is a bleak affair. The mother expects a joyous reunion, in some versions preparing a celebratory feast for them, which, as subjects of Death, they are unable to eat. They consistently remind her that they are no longer living; they are unable to sleep as well, and must depart at the break of day.
"Up then crew the proud red cock,
And up then crew the grey,
The eldest to the youngest said,
Tis time we were away."
The sons return but the wife is so struck with grief she cannot live on. Thus the song ends with the true moral of the story that one should not morn longer than a year and a day for else you cannot move on and live in the present.
"The Wife she was so struck with grief,
She made her way outside,
And threw herself into the ground,
To cross to the other side.
So listen all you gentle folk,
And heed the tolling bell,
Which nells at this late hour for,
The Wife at Usher's Well."
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Track 2: The Snows They Melt The Soonest
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"The Snows They Melt the Soonest" (Roud 3154) is a British folk song dating back at least as far as 1821. It was mentioned, along with the lyrics, in Blackwood's Magazine (Edinburgh) of that year.
The melody was printed in Bruce and Stokoe's Northumbrian Minstrelsy in 1882, which also mentioned its publication in 1821 and noted that the contributor of the song was Thomas Doubleday (1790–1870), who put it to a melody ("My Love is Newly Listed") learned from a Newcastle street singer. Thomas Doubleday was a radical agitator who often contributed to Blackwood's.
Here the lyrics draw from many versions (namely Anne Briggs & Dick Gaughan). The story here describes the bet between a young lass and lad, where the lad believes he will forget ever being with her and she thinks he will not and will return.
"And when a young man tells me that my face he'll soon forget
Before we part, I'd bet a crown, he'd be fain to follow it yet "
She then argues and demonstrate the power in love:
"Oh the snow it melts the soonest when the winds begin to sing,
And true love is far stronger still, than any golden ring,
I've seen a young man's anger melt between the night and morn,
So it's surely not a harder thing to tame a young man's scorn"
The final verse is self-penned to demonstrate how love prevails, despite his belief that he did not care for her, he remains faithful in the end.
"You never wished me farewell then, No Farewell did I receive,
For like the swallow without a thought, And the harmless bee,
And all the flowers in all the land, where-ever they may be,
For the snows they melt the soonest, when my love's home with me."
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Track 3: The Molecatcher
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The Molecatcher is a comedy, telling the story of a Molecatcher who catches a young man sleeping with his wife while he's out working.
This sly song amused the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams who noted some fine versions of it in Norfolk. Two folklorish parsons, Baring-Gould and Fleetwood Sheppard heard it on bleak Dartmoor and it struck them as “very gross”, so they wrote new words to it that have none of the wit and pungency of the original. Their version may be found in Songs of the West. Our version comes from The Penguin Book of Folk songs and was later adapted when hearing Cyril Phillips sing The Sussex Molecatcher recorded in 1974, on the album "The Brave Ploughboy, Songs and Stories in a Sussex Pub".
Traditional molecatchers, for those that don't know, traveled from farm to farm in order to catch moles. The molecatcher's clients would provide food and lodgings. Also, the molecatcher would be paid for every mole caught; he would earn extra money by selling the moleskins to fur dealers.
There is a also a version in Scotland known as "The Modiewark".
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Track 4: Fair & Tender Ladies
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Fair and Tender Ladies know better as "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" (also "Tiny Sparrow" or "Little Sparrow") (Roud #451) is an American folk music ballad, originating from the Appalachian region.
Accordion to Peggy Seeger, this classic Appalachian love song takes the view, which is unusual in American love songs, that love is both sorrowful and dangerous.
I first hear Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh sing her version, which has a tune very similar to that of ‘Silver Dagger’. It was the tune that struck me first, but upon listening closely the sorrowful lament hit home with a profound feeling of emotion and nostalgia.
C.Sharp printed 18 versions of this beautiful song [in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians], including a version from one of his best sources, Mrs. Jane Gentry of Hot Springs, North Carolina. Compare Pete's very free interpretation with sister Peggy's more rhythmic performance.
It has been recorded under either of its two title variations by numerous artists, including The Carter Family, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Odetta, Peter, Paul and Mary, Makem and Clancy, Emmylou Harris, Larry Wilder, Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, The Rankin Family, The Country Gentlemen, and Dolly Parton.
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Track 5: Sail Away
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Sail Away is an original composition, with a new arrangement for the trio.
Written in 2012, when I had just graduated university. My friends and I took an adventurous trip, with no insurance and £5 fuel from The Brighton Mariner on a boat they had recently bought. Finishing my degree left me with a fear of what to do next. Together this sparked the idea for the song about taking a chance and sailing away.
It tells the story of a girl who's in love with a boy who doesn't know what he wants in life. She loves him but realises he feels lost and she's concerned. The final line "so sail away with me" refers to her trusting and taking the chance to be patient and see what will happen. The chorus re-iterates her frustration and yet her ability to extend the invitation to him to sail away with her.
"Oh the west wind blows, you don't know what he's waiting for,
Oh, his curse is never going to be his cure,
So sail away with me."
Track 1: Wife of Usher’s Well
--------------------------------------------------
"The Wife of Usher's Well" is a traditional ballad, catalogued as Child Ballad 79, originally from Britain, and is more particularly considered a Scottish ballad, but also popular in North America. No complete original version has survived, but the song has been "remade" with our adaptations and self-penned tune.
The ballad concerns a woman from Usher's Well, who sends her three sons away to sea, and a few weeks after learns that they had died. The woman grieves bitterly for the loss of her children, cursing the winds and sea.
"I wish the wind may never cease,
Nor fish swim in the flood,*
Till my three sons come home to me,
In earthly flesh and blood."
*Original line is "Nor fashes in the flood" which is believed to be the frothing waves created during storms.
The song implicitly draws on an old belief that one should mourn a death for a year and a day, for any longer may cause the dead to return; it has this in common with the ballad "The Unquiet Grave". When the children return to their mother around Michaelmas 9th September (originally Martinmus 11th Nov) it is as revenants, not, as she hoped, "in earthly flesh and blood", and it is a bleak affair. The mother expects a joyous reunion, in some versions preparing a celebratory feast for them, which, as subjects of Death, they are unable to eat. They consistently remind her that they are no longer living; they are unable to sleep as well, and must depart at the break of day.
"Up then crew the proud red cock,
And up then crew the grey,
The eldest to the youngest said,
Tis time we were away."
The sons return but the wife is so struck with grief she cannot live on. Thus the song ends with the true moral of the story that one should not morn longer than a year and a day for else you cannot move on and live in the present.
"The Wife she was so struck with grief,
She made her way outside,
And threw herself into the ground,
To cross to the other side.
So listen all you gentle folk,
And heed the tolling bell,
Which nells at this late hour for,
The Wife at Usher's Well."
--------------------------------------------------
Track 2: The Snows They Melt The Soonest
--------------------------------------------------
"The Snows They Melt the Soonest" (Roud 3154) is a British folk song dating back at least as far as 1821. It was mentioned, along with the lyrics, in Blackwood's Magazine (Edinburgh) of that year.
The melody was printed in Bruce and Stokoe's Northumbrian Minstrelsy in 1882, which also mentioned its publication in 1821 and noted that the contributor of the song was Thomas Doubleday (1790–1870), who put it to a melody ("My Love is Newly Listed") learned from a Newcastle street singer. Thomas Doubleday was a radical agitator who often contributed to Blackwood's.
Here the lyrics draw from many versions (namely Anne Briggs & Dick Gaughan). The story here describes the bet between a young lass and lad, where the lad believes he will forget ever being with her and she thinks he will not and will return.
"And when a young man tells me that my face he'll soon forget
Before we part, I'd bet a crown, he'd be fain to follow it yet "
She then argues and demonstrate the power in love:
"Oh the snow it melts the soonest when the winds begin to sing,
And true love is far stronger still, than any golden ring,
I've seen a young man's anger melt between the night and morn,
So it's surely not a harder thing to tame a young man's scorn"
The final verse is self-penned to demonstrate how love prevails, despite his belief that he did not care for her, he remains faithful in the end.
"You never wished me farewell then, No Farewell did I receive,
For like the swallow without a thought, And the harmless bee,
And all the flowers in all the land, where-ever they may be,
For the snows they melt the soonest, when my love's home with me."
--------------------------------------------------
Track 3: The Molecatcher
--------------------------------------------------
The Molecatcher is a comedy, telling the story of a Molecatcher who catches a young man sleeping with his wife while he's out working.
This sly song amused the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams who noted some fine versions of it in Norfolk. Two folklorish parsons, Baring-Gould and Fleetwood Sheppard heard it on bleak Dartmoor and it struck them as “very gross”, so they wrote new words to it that have none of the wit and pungency of the original. Their version may be found in Songs of the West. Our version comes from The Penguin Book of Folk songs and was later adapted when hearing Cyril Phillips sing The Sussex Molecatcher recorded in 1974, on the album "The Brave Ploughboy, Songs and Stories in a Sussex Pub".
Traditional molecatchers, for those that don't know, traveled from farm to farm in order to catch moles. The molecatcher's clients would provide food and lodgings. Also, the molecatcher would be paid for every mole caught; he would earn extra money by selling the moleskins to fur dealers.
There is a also a version in Scotland known as "The Modiewark".
--------------------------------------------------
Track 4: Fair & Tender Ladies
--------------------------------------------------
Fair and Tender Ladies know better as "Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies" (also "Tiny Sparrow" or "Little Sparrow") (Roud #451) is an American folk music ballad, originating from the Appalachian region.
Accordion to Peggy Seeger, this classic Appalachian love song takes the view, which is unusual in American love songs, that love is both sorrowful and dangerous.
I first hear Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh sing her version, which has a tune very similar to that of ‘Silver Dagger’. It was the tune that struck me first, but upon listening closely the sorrowful lament hit home with a profound feeling of emotion and nostalgia.
C.Sharp printed 18 versions of this beautiful song [in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians], including a version from one of his best sources, Mrs. Jane Gentry of Hot Springs, North Carolina. Compare Pete's very free interpretation with sister Peggy's more rhythmic performance.
It has been recorded under either of its two title variations by numerous artists, including The Carter Family, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Odetta, Peter, Paul and Mary, Makem and Clancy, Emmylou Harris, Larry Wilder, Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, The Rankin Family, The Country Gentlemen, and Dolly Parton.
--------------------------------------------------
Track 5: Sail Away
--------------------------------------------------
Sail Away is an original composition, with a new arrangement for the trio.
Written in 2012, when I had just graduated university. My friends and I took an adventurous trip, with no insurance and £5 fuel from The Brighton Mariner on a boat they had recently bought. Finishing my degree left me with a fear of what to do next. Together this sparked the idea for the song about taking a chance and sailing away.
It tells the story of a girl who's in love with a boy who doesn't know what he wants in life. She loves him but realises he feels lost and she's concerned. The final line "so sail away with me" refers to her trusting and taking the chance to be patient and see what will happen. The chorus re-iterates her frustration and yet her ability to extend the invitation to him to sail away with her.
"Oh the west wind blows, you don't know what he's waiting for,
Oh, his curse is never going to be his cure,
So sail away with me."