From the singing of Ruth's Dad, Bill Price. The song was noted by Captain Armitage in the "annals of the Wakefield House of Correction". Ruth's Mom, Wendy Price, wrote the tune.
2 - Old Maui - 3:37
Another song from Ruth's Dad's singing, about whaling trips to the North Pacific which might take up to three years.
3 - Polly Vaughan - 3:40
Ruth heard this on an Anne Briggs CD. A traditional ballad, probably of Irish origin. Sometimes sung as Molly Bawn.
4 - The keeper - 3:33
From Tony McCarthy's book "Bawdy British Folk Songs" (ISBN 7234 04925) lent to Ruth by 'uncle Gus' Gomersal.
5 - Shrinking violet - 4:30
Written by American singer Jane Voss, Ruth heard her sing it on a visit to America in 1981. This was one of the first songs Ruth and Sadie sang out together.
6 - The cuckoo - 3:29
A great song about nothing in particular, seemingly made up of floating verses often heard elsewhere.
7 - Me husband's got no courage in him - 4:20
A wideley sung traditional chorus song. Ruth Doesn't know where she first heard it but it's pretty obvious what it's about.
8 - The Manchester Cornstalk - 4:08
Another one from Ruth's Dad. A hunt song from the Home Valley Beagles. He learned it from Rosa Barnes of Batley, West Yorks.
9 - Greenwood sideo - 2:43
A version of "Cruel Mother" which Ruth learned from the singing of Lisa Null, who used to visit from America in the late 1970s.
10 - Fisher lads of Whitby - 3:16
A press-gang song from Ruth's Dad. He found it as a broadsheet and Ruth's Mom wrote the tune. The North East coast was a rich ground for the press-gangs during the French wars.
11 - I will guide thee - 3:07
Ruth can't remember where this came from, but almost certainly American. A spiritual chant which was everyones favourite during the recording sessions.
12 - Fortune's wheel - 2:53
A scottish exile balad that Ruth's Dad learned from Louis Killen.
CD - Between Debt and Fortune - 40:56
Copyright © 2003 Ruth Price - All Rights Reserved
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recorded & mixed by Sam Burke at Sleeping Toad Studios, Manea, Cambridgeshire
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Between Debt and Fortune
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