We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Brown Girl and Other Folk Songs

by Angeline Morrison

supported by
Neil S. Reddy
Neil S. Reddy thumbnail
Neil S. Reddy The superlatives and adjectives stack up and seem all too obvious to give this piece of work the credit it deserves, in short bad poetry would devalue the purity of the project; but lets check them off, haunting, moving, achingly beautiful, soulful, unsettling, emotive, heart-breaking and warmly consoling, a thing of profound beauty- everything a grown-up audience could want from a grown up collection. Thank you Angeline.
shepherdscrown
shepherdscrown thumbnail
shepherdscrown This is such a lovely collection of beautiful sad songs. Thank you.
Yvette Haynes
Yvette Haynes thumbnail
Yvette Haynes Although these songs are achingly sad tales of betrayal and suffering, I find this album very calming. Full of beautiful arrangements and vocals, this is an utter delight. Favorite track: Bonny Cuckoo.
more...
/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £10 GBP  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a foldout light cardboard case, track notes on the inside, completely plastic-free. Original photographs of the megaliths of Zennor by Angeline.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Brown Girl and Other Folk Songs via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    edition of 200  5 remaining

      £12 GBP or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 14 Angeline Morrison and The Ambassadors of Sorrow releases available on Bandcamp and save 30%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of OPHELIA album, In the Sunshine We Rode the Horses (Two Disc 2022)., The Brown Girl and Other Folk Songs, Bride of the Wintertide, In The Bleak Midwinter / God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Lost in Seaburgh, The Arms of the Ash, Fields of Frost, and 6 more. , and , .

    Purchasable with gift card

      £55.30 GBP or more (30% OFF)

     

1.
A young man courted me all on sly, And with his vices I did comply, With his false vows and flattering tongue He beguiled me, love, when I was young. When I sat down at my love's right hand, He swore by Heav'n, by sea and land That the rising sun he never would see, If ever that he proved false to me. For nine long months, he proved true and kind, But a short time after, he changed his mind. He changed his mind to a high degree, And bid farewell to yon green valley. "O I mind the promise I made to you, But I'll have no more to do with you. My father's choice I must obey, So it's farewell darling, I cannot stay". So off he's gone, and I wish him well For to get married, 'tis I hear tell. My innocent babe I will tend and care, And of his false vows he will soon be aware. O am I bound, or am I free? Or am I bound to marry thee? A single life is the best I see, A contented mind bears no slavery.
2.
Our Captain cried, 'All hands away tomorrow' Leaving us girls behind, in grief and sorrow. What makes you go abroad, fighting for strangers? When you'd be safe at home, and free from dangers... I'd roll you in my arms, my dearest jewel, So stay at home with me, love, don't be cruel. She fell upon the floor, like one that was dying. This house was filled with grief, sighing and crying. You courted me awhile just to deceive me, For now you've gained my heart, you mean to leave me. O there's no trust in men, not my own brother. So maids, if you would love, love one each other. O the drums are beating love, the pipes are playing, I must be on my way, no longer staying. Dry off those briny / brandy tears, and leave off weeping, And happy we shall be at our next meeting.
3.
I am as brown as brown can be, I have eyes as black as sloe. I am as brisk as the nightingale, And as wild as the forest doe. My love he was so high and proud, And his fortune too so high, He for another fair pretty maid Left me, and passed me by. He sent to me a love letter, And he sent it from the town, Saying no longer that he loved me, Because I was so brown. I sent his letter back again, Saying his love I valued not, Whether he would fancy me, Or whether he would not. When that six months was gone and past, Was over, gone and past, O then did my love, once so bold, Grow sick with love at last. When that six months was past and gone, Was over, past and gone, O then did my love, once so bold, Lie on his bed and moan. O first he sent for the doctor man, Saying you doctor must me cure, For the pains that now do torture me, I cannot long endure. O never a whit could the doctor man His sufferings relieve, O never a one but the brown, brown girl Who could his life reprieve. O then did he send from out the town, O then did he send for me! He sent for me, the brown, brown girl Who once his wife should be. O you shall hear the love she had For this poor, lovesick man; 'Twas all on a day, on a long summer day, She would walk, she never ran. O I'll do as much for my true love As any a young girl may, I'll dance upon his grave and sing, For a twelvemonth and a day.
4.
There was a lady that lived in York (all alone and a lonely), She proved a child by her own father's clerk (down by a Greenwood sidey) As she was a-walking down her father's lawn, She thought three times that her back would be broke. As she was a-walking down her father's lawn, She cried, 'Honourable Mary, pity me'. As she was a-walking down her father's lawn, It's there her three fine sons they were born. And she's taken out her long penknife, And there she took away their three lives. Years went by, and one fine morn, She saw three boys, they were playing bat and ball. O my fine boys, if you were mine, I'd dress you all in the silk so fine. O cruel mother, when we were thine, You did not dress us in silk so fine. But you took out your long penknife, And there you took away our three lives. O my fine boys, what will become of me? You'll be seven long years a bird in a tree. You'll be seven years more a tonging the bell, And you'll be seven years more a porter in hell.
5.
When I was a young girl, I used to seek pleasure. When I was a young girl, I used to drink ale, Straight out of the alehouse and into the jailhouse, Straight out of the bar room and down to my grave. Come mother, come father and sit you beside me, Come sit you beside me and pity my case, For my poor head is aching, my sad heart is breaking, My body salvating and I am bound for to die. Go send for the preacher to come and pray o'er me, Go send for the doctor to bind up my wounds, For my poor head is aching, my sad heart is breaking, My body's salvating and hell is my doom. I want six young maidens to walk by my coffin, I want six young maidens to bear me along, And each of them carrying a bunch of white roses, To lay on my body as we pass along. One morning, one morning, one morning in May, I saw a young maiden wrapped up in white linen, Wrapped up in white linen, And cold as the clay...
6.
A servant-girl took up her pail To draw spring water from the well, down below the valley-o. Refrain: Green grows the lily-o, right among the bushes-o. A gentleman was passing by, He asked for a drink as he got dry At the well below the valley-o. My cup is full up to the brim, If I were to stoop I might fall in At the well below the valley-o. If your true love was passing by, You'd fill him a drink if he got dry At the well below the valley-o. She swore by the grass, she swore by the corn That her true love had never been born At the well below the valley-o. O no, fine maid, you're swearing wrong, For six fine children you have born At the well below the valley-o. If you be a man of noble fame, You'll tell to me the father of them At the well below the valley-o. There's two of them by your brother John Two of them by your uncle Dan, Two of them by your father dear... If you be a man of noble esteem, You'll tell to me what happened to them At the well below the valley-o. There's two of them buried beneath the tree Two of them buried beneath the stone Two of them buried beneath the well... If you be a man of noble fame, You'll tell to me what'll happen myself At the well below the valley-o. You'll be seven long years a-ringing the bell, And seven long years a-porting in hell At the well below the valley-o. I'll be seven long years a-ringing the bell, But the Lord above will save my soul from porting in hell.
7.
Idumea 03:26
And am I born to die? To lay this body down? And must my trembling spirit fly Into a world unknown? A land of deepest shade, Unpierced by human thought, The dreary regions of the dead, Where all things are forgot. When as from earth I go, What will become of me? Eternal happiness or woe Must then my portion be. Waked by the trumpet sound, I from my grave shall rise, To see the Judge with glory crowned, And see the blazing skies.
8.
Bonny Cuckoo 01:48
My bonny cuckoo, I tell thee true That through the groves I'll rove with you. I'll rove with you until the next spring, And then my cuckoo shall sweetly sing. The ash and the hazel shall mourning say, O bonny cuckoo, don't go away! Don't go away, but tarry here And sing for us another year. Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Pray tarry here, And make the spring last all the year.
9.
Lucy Wan 03:28
Fair Lucy she sits in her father's bower, A-weeping and making moan When by there came her own brother dear, What ails thee, Lucy Wan? O I ail, and I ail dear brother, she cried, And I'll tell you the reason why. There is a child between my two sides That's for you, dear brother, and I. O he's taken up his good broadsword That hung down by his knee, And he's cut off fair Lucy Wan's head, And her poor body in three. O I've cut the head off my greyhound, And I pray you'll pardon me. O that is not the blood of our greyhound, But the blood of our Lucy. O what will you do when your father comes to know, My son, come tell unto me? I'll go and dress myself in a new suit of blue, And set sail for a far country. And what will you do with your houses and your land, My son, come tell unto me? O I shall leave them all to my children so small, By one, by two, by three. And when shall you turn to your own wife again, My son, come tell unto me? When the sun and the moon meet over yonder hill, And I hope that that will never, never be.
10.
Must I be bound, while you go free? Must I love one who never loved me? Must I enact such a foolish part, As to follow one who would break my heart? The first gift that my love gave me, It was a cap well-lined with lead. And the longer that I wore that cap, It grew the heavier upon my head. You gave to me a mantle for to wear, Well-lined with grief, and stitched with care. And the drink you gave me was bitter gall, And the blows you gave to me were worse than all. But I will climb the high, high tree And I will rob the wild bird's nest, And I will fall without a fear, And find the one who loves me the best.

about

Recorded in Cornwall by Angeline Morrison.
Mixed by Nick Duffy.
Angeline Morrison: Vocals, autoharp, recorders, mountain dulcimer.
Nick Duffy: Guitar.

credits

released May 1, 2022

All songs Trad Arr: Angeline Morrison
Except: The Brown Girl (Trad Arr: Angeline Morrison & Nick Duffy)
Idumea (Charles Wesley & Ananias Davisson)

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Angeline Morrison and The Ambassadors of Sorrow

"Bewitching and otherworldly... Morrison's voice is eerily confiding, strangely present, insistent even at its quietest" Folk Radio UK.

Believing in the beauty of sad songs, weaving folk, soul and beat sounds of the '60s into a tapestry of the human heart. Homespun sounds that reside in a nostalgic universe.

"Dark, unsettling folk that verges on the hymnal" BBC Introducing.
... more

shows

contact / help

Contact Angeline Morrison and The Ambassadors of Sorrow

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Angeline Morrison and The Ambassadors of Sorrow recommends:

If you like The Brown Girl and Other Folk Songs, you may also like: