The
lesson videos
themselves each contain a highly detailed study
and lesson on how to
play
each of these pieces.
- The videos are shot in
our innovative 'over-the-shoulder-vision'
So you
don't have to
mentally or visually translate what is on the screen
- There
is also a video
for each piece called the playthrough which is obviously the
'performance' version
Means you can see
exactly how the piece should be played in performance
- Printable
tabs are
included in .pdf format.
Print them out and get
away from your computer for a while
until you 'perfect' each
piece
- Tabs
are also included
in Powertab format
This means you can
select small sections and listen carefully note-for-note for each
section
until they are
burned into your memory (well that's how I do it anyway)
- You
can email Jerry or
myself if you have any questions about the instruction videos.
- Assuming
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forget don't you?) you'll be given 'instant access' to the download
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Contact Details
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THE
SONGS
1.
All around my hat
The
song "All Around my Hat" is of nineteenth-century
English
origin. In an early version,dating from the 1820s,
a Cockney
costermonger vowed to be true to his fiancée, who
had been
sentenced to seven years 'transportation to Australia for
theft and to mourn his loss of her by wearing green willow
sprigs
in his hatband for "a twelve-month and a day," the willow being a
traditional symbol of mourning. The song was made famous
by Steeleye Span in 1975.A more traditional
version is available on a release sung by John
Langstaff
2.
Amazing Grace
"Amazing
Grace"
is a Christian hymn published
in 1779, with words written by the English poet and Anglican
clergyman John
Newton (1725–1807).
Newton
wrote the words from personal experience. He grew up without any
particular religious conviction, but his life's path was formed by a
variety of twists and coincidences that were often put into motion by
his recalcitrant insubordination. He was pressed (conscripted) into
service in the Royal Navy, and after leaving the
service, he became involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a violent storm
battered his vessel off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland, so severely that he called
out to God for mercy, a moment that marked his spiritual conversion. He continued his slave
trading career until 1754 or 1755, when he ended his seafaring
altogether and began studying Christian theology.
3.
Barbara Allen
"Barbara
Allen" is a traditional Scottish ballad, it later travelled to America
both orally and in print, where it became a popular folk song.
Ethnomusicologists Steve Roud and Julia Bishop described it as "far and
away the most widely collected song in the English language —
equally popular in England, Scotland and Ireland, and with hundreds of
versions collected over the years in North America."
The ballad generally follows a standard plot, although narrative
details vary between versions. Barbara Allen visits the bedside of a
heartbroken young man, who pleads for her love. She refuses, claiming
that he had slighted her at a prior affair; he dies soon thereafter.
Barbara Allen later hears his funeral bells tolling; stricken with
grief, she dies as well.
4. Black Waterside
Down
by Blackwaterside (also known
as Blackwaterside, Blackwater
Side and Black
Waterside), are traditional folk songs, provenance and author unknown,
although they are likely to have originated near the River Blackwater
Ulster
The song tells the story of a woman who has her heart broken "down by
Black waterside" when a suitor breaks his promise of marriage that he
made to trick her into having sex with him. The morning after her
suitor mocks her for believing that he would marry her and tells her to
go back to her father. He tells her she has only herself to blame for
having sex before marriage. She realizes he will never return and
berates herself for believing his lies.
5. Carrickfergus
"Carrickfergus" is an Irish folk song,
named after the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Northern
Ireland.
The origins of the song are unclear, but it has been traced to an
Irish-language song, "Do bhí bean uasal" ("There Was a
Noblewoman"), which is attributed to the poet Cathal Buí Mac
Giolla Ghunna, who died in 1745 in County Clare
The song appears on a ballad sheet in Cork City in the mid nineteenth
century in macaronic form. The Irish lyrics were about a man being
cuckolded, a bawdy and humorous ditty. By contrast, the English lyrics
are nostalgic.
With the Industrial Revolution, a linen-trade developed between County
Antrim (where Carrickfergus is situated), and County Cork. It is
possible the English lyrics came from snatches picked up in
interactions between the Cork men and the Antrim men.
Robert Gogan[2] suggests Carrickfergus may have evolved from at least
two separate songs, which would explain why it does not have a
consistent narrative. For example, the Ancient Music of Ireland,
published by George Petrie in 1855, contained a song called "The Young
Lady" which featured many but not all of the lyrics used in
Carrickfergus. Gogan also refers to a recording of a song called "Sweet
Maggie Gordon" which is kept in the Music for the Nation section of the
US Library of Congress. It was published by Mrs Pauline Lieder in New
York in 1880. It contains verses which are similar to Carrickfergus,
but the chorus is closer to another Irish/Scottish folk song called
"Peggy Gordon".
In modern times, "Carrickfergus" became known after actor Peter O'Toole
related it to Dominic Behan, who put it in print and made a recording
in the mid-1960s. The middle verse was allegedly written by Behan.
The song has been recorded by many well known performers including Ryan
Kelly, Celtic Thunder, Paddy Reilly, Declan Affley, Joan Baez, Bryan
Ferry, Dominic Behan, Charlotte Church, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy
Makem, Brian Dunphy, De Dannan, Subway to Sally, Joe Dassin (as Mon
village du bout du monde), The Dubliners, Garnet Rogers, Brian Kennedy,
Declan Galbraith, Irish Stew of Sindidun, Lisa Kelly, Cedric Smith,
with Loreena McKennitt on harp (as Carrighfergus), Órla
Fallon,
Van Morrison, Bryn Terfel, the Chieftains, Ronan Keating, Katherine
Jenkins, Allison Moorer and Dexys. It was also adapted in Scooter's
song "Where the Beats...". The song is a popular request at folk
festivals and concerts, and was played at the 1999 funeral of John F.
Kennedy, Jr. The song was more recently performed by Loudon Wainwright
III over the closing credits of HBO's series Boardwalk Empire.
Furthermore, the Russian singer-songwriter Aleksandr Karpov (a.k.a.
"Aleksandr O'Karpov") translated the lyrics into Russian, recording a
Russian version of "Carrickfergus", also titled "Beyond the
blue
sea, beyond the ocean").
Closely related is the song "The Water is Wide", which has a similar
tune and very similar lyrics in some lines. Recordings have been made
by many people including Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, The Seekers and two
former members of The Byrds, Roger Mcguinn and Chris Hillman, who both
did solo versions.
6. Danny Boy
"Danny
Boy" is a ballad written by English songwriter Frederic Weatherly and
usually set to the Irish tune of the "Londonderry Air".It is most
closely associated with Irish communities.
Initially written to a tune other than "Londonderry Air", the words to
"Danny Boy" were penned by English lawyer and lyricist Frederic
Weatherly in Bath, Somerset in 1910. After his Irish-born sister-in-law
Margaret (known as Jess) in the United States sent him a copy of
"Londonderry Air" in 1913 (an alternative version has her singing the
air to him in 1912 with different lyrics), Weatherly modified the
lyrics of "Danny Boy" to fit the rhyme and meter of "Londonderry Air".
Weatherly gave the song to the vocalist Elsie Griffin, who made it one
of the most popular songs in the new century; and, in 1915, Ernestine
Schumann-Heink produced the first recording of "Danny Boy".
Jane Ross of Limavady is credited with collecting the melody of
"Londonderry Air" in the mid-19th century from a musician she
encountered.
7. Dirty Old Town
"Dirty
Old Town" is an English song written by Ewan MacColl in 1949 that was
made popular by The Dubliners and has been recorded by many others.
The song was written about Salford, Greater Manchester, England, the
city where MacColl was born and brought up. It was originally composed
for an interlude to cover an awkward scene change in his 1949 play
Landscape with Chimneys, set in a North of England industrial town,[1]
but with the growing popularity of folk music the song became a
standard. The first verse refers to the Gasworks croft, which was a
piece of open land adjacent to the Gasworks , and then speaks
of
the old canal, which was the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal.
The
line in the original version about smelling a spring on “the
Salford wind” is sometimes sung as “the sulphured
wind”. But in any case, most singers tend to drop the Salford
reference altogether, in favour of calling the wind
“smoky”.
8. I once Loved a Lass
"I Once Loved a Lass",
also known in Scotland as The False Bride,[1] is a folk song of the
British Isles.[2] The age of the song is uncertain, but versions of it
date at least as far back as the 1680s.[3] Although widely believed to
be a Scottish song, the earliest record of it is from Newcastle upon
Tyne.
The song has been widely
recorded since being popularised by Ewan MacColl. His rendition of the
song began:
I
once loved a lass and I loved her so well, I hated all others [that]
spoke of her ill, [And] now she's rewarded me well for my love, She's
gone to be wed to another
The
song's theme is of unrequited love and some interpret the ending as
implying death or suicide. Ewan MacColl wrote in the notes to his 1956
album Classic Scots Ballads:
Songs of jilted and
forsaken lovers are common enough in Scotland but, for the most part,
they tend to be ironical rather than pathetic in feeling.
“There
are plenty more fish in the sea” is the philosophy of our
jilted
heroes and heroines. In this curious little song, however, the jilted
lover, after attending his ex-sweetheart's nuptials, just lies down and
dies.
9.
Michael Row the Boat Ashore
"Michael, Row the Boat
Ashore" (or "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore" or "Michael, Row Your Boat
Ashore" or "Michael Row That Gospel Boat") is a negro spiritual. It was
first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helena Island, one of
the Sea Islands of South Carolina.[1] It is cataloged as Roud Folk Song
Index No. 11975.
It was sung by former slaves whose owners had abandoned the island
before the Union navy arrived to enforce a blockade. Charles Pickard
Ware, an abolitionist and Harvard graduate who had come to supervise
the plantations on St. Helena Island from 1862 to 1865, wrote the song
down in music notation as he heard the freedmen sing it. Ware's cousin,
William Francis Allen, reported in 1863 that while he rode in a boat
across Station Creek, the former slaves sang the song as they rowed.[2]
The song was first published in Slave Songs of the United States, by
Allen, Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison, in 1867.
10. Scarborough Fair
"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional
English ballad about the Yorkshire town of Scarborough.
The song relates the tale of a young man who instructs the listener to
tell his former love to perform for him a series of impossible tasks,
such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry
well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back.
Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover
a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his
seamless shirt once he has finished.
As the versions of the ballad known under the title "Scarborough Fair"
are usually limited to the exchange of these impossible tasks, many
suggestions concerning the plot have been proposed, including the
hypothesis that it is about the Great Plague of the late Middle Ages.
The lyrics of "Scarborough Fair" appear to have something in common
with an obscure Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight (Child Ballad #2),[1]
which has been traced at least as far back as 1670 and may well be
earlier. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be
his lover unless she can perform an impossible task ("For thou must
shape a sark to me / Without any cut or heme, quoth he"); she responds
with a list of tasks that he must first perform ("I have an aiker of
good ley-land / Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand").
11. She Moved Through The Fair
"She
Moved Through the Fair" (or "She Moves Through the Fair") is a
traditional Irish folk song, which exists in a number of versions and
has been recorded many times.
The
traditional singer Paddy Tunney learned "She Moved Through the Fair" in
County Fermanagh and recorded it in 1965. Other singers who sang it in
the 1950s and the 1960s included Dominic Behan and Anne Briggs. It was
popular among members of the Traveller community in Ireland at that
time.
Fairport Convention recorded the song in 1968, adapting the style of
the song from the Traveller Margaret Barry, though she herself had
learned it from a vinyl recording made by John McCormack at EMI Studios
in 1941. Former Fairport Convention guitarist and songwriter Richard
Thompson regularly includes the song in concert performances.[10] Also
of note are the recordings of the song by Alan Stivell in 1973. Art
Garfunkel (formerly of Simon and Garfunkel) recorded a particularly
lush version on his album Watermark (1977). Josh Groban recorded the
song for his album All That Echoes (2013).
12. Shenandoah
"Oh
Shenandoah" (also called simply "Shenandoah" or "Across the Wide
Missouri") is a traditional American folk song of uncertain origin,
dating to the early 19th century.
The song appears to have originated with Canadian and American
voyageurs or fur traders traveling down the Missouri River in canoes,
and has developed several different sets of lyrics. Some lyrics refer
to the Native American chief "Shenandoah" (Oskanondonha) and a
canoe-going trader who wants to marry his daughter. By the mid 1800s
versions of the song had become a sea shanty heard or sung by sailors
in various parts of the world.
13. Sloop John 'B'
"Sloop
John B" is a traditional folk song from the Bahamas, also known as "The
John B. Sails", Wreck of the Sloop John B. and some other less used
titles, which was included in Carl Sandburg's 1927 collection of folk
songs The American Songbag. It is best known for its folk rock
adaptation by the Beach Boys, which was produced and arranged by
bandleader Brian Wilson. Released two months before their 11th studio
album Pet Sounds (1966), it served as the lead single for the album,
peaking at number 3 in the US and number 2 in the UK. In several other
countries, the single was a number one hit.
Wilson based his version on
the 1958 recording by the Kingston Trio, but took some liberties with
the song's arrangement, changing a few lyrics, and at the suggestion of
bandmate Al Jardine, modified one part of the song's chord progression
to include a supertonic chord (ii). The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, his
brother Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al
Jardine all share lead vocal duties. The instrumentation was provided
mostly by the session musician conglomerate nicknamed "the Wrecking
Crew"
14.
The Curragh of Kildare
The Curragh of Kildare, also
known as The Winter it is Past, is a folk song particularly associated
with the Irish tradition.
Elements of some versions of
the song suggest that it dates from at least the mid 18th century. The
Curragh of Kildare speaks of the actual Curragh, which is a large area
of common land in Kildare, Ireland, used to rally the Irish Army.
The song as currently performed was popularised by The Johnstons, and
later by Christy Moore, while versions also exist by The Fureys, Bert
Jansch and others. Modern renditions have tended to use a text where
the singer is male, and the "true love" female, whereas in the early
ballads such as The Lamenting Maid the opposite was the case.
15. The Gypsy Rover
The Whistling Gypsy, sometimes known simply as The Gypsy Rover, is a
well-known ballad composed and copyrighted by Dublin songwriter Leo
Maguire in the 1950s.
There are a number of similar traditional songs about a well-off
woman's encounter with Gypsies dating back at least as far as the early
19th century known as "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy", "The Raggle Taggle
Gypsies", "The Gypsy Laddie", "Nine Yellow Gypsies", "Gypsie Davie" and
"Black Jack Davie" (Roud #1,[1] Child 200). The story-line usually
revolves around a woman leaving her home and her "wedded lord" to run
off with one or more Gypsies, to be pursued by her husband. Dorothy
Scarborough's 1937 book A Song Catcher In Southern Mountains: American
Folk Songs of British Ancestry includes a lullaby called "Gypsy Davy",
which Scarborough collected from two Virginia women who had learned the
song from their respective grandmothers who in turn had learned it in
Ireland. Scarborough's "Gypsy Davy" has a similar construction to
Maguire's song, both in some of the lyrics in the verses and in the "ah
dee do" chorus that does not appear in the other aforementioned
Gypsy-themed songs.[2] However, in Maguire's song the lady is pursued
by her father, and when he catches the pair the "Gypsy" reveals himself
to be the "lord of these lands all over".
16.
The Leaving Of Liverpool
"(The) Leaving of Liverpool", (Roud 9435), also known as "Fare Thee
Well, My Own True Love", is a folksong. Folklorists classify it as a
lyric lament, and it was also used as a sea shanty, especially at the
capstan. It is very well known in Britain, Ireland, and America,
despite the fact that it was collected only twice, from the Americans
Richard Maitland and Captain Patrick Tayluer. It was collected from
both singers by William Main Doerflinger, an American folksong
collector particularly associated with sea songs, in New York.[1]
The song's narrator laments his long sailing trip to California and the
thought of leaving his loved ones (especially his "own true love"). He
pledges to return to her one day.
The Leaving of Liverpool has been recorded by many popular folk singers
and groups since the 1950s. The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem had a
top 10 hit with the song in Ireland in 1964.[2][3] The song has also
been adapted by several artists, most notably Bob Dylan.
17. The Water is Wide
"The Water Is Wide" (also called "O Waly, Waly") is a folk song of
Scottish origin, based on lyrics that partly date to the
1600s.[citation needed] It remains popular in the 21st century. Cecil
Sharp published the song in Folk Songs From Somerset (1906).
It is related to Child Ballad 204 (Roud number 87), Jamie Douglas,
which in turn refers to the ostensibly unhappy first marriage of James
Douglas, 2nd Marquis of Douglas to Lady Barbara Erskine.
The imagery of the lyrics describes the challenges of love: "Love is
handsome, love is kind" during the novel honeymoon phase of any
relationship. However, as time progresses, "love grows old, and waxes
cold." Even true love, the lyrics say, can "fade away like morning dew."
The modern lyric for "The Water Is Wide" was consolidated and named by
Cecil Sharp in 1906 from multiple older sources in southern England,
following English lyrics with very different stories and styles, but
the same meter. Earlier sources were frequently published as
broadsheets without music. Performers or publishers would insert,
remove and adapt verses from one piece to another: floating verses are
also characteristic of hymns and blues verses. Lyrics from different
sources could be used with different melodies of the same metre.
Consequently, each verse in the modern song may not have been
originally composed in the context of its surrounding verses, nor be
consistent in theme.
18. Where have all the flowers
gone
"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a modern folk-style song. The
melody and the first three verses were written by Pete Seeger in 1955
and published in Sing Out! magazine.[1] Additional verses were added by
Joe Hickerson in May 1960, who turned it into a circular song.[2] Its
rhetorical "where?" and meditation on death place the song in the ubi
sunt tradition.[3][better source needed] In 2010, the New Statesman
listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".[4]
The 1964 release of the song as a Columbia Records 45 single, 13-33088,
by Pete Seeger was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002 in the
Folk category.
Seeger found inspiration for the song in October 1955 while he was on a
plane bound for a concert at Oberlin College, one of the few venues
which would hire him during the McCarthy era.[5] Leafing through his
notebook he saw the passage, "Where are the flowers, the girls have
plucked them. Where are the girls, they've all taken husbands. Where
are the men, they're all in the army."[6] These lines were taken from
the traditional Cossack folk song "Koloda-Duda", referenced in the
Mikhail Sholokhov novel And Quiet Flows the Don (1934), which Seeger
had read "at least a year or two before".[3]
Seeger created a song which was subsequently published in Sing Out in
1962. He recorded a version with three verses on The Rainbow Quest
album (Folkways LP FA 2454) released in July 1960. Later, Joe Hickerson
added two more verses with a recapitulation of the first in May 1960 in
Bloomington, Indiana.
19.
Whiskey in the Jar
"Whiskey in the Jar" is a well-known Irish traditional song, set in the
southern mountains of Ireland, often with specific mention of counties
Cork and Kerry, as well as Fenit, a village in County Kerry. The song
is about a Rapparee (Highwayman), who is betrayed by his wife or lover,
and is one of the most widely performed traditional Irish songs. It has
been recorded by numerous professional artists since the 1950s.
The song first gained wide exposure when the Irish folk band The
Dubliners performed it internationally as a signature song, and
recorded it on three albums in the 1960s. In the U.S., the song was
popularized by The Highwaymen, of "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" fame,
who recorded it on their 1962 album Encore [1] (United Artists UAL
3225, mono and UAS 6225, stereo) and many argue that it's the most
authentic folk version produced in America. Building on their success,
the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy hit the Irish and British pop charts
with the song in the early 1970s. In 1990 The Dubliners re-recorded the
song with The Pogues with a faster rocky version charting at No.4 in
Ireland and No.63 in the UK. The American metal band Metallica brought
it to a wider rock audience in 1998 by playing a version very similar
to that of Thin Lizzy's, though with a heavier sound, winning a Grammy
for the song in 2000 for Best Hard Rock Performance. Also recorded by
The Killdares.
20. Wild Mountain Thyme
"Wild Mountain Thyme" (also known as "Purple Heather" and "Will Ye Go,
Lassie, Go?") is a folk song written by Francis McPeake, a member of a
well known musical family in Belfast, Ireland, and is of Scottish
origin.[1] McPeake's lyrics and melody are a variant of the song "The
Braes of Balquhither" by Scottish poet Robert Tannahill
(1774–1810), a contemporary of Robert Burns. Tannahill's
original
song, first published in Robert Archibald Smith's Scottish Minstrel
(1821–24), is about the hills (braes) around Balquhidder near
Lochearnhead. Like Burns, Tannahill collected and adapted traditional
songs, and "The Braes of Balquhither" may have been based on the
traditional song "The Braes o' Bowhether".
21. Ye Jacobites by Name
"Ye Jacobites by Name" (Roud # 5517) is a traditional Scottish folk
song which goes back to the Jacobite Risings in Scotland
(1688–1746). While the original version simply attacked the
Jacobites from a contemporaneous Whig point of view, Robert Burns
rewrote it in around 1791 to give a version with a more general,
humanist anti-war outlook. This is the version that most people know
today.[1][2]
The song (no. 371) was published in 1793 in volume 4 of James Johnson's
Scots Musical Museum[3] and in James Hogg's Jacobite Reliques of 1817
(no. 34).[4] It also appears in a collection of Scottish songs entitled
Personal Choice by Ewan MacColl.[5] The tune[6] is taken from "My
Love's in Germany" by Hector Macneill.
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Until now, any real instruction has been unavailable. . . . . .
They are the usual high-quality lesson we have come to expect from Mike and Jerry, and the only ones like it I’ve found.
As with most new styles I have issues with the correct strumming.
These videos break down each part with concise, and easy to follow instructions and show clearly what is required in order to play the pieces correctly.
I’ve tried learning from listening to music, and watching competent players. Until now, any real instruction has been unavailable.
J.B. Fisher. Chula Vista, CA. USA