So pleased to be back on the BBC Music Introducing in The East Midlands again with a song from my debut EP “Selkie Child” – This is the first time I’ve been back on since my week-long residency for the album I released in 2023. This isn’t the first time I’ve been on the BBC, but its charm and thrill never diminishes. Little old me on the beeb.
The song is worth some acknowledgements. So kind thanks to Lou Reed for his “ostrich tuning”. This is a traditional song that has undergone major surgery. I first heard the song by Kris Drever/ Lau and later Frankie Archer (and although I didn’t realise it at the time, so had the Unthanks – a quick Google will show you that loads of people have done their own version of this song – so it must be good!). Its original title is “The Butcher’s Boy” (Laws P24, Roud 409), and the opening lines vary (as folk songs do) to a different street in almost every version – verses and their order vary massively. So, I decided to add my own road where I was born (Fairwell Road) and change the gender from male to female. You could say I butchered the song. Two aspects of the song caught me – as I heard “maid again” as “made again” and also the lines “when cherries grow on apple tree” (various versions use different fruit!) to my eyes/mind spoke to the impossibility and inflexibility of nature to allow change. The tension between nature and nurture interests me greatly – as does our capacity to create change and the forces aligned that try to prevent it. One day, cherries will grow on an apple tree.
So, the major surgery is a substantial lyric change and my own tune. I’m useless at picking up other people’s tunes, so it’s easier for me to invent a new one and go with that. Step 6 of the folk musician program is a radical re-invention of a traditional folk song!
Achievement Unlocked!