Oyster Girls and Hovelling Boys Folk songs from Kent Vol. 3 (2008) How to order your copy
Oyster Girls and Hovelling Boys is our third compilation of folk songs from and about Kent. Like the previous two, Keys of Canterbury and Apples, cherries, hops and women, it contains a mixture of very old traditional songs and some recently composed songs. If there is any slight difference in the material it is that whereas much of the material on the previous albums was about specifically Kentish subjects, this time there is a predominance of general folk songs and ballads which are known throughout the English speaking world but in versions which were collected in Kent; The Dark Eyed Sailor, A Sailor Cut Down in His Prime, Love Is Pleasing. That said the album is topped and tailed on the north Kent coast with the Oyster Girl and the Whitstable May Song and both Bob and Marian contribute songs about hops. By chance the majority of the songs in this set were collected by Francis Collinson, a BBC radio producer in the 1950s, who came upon a few songs by chance and then made it his life’s work to find as much more material as he could. The “cast” The “cast” on this CD has the same core as the previous ones, Pete Castle, Andy Turner, and Bob Kenward, but this time they are joined by The Millen Family from the Bethersden area who have been singing their songs for generations, Marian Button from Ashford who has built up a fine reputation around the Kent folk clubs and national festival scene and local poet Dave Mason who contributes his take on a typical folk song lyric.
The full programme is:
	The Oyster Girl by Pete Castle The Deal Hoveller’s Song by Bob Kenward The Dark Eyed Sailor by Marian Button In Yonder Old Oak by the Millen Family General Toast/The Rose/Black Joke by Andy Turner A Sailor Cut Down in His Prime by Pete Castle The Kentish Woman’s Way (poem) by Dave Mason Chalk and Cheese by Marian Button The Straggling Bine by Bob Kenward and Roger Resch The Old Owl by the Millen Family Aldridge’s Allemande / The Charming Fellow by Andy Turner Love is Pleasing by Pete Castle Whitstable May Song by all the company
Order your copy now! Oyster Girls & Hovelling Boys is available priced at £12.00 inc. p&p from Folk Spots and Steel Carpet Music. Folk Spots, 15 Repton Manor Road, Ashford, Kent, TN23 3HA www.folkspots.co.uk alan@folkspots.co.uk Or buy on line from Steel Carpet Music at www.petecastle.co.uk and go to the shop page
<Back to top> <Back to Folk Spots home page> last updated 4^th December 2008 Copyright © Alan Castle and Folk Spots 2008