Previous_Book     Next_Book     Anne Loader Publications Home

The image of the book cover of Cheshire Folk Songs & associated traditions by Roy Clinging, published by Léonie Press

Cheshire Folk Songs & associated traditions

Compiled and edited by Roy Clinging

ISBN: 978-1-901253-49-8
(Old ISBN: 1 901253 49 X)

138 pages, ~A4 paperback, 210mm x 297mm.
9 Colour photos, 1 black and white photo, 1 map

Published by Leonie Press, May 2005.
Reprinted March 2006, March 2007, May 2008,
March 2011, March 2014, March 2017, March 2019.

Price: £11.99 Postage and Packing:

Audition/Practice CD (see below)
Price: £3.50 Postage and Packing:
only if ordered separately. If ordered with
the book there is no additional postage and package.


About the Book

Roy Clinging's book contains around 60 songs from his native Cheshire, ranging from those current in the 1700s to more recent work. It is aimed at folk musicians who want to expand their repertoire and anyone else interested in this rich aspect of our cultural heritage.

The tradition of folk singing goes back in Roy's family to at least his great-grandmother, who regularly entertained friends and family with her songs, accompanying herself on the concertina. His grandmother continued the tradition, singing snatches of her mother's repertoire to him when he was ill. As he grew up his interest in folk music deepened and was influenced by the 'folk revival'. He became actively involved through folk clubs, festivals, country dances, morris dancing and soul-caking - the Cheshire form of a mumming play. In a personal defining moment, he realised that if 'souling' songs still existed there might be others.

"What if there were more songs and traditions from my own little corner of the country that were just as varied and interesting as those I'd heard about from other people or read about in books?" he asked himself. Roy then set about collecting songs from within the old county boundaries of Cheshire - detective work that he found challenging and enjoyable. His painstaking search has led him to local and national archives, and to the collections of early folk music scholars. He has received songs from interested individuals and recorded them from local singers.

Most of the titles in "Cheshire Folk Songs and Traditions" are published alongside their original tune in a singable form, others are in text form only and some have had a tune added later. A few are relatively recent compositions. Explanatory notes, with details of local traditions, accompany each one. Songs include "Cheshire Lads are Chief of Men", "The Brisk Young Widow", "The Devil and the Monk" and "Whistlebitch Well".

Click on these links to see the complete list of titles or the complete list of first lines

Practice - Audition CD
Practice - Audition CD

We have produced a basic Practice /audition CD as an optional extra to go with the book. It contains the basic melodies with a metronome introduction for the 50 songs which have their music in the book to help you to learn them. The total playing time is just over 31 minutes and the individual tracks range from 17 seconds to 1 minute 15 seconds. Click on the title to hear an example, Cheshire Born; this tune is in MP3 format so your media player will need to support that format for you to play it.


About the Author

Roy Clinging

Roy Clinging has been involved with folk music since the early seventies and is a full time performer with experience of clubs and festivals across the UK and in the USA. He has a large selection of ballads and songs from all over the British Isles to draw on and has widely researched the songs and traditions of his own area (Cheshire). He has also maintained a keen interest in songs of the sea which has seen him regularly booked at specialist maritime events.

Roy is also involved in other areas of music as well as the folk scene including Residential Homes, Hospitals, Day Centres and Schools. He has worked with Prescot Museum who were liaising with a local school learning about North West Traditions and mumming plays and has also taken part in a project aiming to replace piped 'muzak' with live musicians, which has seen him playing the concertina in the wards and waiting rooms at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

Roy's solo CDs to date are 'Cheshire Born' (1999) and 'An Honest Working Man' (2001). In January 2006 Wildgoose Records released 'Another Round' which Roy made as a duo with Neil Brookes on fiddle and octave fiddle.

You can visit Roy's website at www.royclinging.com.

Reviews
English Dance & Song, ISSN 0013-8231 Autumn 2005

Roy Clinging is becoming increasingly well known as a lively and discriminating performer, with a thoughtful approach and a deep feeling for the tradition. He by no means confines himself to a regional repertoire but nevertheless takes a particular interest in the songs and tunes associated with his native county. He has now edited a handsomely-produced book, A4 sized, containing 60 songs and in addition photographs (some in colour) and broadside facsimiles. The music is printed with exceptional clarity, but for those unable to read it a computer-generated piano crib of the tunes is available from the publisher (at £3.50, plus post and package*).

The material ranges from Child ballads to broadsides to recent captures from oral tradition, together with contemporary compositions, some now well known and loved, by Pete Coe, Roy Clinging himself, and others. The core of the book consists of local traditional tales cast into song. 'Sands of Dee' and 'The Miller of the Dee' inevitably make an appearance, together with other items specific to Cheshire such as 'The Congleton Bear', 'The Rich Farmer In Cheshire' and 'The Brisk Young Widow' (in Chester town there lived,..') have local references but are also found elsewhere: Cheshire versions of nationally-known songs include 'The Farmer's Boy', 'Lost Lady Found' and 'Young Bucks A-hunting Go', There are also souling, May and pace egging songs, and 'The Shocklach Carol', a version of 'The Angel Gabriel'.

This is not to imply that the book will fail to appeal to a wider audience. Intriguing finds include 'The Marlers' Song', dealing with the itinerant gangs of men who spread soil-improving marl on the fields, and 'The Prentice Boy', a rather jolly song about a cobbler's boy who ran away to join the Spanish army, I have the feeling that the book is going to be well-thumbed and the songs well-sung.

Roy Palmer, English Dance & Song, ISSN 0013-8231 Autumn 2005 page 28 - 29.

You can visit The English Folk Dance & Song Society website at www.efdss.org


Folk NorthWest, ISSN 1350-8083, Volume 28, No 2, Autumn 2005, P58

There is nothing more irritating, to me anyway, than song books that race through page after page of sometimes meaningless lyrics with no explanation of whence they came from and no rhyme or reason for their being. Not so the very well researched and presented "Cheshire Folk Songs & Associated Traditions" compiled by Chester based singer and writer Roy Clinging whose stature, not only as a performer of traditional music but as a collector, has grown further with this delightful and very attractive publication.

I myself am "Cheshire born and Cheshire bred" and, if the time worn rhyme is continued, "broad int'arm and thick int'head". I hope not but who knows how others see you! However, as a born native of the County I came across some of these songs many years ago. Alas this was not at my Mother's knee as most true traditional singers can boast (nor my Father's for that matter!). I discovered them much later, during the l960s folk revival and, just as Roy did many years later, put a tune to the words of the famous Charles Kingsley poem, "Sands of Dee", which I played with my cousin Ken Chesterman (as The Cousins) on BBC radio. I therefore have an empathy with Roy in this respect and am delighted to see these songs, the most famous of which must surely be The Miller of the Dee (one I remember from my school days).

As well as being a very valuable practical source work for those wishing to learn these songs, the book is also a tremendous read and no stone seems to have been unturned in Roy's researches into the origins of the songs. There is also a fascinating insight into Cheshire Folk Customs with a section of photographs and extracts to illustrate the "living tradition of my home county". Even traditional music continues to evolve as can be seen by the tune that Roy put to "Sands O' Dee" and the fresh interpretation of these songs that have stood the test of time to become available to another generation. Roy, in this respect, has done a great job of keeping these songs "alive" and, in that alone, he is to be congratulated. It is also nice to see songs like "Froggie" collected from Colin Haworth in these pages as I still remember his father Leslie Haworth of Kelsall singing the song at The Tuning Fork Folk Club, Chester back in the 1960s. The song has a tremendous chorus that had stuck in my mind for 40 years until I saw it again reproduced in this book.

The book is obviously the result of many years of research by Roy who is a full time singer playing regularly in folk clubs up and down the country and, as a Cheshire man himself, he can be justly proud of this publication. If his great grandmother is looking down on him I suspect that she too would feel just as proud to see her great grandchild carrying on a tradition that she contributed to playing the folk songs of her time accompanying herself on the Concertina to entertain family and friends.

At 148 pages and containing some 60 songs this is an absolute must buy book for all performers, enthusiasts and historians of our musical heritage. It can be bought from local book shops or direct from Leonie Press, 13 Vale Road, Hartford, Northwich, CW8 1PL at £11.99 plus postage and packing*. There is also a CD available to go with the book picking out the melodies for an additional £3.50. Also, if you wish to hear more of these songs performed by Roy himself, his excellent CD, "Cheshire Born" is still available at his gigs or by visiting his web site.

Ian Chesterman, Folk NorthWest, ISSN 1350-8083, Volume 28, No 2, Autumn 2005, P58-59

You can visit The North West Federation of Folk Clubs website at www.folknorthwest.co.uk

* Please note that the post and packing charges have been updated from that stated in the original articles to reflect increased postage costs since then and avoid confusion.




Previous_Book     Next_Book     Anne Loader Publications Home