Notes on Song & Folklore
Essays on folk tradition, ancestral practice, and the stories behind the songs including the latest releases of my own music.
The Goose and the Common: An English Folk Song about Land Privatization
An English folk song about inequality and the enclosure of the commons, dating back to an 18th-century poem. It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when a great deal more land was held in common for the benefit of the community.
Sumer is Icumen In: An 800-year-old English folk song heralding the beginning of spring
“Sumer is Icumen In” is a Medieval English folk song dating back to the mid-13th century and one of the oldest known seculare songs in the English language.