Updated
March 2008
NEWS AND REVIEWS
Approximately
£3,000 has been raised so far for the preservation of Cyril's archive in the
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, and income is still coming in from donations
and sales of the Commemorative Booklet, details of which are now on the Order Recordings page.
Many of you have already sent me recordings
and videos of Cyril's club and concert appearances, all of which will be
carefully listened to with a view to including them in the Archive. They give
me immense pleasure. However, there are some gaps; I'm particularly keen to
have examples of his more quirky items, for my own benefit and for the Archive
- here are some examples to jog your memories:
Music-hall
songs - Married on Pension Day, With Me Little Bit Of Hair On The Top etc.
Popular
songs - She Wears Red Feathers (yes, the Guy Mitchell hit), also the Andrews Sisters songs
Her Bathing Suit Never Got Wet and Three Little Sisters - that's the one with the (slightly adapted)
punchline:
"You can tell it to the soldier, tell it to the sailor, but don't tell it to the marine",
which audiences always joined in with great gusto,
especially in Plymouth and Portsmouth.
Most of all in this category I would love to
have a recording of Baltimore
Oriole, a beautiful, bluesy Hoagy Carmichael song which Cyril very rarely sang
- I only heard him do it a few times. Here's a reminder of the opening lines:
'Baltimore Oriole, took one look at that mercury, forty
below, no life for a lady, to be draggin' her feathers around in the snow'
Cyril occasionally gave
themed presentations at Festivals and Arts Centres: "Tawney in Depth", "Hands to Dance and Skylark"
and "Royal Navy Humour". It would be
good to have recordings of these.
We will also be looking for
any recordings Cyril may have made in his early Royal Navy days, before he got
into folk music. He sang with a group called The Four Aways and in those days
the general public could make records in music shop booths. The earliest I have
so far was done in 1958 with a long-standing Navy friend, who gave me the
original acetate and a CD copy at "Celebrating Cyril". The Burl Ives
influence is very pronounced.
Please contact me on tawney3@tiscali.co.uk or send material
to me at the address at the bottom of this page. Even if the
songs are covered elsewhere, Cyril's intros. were
very much a part of his performances and the live sessions will help to
complete the record of his career.
Thank you very much
Rosemary
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THE NEW CDs and SOME REVIEWS
"The
Song Goes On" (ADA 108CD -
double) consists of re-mastered recordings of gems from Cyril's archive and
closes with Mick Ryan and friends performing
Mick's moving song "The Song Goes On". Tracks span Cyril's
recording career, traditional and self-penned songs
with a sprinkling of offerings from other songwriters - Baby Lie Easy, Seeds of
Love, Cruise of the Calabar, The Wild Rover, All Through the Beer, Man at the
Nore, Stanley the Rat, Banks of the Roses and many more favourites.
"Cyril
Tawney-Live at Holsteins" (ADA
109CD) - a 1981 concert recorded at the legendary Holsteins in Chicago, which
is a wonderful example of Cyril on top form before an appreciative and knowledgeable audience. The chat and
'talking sleeve-notes' are as enjoyable as the songs which include the
hilarious Nineteen Years Old, All Around My Hat, Sally
Free and Easy, The Hogs Eye Man, Reunion and The Suit of Grey. This is a limited
edition,
so don't wait too long to order it.
Two tracks, in particular, have aroused
the interest of listeners and reviewers alike, for their contrast to the
wider-known versions. Cyril collected his gentle version of The Wild Rover while he was still in the Royal Navy, from a sailor of
Irish extraction who he described as singing in a beautiful piping Irish tenor
voice. In fact, Jim Causley was so taken by it when he heard it on "The
Song Goes On" that he immediately learned it and
has put it on his new Wildgoose CD "Lost Love Found".
As for All Around My Hat, I'm not sure where
Cyril got it from, but it bears a close resemblance in both tune and words to
that printed in A Garland Of Country Song
(Baring-Gould and Fleetwood Sheppard, 1895). I remember him singing it regularly from the
early 1960s onwards, over 10 years before the Steeleye Span hit, which as far
as I can recall actually used only one verse from the song as a chorus for what
was actually Farewell He.
The CDs are available from me as usual, and
full details including track listings are on the Order Recordings page.
Live at
Holsteins (ADA 109CD) & The Song Goes On
(ADA 108CD Double)
'Folk
Singer, Old-style.
Est. 1959' ran one of Cyril's typically modest magazine calling cards of
yesteryear. He'd seen trends come and go in our music, he'd been in the eye of
the revival hurricane for many years, but he knew the real thing when he heard
it……He'd been instrumental in popularising it without selling it short, of
making it accessible, of taking it forward and writing it. Was there ever a time when we didn't or
wouldn't have Cyril Tawney?
Sadly, all
things must pass, and here we have two fond remembrances of his prodigious
ability. The first captured live 'in his heyday' as the notes to the Holsteins recording aptly pitch it.
It's May 1981 in Chicago and for over an hour the audience is held palm-in-hand
with anecdotes, introductions, jokes and, of course, songs. Ah, the songs. Here are masterful readings of those much
loved, much sung and 'often-introduced-as-trad' pearls of repertory. You'll know the ones I mean, they're part of
the fabric of our lives, and captured here in pristine quality for WFMT Radio
is a priceless testimony to the art of Tawney as songwriter, singer, raconteur,
folklorist and all-round decent human being.
Time spent in his company was not time wasted and this performance
proves it. A career
high? Cyril would smile at that
one, but nevertheless it's an accurate description of an album which, though
it's a reviewer's cliché, you owe it to yourself to acquire.
The second [The Song Goes On], a double CD,
features archive material (I Wonder As I
Wander broadcast by the BBC Home Service on Christmas Day 1957), classics (Roll Down from Peter Bellamy's "The Transports"), first steps in songwriting
(Five Foot Flirt) and perennials (Lean And Unwashed Tiffy). Re-mastered recordings of traditional songs,
which include Roving Journeyman and The Ball Of Yarn,
affirm Cyril as the adroit exponent of the idiom which 1960s and 1970s albums
had revealed. Both these releases more
than do justice to Cyril Tawney and attest to his talent being nothing short of
genius.
Once while
waiting for a connection at Leeds City, I saw Cyril, guitar in hand, ambling
(it's the only word) toward me. The
station bar wasn't far away, and although I'm sure he missed his own train, we
spent time talking beer, music, people and places. An engaging, wise and
gracious man - it's these qualities that shine through these two recordings as,
indeed, they shone through his life and in turn, touched us all.
Clive
Pownceby in English Dance and Song, Summer 2007
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
The Song Goes On is an impressive two-disc collection of
material gathered from the Cyril Tawney archives. The songs are mainly traditional with a few
Tawney originals thrown in for good measure.
Despite re-mastering, the audio quality is variable at times, but this
somehow adds to the authenticity and gravitas. The collection offers an
impressive overview of Tawney's renowned efforts in collecting folk music, covering
an array of themes, including songs garnered from the travelling community,
songs of mariners, songs of emigration and the inevitable drinking songs.
Tawney
effortlessly illustrates the art of restraint on The Wild Rover - a song usually associated with a more bawdy
delivery, but in this case interpreted in a much more reflective manner,
perhaps suggesting a wild rover whose force is now spent. Humour is evident on a number of occasions be
it with the double entendre of Cruising
Round Yarmouth or the clever genre-parodying Early One Evening. The
accompanying booklet contains an interesting history of each song.
Live At
Holsteins makes for
much lighter listening than the previous collection, revealing Tawney as a most
amiable performer and teller of stories. Unlike many live recordings, the
between song chat and banter is left
largely intact - definitely a wise choice in this case, as Tawney's
engaging conversation is every bit as revealing as his singing, adding much to
the overall ambience of this recording.
In contrast to the previous collection, the songs are mainly Tawney's
own compositions with a lesser amount of traditional material.
One might
wonder how well Tawney's West Country drawl and quintessentially English music
would export to 1980's Chicago, but any unease in this regard is quelled when
you hear the audience singing along to Tawney's own Sammy's Bar, revealing the utmost affection for the singer and his
songs. It's this moment that offers
affirmation, if it were needed, of Tawney's international reputation in the
world of folk music. Restraint is
present once again on Tawney's beguiling interpretation of All Around My Hat, but on this collection it is Tawney's own
compositions that steal the limelight - in particular the rhythmic pace of Lean And Unwashed Tiffy, the affection and sentimentality of The Oggie Man and the assured Sally
Free And Easy.
Mike Wilson in
Living Tradition, No. 75 August 2007
ADA 108CD Double
This handsome double CD was specially compiled for the Celebrating Cyril day held at
Cecil Sharp House and in no way is it just an ephemeral memorial issue. Cyril's legacy, like his music, reaches far
and wide, and this is evidenced by a realisation of the extent of his impact on
the folk scene, an impact which in turn we can gauge not only by the sheer
number of performers performing his songs (itself a hefty tally), but also by
the strength and depth of the tribute anthem from which this compilation takes
its title: a brilliant composition by Mick Ryan….…The Song Goes On here receives a splendid roof-raising
rendition…….led by Mick Ryan, this also features Pete Harris, Keith Kendrick,
Sylvia Needham and Doug Bailey; that says it all!
Before that closing anthem, we're
treated to 31 songs performed by Cyril himself, taken from existing available
recordings made over a wide timespan.
These either derive from the Cyril Tawney Archives or are (expertly)
re-mastered recordings of gems of his repertoire both traditional and
self-penned. The selection is both canny
and salutary, and is actually (contrary to what you might expect) weighted
heavily towards traditional song, for Cyril's talent for reinterpreting
traditional song can easily get overlooked during the course of one's
enthusiastic appreciation (albeit well-founded) of his original
songwriting. Cyril's versions of such
staples as Ball Of Yarn and A Jug Of This could easily find a
natural place on a future Voice Of The People collection, I feel, while his
tender, lyrical rendition of the usually pub-thumping Wild Rover is masterly, both astute and beautifully apposite.
Cyril's easy, naturally expressive delivery and adept, deceptively simple
accompanimental style (on nylon-strung guitar) may always have betrayed the
influence of Burl Ives, the man whom he readily admitted was the catalyst for
him taking up the singing of folk songs in the first place, but his was a
distinctive voice - and presence - that once heard was never mistaken (or
forgotten!).
His commanding tones ring
out on the one non-solo track, the shanty Roll
Down (in the performance taken from the original recording of the ballad
opera "The Transports")……..In every respect - performance, fine
re-mastered sound quality, presentation - The
Song Goes On is a magnificent celebration of Cyril Tawney's artistry.
David
Kidman in NetRhythms, June 2007
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
A lot of
boxed-set career overviews have been appearing recently from within the folk
scene celebrating some of the bigger names, so it's especially pleasing to see
a release such as The Song Goes On. Cyril Tawney was one of those stalwarts of
the English folk scene, revered,
respected but never securing wider acclaim.
Of course, that's no indicator of the quality of the performer, the song
writing or the material and Tawney was one of a select few on the folk scene
who actually made his living performing.
Performing largely
traditional material with occasional choice covers, including Alex Glasgow's
witty 'As Soon As This Pub Closes', Woody Guthrie's 'The Reuben James' and
Peter Bellamy's 'Roll Down', Tawney's conversational style and vocal warmth is
endearing, his West Country accent often to the fore as he displays a lack of
pretence and an unwillingness to change his approach to suit the vagaries of
fashion, commercialism or changing styles.
Steve
Caseman in Rock 'n' Reel Vol.2 No.5 Sept. - Oct. 2007
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
Highly
recommended - great value for money……..The first track I Wonder As I Wander is from a 1957 radio
recording and this early period of the folk revival is well represented
although the versions are not necessarily those that we are familiar with
today. Cyril's arrangement for The Wild Rover which according to the
sleeve notes he 'collected from an Irish tenor on National Service in Plymouth'
is beautifully melodic and there are many other surprises along the way. Many years ago I heard Cyril sing his song Cheering The Queen without appreciating the
humour of the content. I now understand.
Throughout his
folk singing career Cyril was always generous in the way that he offered his
songs and arrangements for others to perform and this CD extends that
generosity by providing many songs for singers to learn. Thus 'The
Song Goes On'.
Bill Murray in
What's Afoot Autumn 2007
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
The 32
remastered tracks are taken from the Cyril Tawney archives and represent a
vocation in folk music spanning fifty years.
The collection consists of 23 traditional songs, 4 self penned songs and
5 songs written by Song Smiths other than Cyril including a nicely droll
version of Alex Glasgow's As Soon As This
Pub Closes and the classic Roll Down from
Peter Bellamy's ballad opera "The Transports". Cyril's own writing is represented by four
songs, the very popular Five Foot Flirt
and three Naval narratives Stanley The Rat, Cheering Of
The Queen and Lean And Unwashed Tiffy.
Though some may
lament the absence of particular Cyril originals, recordings of his own songs
have been well covered elsewhere, not least on the ADA recording 'Navy
Cuts'. It is Cyril Tawney the folk
singer and collector who is being celebrated in this
double album, and what a celebration it is.
Each track is a gem and performed in that mild mannered, high soft toned
voice that so endeared him to listener and audience alike, and made Cyril a
popular and enduring figure of the Revival……..A programme of varied material
including many unusual versions of familiar songs. Soldier Soldier sees the hapless girl
buying clothes from a store for her faithless love, whilst the version of The Wild Rover collected by Cyril is
gentle and melancholy, not at all like that popularised by the Clancy Brothers et. al.
Brian Cope in
Folk London, June-July 2007
Live At Holsteins Chicago 1981
ADA 109CD
This is a
never-before-released recording of Cyril performing an hour-long set at the
celebrated Holsteins Folk Club in Chicago……… that fully captures Cyril in his
prime, totally at ease with his audience and his material. Cyril was always a natural entertainer, with
an easy, accommodating style of delivery and a genuine desire to engage his
listeners. Engage he certainly did on
this occasion, to a packed but attentive house who clearly appreciated
tradition. Between songs, Cyril spoke at
length about his song-collecting adventures and the traditional basis of his
repertoire as well as (naturally) of his time in the Navy. Although Cyril ended the "official"
set chronicled on this disc with Reunion, a fine song which he'd then only
recently penned and which he'd not hitherto recorded, he was so popular and
well-received at the prestigious venue that he was called back for two encores
(On A Monday Morning and Sally Free And Easy), which arguably
never received more definitive performances from the composer himself.
As with all the
songs Cyril performed during his set, though they'd invariably be faultless,
there was never a hint of auto-pilot even though Cyril must have performed them
countless times over the years.
Two-thirds of the 12 songs in the set were Tawney originals, the remainder
traditional, so the balance was about right.
And moreover, purchasers of the excellent companion (celebration) double
CD The Song Goes On need not worry about duplication of repertoire, for only
two items (Lean And Unwashed Tiffy and Ball Of Yarn) are common to both releases. Introductions are (usefully) separately
banded, although they're so compelling and yes, interesting (and so integral a
part of the experience of the evening) that you're not likely to want to skip
them unless you need quick reference to a particular song. An immensely valuable
archive issue.
David Kidman in NetRhythms, June 2007
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
A limited
edition live recording captured for posterity by a regional radio station back
then. It's a superb example of how
powerfully effective Tawney was in the live situation. Performing many of his own
songs 'The Suit of Grey'. 'Lean And Unwashed Tiffy', 'The Oggie Man', 'The
Drunken Sailor', 'Sammy's Bar' and 'Sally Free And Easy' - he's in his element
in front of an adoring audience, relating tales of his song-gathering jaunts,
his years in the Navy and performing the traditional songs he so clearly loved.
Steve
Caseman in Rock 'n' Reel Vol.2 No.5 Sept. - Oct. 2007
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
Cyril is on brilliant form and from the opening track The Suit of Grey I was captivated. We
are treated to 21 tracks which include some of Cyril's most popular songs. The
recording sensibly includes the introductions to songs as nine separate tracks.
This means if Cyril's chat wears thin after successive listens you can cut
straight to the songs. That said, this
CD has hardly left my CD player and I have yet to find the need to omit the
introductions. Cyril's version of Ball Of Yarn, collected in Dorset from a gypsy singer for 'a bottle of whiskey and an ass full of gorse bristles'
has quickly become a favourite, as has All
Around My Hat which Cyril treats as an affectionate love song. Quite a change from the version once heard on
Top of the Pops. The humorous Nineteen Years Old and Cyril one-liner which
follows might not be PC but the audience love it, as they do his graphic
description of The Drunken Sailor. As an
observer and chronicler Cyril was second to none, and included in his faultless
performance are many of his classics On a
Monday Morning, The Oggie Man, Sammy's Bar and my absolute favourite Reunion. The CD is a Limited
Edition. I know not how many are
available but my advice would be - make sure you get one!
Brian Cope in
Folk London, June-July 2007
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
A
live performance CD which in contrast to The Song Goes On includes the
introductions to the songs. For Cyril's friends this
CD will bring back happy memories, and for those who never had the opportunity
to listen to Cyril in concert it provides the nearest thing that you will get
to it.
The CD has been
compiled from Rich Warren's recording of Cyril Tawney's first appearance at
Holsteins in Chicago in 1981. Holsteins
at the time was, according to The Chicago Tribune, 'arguably the best folk club
in the United States'. Eight of Cyril's
own songs including The Oggie Man, Sally
Free and Easy and the very moving Reunion
are featured along with traditional songs collected by Cyril and his version of
All Around My Hat.
There are no
sleeve notes for the songs but then, as Cyril introduces each of the tracks
himself, they are not necessary. There
is, however, a written introduction to the CD from Emily Friedman who was
involved in running the Holsteins Folk Club.
This is a
Limited Edition CD and from the way that they were selling at the
"Celebrating Cyril" day I suggest that you order your copy soon or
you will be disappointed.
Bill Murray in
What's Afoot, Autumn 2007
These and Cyril's two earlier
CDs "NAVY CUTS" ADA 101CD (his own Navy-related compositions) and
"NAUTICAL TAWNEY" ADA 104C (traditional maritime favourites) are
available direct from me and from the usual shops and mail order and internet
suppliers. I also have the remaining Neptune Tapes titles. Click on Recordings for full details, including track listings,
and an order form, or Links for some of the other
suppliers.
Orders
and Enquiries:
Rosemary
Tawney
10
Sivell Place, Heavitree, Exeter, EX2 5ET, England
Tel.
01392 426 055
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