This is the third of three posts on the ballad “Bold William Taylor.”  Read the first post here, and the second post here.

Those of you who have been following my posts for a while may have noticed that I tend to pursue a few tangents by the end of my week spent with a song or a theme.  This week will be no exception in that regard, in that I plan to use “William Taylor” as a proverbial launching point for a few other songs that will give some additional perspective on our main subject.  

You may also have found that I tend to save some of the surprises and treasures I’ve discovered during the week for the last.  One of the happy fringe benefits of doing this blog is stumbling upon something new, intriguing, or delightful almost every time I dive into a song.  I hope you’ll stick around to the end of this post for one of those finds.

Thus far over the course of the week, we’ve discovered that we can ascribe at least one of two genres to “William Taylor.”  On the one hand, we can consider it a murder ballad, on the other a variety of Female Warrior ballad discussed in Dianne Dugaw’s insightful book, which I’ve cited in the previous two posts.  

From the murder ballad perspective, “William Taylor” gets a little extra salience for us, or at least for me, because of our recent history looking at “The Demon Lover,” a ballad in which a woman in a similar state of plighted troth is vividly caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.  She is short on options and has a bad hand to play.  There are vows and then there are press gangs, and her honor must be managed carefully and her physical and social mobility is limited–at least until we can have a heroine don a sailor’s uniform.  Sarah Gray in “William Taylor” gets some symbolic revenge, or a bit of karmic balancing for Jane Reynolds in “James Harris, or the Demon Lover.”

In any event, the trope of love and the sailor’s call to the sea is a familiar one, which we can find in songs from the sublime to the ridiculous, and everywhere in between–where faithfulness can mean vowing to stay true to one’s love or just, in the 1970s, being essentially “cool with that,” or at least doing “her best to understand.”

“Brandy” by Looking Glass (Spotify) (Lyrics)

I haven’t done anything close to a scientific survey, but my initial estimate of commercial recordings of “William Taylor” suggests that there may be as many as twice as many recordings of the song from England, Scotland, and Ireland combined as there are from North America.  That will take a bit more research.  Both Dugaw and the Traditional Ballad Index note that H.M. Belden collected Female Warrior ballads in his work, much of which was focused in Missouri and the Ozarks.  Beyond this, most of the non-British/Irish citations in the TBI are ones coming from north of the border.  My sense is that “William Taylor” gets better traction, or fuller sails perhaps, in the Canadian Maritimes than it does in landlocked portions of the States.  

In her book, Dugaw tells of Alan Lomax’s visit to Nova Scotia in 1941, and his conversation there with Mrs. Carrie Grover, who sang several Female Warrior ballads for him.  Lomax asked her if she ever imagined being such a soldier or sailor.  She replied:

“I sure did.  I had daydreams about a good many of these songs…I imagine things like this happened in the days gone by…but now they’ve got laws, so they couldn’t get by with it.”

I’ve looked into the Alan Lomax archive at the Association for Cultural Equity, but haven’t found these particular recordings.  Perhaps they will be added later.  Grover’s comments, though, remind me of the quote from Jean Ritchie that Pat cited long ago in our conversation about “Fair Ellender” (see the comments).  So, as with Ritchie and “Fair Ellender,” perhaps with Grover in the Canadian Maritimes as well, where the connection to adventure at sea, welcome or not, was quite close.  If we’re looking for what role these songs play in the lives of some of their singers and listeners, this is a good starting point.

So, to the Maritimes we go.

The Once, Several Times

The Once (photo by Renita Fillatre)

Newfoundland’s The Once caught my attention a year or two ago when I heard them give a live performance of Leonard Cohen‘s “Anthem” on a CBC program.  (I’d say it was a flawless performance, but those of you who know that song would see through that right away…  Here’s the album version on Spotify.).  

I discovered this week that this trio also gives a strong performance of “William Taylor,” representing a Canadian Maritime ballad tradition within which songs of death and songs of the sea are indeed familiar.  The Once’s repertoire, like those of many artists in that region, dips into sea-faring themes and adventurous tales inherited from the old world.  So, with my remaining energies this week, I’ll ring the bells that still can ring, and ring what changes I can on themes of love, death, and the sea with the help of The Once.

First, here’s their strong performance of “Willie Taylor” from their 2010 eponymous debut album.  Appropriately enough, they give a sea-shanty version, with just enough percussion to carry the song forward with energy.

“Willie Taylor” by The Once (Spotify)

Also on this album is The Once’s performance of “The Maid on the Shore,” (Child 43) an old song whose provenance we lack time to go into here fully, but contains some of the component elements of the Female Warrior ballad or “The Female Smuggler.” The maid on the shore is an irresistible attraction to the commander at sea, but is also a trickster and  thief, who gets away with an exploit of derring-do and the ship and crew’s expense.

 

Maid On The Shore“Maid on the Shore” by The Once (myspace)

“Maid on the Shore” by The Once (Spotify)  (Lyrics from Digital Tradition)

“Maid on the Shore” has had other Canadian Maritime interpreters over the years.  It was the only song on Stan Rogers‘s Fogarty’s Cove debut album not written by Rogers himself.

On their more recent album, 2011’s Row Upon Row of the People they Know, The Once gives us a narrative with some of these love and seafaring elements turned on their head.  In this story, “House Carpenter” again meets “Pretty Fair Maid,” but unlike Garnet Rogers’s fusion in “Painted Pony,” there is no supernatural element, and Jack tests his shore-bound love, Nancy, as to whether she truly loves him or is more concerned about wealth and security.



(Sorry, the audio’s a little muddy on the YouTube clip.)

“Jack the Sailor” by The Once (Spotify)


It’s also important to remember that the matters of love, death, and sadness don’t depend on transatlantic voyages, when every day work can present adventures and hardships unwelcome. Here is another beautiful tune from the Maritimes, also one recorded by Stan Rogers in his aptly titled For the Family.

“Three Fishers” by The Once (Spotify)  (Poem by Charles Kingsley)

More about “Three Fishers” here.  

Marguerite

As you know, I’m inclined to save the best and most interesting for last, and will provide for your consideration The Once’s performance of “Marguerite,” a contemporary ballad by Scott Richardson, which tells the story of an actual event.  In this sad tale, actually older than the origin of “William Taylor,” Marguerite de La Rocque faces a different hard set of choices as she has an affair with a young man while on a journey to the Americas in the 16th Century.  She is marooned there by her uncle, a nobleman privateer with a material interest, it seems, in Marguerite’s death.  She survives on the island for two years before being rescued, but as you’ll hear and perhaps read, the song is clearly a murder ballad nonetheless.  It’s also a survivor’s ballad.  With that, I’ll let the song speak for itself, both through the album recording and the album release party video clip where The Once’s lead singer Geraldine Hollett gives a strong and deeply affecting solo performance of the song.  

“Marguerite” by The Once (Spotify)

The Once’s web page describes Hollett’s voice as one that can quiet a noisy room–it helps, sometimes, to get those pesky instruments out of the way.  Listen to it happen here.




Conclusion

Thanks for reading this week.  I hope you’ve found something of interest or a lead to track down as we’ve woven the strands of the murder ballad with that of another ballad genre, finding some interesting (I hope) points of connection and contrast.  If you’d like a one-stop shop for this week’s songs, plus a few more, please check out this week’s Spotify playlist.