Looking for a song

[janewilliams20]

There's a Burns poem called "The Bonny Moorhen" (spellings vary). http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/459.htm
I gather that it's a song as well as a poem, and I'd like to know what it sounds like. Can any of my FL recommend a recording, so I can go and hunt Ebay/Amazon for CDs? About all I've found is something the Corries did many years ago, and it doesn't seem to be available.

edit: getting somewhere, even if a single-track MIDI isn't quite what I was hoping for
http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiMOORHEN;ttREDERIPP.html
Having listened to that, I can see why nobody's bothered recording it.

Comments

[telynor.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Jean Redpath did several albums' worth of Burns songs at one point; if it's recorded anywhere it'll be there.

Andy M Stewart did an album of Burns songs as well, but I don't remember it being on there. You might want to check The Digital Tradition/Mudcat; there will surely be a list of recordings on their database.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Checked Amazon for Jean Redpath, and found seven volumes of Burns - which, surprisingly enough, do not include a Moorhen. I may well get tempted by them anyway, though, I always end up looking up Burns just before Mel's Burns Night party.

Mudcat and DT sounds like a job for lunchtime research.

[eoforyth.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard it, but apparently it is on the second disc of the remastered Steeleye Span's Original Masters

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Having found reference to that one on Mudcat, it turns out to be a totally different song with the same title :(

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=10726

This is the Steeleye Span song:
"My bonny moorhen, my bonny moorhen,
Up in the gray hill, down in the glen;"

and what I'm after is this:
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men!
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men!
Take some on the wing, and some as they spring,
But cannily steal on a bonie moor-hen.
1.
The heather was blooming, the meadows were mawn,
Our lads gaed a-hunting ae day at the dawn,
O'er moors and o'er mosses and monie a glen:
At length they discovered a bonie moor-hen.

There's a hint that Ewan MacColl may have recorded the one I'm after.
I'm struggling somewhat with the Mudcat site: the search searches their forum, and I can't find anything that looks like a database.

So, chasing Ewan via Amazon....
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Ewan+MacColl+jacobite+moorhen&x=15&y=19
The Bonnie Moorhen by Ewan MacColl (MP3 Download - 1 Jan 1960)
Buy new: £0.79
In stock

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

And having previewed it: no, wrong song. That's the "Up in the gray hill, down in the glen" one again.

[alaimacerc.livejournal.com]

Jean Redpath was my first thought too, but as many of those as she's done, Burns wrote a pre-metric _shedload_ of songs, or poems he set to existing tunes, or poems that others subsequently set to music. (My mum has an allegedly complete Burns collection that is a) thick enough to stun an ox, and b) clearly isn't actually complete at all.)

You sure the Corries version isn't available on one of their various collections? Such as _Peat Fire Flame/Stovies_? Of course, that might also be the Ewan MacColl song...

All this reminds me, I should set about sorting out Eddi Reeder tickets...

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

I'll check the Corries again. Always worth a look. Also, I now know a little more about just how extensive a range the Amazon MP3 downloads cover, so I'll take a look at that as an option.

[alaimacerc.livejournal.com]

It seems that Stovies live track #2 is the "up hill, doon glen" one again.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'd found it on a CD, but one that I'd have to pay a tenner for. I won't bother....

[albanach.livejournal.com]

The Corries version is a traditional song, not Burns.

Here's the lyrics

http://www.scotsindependent.org/features/singasang/moorhen.htm

And here's the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y8lJeOrqPg