There are a multitude of traditional songs on this theme, many of which are predicated on a relationship with a young man. We chose a version from the New Penguin book of English Folk Song.
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Summerisle
A contrast to the sensuous, embracing feeling of nature and magic in Awaken, Summerisle looks at a more intense, malevolent aspect of fictionalised paganism.
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Cold Haily Windy Night
One of many ‘night visiting’ songs to be found in the traditional repertoires of Europe and North America.
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The Snows They Melt The Soonest
This is a traditional song, which likely originated in North East England during the 19th century, and is now popular amongst singers throughout Britain and Ireland.
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Lapwing
An instrumental led by low whistle, named for the peewits (Lapwings) which inhabit Teesside’s industry-fringed wetlands.
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Blackrock Sands
A song about childhood holidays in North Wales.
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The Ballad of Robert Jeffrey
The true story of Robert Jeffrey, a young man from Cornwall who was pressed into the navy and received extraordinarily disproportionate punishment for dipping into the ship’s stores.
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Bonny Ship The Diamond
A Scottish song written about a notable Aberdeenshire whaling ship in the 1820s.
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The Pirate King
Henry ‘Long Ben’ Avery was an infamous English pirate born near Plymouth in the 17th century. He gained particular infamy after carrying out possibly the most lucrative act of pirary in history, then subsequently avoiding capture and disappearing.
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Awaken
One of the first songs written together. Jake’s lyrics take inspiration from the sense of history and magic pervading ideas of Britain’s pagan past.
THE WINDJAMMER EP
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Hills and Valleys
An instrumental that Jeremy wrote a number of years ago, to which Fran added a gentle accordion part. We’re all keen on a ramble.
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The Tern
Terns, also known as ‘sea swallows’, are a group of small seabirds, related to gulls. When we wrote this, Fran had some photographs of arctic terns on his desk, taken by his grandfather on a trip to the Farne Islands. They seemed to match the tune.
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Windjammer
One of our first songs, and we thought the name had a good ring to it. Windjammers were commercial sailing ships, built to carry bulk cargo for long distances in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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North Sea Holes
Ewan MacColl wrote this song as part of the BBC Radio Ballads in 1960. It describes the efforts, skill and fortitude of herring fishermen in the middle of the twentieth century.
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Awaken
One of the first songs written together. Jake’s lyrics take inspiration from the sense of history and magic pervading ideas of Britain’s pagan past.
PURA VIDA
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Pura Vida
Pura Vida is the final distillation of a long sunday afternoon spent around the kitchen table with the aroma of coffee and good company for inspiration.
