LAMACHREE & MEGRUM / SUPPLEMENT / 61.49


Along with certain items on the main feature (i.e. Hearthcharm Lamachree & Megrum and Bird Came in Spring), the material on this supplementary disk comes from two cassettes recorded for sale at solo storytelling performances and through mail-order via the Society for Storytelling in 1994 / 95. Having received much praise in the form of personal testimony & reviews for these cassettes, I nevertheless personally regard them as altogether inadequate representations of both the craft of storytelling and Proximal Indo-European music; they were a failed attempt to make things accessible to a wider public and were thus flawed from the start. However, some of the music remains entirely listenable, as do certain of the sung / spoken word sequences, even if they are inflected with undue jollity on my part. Here we draw together the best of this material by way of a wholesome fireside entertainment for all the family...


i) FURROW MYTH # 1 / 5.12
(voice / crwth / koboz / low whistle / dumbek / bells / rattles / birds)

When first I gaed to sair the frempt: Lamachree and Megrum
Is was through Auchtidour I skeempt: Owld Grey Megrum

The owld good wife smokes in the nook: Lamachree and Megrum
Ordering at the throwder cook: Owld Grey Megrum

Once it was and long ago for sure / before my own eye had ever opened / and before the eye that opened my eye had ever opened itself / that a bird came and dropped a seed / and in the space of these few words that seed grew into a fine tree that swept its branches through the wind beneath the sun and the moon / night and day / winter and summer / and long past years / following years / following years / until it seemed that that tree had been growing there since the world began / because there was no one who could remember a time when it hadn't been there / and no one could remember the story that told of how it came to be there / nor could anyone remember if such a story had ever existed at all / who might know? / well there was an old man ploughing a furrow nearby / his only companions were the sea gulls / and maybe he might know / for hadn't he been ploughing furrows for as long as anyone could remember? / and no one could remember a time when he hadn't been ploughing furrows / and no one could remember the story of he came to be there ploughing furrows in the first place / nor could they be sure if such a story had ever existed at all / but in spite of everything they went to ask him: was there ever such a thing as a story that told of how that tree came to be there? / the old man thought / very carefully / and he nodded...

I took the plough to Weather Hill: Lamachree and Megrum
And ploughed so long I'm ploughing still: Owld Grey Megrum

Up Powell's lum I dragged the seal: Lamachree and Megrum
And bitter it dripped intae his meal: Owld Grey Megrum


ii) TUNDERKERT HEARTHCHARM / 19.02
(crwth & gardon)

Tunderket is a Magyar word relating to the Transylvanian Fairyland; the story told over this music being a Hungarian wonder-tale concerning the exploits of Almafi. This improvisation followed the narrative of the story; as an instrumental it embodies the morphology of the Indo-European folk tale, thus telling a story without the words which only got in the way of the music...


iii) BIRD AND FOX / 4.52
(harmonic pipes / plant pots / whistle flute / bird / rattles)

The music here is a variation of Psalm 102 Verse 7 as heard on Splendor Solis; the narrative, whilst purporting to be part of the altogether non-traditional Bird canon, is based on a traditional Norwegian tale from the collection of Asbjorsen & Moe, freely adapted for this purpose...

Aye Bird came once; it was Harris lighting fires that brought it / for in the winter he burned the nest & egg hatched in fire & Bird was born / Bird flew by rivers snatching trout from dark waters / Bird flew among stars and sang songs to the moon / Bird flew among trees and rested glad in high branches / there singing bright songs into the morning that came.

Aye Fox came there / hearing Bird singing / ah greetings Bird / I heard you singing and I came running / running over furrows in the morning sun / I saw you Fox over furrows running / the sun lit you as bright as spun gold / golden Fox over furrows running / Aye one thing Bird I might ask of you: your father sang too / high in branches with closed eyes on one leg standing / can Bird sing now like his father sang then? / So Bird sang then on one leg standing / with both eyes closed / bright in the morning

Glad I am Bird of that sight said Fox / leaping up / seizing Bird by wing / taking Bird to wood / holding Bird on ground by ash tree there growing / baring bright teeth seeing fit to eat Bird / ah Fox said Bird / even your father in all his greed would not eat without praise and thanks for sure / he would stand like bear and pray like a man / and so Fox in pain did stand like bear and did pray like man / and Bird flew then high into branches / high into branches high above Fox

And Fox then took wood chips left fallen by Axe / ah Bird come here and eat now / for here is fresh cheese / ah Fox, you leave it there until you return / return? said Fox, but I will not go / ah Fox, from high branches I see huntsmen coming with hounds along your path / leaping wild over furrows I hear them cry / and Fox hearing Bird was struck with fright / Fox ran swift away leaving Bird singing bright into that morning


iv) TUNDERKERT HEARTHDANCE / 9.24
(hummel / rebec / whistle flute / bird / goat / melodica)

A second version of this piece as heard on Sedayne Astray Volume 4: Biblical Fruit; a little rough round the edges, extending the middle section vamp for the whistle solo which accompanied the second part of the Almafi story. This recording captures the whining interplay of the hummel, rebec (= tiny 3 string mediaeval fiddle) and a little F bamboo whistle bought from Ray Man, London in 1988.


v) LAMACHREE'S WEDDING / 5.09
(voice / crwth / koboz / whistle / bells / bird / goat / rattle)

At the heart of this recording there lies an entirely live & spontaneous performance of crwth & voice storytelling; though not altogether successful it seems the pros outweighed the cons whereupon the koboz (= fretless Transylvanian lute) & whistle parts were added to the melody; this tune (my own & one of my personal favourites) is called A Fiddler at Hare's Wedding, as featured in its original improvised splendor on the first disk of Lamachree & Megrum and since revisited as part of All Greeness Comes to Withering & further develioped on Harvest Myth 2006 : Sundog Redux. The story actually comes from the collection of Absjorsen & Moe concerning the dialogue between two hares; also features brief statement of the 'hopper of ditches' based on a riddle about the hare from County Antrim: a complete version of this, along with the Middle English poem the Names of the Hare features part of Green as God the Touched Brow of the Winter, the final volume of Sedayne Astray which gathers together diverse spoken word sequences based on seasonal & other such ceremonial folklore.

The next I gaed to Middle Third: Lamachree and Megrum
A better's nae aboon the yeard: Owld Grey Megrum

I there got buttered bread and cheese : Lamachree and Megrum
And oil to keep my sheen in greese : Owld Grey Megrum

Aye Lamachree came leaping over furrows as happy as any hare ever was for sure / his head held high into the fine spring sunshine / a hopper of ditches / a cropper of corn / a wee brown cow / with a pair of leather horns / aye Lamachree only stopped to look about him as hares do / to see what might coming through the hedge / maybe it'll be a fox with its mouth all red and white with blood and feathers / or maybe not / anyway upon this day who should he meet but Megrum / Lamachree and Megrum / sat there in that furrowed field / ah Megrum says Lamachree; how splendid it is to be seeing you today / for today has been my wedding day / and Megrum says ah happy happy day it is for sure / Lamachree you've got a wife at last; you must be a happy man / well not so happy, says Lamachree / because my wife - och, she can be very cruel with both tongue and pan can my wife / and Megrum says, well, you must be a very unhappy hare despite your happiness / och, I'm not as unhappy as I might be / I'll tell you this Megrum: I'm a happy hare because of all / because of all the money and the grand house that I got through marrying her / ah Lamachree, you must, you must be a fine and happy hare then for sure / well not so happy Megrum, says Lamachree / because there was a great and there was a terrible fire / and that fire came and it burned the house down and all the money with it / oh, Lamachree, says Megrum / there's grief in that for sure, grief in that for sure / grief? says Lamachree / grief? / not a bit of grief at all / because wasn't my wife burned up with the house also?


vi) OCTOBER MYTH & NBEH / 12.28
(dumbek / crwth / saz / koboz / whistle flute / bird / bells / harmonic pipes)

The October Myth theme came about through diverse crwth strayings & improvisations during October 1991 & has been 'revisited' many times since. Here it bookends another early theme, Nbeh, originally devised as a device for low D 3-hole harmonic pipes in 1989 & subsequently featured in diverse spoken word & narrative contexts; the version on Volume Four was conceived as an instrumental, whilst here it supported the telling of Jack Frost, based on a story from the John Samson collection of gypsy folk tales.


vii) FURROW MYTH # 2 / 5.27
(voice / crwth / koboz / whistle flute / goat / bird / bells)

One of my favourite stories which now features as part of my Jack Corby sequence, a version of which can be heard on Zither Songs Volume Two : The Chapters Session.

And in the morning e're ye rise : Lamachree and Megrum
And he's on ye with mony cries : Owld Grey Megrum

Gets up me boys it's six o'clock : Lamachree & Megrum
Aye Loanie's men are a' a yoak : Owld Grey Megrum

Bright and glad the day came that found Jack out and about on the rocky road to nowhere / and his eye was caught by the russet coat of Reynard himself / fast sleeping beneath a rare old oak tree on the edge of the forest / aha, thinks Jack, now here's fortune indeed for myself / for what could be finer than chancing upon a sleeping fox? / For a sleeping fox is easier killed than a leaping fox / but once dead, who's to know how it was that I killed it? / chance it might be that I took that fox in a rare chase over the hill and dale / and wouldn't they be glad to hear that? / and wouldn't I be the hero too? / for isn't this fix sure to be the scourge of every farmer in the valley? / och, they'd pay me well for hide of old Reynard / and chance they'd pay me enough to buy a fine field / and a fine sack of barley to sow in it / and that barley will thrive all the way through the spring and the summer / and the people who pass on their way to church will say: there's Jack's field there, golden under the sun with the corn he's sown; it's a rich man he'll be when the harvest's done / but I'll say to them : keep to your own and leave my field alone / but likely they'll think me too soft / so I'll have to shout at them: keep to your own and leave my field alone / but knowing the folks hereabouts they won't be taking too much notice of me until I'm screaming at them / keep to your own and leave my field alone...

Well, Jack screamed loud enough then and old Reynard woke up and wandered away / so it's best to take what lies in reach / for of undone deeds you should never screech...

First I gaed to sair the frempt: Lamachree and Megrum
Is was through Auchtidour I skeempt: Owld Grey Megrum

The owld good wife still smokes in the nook: Lamachree and Megrum
And ordering at the throwder cook: Owld Grey Megrum