Music, Audio, Video

This ballad has always appealed to me. It has trial by fire, magical occurrences to identify murderers and a really terrible tale of a joke that misfires fatally. In some versions there is even a talking bird that gives the game away, though not in mine. I have selected the words to tell the tale succinctly and the tune is a reworking of one collected by Cecil Sharp & Maud Karpeles in the Appalachians. I couldn’t find an English tune I liked.

Mary Humphreys

From our first album "Through The Groves" recorded at home in 2001. (TTG)