New life is breathed into some old songs bringing them to fresh ears.
It might be a surprise to some that Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’, a 1963 protest song against the war in Vietnam, actually has roots in a traditional English folk song; that’s the oft-disputed origin of things Lawrence County have come to believe is true, anyway. You see, Dylan (without credit) took the melody from Jean Ritchie’s ‘Nottamun Town’, but if you trace the history of the song back through the archives, you find that it originates from a song called ‘Nottingham Fair’, and it’s widely accepted that the Nottingham in question is the same UK city that’s so famous for Robin Hood. It also happens to be where Lawrence County hails from, and – along with nine other traditional folk songs – the band felt compelled to put their own stamp on it.
There is no denying the traditional roots of the titular opening track with its thrumming beat, and while the lyrics are somewhat muddy in their meaning, Al Rate’s slightly nasal vocals impart a powerful sense of resentment to the listener as he sings: “In fair Nottamun Town, not a soul would look up / Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down / […] / To show me the way to fair Nottamun Town.” Traditional Canadian folk song ‘Peggy Gordon’, with Bill Kerry on lead vocals, is lively, despite its sad nature as a song of unrequited love (“I did put my head to a cask of brandy / It was my fancy, I do declare / For when I’m drinking I am thinking / And wishing Peggy Gordon was here”), although the haunting ‘Molly Bawn’ embraces its macabre tone about the accidental murder of a girl that the other girls in town turn out to be perversely pleased about.
Written by Harry Robertson and first released on his 1971 album “Whale Chasing Men: Songs of Whaling in Ice and Sun”, ‘Little Pot Stove’ is about Robertson’s solitude when working at a sub-Antarctic whaling station, Kerry’s vocals adding a jaunty edge to a song which has the potential to feel far more depressing. ‘River in the Pines’, notably recorded by Joan Baez on “Farewell, Angelina”, loses the sweetness provided by a female voice like Baez’s, feeling rougher around the edges as Rate sings of two tragic lovers. The traditional ‘Poor Wayfaring Stranger’, a song about a man who feels he may never truly find a place of belonging in this world, but has faith he will find such peace in the next, is fittingly haunting and sombre in tone.
Dark themes abound on ‘Lucy Wan’, which tackles murder and incest, while on the drinking song ‘Rosin the Beau’, Rate sings of a fellow who was a ladies’ man in his youth, but is now preparing for his life’s natural end. “Oh, Napoleon Bonaparte, you’re the cause of my woe / Since my bonny light horseman in the war, he did go,” come Kerry’s wavering vocals on ‘Bonny Light Horseman’ as he sings of the losing the one he loves when they were fighting against Napoleon in the Peninsular War. ‘Dirty Old Town’ is the final track; it’s a song made so popular by The Dubliners and The Pogues that many falsely believe it to be Irish in origin when it’s actually a love letter to the industrial North of England. Lawrence County are longtime fans of the song, often playing it live in a way they’ve described as “a little pretty”, but here they chose to interpret it rougher and less cleanly, which is all too fitting given its soot filled genesis.
Folk music has a long history of travelling and growing, lyrics and melodies evolving as each new act takes a stab at a song, and in “Nottatum Town”, Lawrence County have contributed to that grand tradition. By taking on some classic songs they have given them a new energy and life, potentially introducing them to a whole new set of people who may go on to do the same. Some traditions, it turns out, are meant to be kept.
