The Black Velvet Band (trad; Roud 2146) Week 257, 14 February 2026 скачать в хорошем качестве

The Black Velvet Band (trad; Roud 2146) Week 257, 14 February 2026

Continuing this month's theme of "the colours of love" ie folk songs about love that mention colour (usually of hair or eyes). (This is pretty specific I know, but a more general 'folk songs about love' would includes thousands of songs, and in the last couple of years I've learnt a couple of songs that are about love and have both the word 'colour' and the name of a colour in their title, so I've looked for a couple more to do a month on the theme. This is quite often how I arrive at a theme: I get to cover a couple of songs I already know and like and have a reason to discover a few more that also fit the theme - like this one.) "The Black Velvet Band" is much better known than last week's rather obscure "The Blue-Eyed Lover" - it's one that became popular in the post-war folk song revival, and I've heard sung several times in folk singarounds. This is a song in which the woman comes out on top, and it is the man who is deceived (or becomes the patsy): the singer meets and courts a girl with fine hair tied up in a black velvet band. As they are out walking one night, she steals a gentleman's watch. The crime is discovered; she plants the evidence on the singer; he is convicted and punished by transportation (a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century). The place to where the singer is transported, Van Diemen’s Land, is an early name for Tasmania. The song seems to have originated in England, but has also been collected on Ireland and Australia. This particular version is based on that collected from Harry Cox of Catfield, Norfolk, by Ewan MacColl in 1953 or 1955*, printed in Seeger & MacColl's 1960 book "The Singing Island". (*the vwml Roud Index entry says 1955, "The Singing Island" says 1953). Harry Cox's recording was included in 2000 on his Topic anthology The Bonny Labouring Boy. St, where Steve Roud (he of the Roud index) noted : "This is one of Harry’s songs which became popular in the post-war folk song revival, usually without acknowledgement. Surprisingly few versions have been noted—only half-a-dozen in England and Ireland but more in Australia. The subject-matter and the presence of cant words in some versions have led some to guess at a stage origin for the song, which is certainly possible. The few known broadsides printings point to an origin about 1840. The mention of Belfast in the first verse of most traditional versions has led some to presume an Irish origin, but the earlier versions invariably place the action in Barking, Essex." I learned this song from the published version in Seeger & MacColl's book "The Singing Island" (as usual when learning a folk song from a book rather than a recording, there are a few lines where I had to think about how to fit the words to the melody as there were either too many or too few syllables compared with a standard line). I haven't listened recently to a recording of the songs, but the rhythms I have used may well have been influenced by how I have heard it sung in the past. I have sung the chorus after every two verses rather than after every verse since there are 10 verses (the chorus has the same tune as the verses) - that felt like enough! (and seems to be what Harry Cox did) For more notes and lyrics see: https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs... This song has a Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bla...