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about

'Shape Songs' was the theme and since I wasn't about to belt out "The Auld Triangle", I had to do a bit of creative theme matching and came up with a song about a shapeshifter.

This is my version of The Silkie/Selkie. Silkies are seal people who can transform between human an seal form and there's whole scads of stories about them in Shetland and Orkney folklore, most of which I confess I don't know. But I've loved this song since I first heard Moira Craig singing it on her solo CD "On Ae Bonny Day".

I love the ambiguity in this version of the song – it's not clear whether the 'Earthly Nurse' is the child's mother or not. I tend to think that she's a paid wetnurse. That implies that she is already grieving for the loss of a child, and that he is mourning a lost lover. It would certainly explain the stilted formal way they interact. What do you think?

lyrics

And earthy nourice [nurse] sits and sings
And aye she sings "ba lillie lie"
Saying "Little ken I my bairn's father
Far less the land that he lies in

Then he's stepped in to her bed foot
And a grummly guest I'm sure was he
Saying "Here am I thy bairn's father
"Although I am not comely"

"I am a man upon the land
"I am a silkie on the sea
"And when I'm far and fair from land
"My home it is in Sule Skerrie"

"Alas, alas" the lady cried
"Alas, alas indeed" quoth she
"That the great silkie of Sule Skerrie
"Should have come and laid a bairn with me."

And he's take out a purse of gold
And he has laid it on her knee
Saying "Gie to me my little young son
"And tak' thee up thy nourice' fee"

"And it shall come to pass on a summer's day
"When the sun shines hot on every stone
"That I will fetch my little young son
"And I'll teach him how to swim the foam."

"And you shall marry a gunner bold
"And a right good gunner I'm sure he'll be
"And the very first shot that he shall shoot
"Shall kill both my young son and me."

"Oh woe is me!" the lady cried
"What a weary doom is laid on me"
And once she's sobbed and twice she's sighed
And her tender heart it broke in three

credits

from Trad Song Tuesdays Volume 0, released February 26, 2020
Trad. Arr. Cawley

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Piers Cawley Doncaster, UK

A singer for as long as he can remember, Piers (he/they) sings Old Songs with a clarity and conviction that makes them as fresh as paint.

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