the Exiles
Freedom, Come All Ye
1966 - Topic 12T143 LP
Side One
The Ballad of Accounting - Enoch Kent with mandola & guitar
The Moving - on Song - Enoch Kent with harmonica & guitar
We're only over here for Exploration - Paul Lenihan with banjo & guitar
Thank Christ for Christmas - Enoch Kent with mandola & guitar
The Pigeon - Enoch Kent with banjo & guitar
The Pound - a - Week Rise - Gordon McCulloch with mandola
Freedom Come All Ye - Gordon McCulloch with fiddle
Side Two
For A' That and A' That - Enoch Kent, Gordon McCulloch, Bobby Campbell with mandoline and guitar
Arthur MacBride - Gordon McCulloch with fiddle
Willie Brennan - Enoch Kent with fiddle & chromatic harmonica
Wae's me for Prince Charlie - Gordon McCulloch with fiddle, whistle and guitar
La Pique - Bobby Campbell with Enoch Kent and Gordon McCulloch
Van Diemen's Land - Enoch Kent
Twa Recruiting Sergeants - Enoch Kent, Gordon McCulloch with fiddle and guitar
Credits
Accompanists:
Bobby Campbell: Fiddle, mandola, mandoline, guitar
Gordon McCulloch: Guitar, banjo, chromatic harmonica
Enoch Kent: Whistle
First issued by Topic 1966
Recorded by Bill Leader 1966
Notes by Gordon McCulloch
The drawing on the front of this sleeve was done by Alberto Giacometti in 1936 for a conference of painters and sculptors at the Maison de la Culture, Paris
Sleeve Notes (excerpts)
Not all the material we have chosen for this record is of our own times. It is a mixture, in roughly equal proportion, of contemporary songs and of songs from periods of upheaval other than our own. The thread connecting these songs, old and new, is that they are all songs of protest-political songs of one kind or another, There is a very broad sense in which all songs, and indeed all art, might be called political; man is, after all, a political animal. Basically all songs are political, but some songs are more political than others.
The scope of protest songs is not easily confined to direct polemic, the blunt statement for or against this or that cause or movement. The art of complaint in songs is not a new one and songwriters of the past have often been artfully oblique in making their point. Of the older songs we have chosen most are traditional. Its been difficult to decide which songs to omit, for we have inherited a rich legacy of song from the struggles of past generations. It is impossible, on one side of an LP disc to do more than give a sample of the wealth of this inheritance. This we have tried to do, not on bended knee, for songs are not sacred, but with respect for those who made them and for what they have to teach us.
With the contemporary songs as with the traditional songs, our problem has been similarly hard. We've tried to make a choice that's reasonably representative of the many hundreds of songs that the folk revival has produced. Perhaps the contemporary songs are not so well made as the best of our traditional songs-although we think Hamish Henderson's Freedom Come All Ye is an outstanding exception. But the new songs are in their infancy and haven't been circulating long enough to acquire the polish of the best old ones.
It is no accident that on this record and in folk song clubs up and down the country, Van Diemen's Land can rub shoulders with an anti-bomb song- they are not after all, such strange bedfellows. Tradition for us is not merely a priceless antique to be preserved and admired for its own sake, it is one of the tools with which we can hope to hammer out the shape of our future.