the Exiles
The Hale and the Hanged
1967 - Topic 12T164 LP
Side One
The Jolly Beggar - Enoch Kent, unaccompanied
The Fair Flower of Northumberland - Gordon McCulloch, acc. fiddle, whistle, guitar
Reels, The Comer House; The Sally Gardens - Jim Lyons, accordion, with fiddle, banjo, guitar
The Laird o' The Windy Wa' - Gordon McCulloch, acc. fiddle
Dainty Davie - Enoch Kent, acc. mandola and mouth-organ
Le Reel du Pendu (The Hanged Man's Reel) - Bobby Campbell fiddle, with guitar and banjo
Queen Eleanor's Confession - Gordon McCulloch, acc. Fiddle
Side Two
The Plooman Laddie - Enoch Kent, acc. fiddle, mouth-organ, whistle
The Shoals of Herring - Gordon McCulloch and Bobby Campbell, acc. banjo and guitar
Airs. The Coolin; I Walked Up To Her, Slip-Jig. Rocky Road to Dublin; Reel. The Wee Weaver - Bobby Campbell, fiddle
The Battle of Harlaw - Enoch Kent, accompanied fiddle
I Will Lay Ye Doon, Love - Enoch Kent and Gordon McCulloch acc. fiddle
Planxty Davis - Tim Lyons, accordion, with banjo and Mandoline
Credits
Enoch Kent: voice, guitar, whistle
Gordon McCulloch: voice, guitar, banjo, mouth-organ
Bobby Campbell: voice, fiddle, mandoline, mandola, guitar
with Tim Lyons: button accordion
First issued by Topic 1967
Recorded by Bill Leader
Notes by A. L. Lloyd and Gordon McCulloch
Photograph by Douglas Baton
Sleeve Notes (excerpts)
This is the second LP devoted entirely to The Exiles. Their first was a record of protest songs old and new, Freedom Come All Ye (Topic 12T143). The group comprises three outstanding singers and instrumentalists from Glasgow, Enoch Kent Gordon McCulloch and Bobby Campbell, who left their native land to find work in the South (Enoch Kent has since accepted exile in ever remoter regions, moving on to Canada). On this record, they are joined by another exile, from Ireland this time, in Tim Lyons, an excellent button-accordion player whom the English must count as,yet another of the treasures we have plundered from the land of Granuaile.
This present record provides a swiftly-viewed panorama of The Scots tradition, with centuries-old ballads such as The Fair Flower of Northumberland and Queen Eleanor's Confession (the latter in a becoming new dress), lyrical rustic love songs The Laird o' the windy Wa', Dainty Davie of the sort that inspired — and sometimes were inspired by — Burns, songs of the north-eastern farms and bothies The Plooman Laddie, I Will Lay Ye Doon, Love, and for good measure, one or two pieces from outside — the brilliant French-Canadian Hanged Man's Reel, some dashing Irish dance tunes, and the impressive Shoals of Herring, composed just a few years ago by Ewan MacColl for a BBC feature programme. Strong pieces that well show off the virtuosity of this good group whose minds — mercifully — run more on the music and the sense of the poetry than on the grin-and-gimmick of show biz