stevieannie | Lincoln Tradition Picture...

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lincoln traditions

Lincoln Tradition Picture...

We're open to name change suggestions. We're currently going by "Lincoln Tradition(s)", but I'm a little unsure as to whether it sounds as though we're doing a City Waits kind of a thing, which we're not. What we're *actually* doing is very traditional english part-songs, mostly seasonal, and largely accapella, with some melodeon, percussion and brass accompaniment, as seems appropriate. The name we liked the most was "Baggsy Not Norma", but as we all know both Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, and would like to carry on knowing them on a personal, rather than litigous, basis, we think that may be out :-)

Some of the photos from this session were hysterical, particularly the ones where we all broke out in spontaneous "Manhatten Transfer" songs and the ones where Liam was telling jokes involving Kate Rusby and some lard...

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You all look awfully serious in that shot.... If that's what you were aiming for - fine.

"Manhatten Transfer" - You don't hear them often these days. I like their versions of "Chatanooga Choo Choo" and "Anything Goes"

Teddy

Strange, I went and did a web search on MT and can't find Chattanooga Choo Choo or Anything Goes listed among the songs they've done.... Could I have been labouring under a misaprehension about who performed the versions that I like of both songs all these years....?

Teddy

I searched for them recently too. I couldn't remember what their 'big hit' was called. We also saw them on some of the reruns ot 'The Two Ronnies' that were on recently. Remember when the comedy was interrupted to have a song?

I remember them on the Two Ronnies... Do you, by any chance, recall if they did versions of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and "Anything Goes"....? I have tapes recorded form someone else's recording which I marked as "Manhattan Transfer" at the time, and that's what I've assumed all this time but I can't find them listed on their discographies

Teddy

The version of "Anything Goes" that I remember from around that time was by Harpers Bizarre, if that's any help.

Their big hit was "Twilight Zone"

"Java Jive" and "Tuxedo Junction" both also charted in the US, as I recall.

Did they also do "Boy from New York City" ? If so, that may have been their biggest hit...

Yep, I'd forgotten about that one.

You might be thinking of Tuxedo Junction rather than Chattanooga Choo Choo?

Not unless it has the same lyrics as Chattanooga Choo Choo.

Teddy

That wouldn't be it, then. *grin*

It does have trains and southern US cities in it, though...

Close, but no banana... Not even a spoo in a space-suit.

Teddy

Have you asked Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson whether they'd mind? They might be tickled pink.

To me "Lincoln Tradition(s)" sounds more limiting than you say, I'd expect a group with that name to be only doing trad Lincoln songs (and Man Tran is rather a long way from Lincoln!). I don't know how much difference the name actually makes, though, especially if most people first hear you rather than see the name.

I'm seeing Martin in a couple of weeks' time - he might think it was funny, but I actually think it's a little rude to make a band name of the fact that nobody wanted to sing Norma's rather boring parts :-)

Does she find them boring? As a bass I'm used to less-than-exciting parts (and altos tend to have it even worse). Thinking of the name of their site, how about just concatenating the names of the band members?

"Lincolnshire Song Poachers"?

Interesting note: the folksong "The Lincolnshire Poacher" was not collected in the county of Lincolnshire. It was down south somewhere, I believe!

www.folkinfo.org says that it was collected from a singer in Biggin Hill, Kent, in the 1960s, but doesn't say where it originated (nor do any others I looked at). It does reference the "earliest printed version" of 1776 but no details of that publication. I couldn't get through the EFDSS website because it wants JavaScript (and this is a text-only connection).

I know the tune, not the words (apart from the last line of the verse), from the band and orchestral arrangements. That apparently derives from older sources with other words (not exactly unusual for folk songs!).

Baggsy?

So, where are the *fun* pictures? And what was the Kate Rusby story? No fair dangling stories as one might a feather before a cat.

A vulgarism meaning to make the first claim on something. It's derived from the verb 'to bag', as in 'to nab' or 'to take'.

I'm still not getting the connection to Martin Carthy. Or I may not be interpreting the whole phrase correctly.... Norma could be simply Norma's name, Baggsy could be Martin's nickname, Norma could also be a play off "normal", but that doesn't make sense with baggsy as you've described it...

Help?

Norma Waterson is married to Martin Carthy. (Eliza Carthy their daughter.) They're also the duo 'Waterson Carthy'. (Not Waters and Carthy as I once thought.) So, Annie's just being rude about Mrs Carthy.

The harmonies that we sing sound a LOT like those used by the Watersons, and Waterson:Carthy (Norma Waterson being a crucial member of both) - can't be helped, we are very traditional english, and a lot of our source material is similar to theirs.

At our first rehearsal, we started singing, accidentally in unison. Frank said, "Let's try that again, a la Watersons. But baggsy not Norma." Meaning that she wanted us to sing in 4 part traditional harmony, but she didn't want to sing Norma's lead part.

It kind of stuck.

The two are married and in the same band...

Basically it's a slang way of saying "I don't want to be stuck with Norma's part when we perform this/these song(s)

Another example of the use of the word: When I was a kid, "Bagsy not the back!" or "Bagsy the front!" were frequent cries before going anywhere in the car because everyone preffered to ride in the front seat so hope to bag the front seat by calling it first.

Teddy

Bingo! This is the bit of word usage I was missing. Thank you!

a bandname to go with the photo would be "Serious Folk" - hard to keep that image up live tho for the whole gig :-)

how about Living Tradition,
or focus on the voice side of things - eg Word of Mouth, Lincoln Vox, Vox Folk, Shake and Vox, ...OK I'll stop there...

Y'know, I considered "Living Tradition" myself, but there's a magazine of the same name...

oh yeah - sponsorship opportunities.
How about The Living Dead ? :-)

WEll, since you are all so serious and dressed in black, how about Undead Tradition?

To bounce off of this, and have the name sound serious to some people, laughable to others, and get you asked a lot of questions by everybody, what about "The Undying Tradition"? Because that's not quite undead. ;)

Hee :-) I like that!

or Dead Good Folk

I like it. It's a good wish as well, we don't want traditions to die.

I think the other 'undead' suggestions should be passed to Seanan...

How about "Folkin' Serious"? Word of mouth would spread pretty quickly ... "That band was folkin' SERIOUS!"

Apropos of nothing in this thread, each time I typed "folk" I had to go back and change the original "i" to an "o"...

i'm just thinking of all the misspelt posters...

There was an English a capella folk band around in the 1960s called the Young Tradition, whose members included the late Peter Bellamy and the woman who wrote "A Plea for Order" which I have been known to sing on occasion in a filk circle, but I'm currently blanking on her name and that of her ex-husband who was also in the band. I can't remember who the fourth member was. They split up just before I started going to folk clubs.

The song I remember Manhattan Transfer singing is Chanson D'Amour (Ra-ta da-ta Da!)

Heather and Royston Wood :-) They were rather wonderful - I don't *think* there were four of them (I suppose I should do a Google search, but need to serve tea in a second). I don't *think* Royston Wood was her husband, either, but once again, I'm happy to be proved wrong.

Royston died rather tragically when he stepped out of his car to help a fellow motorist who had broken down, and was hit by an out-of-control lorry.

I think Heather is an SF fan, as well...

And yes, the "Ratatata-DA" was exactly what we were singing at the moment of hilarity!

You are of course correct on both counts. According to Wikipedia, there were only the three of them in the Young Tradition, and Wood was Heather's maiden name, and she and Royston were not related.

That will teach me to post something without checking first! :)

Considering where you live, the geography, and the geology, "Jurassic Edge".

I must be hungry the current name sounds like a brand of sausages.

Looking at that picture, the first word to go into a band title has to be "Bohemian"...failing that, how about "Born to be Trad"?

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Lincoln Tradition Picture...

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