A special compilation of film, folk songs, readings and photographs and live performance. The show is written and performed by Tom and Barbara Brown with the assistance of Andy Barnes as projectionist/technician.
See www.umbermusic.co.uk.
The moving images in this show fall into two categories: complete extracts and compiled pieces. The complete extracts include the BBC's 1950s' documentary Brief Journey, which follows a sailor on two days' shore leave; short films Lone Woman Farmer and The Cider Drinkers and the television series This Is Our Land are from Westward Television in the 1960s. A great deal of additional material came from collections too numerous list, but significantly from the Dartington Hall Film Collection, including some compiled and narrated by Leonard Elmhirst in the early 1970s.
Several of the songs performed by Tom and Barbara are very well known and still often sung in country areas in Devon. Widdecombe Fair and Bread and Cheese and Cider are two examples of the genre, as is Old Game Cock which is also known in Cornwall. Another song known in both Devon and Cornwall is The Cottage Well Thatched With Straw, although versions have also been collected in Wiltshire and Hampshire.
Several of the other songs crop up more widely in the folk tradition. The Farmer’s Boy is known throughout the southern part of England; Country Life comes from Yorkshire; The Seasons of the Year and The Master’s Health (traditionally sung at harvest suppers) come, in these versions, from Sussex, and Harvest Song from Cornwall although other versions of all these have been found in other counties. The Trees are All Bare comes from the singing of the Copper family in Rottingdean in Sussex.
Almost all of the songs are 'traditional', having been collected from country singers early last century, but two more recent songs have been included. Craftsmen of the Moor is an abbreviated version of a song written by Bob Cann, Dartmoor farm manager, musician, singer and Dartmoor tradition and lore aficionado. Bampton Fair by Paul Wilson was also written in recent years, following a visit to said fair. The remaining song, The Farmer and His Wife was first published as a broadside some four hundred years ago and simply goes to show that some things never change!
The three readings included in the show - on ploughing, women working and the hardship of farm labour – are all paraphrased from Ian Niall's book To Speed The Plough – an examination of the effect of mechanisation to farming.
Tom and Barbara Brown are professional performers who specialise in traditional songs, especially those of the West Country. They have over 30 years experience of performing and researching the vernacular arts. Each sings, both individually and in harmony, and Tom plays the guitar, English concertina, melodeon and mandola to accompany as appropriate. They also have two CDs issued by Wild Goose Records, both of which received excellent reviews - www.umbermusic.co.uk/tandb/reviews.htm
This Farming Life is a collaborative project, instigated by Bill Grainger of Beafordarts and Villagevoice and presented in association with South West Film & Television Archive and Umber Music.