Searching for Lambs (English folk song)

"Searching for Lambs"

Searching for Lambs is an excellent folk song; it has this aura of purity that many English folk songs seem to lack. Most English folk songs have some reference to the drinking of alcohol (or ale hahah), half of them have some reference to fornication and it's no wonder that England is such a corrupt, and wicked country in the modern day. I don't know which country is worse; ours or theirs! It was still interesting to hear from another English folk involved individual from the Midlands tell me that California was seen as some sort of a "Sodom and Gomorrah" of America though. A pretty sobering thought to say the least. Here are the lyrics to the folk song:

As I walked out one May morning, One May morning betime, I met a maid, who from 'ome had strayed Just as the sun did shine What makes you rise so soon, my dear Your journey to pursue? Your pretty little feet, why they tread so neat Strike off the mornin' dew I'm goin' in search of my father's flocks His young an' tender lambs That over hills and over dales Lie bleating for their dams O stay, O stay, you pretty maid Rest but one moment here For there is none save thee alone That I do love most dear How gloriously the sun do shine How pleasant is the air I would rather rest on my true love's breast Than any other where For I am thine and thou art mine No man shall uncomfort thee We'll join our hands in wedded bands
 And married we shall be

BibleGateway was a save; I knew that the rejoice in the wife of thy youth thing was in Proverbs 5, but I had forgotten which chapter it was where Jacob met Rachel and he greeted her with a kiss and tears. Obviously this folk song is much more of a scenic and romanticized scene than the realism of Jacob's situation, but that's where my mind went when I saw these lyrics. We need more English and American folk songs like this, and less sin or references to vices.

Psalm 47 / Rowland (KJV Psalm and English Country Dance)

"Psalm 47 an' Rowland"

Probably the most favorite psalm there is as Rowland is such a fitting tune for it. Truly, the psalms concerning God's utter destruction of the wicked and takeover of the world have a special place in my heart. You tend to forget that people can be Judas backstabbers, and this is a neat little reminder that one day we'll all get what is coming to us. Rowland was first written by William Byrd, and the tune goes as far back as the 16th century because of this; this one has a very significant variation but you can hear the tune Rowland or My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home here if you seek to hear the traditional tune for this piece:

Now, I don't really see why there must be two names for it; it would seem that Dowland dedicated this to Francis Willoughby who was one of the many lords in the House of Lords in the English government at the time. He was the 5th Baron of Parham, and is known for building Wollaton Hall in Nottinghamshire. He lived in the latter half of the 16th century which would likely explain why this went by similar names, one, Dowland or Byrd, must have given the same tune a name of their own.

The Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon Lord's Prayer

"The Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon Lord's Prayer"

This is the Lord's prayer in Anglo-Saxon, or the Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon Lord's Prayer which hails from Northumbria, which is an ancient region that lies in the far northeast of England. Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon is quite different from normal Anglo-Saxon and it can be seen interestingly enough when comparing it to the normal Anglo-Saxon variant:

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum;

Si þin nama gehalgod

to becume þin rice

gewurþe ðin willa

on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.

urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg

and forgyf us ure gyltas

swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum

and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge

ac alys us of yfele soþlice

Read more: https://www.lords-prayer-words.com/lord_old_english_medieval.html#ixzz5nZy8bJ3c

It is definitely its own distinct dialect and to tell you truth, I find it very intriguing when compared to the normal Old English. Perhaps one day I'll be able to fully wrap my head around both the West Saxon and Northumbrian dialects; there's definitely a lot of potential with setting music to Anglo-Saxon psalms and whatnot, although it will take some studying as the mistake of singing corrupt translations from a dead language is not very convenient. Someday it'll happen God-willing though.

Anderson's Jig for the LORD (Christian and Californian Jig)

Anderson's Jegg forre the LORD

Yes, the long awaited Anderson's Jig is here; also known as Anderson's Jig for the LORD. I loved this tune as soon as I heard it to tell you truth; the Anderson brothers both have great individual versions of the psalm which the tune was meant for. I don't know what made the pastor come up with it in the first place but it is brilliant, I really wish there'd be more folky and ancient-sounding renditions of psalms like this. The tune was made for the fifteenth psalm as I had stated before; allow me to explain that one. It is a five-verse psalm, yet it is so expressive in the sense that the Holy Spirit really shows us what kind of person we should strive to be, just in those five verses. I can only really compare it to the first psalm, although the first psalm isn't as human as the fifteenth psalm. Psalm 15 seems to be sung from the perspective of man and not as authoritative as psalm 1; both are wonderful psalms however, which both Bro. Clint Anderson and Bro. Ramon Ventura have done. 

                         

These kinds of things tend to make you grateful that God has given us music and such. I sometimes don't even know what I want to do in terms of profession, as music has completely taken over. I've come to know a lot of like-minded folks in that regard; they may work and they may have lives of their own but sometimes you can't help but just jam out for a good half hour or so for the sake of doing so. I really find that to be fun, but alas, it is too much fun for me to handle as I tend to procrastinate due to music. Sometimes I wish I'd never gotten into it. This is a pretty cool jig of Anderson's though; I definitely wasn't expecting the attention psalm 15 got when I uploaded it, it was kind of weird when that happened. So to conclude: Psalm 15 is a wonderful psalm, and a pastor out there in Arizona (originally from California so it is a Californian rendition if I stretch logic a bit) made a wonderful rendition of it, charging me to make a jig from it. 

Psalm 123 / Soldiers Three (KJV Psalm and English Tune)

Psalm 123 / Soldiers Three

                                       
Psalm 123; another grand psalm which I think is rather fitting for today. It gives us a compelling dynamic of man and God, man as the servants, God as the masters (which would probably make for a really cool Trinity moment as if God were one person then it would be master). It concerns a sinner begging to God for mercy which is a quality in the Lord that is always abounding. I suppose we can all find ourselves in a situation in which we are vexed by prideful scorners and are in great need of mercy of God. It is never a pleasant situation to be in, although it is guaranteed to happen to all of us at some point in time. There is pretty much always a need for God's mercy as chastisement is just as abundant as His mercy sometimes, charging us to make psalm 123 kinds of prayers.

Another interesting was a comment from one of my commentors, Eric, a fellow new IFBer I had found through a secular channel which had 2,000 videos or so dedicated to the topic of balding. Why does a 16 year old need to research premature balding in adult males? I don't particularly know the answer to that question, but I like these kinds of things. He mentioned the subject of received pronunciation and original pronunciation, and I got to thinking about it. These psalms don't really have much of an original pronunciation focus or even a traditional sound in the sense that it uses Jacobean instruments of the time. Certainly the banjo was not a traditional English instrument and nor was the mandolin. These are modern English instruments; alas though, he provided for a very long rambling of mine which I suppose you could refer to as a reply, hahah.

Upon a Summer's Day (English Country Dance)

                             
                               "No man is an iland, intire of itselfe"

Quite a swell country dance this one is; Upon a Summer's Day is the name of the tune and I had never heard of it until I saw NyckelharpaUK perform it as one of the dances for her "How the Dancing Master Collection Came into Being" which proved to be a very Dickens-like little epic concerning the author of that grand publication. 

This one makes me think of individualism and government role and authority, particularly governmental expression of authority in a crude manner which would best describe the attributes of our nation. Nevertheless, I really like the tune all the more for that reason. A grand tune it is, indeed!

Psalm 120 / Heffle Cuckoo Fair (KJV Psalm and English Tune)

"Psalm 120" and "Heffle Cuckoo Fair"

                           

This is the 120th Psalm as you can most clearly see. To tell you truth, I have not lived a good life and nor do I expect it to improve in regards to my sin; I start off with this because when I have vain thoughts, sinful thoughts, bitterness, pretty much anything that isn't from God to start off Sunday it feels kind of Pharisaical for me to be uploading these Psalms a Sunday. It doesn't help that I came out of the whole dark country scene, and while I didn't get seriously involved as I could have, it plagues my mind to where I cannot really think about doing Christian music or anything of that sort professionally. In other words, it's hard to be a Christian artist when you are listed as a legal co-writer of a song entitled "Demons in my Head." It makes me quite angry too sometimes as I even told Darter I didn't like that song; I was an unsaved, borderline insane heathen, and I still thought it was a crap song! And I knew to some extent that it was quite wrong to listen to satanic music and things of that sort, but my foolishness has ultimately stained my reputation despite this. Maybe folk music professionally one day, but Christian folk doesn't seem to be a realistic goal anymore. 

On a much less selfish and egotistical note, this psalm is a very good one as it expresses the sheer mercy of a God for the sake of punishing the unrighteous. Things tend to be, particularly in the new IFB, as they probably were in the early church (well they were in fact as Ananias is a chief example of this) but there is definitely a wicked element of flattery in true Christian movements; if not some weird doctrine to confuse faith-based salvation to vulnerable unsaved, it's flattery. Sometimes it's because they are babes in Christ so everything is grand to them, sometimes it's just pure vanity spewed out of the mouth of the spiritually immature. I used to be the former (I literally told three different IFB pastors they were my favorite pastor); either way I don't like it anymore. I don't like it in day to day life even; you don't know who actually likes you and admires you and who despises you heavily and wants you dead but flatters you for the sake of backstabbing. I felt bad enough burning bridges with my dark country pals without having the God conversation with 'em for the tenth time, although I probably should have communicated in better fashion and with more skill. But this psalm is pretty cool because of that; it is God's way of expressing to us the wrath flatterers will face in due time. God will humble the vain, false, flattering tongue, and that is a beautiful thing. 

                          

The tune comes from Peter Bellamy, who had actually set many English tunes to the poems of Rudyard Kipling. I was not inspired by Bellamy at the time, but coming across this inspired me in a vague sense. I wanted to set Elizabethan and other English tunes to psalms and so to think that a man had already done with Rudyard Kipling's content (some of which is highly blasphemous, racist, and just downright vulgar I will warn however) without any overly flashy playing and vain musical matter was motivating. It may be a traditional tune, it may be a Bellamy original, but it is an excellent and most fitting tune for psalm 120 I'd say. "Heffle Cuckoo Fair" contains somewhat of a jolly inspection of Heathfield Fair, an English traditional fair known locally to the region as Heffle Cuckoo Fair. It features nasally, bleating ole Peter Bellamy, Anthea Bellamy his wife, and Chris Birch who I seem to only see featured on Bellamy's albums.