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The Mellstock Band

Recorded at Valley Recordings, Littleton-on-Severn, in May 1994;
Recorded and produced by Gef Lucena (Saydisc) and David Wilkins (Valley Recordings);
Research by Dave Townsend and Caroline Jackson-Houlston;
Front cover illustration: Candlemas Fair, Dorchester 1880, reproduced by courtesy of Dorset Country Museum;
Design by Genny Lucena

Musicians

Sally Dexter: vocals [2, 4, 6, 12-13, 15, 19-20], harmony vocals [8, 10];
Julie Murphy: vocals [2, 4, 7, 11-12, 17, 20], harmony vocals [8, 10, 13, 16, 18];
Ian Giles: vocals [1-2, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20], harmony vocals [13, 16, 19];
Andy Turner: vocals [2-3, 9, 12, 14, 20-21], harmony vocals [8, 10, 13, 16, 18];

with The Mellstock Band:
Dave Townsend: concertina [2, 5-6, 8, 15, 21], bass concertina [6, 11], violin [7, 18], speech [8], vocals [16, 20];
Mark Emerson: violin [1-2, 5, 7, 16, 18, 21], viola [3, 6, 10, 19], vocals [20];
Charles Spicer: flute [2, 19], oboe [1, 12], vox humana [16, 21], vocals [20];
Kathryn Locke: cello [1-3, 7, 10, 12-13, 16, 19, 21], vocals [20]

Tracks

  1. The Foggy Dew (3.24)
  2. Jockey to the Fair / Dame Durden (2.50)
  3. The Mistletoe Bough (3.31)
  4. Cupid’s Garden (3.23)
  5. Queen Eleanor’s Confession (3.40)
  6. The Spotted Cow (2.04)
  7. The Seeds of Love (4.39)
  8. The Barley Mow (2.56)
  9. The Prentice Boy (4.00)
  10. I Have Parks, I Have Hounds (2.56)
  11. Break o’ the Day (2.24)
  12. The Sheepshearing Song (4.12)
  13. The Tailor’s Breeches (2.19)
  14. The Downhills of Life (2.41)
  15. I Wish, I Wish (2.22)
  16. Joan’s Ale (2.31)
  17. The Outlandish Knight (6.23)
  18. Such a Beauty I Did Grow (2.22)
  19. The Banks of Allan Water (3.07 )
  20. King Arthur Had Three Sons (1.54)
  21. The Light of the Moon (3.25)

All tracks trad. arr. Dave Townsend except
Track 5 trad. arr. Dave Townsend, Mark Emerson;
Track 13 trad. arr. Dave Townsend, Kathryn Locke

Tracks 1, 4-5, 8 are referred to in The Return of the Native;
Tracks 1, 6, 15 The Woodlanders;
Tracks 2, 7, 14, 19 Far From the Madding Crowd;
Track 3 A Laodicean;
Tracks 4, 6, 9-11, 13, 18 Tess of the D’Urbervilles;
Tracks 12, 20 Under the Greenwood Tree;
Track 13 A Few Crusted Characters;
Track 16 Desperate Remedies;
Track 17 proposed dramatisation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles;
Track 21 The Dynasts