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about

In July 2022, Paul Sartin put on a concert for refugee aid. Around the time he asked me to take part, I had been looking through the EFDSS archives. I found this song of migration, which I subsequently performed, having learned it from the singing of Hazel Askew. It was collected in 1908 by Cecil Sharp from 68-year-old John Murphy of Tipperary, an inhabitant at St Marylebone Workhouse. The yearning violin is performed by Akito Goto.

lyrics

Erin, Sad Erin, it grieves me to ponder
The wrongs of thy injured isle
Thy sons in their thousands deploring do wander
On shores far away in exile
O give me the power to cross o’er the main
America might yield me some comfort from pain
Though I’m only lamenting whilst here I remain
For the joys I shall not see no more

With wonder I gazed at that lofty high mountain
As in grandeur it rose o'er it's lord
With sorrow I beheld my own garden yielding
The choicest of fruits for his board
Oh, where is my father's low cottage of clay
Where I have spent many a long happy day?
Alas has his lordship contrived it away
It is gone I shall not see no more

The sloe and the berry hung ripe on the bushes
I’ve gathered them off without harm
And I went to the fields for to view the green bushes
Preparing for winter's cold storms
And I’ve sat by the fire on a cold frosty night
Along with my friends telling tales of delight
Those days gave me pleasure and I could invite
But they're gone I shall not see no more

So, farewell then to Erin and those I’ve left weeping
Upon this disconsolate shore
Farewell to the grave where my father lies sleeping
The ground I do dearly adore
Farewell then to pleasure, I’ve once had a home
Farewell, now a stranger in England to roam
Oh give me my freedom or give me my tomb
Friends, in pity, I ask for no more

credits

from Before I Knew What Had Begun I Had Already Lost, released May 5, 2023
Trad, arr Wilks. Roud 1629
Produced by Jon Wilks
Mixing tweaks by Jim Moray
Mastered by Nick Cooke

Jon Wilks - acoustic guitar, bass, vocals
Akito Goto - cello, violin

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Jon Wilks Whitchurch, UK

'The sort of performer folk circles mean when they talk of the living tradition' - Mike Davies, Folking.com

“One of the best of the New Wave of Folk Blokes. As a guitar player and arranger of traditional songs, Jon Wilks already deserves speaking of in the same breath as your Simpsons and your Morays.” – Ian A. Anderson, fRoots Mag
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