Blacksmith (song)
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"Blacksmith", also known as "A Blacksmith Courted Me", is a traditional English folk song listed as number 816 in the Roud Folk Song Index.
The song was noted down by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909 from a Mrs Ellen Powell of Westhope near Weobley, Herefordshire;[1] his transcription is available online from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.[2] On that occasion it was sung to the tune "Monk's Gate", better known as the tune of "To be a pilgrim", the hymn by John Bunyan.[3] The same tune is sometimes used for the song "Our Captain Cried", which can be considered a version of the same song. George Butterworth (a friend of Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp) collected another version of the song with a similar tune from a Mrs. Verrall of Horsham, Sussex in 1909,[4] and included a setting of the song in his 1912 collection Folk Songs from Sussex.[5]
Several traditional singers from the south of England have recorded versions of the song, such as the travellers Phoebe Smith (1969)[6] and Caroline Hughes (1963/66),[7] Harry Brazil of Gloucestershire, George "Pop" Maynard of Sussex (1962),[8] Tom Willett of Surrey (1960),[9] Charlie Scamp of Kent (1954).[10] The recordings of Tom Willet, Phoebe Smith, Caroline Hughes and George "Pop" Maynard can be heard via the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.
