A Platform for Ethnically and Culturally Inspired Music
About "Nottamun Town"
Nottamun Town - (Roud 1044) the title track of the new album, is an old traditional song made famous by the mother of Folk herself, Jean Ritchie. Like most songs that come under the genre of ‘trad folk’, it is a song that, unsurprisingly, is of disputed origin.
The Bagthorpe (UK) based Americana, alt-country and profoundly folk influenced outfit, have long had an interest in the migration of folk songs and tunes from the British Isles (and England in particular) to the rest of the world. Jean Ritchie’s Nottamun Town, the tune/melody of which was famously used (without permission) by Bob Dylan on Masters of War is the perfect example. It is a particularly romantic notion that the song made its way from the band’s hometown of Nottingham to Kentucky, USA. Cecil Sharp the English folklorist discovered it there around 1917, from the singing of Ritchie’s sister Una, and published Ritchie’s version (with her modified lyrics) in his 1932 book Folksongs of the Southern Appalachians.
Lyle Lofgren, the old-time musician and journalist, discovered another very similar version of the song called Nottingham Fair which was found in the Missouri archives. Lofgren was of the opinion that Nottingham was the original inspiration for the song. It’s a brilliant example of the folk process and it is fascinating that the lyrics were modified by the Ritchie family in the Appalachian Mountains. That made it a song that LC simply had to do for themselves, and in their own way … ‘cos that truly is the essence of the folk music process, and precisely why LC had to bring Nottamun Town back home.
The Bagthorpe (UK) based Americana, alt-country and profoundly folk influenced outfit, have long had an interest in the migration of folk songs and tunes from the British Isles (and England in particular) to the rest of the world. Jean Ritchie’s Nottamun Town, the tune/melody of which was famously used (without permission) by Bob Dylan on Masters of War is the perfect example. It is a particularly romantic notion that the song made its way from the band’s hometown of Nottingham to Kentucky, USA. Cecil Sharp the English folklorist discovered it there around 1917, from the singing of Ritchie’s sister Una, and published Ritchie’s version (with her modified lyrics) in his 1932 book Folksongs of the Southern Appalachians.
Lyle Lofgren, the old-time musician and journalist, discovered another very similar version of the song called Nottingham Fair which was found in the Missouri archives. Lofgren was of the opinion that Nottingham was the original inspiration for the song. It’s a brilliant example of the folk process and it is fascinating that the lyrics were modified by the Ritchie family in the Appalachian Mountains. That made it a song that LC simply had to do for themselves, and in their own way … ‘cos that truly is the essence of the folk music process, and precisely why LC had to bring Nottamun Town back home.
