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The Cruel Mother

from Outsiders by Chris Foster

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Chris' 6th solo album contains a mix of old traditional songs and ballads along with a few from the last 60 years. Comes in a beautifully designed 3 fold digipak with a booklet containing all song lyrics and featuring cover art by Chris. The album was a runner up in the 2008 fROOTS magazine, best folk / world music album of 2008.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Outsiders via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Streaming + Download

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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

I have always been struck by the archetypal power of this ballad, which has appeared in many guises from the comic to the blood
curdlingly tragic. However, I was always put off singing the song by the lack of sympathy for the mother, who is after all in a dreadful situation
herself.

During the 1970’s I was lucky to hear the great Aberdeenshire singer Lizzie Higgins on several occasions. A few years ago I heard Vic Smith, who runs the excellent Folk at the Royal Oak club in Lewes, Sussex, singing a wonderful version of the song which he learnt from Lizzie. I then realised that here was an altogether more ambiguous take on the story and I built this version from that starting point. Lizzie Higgins can be heard singing the song on, O’er His Grave the Grass Grew Green,
TSCD653, volume 3 in the Topic Records ‘Voice of the people' series.

lyrics

There was a lady, a lady in York
All alone and alone - ee - o
She fell a-courting her own father's clerk
Down by the greenwood side - ee - o

She loved him long and many a day
’Til big with child she had to run away

She’s gone into the wild wilderness
Great was her sadness and distress

She’s leaned her back against an oak
She’s pushed and she’s pushed ’till it very nearly broke

She’s laid her head against a thorn
Two bonniest babies ever were born

She’s got nothing to wrap them in
Nothing but her apron and that was very thin

She’s taken out her little penknife
And she’s parted them from their sweet lives

Then she has taken a length of twine
And together their bodies she did bind

Then she has dug a hole in the ground
And there she’s laid her bonnie babies down

She’s gone back to her father’s castle hall
She was the smallest maid among ’em all

She’s looked over her father’s castle wall
Saw two bonnie babies playing with a ball

One was dressed in the scarlet so fine
The other one was naked just as she was born

“Oh dear babies, if you were mine
I would give you bread and I would give you wine”

“Oh dear Mother, when we were thine
You never treated us so very kind”

“Oh dear babies if you were mine
I’d dress you up in the silk and satin fine”

“Oh dear Mother, when we were thine
Around our bodies you bound the twine”

“O bonnie babes can you tell to me
What sort of death for you I must die?”

“Yes cruel mother we will tell to thee
what sort of death for us you must die”

“Seven years you’ll be an eel writhing in the flood
And seven years a bird a whistling in the wood”

“Seven years you’ll be a fish finning through the tide
And seven years a snake on your belly you must slide”

“Now we are going to the heavens so high
But in the hell fires you will die.”

credits

from Outsiders, track released April 23, 2008
Chris Foster - vocal & guitar
Bára Grímsdóttir - vocal
Val Regan - vocal
Trevor Lines - bass hammer dulcimer

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Chris Foster Reykjavik, Iceland

Chris Foster grew up in the south west of England. A master of his trade, he was recently described as “one of the finest singers and most inventive guitar accompanists of English folk songs, meriting legend status.” Over the past 40 years, he has toured throughout the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA. He has recorded six solo albums as well as working on many collaborative projects. ... more

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