Welcome to The Buzzard, the homepage and diary/magazine for Cry Havoc, Cotswold morris side from Botley in Oxford.

A good start to a new season of dancing in pubs, festivals, and fetes - as you can see in the Picture Gallery, which focuses on the Oxford Folk Festival. Other notable recent events were Geoff and Penny tying the knot (yaayyy!) - see the Gallery - and I racked up a half century of years on this planet. Cry Havoc helped me celebrate that with a sumptuous cake (thanks Susie!), the design for which you can see at the bottom of this page.

Congratulations also to Isobel, who danced out with the side for the first time on the 1st of May - pictures of that in the next issue!

Check the Event Calendar to see where we're dancing in the forthcoming weeks, and have a great summer.

Ed

This issue 6.05.08

A Short Biography

The History of Morris Dancing (18….. to 19……)
by Audrey Nyman



Morris Dancing was born in the village of Getting, upstairs The Rose (the local pub). His parents were sweet Jenny Jones and Bill from Banbury who, alas, had not always been constant. Billy had previously asked his mother to make haste to the wedding he had planned with his first love, the Scots lass Highland Mary. His mother was not pleased; the air was blue. Bells rang out, the bride waited but at the last minute Bill changed his mind and ran away to stay with his grandparents, William and Nancy. Shortly afterwards he sidestepped the issue of a broken engagement and married Jenny.

The Dancings were a poor family and lived mainly on beans, setting an example of frugality to the rest of the village.

Morris was not the best behaved youngster in the village. Following a skirmish, he and his friend young Collins were arrested as vandals. Being too young to own a gun with which to go shooting, they had heartlessly used a hammer which they found by the side of the road, to hunt the squirrel they had spotted in a nearby country garden. Constable Moncks marched them down to the police station. On arrival they were searched and Morris was subsequently charged with possession of laudanum, bunches of which were found about his person.

Morris’ childhood sweetheart, Jenny Lind, was so disgusted with his behaviour that she switched her affections to the drummer in the local band, Ringo Bells. Morris thought this was a very black joke. He decided to leave the village of Getting and seek his fortune elsewhere. He did not want to bump into his lost love again, but it was a close shave. The donkey he had stolen to ride away on stepped back into the road and was nearly run down by Ringo’s van.

After many months of travelling from town to town Morris thought he had at last recovered from his broken heart. However, one fine summer evening, standing on the banks of the Dee, he fell into the river when he lost his balance; the final straw was seeing Jenny and Ringo laughing and singing, bobbing around in a little boat on the water. His body was never found.

However, a few days later a letter was received by the friends he had left behind in Getting. It read
“Dearest Dickie and Bonnie Green,
If you should get this letter you know I am no more. Please know that my last wish is for you to look after my Dogs. Don’t cry, have a cold drink then get the music started and have a dance – do it in style, with bells on.

Your friend
Morris Dancing”

What's That Instrument?

No. 2a The Mountain Dulcimer

by Barbara Payne



People sometimes wonder what all these folky instruments that we play are … so here’s the Rough Guide to Mountain Dulcimers.

Last time we considered the Hammered Dulcimer. There are also Appalachian, or Mountain Dulcimers and Stick Dulcimers. These instruments, which are not related to the hammered dulcimer at all, come from the Appalachian Mountain area of the United States; they are descended from the zither. Barbara P has built a Mountain Dulcimer from a kit (very slowly); Pete bought her the kit from the Early Music Shop. It is an hour-glass shaped object (pictured right) which you play by laying it across your lap and plucking or strumming the strings. You can hear one on Joni Mitchell’s Blue album, and also on the Rolling Stones song "Lady Jane", where it was played by the group's talented multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones. The Stick Dulcimer or Strumstick is a tiny thing with 3 strings, two of them tuned to D; it is, honestly, idiot-proof, as evidenced by the fact that Barbara has learned to play a tune on it.

Barbara says:
I bought my first stick dulcimer or ‘strumstick’ (as it is also known) from Hobgoblin music at Towersey and then another one via the internet, on spec, from Blaine Horlocker of the Smokey Mountain Dulcimer Co. This bijou handmade instrument cost £40 and came, unscathed, by air, from America, wrapped in newspaper in a cardboard box. The maker describes it as perty, and so it is, the knots giving it a particular charm.

The stick dulcimer originates from Kentucky where the inhabitants strap one to each foot to ski down the Smokey Mountains to front-porch sessions. This is why all the strings are tuned to D, if one or two come off as you slalom round the trees it does not matter.

I once dreamed that I lent a stick dulcimer to Steve Knightley and he didn't give it back. ‘That's what happens in Devon. Hence the great Bideford Stick Dulcimer scandal when sixteen of them were found buried under a patio. Not nice.’ (John C)

The mountain dulcimer kit took me five months to make! And I needed a lot of help. Finally finished it on February 29 and to hear its voice for the first time was a great moment. Now all I’ve got to do is learn to play it …

Ed says:

I found myself suffering from a surprising dose of strumstick envy when Barbara got hers, and had to have one of those Smokey Mountain things. Nicknamed the ‘horlocker’ after its maker, mine isn’t quite as perty as Barbara’s – so some envy still exists. At the folk festival French session no less than SEVEN people came up to Barbara to enquire about this strange instrument (and only three noticed my purple fiddle - pah!). Now Chris from the Long Wittenham session has got one - soon we will be able to form the Stick Dulcimer Orchestra of Great Britain.

The Limericks

The stick dulcimer: A Strumstick obsession's a pain; so I'm emailing Horlocker (Blaine): what I need pretty quick is a dulcimer stick - please send one 'priorty' by plane! The mountain dulcimer: This dulcimer lies on your knees, which need to be parted; so please wear jeans, as the pose may reveal pantihose or cause your suspenders to freeze. (B)

Ed's cake design