The Music of Cry Havoc

‘The Music of Cry Havoc’ is a 72-minute long CD available from Little Acorn Records consisting of 24 tracks of the tunes played by Cry Havoc for their dances. All tracks were recorded live and in full, with dancers present. The dances cover seven of the more popular Cotswold traditions: Adderbury, Bampton, Bledington, Headington, Fieldtown, Ilmington, and Lichfield, and there is even a new dance (and tune) from Botley, ‘Dogs of War’, invented by our former squire and founder Paul Ferrett. The CD is the first in the Cotswold series of the English Folk Dance Project, whose Project Director is Steve Douglas, proprietor of Little Acorn Records. ‘The Music of Cry Havoc’ is seen as an overview of the Cotswold style. Further volumes in the series will focus on specific traditions. 'The Music of Cry Havoc' includes a twelve-page booklet containing notes on the history and folklore of morris dancing, as well as individual track notes. And there's also a pull-out poster of Cry Havoc! Internet magazine Tradition (Autumn 2001) has described the CD as ‘an excellent record of how Cotswold Morris tunes should be played for dancing’, adding that it would be ‘great for musicians learning the tunes as it helps them with speed and rhythm’. A couple more reviews - including one which describes the CD as 'as good a look at morris music as you're likely to hear' - can be seen by going to the Little Acorn website: use the link at the bottom of this page.

The complete list of tracks is:
1. Shave the donkey (Bampton)
2. Constant Billy (Headington)
3. Young Collins (Bledington)
4. Getting upstairs (Headington)
5. Jenny Lind (Lichfield)
6. Balance the straw (Fieldtown)
7. Banbury Bill (Bampton)
8. Hunting the squirrel (Headington)
9. Shooting (Adderbury)
10. Bumpus of Stretton (Ilmington)
11. Country gardens (Fieldtown)
12. Step back (Fieldtown)
13. Highland Mary (Bampton)
14. Dogs of war (Botley)
15. Haste to the wedding (Headington)
16. Black joke (Adderbury)
17. Vandals of Hammerwich (Lichfield)
18. Banks of the Dee (Fieldtown)
19. William and Nancy (Bledington)
20. Rigs of Marlow (Headington)
21. Ring o’bells (Lichfield)
22. Laudnum bunches (Headington)
23. Skirmish (Bledington)
24. Bobbing around (Bampton)

The musicians involved in the recordings were:
melodeons: Tim Clarke, Debbie Roberts; concertina: Kate Keen; fiddle: Ed Pritchard; accordion: Alison Paine; whistle: Pete Burow; mandola: Ed Pritchard; bodhrán: Mark Roberts; djembe: Mick Onions; triangle: ‘Tinkly’ John Keen; tambourine: Mick Onions


To listen to a different track each week, click on the link to Little Acorn below. You can also order a copy from Little Acorn’s secure web shop, or buy one from Cry Havoc when you see us out and about.

Two tracks from the CD are now also featured on a compilation double CD 'The Magic of Morris', on Talking Elephant Records. The dances featured are Getting Upstairs and Highland Mary.

Lost Morris

‘Lost Morris’ is a CD (also available from the Little Acorn website) of Cotswold morris tunes taken from Cecil Sharp’s manuscripts. During the early years of the twentieth century Sharp collected morris tunes but didn’t always collect the dances to go with them. The dances have consequently been lost, but the tunes remain, though, unattached to dances, have lain largely ignored in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Until now, that is. The tunes come from locations such as Stow-on-the-Wold, Blackwell, Shipston-upon-Stour, North Leigh, Filkins, and Brill.

Musicians involved in the project are all from Oxfordshire morris sides:

Ed Pritchard and Kate Keen from Cry Havoc

Steve Griffiths and Bob Dunlop from Mason’s Apron

Sem Seaborne and Graham Hubbard from Icknield Way

Jessica Marshall from Ducklington

Here’s what Shire Folk had to say about the album in January 2006:



Various Artist Lost Morris (LACR CD8 – www.acornrecords.co.uk) This is an album of Oxfordshire musicians playing lesser known morris tunes from Cecil Sharp’s manuscripts. The tunes are extremely well played and the recording quality is good. The musicians work well together on fiddles, melodeons, guitar, bouzouki, and concertina, which is perhaps a tribute to the quality and ambience of the more rustic enclaves of the local session scene. There are a few well known pieces such as ‘Gloucester Hornpipe’, ‘Moll in the Wad’, and ‘Princess Royal’, but most of the 15 tracks are unfamiliar, and the listed version of ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’, played on fiddle and bodhran, is quite unlike the more commonly played tune of the same name. A very good album, and a well researched and nicely packaged collection of Cecil Sharp’s Cotswold music. Chris Mills