Name: Blackthorn
Duration: P00H04M39S
Description: People started singing this poem in acapella male choirs, and one day I suddenly decided to play it to myself with a style that sounds more like bluegrass than an old English rural song. Ah!, but if you examine the lyrics, he was just about to set off for a new home to escape from the marriage gone bad and the cold winds, so more than likely that could well have been in the New World.

Blackthorn

from The Rowan Tree by Andy Roberts

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about

People started singing this poem in acapella male choirs, and one day I suddenly decided to play it to myself with a style that sounds more like bluegrass than an old English rural song. Ah!, but if you examine the lyrics, he was just about to set off for a new home to escape from the marriage gone bad and the cold winds, so more than likely that could well have been in the New World.

lyrics

ORIGINAL LYRICS from a poem by Frank Mansell

I'd sooner go hedging than build a stone wall All pick up and place it and hope it don't fall
When the east wind blows bitter and keen through the trees I'd sooner lay blackthorn than dry wall and freeze

I'd sooner go hedging, the best thing I know For anger and anguish and woman made woe
No matter how hurt or insulted I feel A tussle with blackthorn will help it to heal

I'd sooner go hedging than read in a book For more you get thinking the darker things look
Since study and weeping are hard on the eyes I'd sooner lay blackthorn than learn from be wise

I'd sooner go hedging than seek all my days For wealth or position or other men's praise
Plain billhook and axe are the tools of my trade Six shillings a chain is the rate I am paid

I'd sooner go hedging than lie in my bed For a woman grows sourer the longer we'm wed
But much as I grieve for our loving when young I'd sooner lay blackthorn than suffer her tongue

I'd sooner go hedging but come next spring I'll be up and be gone like a bird on the wing
And all I shall miss when I reach my new home Will be hedges to slash at and blackthorn in bloom

EXTRA VERSE added by: unknown

I'd sooner drink blackthorn when it brings forth its sloe
Its rheumy red liquor's the best that I know
Well it slips down your throat and it makes you feel good
You may drink all your fine wines but you know that I would
sooner DRINK blackthorn

Original verse not included:

I'd sooner go hedging than writing of verse, and weaving and rhyming as if by a curse
For little men care what a poet may scrawl but a Blackthorn well laid is a pleasure to all.

credits

from The Rowan Tree, released April 10, 2021
Lyrics after a poem by Frank Mansell

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about

Andy Roberts England, UK

Original and unique songs through the decades
in the classic
"contemporary folk" solo acoustic
singer songwriter style.

Influences: Roy Harper, Mike Chapman, Loudon Wainwright, Beefheart ... more

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