Singers at the Youth Traditional Song conference. Photo by Lorelei Erisis.
Photo by Lorelei Erisis
Country Dance & Song Society > Publications > Listen > Song of the Month

Song of the Month

Join us each month in song!

Since 2016—our designated Year of Song—CDSS has featured a traditional song each month. Lorraine Hammond spearheaded this effort, and it was such a popular feature that Judy Cook volunteered to continue the tradition in 2017 and beyond. 

Note: Many of these old songs should be looked at as “fairy tales for adults” in that they often address very strong, and sometimes scary, subject matter. They allow us to deal with difficult situations and emotions with the distance afforded by putting it in a song. They are cautionary tales, and had their use as such.

This month’s song:

  • Engraving of singers in a pub to illustrate the poem "The Holy Fair" by Robert Burns. Artist: J.M. Wright; engraver: J. Rogers, 1842. June 2025: The Old Songs
    Submitted by Cate Clifford

    This celebration of social singing in a few of its most popular forms is in fact a poem by English folk song luminary Bob Copper, which Kipling aficionado Peter Bellamy set to a melody.

    The first time I heard the recording below, the truth of it resonated so deeply with me that I started to tear up—and knew I must add it to my repertoire. I have altered some of the lyrics slightly (i.e. “that bring our elders joy” rather than “that give our fathers joy”)—not because I was somehow unsettled or unhappy with the originals, but to give a nod to more of the humans I get to share this community and these traditions with. 

    Listen to Peter Bellamy’s version:

    Sheet music for "The Old Songs"
    Download the sheet music for “The Old Songs”

    Lyrics

    O, you may moan with plaintive tone your gormless modern tune,

    But I will roar along the shore beneath a blood-red moon,

    And songs that Nelson’s sailors sang shall ring across the wave

    And fifty thousand sailors bold will join the chorus brave

    A chorus brave and tarry that savours of the sea,

    And a fifty thousand sailors bold will rise to sing with me.

    Chorus:
    The old songs, yes, the old songs that gave our elders joy,

    The songs they sang till the welkin rang when Nelson was a boy.

    Or in the dusty, sunlit barn a farmer’s song I’ll sing,

    A country rhyme to a rhythmic time of flails that thump and swing

    All up and down the threshing floor to win the golden grain,

    And fifty thousand threshers strong will join the bold refrain,

    A bold refrain and fearless that springs from English soil,

    And a fifty thousand threshers strong will join my song of toil.

    Chorus

    Or in the depths of cellar cool reclining on a bench,

    When I’ve dispersed an honest thirst that ale alone can quench,

    I will wake the vaulted echoes wide in praise of barley-brew,

    And a fifty thousand drinking mates will join the chorus true,

    A chorus true and hearty of hops and barley-malt,

    And a fifty thousand drinking mates will harmonize worth their salt.

    Chorus

    They will echo onward down the years and never, never fade,

    For fifty thousand singing friends will never be afraid

    For to raise their lusty voices their spirits to revive

    And tell to all eternity, “We’re glad that we’re alive.”

    Cate Clifford is a typically unaccompanied singer based in Rhode Island. With powerful vocals, sensitive harmonies, and engaging context gleaned from intensive study, Cate creates a vivid and accessible pathway to the songs she offers, the people and stories behind them, and the profound, timeless delight of sharing both. She has sung in homes, venues, festivals and recording studios on both coasts of the USA. She maintains that no set is immune to a dash of Sondheim or a sprinkle of Shakespeare.


Past Songs