Melted
Willie of Winsbury
is perhaps one of the most beautiful melodies of all time, and this is
complemented by one of the finest folk tales of all time: though it is anathema
for me to warm to a dictatorial monarch/parent and the triumph of one more of
the landed classes. However, the love story of Janet [and must be Janet, not
Jane as is sometimes sung] and William is itself such a romantic triumph. Then
there are the great lines, as when the King/father sees William for the first
time and declares if I were a woman as I
am a man, in my own bed you would have been.
The version of this on Child
Ballads is itself one of the most beautiful I have heard. John Renbourn’s
will probably always be the touchstone for a tender and warming rendition, and
another more recent excellent outing is on Meg Baird’s 2010 album Dear Companion. Anais Mitchell and
Jefferson Hamer present a faithful performance, and it is the perfect
companionship of their singing that works so wonderfully here, Hamer’s
sweetness the surprising vocal empathy to Mitchell’s slightly tart tones, but
itself a blissful marriage of sound. The pump organ provides such a glorious
base throughout. Worth the price of this album entirely on its own.
The other six ballads from the collection of Sir Francis
James Child consolidate the folk credentials on this honest and simply superb
album. Final song, the Scottish ballad Tam
Lin, tells another yet more metaphorical story of pregnancy and ultimate
true love. But none doth compare with the opener which has melted my aural
affections as did Janet’s for her Lord Willie.
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