Today marks the release of George Sansome‘s self-titled album which we recently reviewed here. In his review, Mike Davies concluded:
While some of his contemporaries seek to reinvent and remodel traditional folk songs, while yet remaining true to their essence, Sansome proves that addressing their bare-bones, as they would have been sung back in the day, can be no less an inspiring and exhilarating experience.
Taken from the album, we have another live video in follow-up to his performance of Bold Fisherman which we premiered here. Watch him performing Australia on which he shared the following:
“This song of convict transportation comes from the singing of Bob Hart (1892-1978) from Snape, Suffolk, as recorded by Tony Engle in September 1973.
“It has its origins in the earlier song Virginny, which dates to the 18th century (pre-American Independence) when English convicts were transported to Virginia. After the American Revolutionary War, the British government began to ship convicts to Australia instead, with over 160,000 convicts transported across an 80 year period. Even the convicts who hadn’t been transported for life – perhaps like the narrator of this song – rarely made it back to Britain; few of those with seven or fourteen-year sentences could afford the return fare.”
The video was shot and recorded by Maria Alzamora (video) and Lewis Harris (audio).
Order the album here: https://georgesansome.co.uk/music/george-sansome/
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Photo Credit: Mars West