Last month, we shared the news of Alasdair Roberts‘s fifth full-length collection of traditional folk songs, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall (out on 31st March 2023 on Drag City – DC862 LP/CD). That announcement was accompanied by the release of his first album single, the Scottish ballad Eppie Morrie.
Today we are treated to a further offering with the traditional ballad and love song The Lichtbob’s Lassie. Many have the Scottish folksinger Jean Redpath to thank for the songs popularity, although the opening lines may well ring bells for some – with a more popularly adapted version that made it across to America called Katie Cruel, most famously covered by Karen Dalton.
The Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches project offers the following song summary: In this song, a young woman tells how she is known for her love of the lichtbobs [light infantrymen]. She will have the dyster [dyer] dye her petticoats red and yellow [the colour of the soldier’s uniform]. She will follow the lichtbobs and her lover Johnnie, abandoning the comfort of feather beds and painted rooms.
You can hear two renditions of the song from Alasdair:
On the album version, Alasdair takes to the piano for a rare performance away from his six-string. A declaration of identity forever altered by a girl’s love of a soldier, the air is served by Ali’s solid, untrained chording, a plaintive bed for the melancholy tune and gentle march of increasingly epic dimensions, evoking devotion beyond the constraints of time.
For the live video session below, he plays electric guitar. The Lichtbob’s Lassie Is also our Song of the Day.
Recorded live in the studio in entirely solo performances, the twelve traditional ballads and songs were sparsely arranged, for acoustic guitar, piano and voice alone. Collectively, the songs treat of various conflicts and tensions — those of gender; of class, status and position; and of geography and tribal belonging — and the roles and responsibilities expected at the various intersections of these constructs. So that we might never forget!
Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall Tracklisting
- The Wonderful Grey Horse
- Eppie Morrie
- Kilbogie
- The Lichtbob’s Lassie
- Young Airly
- Bob Norris
- Drimindown
- The Convict Maid
- The Bonny Moorhen
- The Baron o’Brackley
- Mary Mild
- The Holland Handkerchief
Pre-Order Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall
UK TOUR DATES
23rd March – Summerhall – Edinburgh, Scotland
24th March – The Tangled Parrot – Carmarthen, Wales
25th March – Bluestone Brewery – Cilgwyn, Newport, Wales
26th March – Wardrobe Theatre – Bristol, England
28th March – Sutton House – London, England
29th March – Sutton House – London, England
31st March – South Street Arts Centre – Reading, England
1st April – The Blue Moon – Cambridge, England
4th April – The Hug and Pint – Glasgow, Scotland
5th April – Kitchen Garden Cafe – Birmingham, England
6th April – Hyde Tavern – Winchester, England
7th April – Florence Park Community Centre – Oxford, England
8th April – Medina Bookshop – Cowes, Isle of Wight, England