John Roberts

[Paul Read]

[Leo]

Hi Paul

 

Here's 2 more

 

__________

 

US

John Roberts, March 2008

 

John Roberts and David Sheim, March 2008

 

John Roberts and Mary Lea, March 2008

__________

 

Thanks

Leo

[Anglogeezer]

Thanks for that link. Grand performance by John Roberts. It's a song I've never heard before and I think it's brilliant!!!

In fact I was so impressed that I transcribed the tune to ABC's and learnt it off by heart in about 10 days.

Here it is as a PDF.

 

 

regards Jake

[michael stutesman]

Thanks for that link. Grand performance by John Roberts. It's a song I've never heard before and I think it's brilliant!!!

In fact I was so impressed that I transcribed the tune to ABC's and learnt it off by heart in about 10 days.

Here it is as a PDF.

 

 

regards Jake

 

 

Thanks Jake. I'm on my way to learning it too.

[David Barnert]

John sang the song last week at the Northeast Concertina Workshop concert in Amherst MA. He referred to it as "my youtube hit."

 

There is a thread discussing the song in the mudcat forums here.

[ragtimer]

Thanks for that link. Grand performance by John Roberts. It's a song I've never heard before and I think it's brilliant!!!

In fact I was so impressed that I transcribed the tune to ABC's and learnt it off by heart in about 10 days.

Here it is as a PDF.

 

regards Jake

I too heard this lovely song at the NCW. Being from Bath, Maine, any song celebrating the art of shipbuilding is deeply appreciated.

 

THanks for the PDF of musical spots and lyrics. Just a suggestion: it could be made more readable by just notating the pairs of dotted quarter notes and 8th notes as two quarter notes, with a notation to "swing" the rhythm. That's how I play most everything anyhow.

 

But then, John sang it with such strong "swing" that the dotted notation is correct. It comes down to whether you're documenting the tune for posterity (so use the dotted notation), or just making a memory aid for yourself to learn the tune. You were doing the former, so I can't complain, just pointing out an alternative.

 

Thanks again -- that took some time and work on your part -- Mike K.

[David Barnert]

But then, John sang it with such strong "swing" that the dotted notation is correct.

Actually, that's not quite true. John sings it with a triple rhythm, where the long notes are twice the length of the short notes: 2 1 2 1 | 2 1 2 1 |

 

The correct way to notate this would be quarter notes (crochets) alternating with eighths (quavers).

 

The dotted rhythm as notated implies that the long notes (dotted quarters) are three times the length of the short notes (eighths): 3 1 3 1 | 3 1 3 1 |

 

If you tried to sing it this way it would sound like something out of Handel, or at least Gilbert and Sullivan.

[ragtimer]

But then, John sang it with such strong "swing" that the dotted notation is correct.

Actually, that's not quite true. John sings it with a triple rhythm, where the long notes are twice the length of the short notes: 2 1 2 1 | 2 1 2 1 |

 

The correct way to notate this would be quarter notes (crochets) alternating with eighths (quavers).

 

The dotted rhythm as notated implies that the long notes (dotted quarters) are three times the length of the short notes (eighths): 3 1 3 1 | 3 1 3 1 |

You're right, David. I was going to suggest notating it in 6/8 time, which would give the best match to how John sang it, the triple rhythm. But then someone here might take it as a Jig

If you tried to sing it this way it would sound like something out of Handel, or at least Gilbert and Sullivan.

Pulleeze! Neither of those styles, great in their own right, match the feeling of this song. I actually choked up when I tried to sing it along with my box today. Just a parallel 3rds accompaniment, no oom-pah for this tune. --Mike K.

Edited April 30, 2008 by ragtimer