Judy Collins And The Concertina

[Perry Werner]

Howdy:

 

Was driving around this afternoon listening the show "Folk Village" on XM Radio when I heard Judy Collins singing "Liverpool Lullaby" written by Stan Kelly.

I had not heard the recording in quite a while and when I last did I had little interest or awaremess of the concertina.

Anyway, the recording had some pretty concertina playing. I'm guessing an English, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, the arrangement sounded a bit different than I remembered, but that could be my advanced aged.

 

The song (if it's the same arrangement) appears on her great LP "In My Life" which I have stashed somewhere but am unable to locate to research further.

 

Does anyone know who the player might have been?

 

I did a Google search only to surprising find that the great Lou Killen played on Judy's LP "True Stories and Other Dreams". No information abut which track(s) on which he plays are indicated.

 

Also, anyone know of other concertina uses on any of Judy's recordings?

 

Thanks and......

Bye,

Perry Werner

[David Barnert]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was Gene Murrow. I know he was on "Whales & Nightingales" a few years later. In fact, the story behind the track on that album called "Gene's Song" (as told to me by Gene) was that the album was recorded in Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall, in Lincoln Center) and during a quiet moment, he stepped to the center of the proscenium to see what it was like to play a solo on that stage. He played the Playford tune, "Beggar Boy" unaware that the tapes were rolling. By the time Judy and her producers decided they wanted to use it on the album, they had lost touch with Gene (he was living in Boston at the time) and had no idea what to call it.

 

Edited to add:

 

Googling around a little, I now see that Louis Killen played concertina on the later album, "True Stories And Other Dreams." I see no concertina credit for "In My Life" (which includes Liverpool Lullaby) but I'd still go with the Gene Murrow guess.

 

Some pages I've stumbled across in my search that might be of interest:

 

http://www.softshoe-slim.com/lists/c/collins_judy.html

 

http://swisscharts.com/showitem.asp?interp...+Life&cat=a

 

Hear part of "Gene's Song" (Beggar Boy) at amazon.com here:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Whales-Nightingales-...1580&sr=1-1

 

Dates of albums mentioned:

 

In My Life 1966

Whales & Nightingales 1970

True Stories And Other Dreams 1973

Edited September 30, 2007 by David Barnert

[Roger Digby]

It's also Louis who contributes the few seconds of a hornpipe on Simon and Garfunkle's 'Bookends' album. I don't have the record, but I think it was a couple of bars of the 'Redesdale'.

Best Wishes,

Roger

[Nicholas]

Just this morning I was humming what I remember of her version of "The Patriot's Game" which I think also had some concertina on it. Does anyone else remember that song, and did it have concertina?

[Robin Madge]

The redesdale snippet is used in the middle of the Simon and Garfunkle track "Faking it", and I think it wasa single as well.

 

Robin Madge