“Pick of the Literal” is my second D-I-Y digital album, and a follow-up of sorts to “Rule of Thumb” [http://seantsmith.bandcamp.com/album/rule-of-thumb]. That album reflected my exploration of thumb-picking guitar technique, while this one is all about the plectrum, or flat-pick, with guitar once again the featured instrument (for the most part).

As with “Rule of Thumb,” all the songs are traditional – some of them learned from recordings, others I put together from a few different sources, including the Francis James Child ballads collection – and are drawn from several periods of my life: “Walter Leslie” goes back the farthest, to my year in the UK/Ireland during college, while “Here’s a Health Unto All True Lovers” came to me only a few years ago; on the other hand, “The Gypsy Maid” was on the metaphorical shelf for a pretty lengthy interval, and “Sweet Lisbweemore” likewise had been consigned to the bottom-left-hand-desk-drawer of my repertoire until I started working on this project – I think they’ll stay around this time.

ABOUT THE SONGS:

TRUBSHAW AND GREEN—From the brilliant “English Sporting Ballads” album, which includes excerpts from the Jon Raven and Roy Palmer collection The Rigs of the Fair. This particular song was recorded for the album by Martin Wyndham-Read and Nic Jones, and yes, it was as good as you think it might be.

BONNIE JEAN CAMERON—If nothing else, Prince Charles Stuart AKA Bonnie Prince Charlie had some accomplished songwriters working for him, cultivating his image as a foremost warrior, strategist, statesman and, in this case, an object of romantic desire. In reality, although Jean Cameron was an actual person – the daughter of one of Charlie’s allies – there is no evidence she had any meaningful relation with The Young Pretender. I was originally inspired to learn the song from the version sung by Jamie McMenemy -- the tune is not traditional, but was written by Alan MacFadyen -- on the first Kornog record, although mine turned out a little differently.

SWEET LISBWEEMORE—Heard this on the Patrick Street “Corner Boys” album, sung by the matchless Andy Irvine, but it’s historically associated with the wonderful Cork traditional singer Elizabeth Cronin. I decided pretty quickly that I need to learn the thing, which I did – and then let it languish until I realized how much I missed it. Anyway, this one is in the “boy meets girl, falls instantly in love” canon, except the lady in question already has a guy who, whatever his other characteristics, apparently has a prodigious songwriting talent. If you’re wondering about the word “turbary” that shows up at the end of almost every verse, it refers to a designated area where villagers could dig for turf.

HERE’S A HEALTH UNTO ALL TRUE LOVERS—A night-visiting song that has many variants, at least one of which you have almost unquestionably heard, somewhere, sometime. The melody is what caught my ear on this one, collected by Helen Creighton from William Gilkie and his mother, Mrs. Sandy Gilkie in Sambro, Nova Scotia. I give credit to Norah Rendell and her exquisite “Spinning Yarns” album for motivating me to learn it.

THE GYPSY MAID—This is an unusual version of the Child ballad (no. 200) variously known as “The Raggle-Taggle Gypsies,” “The Gypsy Rover,” “Black Jack Davy,” etc. The familiar narrative, in which rich man’s wife runs away with, or is stolen by, a gypsy* or band of gypsies, is turned on its head here: She’s in fact a gypsy who captures the extreme fancy of an earl, but makes it plain she’s not going to hang around and be his wife, pretty dresses and comfy beds notwithstanding. I came up with the melody, and the recurring quasi-gypsy riff, for the song as part of a larger piece (which incorporated another, more familiar variant of the ballad) with my old band Dark-Eyed Sheep – it’s on our 1983 cassette album, if anyone’s interested.
*NOTA BENE: It bears mentioning that the term "gypsy" is widely considered pejorative, but I've opted to use it here in historical context.

WALTER LESLIE—Another Child ballad, no. 296. A somewhat more comic companion to “Broughty Walls” (Child no. 258), which I recorded on “Rule of Thumb.” Similar plot, though: Heroine is captured by would-be suitor and must undergo a severe test of physical endurance to escape – in this case, booking it over the moors “without stocking or shoon.”