No Words Turns Five — Two New Mixes and Re-Ups of All the Old Ones

I created No Words just over five years ago with the intent of using it as a highly personal folksong repository. Today it is by no means an Internet powerhouse, but I am pleased with the affection it has received. Thanks for all the kind words over the years.

This post features two new playlists, including the first-ever No Words guest mix (courtesy of Cousin Derek). I've also re-upped all previous No Words collections. That's 16 in all, including these two new ones.





Dearest Ursell: A Mix for the Occasion of the Five Year Anniversary of No Words — Compiled by Derek Jenkins

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1) Popol Vuh • "Ah!" • 1972
2) Ivan Rebroff • "Evening Chimes" • 1969
3) Sandy Nassan • "Here's That Rainy Day" • 1970
4) Forward Kwenda • "Chipembere" • 1997
5) The Early Music Consort of London & David Munrow • "Lamento di Tristan" • 1977
6) Lu-Sheng Ensemble • "Lian Hsiao" • 1972
7) Robbie Basho • "Omaha Tribal Player" • 1972
8) D'Gary • "Anary Tany" • 1992
9) Kartik Tivedi • "Basanti: Alap, Jor, Jhala" • 1980
10) Three Musicians • "Twenty-Third Psalm" • 1977





Piety & Custom III: Another Miscellany of Curious and Interesting Songs, Ballads, Histories, &c.

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1) The Pentangle • "Lord Franklin" • 1973
2) Sibylle Baier • "Colour Green" • 197?
3) John Hepple • "Whittingham Green Lane" / "Ward's Brae" • 1996
4) Lena Hughes • "Pearly Dew" • 196?
5) Terry Callier • "Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?" • 1968
6) Mia Doi Todd • "Johnny Appleseed (2005 Version)" • 2005
7) Dick Gaughan • "Jock O'Hazeldean " • 1972
8) "Big Sweet" Lewis Hairston • "Bile Them Cabbage Down" • 1977
9) Sacros • "Diosa del Mar" • 1973
10) Anne Briggs • "The Recruited Collier" • 1963
11) Michael Hurley • "I Like My Wine" • 1965
12) Andreas Thomopoulos • "The New Spring" • 1970
13) Itsutsu No Akai Fusen • "I Will Kick a Pebble" • 1971
14) Julie Byrne • "Prism Song" • 2012
15) Atsumasa Nakabayashi Trio • "Plover on the Beach" • 1964
16) Laurence Vanay w/ Jacqueline Carbon • "Juste Te Revior" • 1974
17) Michael Yonkers • "Will It Be" • 1977
18) Jean Bosco Mwenda • "Masanga" • 1994
19) Molly Drake • "A Sound" • 195?
20) Eugenia Sirioti • "Ti Kako Sou Exo Kanei" • 1970
21) Ted Lucas • "It's So Easy (When You Know What You're Doing)" • 1975
22) Lal Waterson • "Never the Same" • 1972
23) Jane Turriff • "Mill o' Tifty's Annie" • Child Ballad #233 • 195?
24) Afunakwa • "Rorogwela" • 1969





As promised, here are re-ups for all previously posted No Words collections. Please do not delay downloading; these are hosted on Sharebeast, and they may very well go down quickly. Once they're down, it may very well be years before I get around to uploading them again.

1) A Revelry of Piety & Custom in Song: A No Words Compendium — download/post
2) Miriam: A No Words Nativity — download/post
3) MMIX: Ursell's '09 Picks — download/post
4) Wishwander: Ursell's Vashti Tape — download/post
5) MMX I/II: Ursell's 2010 Folksong Picks — download/post
6) Terse Tales & Uneasy Utterings: A No Words Halloween — download/post
7) MMX II/II: Ursell's 2010 Folksong Picks — download/post
8) MCML: A No Words 1950s Reel — download/post
9) Peregrinations: No Words Salutes Bert Jansh — download/post
10) Death Mask: Another No Words Halloween — download/post
11) MMXI: Ursell's 2011 Folksong Picks — download/post
12) Piety & Custom II: Another Revelry in Song — download/post
13) MMXII I/II: Best Folksongs of 2012 — download/post
14) MMXII II/II: Best Folksongs of 2012 — download/post

Piety & Custom II: Another Revelry in Song

Piety & Custom is a No Words collection series compiling past-posted songs. You can find the first one here.

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UPDATE (16/5/13): Re-Up (ZIP)

1) Mary-Anne Paterson • "The Jute Mill Song" • 1970
2) Yoon Youn Sun • "My Heart of Sending You, Your Heart of Leaving Me" • 1972
3) Bo Hansson • "Day & Night" • 1975
4) George Washington Phillips • "Lift Him Up That's All" • 1927
5) Lakis Pappas & Popi Asteriadi • "Paei Ki Auth H Kuriakh" • 1969
6) Nick & Gabrielle Drake • "All My Trials" • 196?
7) Mattias Bärjed • "Himlen 12" • 2010
8) Polk Miller • "Oysters and Wine at 2 A.M." • 1928
9) Lida Halkiadaki • "Higher" • 1967
10) Mike Waterson • "The Scarecrow" • 1972
11) Reet Hendrikson • "Meil Aiaaarne Tanavas" • 1969
12) Jean Redpath • "Davy Faa" • Child Ballad #200 • 1977
13) Josh White • "Jim Crow" • 1944
14) Dorothy Ashby • "Gloomy Sunday" • 1962
15) Karen Beth • "Something to Believe In" • 1969
16) Merit Hemmingson • "Fäbodpsalm av O Lindberg (Gammal Fäbodpsalm)" • 1972

This is No Words' twelfth collection. Please enjoy the rest.

Death Mask: Another No Words Halloween

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UPDATE (16/5/13): Re-Up (ZIP)

This has a similar format to last year's Halloween playlist: poetry, sound effects, bizarro classical, vocal exercises, and a folksong for good measure.

00:00: Marita Günther • "Lend Me Your Ears: Phonotation of Words" ~WITH~ David Talcott • "Loop No. 3"
01:13: Heinrich Heine read by Claire Luce • "Why Are All the Roses So Pale?" ~WITH~ University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio • "Summer Idyl"
02:29: Kenneth Patchen • "The Wolf of Winter" ~WITH~ Jim Nollman w/ wolf • "Silent Night"
03:15: Vernon Scannell • "Dead Dog" ~WITH~ Nadi Qamar • "Finger Dance #2"
04:29: Peggy Seeger • "Lammikin" • Child Ballad #93 ~WITH~ sounds issuing from the Oklawaha River east of Orange Spring recorded by Charles M. Bogert
09:00: Norman Rosten • "The Spider" ~WITH~ Tod Dockstader • "Piece #7"
09:51: St. John of the Cross read by Khigh Dhiegh • "Dark Night" ~WITH~ barking treefrog, pine woods treefrog, and cricket frogs recorded by Charles M. Bogert
12:04: Heinrich Heine read by Claire Luce • "Death Brings the End" ~WITH~ Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky under Alfred Wolfsohn • a theme from "Chanson Trieste" ~WITH~ thunderstorm recorded by Dr. Peter Paul Kellogg
13:24: Frédéric Chopin performed by Clara Rockmore • "Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor"
17:15: an excerpt from "The High Cost of Dying!" from A Double Barrel Blast

Brilliancy Medley

My parents recently became acquainted with a family overseas through Ancestry.com. This is how I came to know Derek Jenkins, my alleged distant cousin, who has since become my spirit animal. He is an Arkansas native but has spent the past few years in Hamilton, Ontario, where he just picked up a weekly radio show/podcast dubbed "Brilliancy Medley." It is a broadly themed affair of vernacular music and spoken recordings, and I consider it No Words' spiritual kin. I assisted Mr. Jenkins with the website—you can take a gander here. The following tunes were culled from his first broadcast, which aired October 2, 2011.

Jean Ritchie • "Wife of Usher's Well" • Child Ballad #79 • 1961
Stream in Spotify / Procure British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains, Vol. 2

Jacques Labrecque • "À la Claire Fontaine" • 1957
Download / Download Canadian Folk Songs: Centennial Collection

Hambone Willie Newbern • "Way Down in Arkansas" • 1929

Stream in Spotify / Download Songsters & Saints, Vol 1.: Songsters

Peregrinations: No Words Salutes Bert Jansch

No Words would likely not exist without the output and reaching influence of Glasgow-born Herbert Jansch, founding member of The Pentangle, who passed away only four days ago. Below I have collected mostly instrumental pieces by Jansch and his Pentangling contemporaries staggered with a few vocal pieces and traditional ballads.

R.I.P. Bert Jansch, 1943 — 2011



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UPDATE (16/5/13): Re-Up (ZIP)

00:00: John Renbourn • "The Earle of Salisbury" • 1968
01:19: The Pentangle • "Lord Franklin" • 1970
04:39: Bert Jansch • "The Wheel" • 1965
06:22: Bert Jansch • "Henry Martin" • Child Ballad #167 • 1966
09:33: Bert Jansch w/ John Renbourn • "Peregrinations" • 1971
11:17: Bert Jansch & John Renbourn • "East Wind" • 1966
12:38: Bert Jansch • "Wishing Well" • 1969
14:51: Bert Jansch • "Miss Heather Rosemary Sewell" • 1969
16:57: Bert Jansch • "Bridge" • 1980
19:27: Bert Jansch • "High Days" • 2006
23:10: The Pentangle • "Willie o Winsbury (Live)" • Child Ballad #100 • 1972
28:45: Bert Jansch • "Needle of Death" • 1965
32:02: Bert Jansch & John Renbourn • "Orlando" • 1966

MCML: A No Words 1950s Reel

Here's a playlist of folksongs recorded in the 1950s. Enjoy.



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UPDATE (16/5/13): Re-Up (ZIP)

1) Connie Converse • "Talkin' Like You (Two Tall Mountains)"
2) Peggy Seeger • "When I Was Single"
3) unspecified Russian choir • "The Gusli Serenade"
4) Elizabeth Cotten • "Freight Train"
5) Molly Drake • "Poor Mum"
6) Jean Ritchie & Paul Clayton • "The Devil's Questions"
7) Dan Haugaard • "Byssan Lull"
8) unspecified Thai can player • "Suksanaen"
9) Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger • "The Elfin Knight" • Child Ballad #2
10) Odetta • "'Buked and Scorned"
11) Jeannie Robertson • "Go Away From My Window"
12) unspecified Javanese gamelan ensemble • "Lagu Srihardjono"
13) Ed McCurdy • "Colorado Trail"
14) Shirley Collins • "Sweet England"
15) Umeno Tajima w/ Eikichi Kazari • "Shima Sodachi"
16) Emerante de Pradines • "Soleil"
17) Herta Marshall • "Down in the Willow Garden"

Jean Redpath • "Davy Faa" • Child Ballad #200 • 1977

Stream in Spotify / Procure Song of the Seals

Shirley Collins • "The Cherry Tree Carol" • Child Ballad #53 • 1959

Stream in Spotify / Procure Sweet England

Shirley Collins • "The Cruel Mother" • Child Ballad #20 • 1959

Stream in Spotify / Procure The Sweet Primroses

Pentangle • "Willy o' Winsbury" • Child Ballad #100 • 1972