BLAW THE WIND SOUTHERLY. AKA and see "Blow the Wind Southerly."
BLOW THE WIND SOUTHERLY (HOME TO MY DEAR). AKA and see "Kinloch (of Kinloch)." Scottish, English; Jig. England, Northumberland. D Major. Standard. AABB (Stokoe): AA'BB' (Carlin). The 'A' part of this tune is the 'B' part of "Over the Water to Charlie," while the second strain is new. The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes, which he published c. 1800.
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Blaw the wind southerly, southerly, southerly,
Blaw the wind southerly, south, or south-west;
My lad's at the bar, at the bar, at the bar,
My lad's at the bar whom I love best.
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This is evidently a fragment of an older ballad, and is taken from Sharp's Bishoprick Garland. A variation of the last two lines has been sometimes heard from old songs:--
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Blaw the lad ti' the bar, ti' the bar,
Blaw the lad ti' the bar that I love best. (Bruce & Stokoe, 1882)
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Bruce & Stokoe (Northumbrian Minstrelsy), 1882; pg. 183. Carlin (English Concertina), 1977; pg. 21.
T:Blaw the Wind Southerly
L:1/8
M:6/8
S:Bruce & Stokoe - Northumbrian Minstrelsy
K:G
A|fed AFA|BGB AFA|fed AFA|Bdc d2:|
|:a|f2a e2a|dcd cBA|f2a e2a|ba^g a2a|b2b a2a|
g2g fed|fed Bgf|eBc d2:|
KINLOCH (OF KINLOCH). AKA and see "Blow (Blaw) the Wind Southerly." English, Scottish; March (6/8 time) or Jig. England; Northumberland, Shropshire, Dorset. D Major. Standard. AB (Kerr, Stokoe & Bruce): AABB (Ashman, Sweet). The Gaelic name Kinloch means 'end of the lake'. The tune is named for a Newcastle dancing master and music publisher, and was published around 1815. It was the march tune of the English army's 99th Regiment, the Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment). Glen (pg. 231) believes this title to the tune first appeared in John Watlen's Second Collection of Circus Tunes, 1798. The melody is contained in the Hardy family manuscripts of Dorset (whose most famous member was the novelist, Thomas Hardy). Source for notated version: a c. 1837-1840 MS by Shropshire musician John Moore [Ashman]. Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 33b, pg. 10. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; No. 19, pg. 32. Stokoe & Bruce (Northumbrian Minstrelsy), 1882; pg. 183 (appears as "Blaw the Wind Southerly"). Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964/1981; pg. 23.
OVER THE WATER TO CHARLIE. AKA - "Charley Over the Water," "Over the River to Charlie," "Over the Water." AKA and see "Ligrum Cush," "Lacrum Cosh," "The Marquis (Marquess) of Granby," "Pot Stick," "Sean Buidhe" (Yellow John) "The Shambuy," "Wishaw's Delight." Scottish (originally), English, American; Air, Jig and Morris Dance Tune (6/8 time, with an irregular measure in the 'B' part). England, Northumberland. A Major (Raven): G Major (Alewine, Kennedy, Kerr, Mallinson). Standard. AABB (x4). A Jacobite (i.e. Highland supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie) tune that was "improbably" introduced into British Guards regiments by 1764 (Winstock, 1970). That Winstock finds this improbable seems to be because the last Jacobite attempt to capture the throne of England was defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1745, a mere nineteen years prior to the Britsih Guards introduction. However, memories of the rising appeared to have healed even more quickly in the general populace of England, as evidenced by this excerpt from a letter written by Ralph Bigland in 1749 of an entertainment on the London stage (quoted by Emmerson, 1972):
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I have since I came here [London] been lately two or three
times at the play and what invited me most was to see a
new dance called the Scots Dance consisting of about 20
lads and lasses dress'd after the Highland fashion. The
scene represents a very romantic, rocky, or mountainous
country seemingly, at the most distant view you behold a
glorious pair (which far surpass all the other actors) sitting
among the rocks, while the rest are dancing below among
groves of trees. Some are also representing with their
wheels a spinning; all the while the music plays either
Prince Charlie's minuet or the Auld Stewarts Back Again.
At last descends from the mountains the glorious pair
which to appearance is a prince and princess. Then all the
actors retire on each side while the royal youth and his
favourite dance so fine, in a word that the whole audience
clap their hands for joy. Then in a moment the spinning
wheels are thrown aside and every lad and lass join in the
dance and jerk it away as quick as possible while the
music briskly plays--Over the Water to Charlie, a bagpipe
being in the band. In short it was so ravishing seemingly
to the whole audience that the people to express their joy
clap their hands in a most extraordinary manner indeed.
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Though the title stems from the Jacobite era, the tune is older and has had many names (given above as alternates--see notes for "Pot Stick" and "Sean Buide"), however, by the 1750's it was appearing in published collections with the "Over the Water" title. Bayard (1981) identifies that at some point the tune was altered and a new group of variations formed using the second half of the "Charlie" tune as the first strain and adding a different second strain. This second group is usually known as "Blow the Wind Southerly" (after song lyrics) or "Kinloch (of Kinloch)" {a title which first appeared in 1798 in John Watlen's Second Collection of Circus Tunes}. Early printings of the tune can be found in Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion (book 4, pg. 7, c. 1752), the Gillespie Manusript of Perth (1768) and Robert Bremner's 1757 collection (pg. 16). A three-verse version exists in the Scots Musical Museum (1788) and it appears in Hogg's Jacobite Relics (early 1800's).
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"Over the Water to Charlie" was employed variously as an accompaniment to dancing in the British Isles and was imported as a dance tune to America. A morris dance version was collected in the village of Bledington, Gloucestershire, in England's Cotswolds, while country dance instructions, but not the melody, appear in the Scottish Menzies Manuscript, 1749 (contained in the Atholl Collection of the Sandeman Library, Perth). The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800 and, in America, the tune appears in Giles Gibbs' MS collection made in 1777 in East Windsor, Connecticut.
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Words to the melody can be found in several collections. The following are from the Scots national poet, Robert Burns:
Come boat me o'er, come row me o'er,
Come boat me o'er to Cherlie:
I'll gie John Ross anither bawbee
To boat me o'er to Charlie. --
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Chorus:
We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea,
We'll o'er the water to Charlie;
Come weal, come woe, we'll gather and go,
And live or die wi' Charlie. --
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I lo'e weel my Charlie's name,
Tho' some there be abhor him:
But O, to see auld Nick gaun hame,
And Charlie's faes before him!
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I swear and vow by moon and stars,
And sun that shines so early!
If I had twenty thousand lives,
I'd die as aft for Charlie.
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And these from the Ettick Shepherd, James Hogg (Jacobite Relics):
Come boat me o'er, come ferry me o'er,
Come boat me o'er tae Charlie
I'd hear the call once, but never again,
Tae carry me over tae Charlie.
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Chorus:
We'll over the water, we'll over the sea,
We'll over the water tae Charlie.
Come weel, come woe, we'll gather and go
And live or die with Charlie.
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I swear by moon and stars sae bright,
And sun that shines sae Dearly,
I would give twenty-thousand lives
I'd given them all for Charlie.
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Once I had sons, but now I've gat nane,
I've treated them all sae sairly.
But I would bear them all again,
And lose them all for Charlie
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Sources for notated versions: John White (Greene County, Pa., 1930's) and Thomas Patterson (Elizabeth, Pa., 1930's) [Bayard]. Alewine (Maid that Cut Off the Chicken's Lips), 1987; pg. 28. Bacon (The Morris Ring), 1974; pg. 81. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 556A-B, pgs. 494-495. Hall & Stafford (Charlton Memorial Tune Book), 1974; pg. 18. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 2, 1954; pg. 38. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; No. 6, pg. 31. Mallinson (Mally's Cotswold Morris Book), 1988; No. 16, pg. 14. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 78 (morris version). Folk-Legacy Records FSI-42, The New Golden Ring - "Five Days Singing, Vol II."