– General Description:
United Bible Studies (UBS) is a collection of Irish musicians whose members depend on the project. They have been described as a free-flowing folk outfit with a shifting cast of collaborators. In founder David Colohan’s words, the group’s name has come to mean “every spiritual path, every religion, every devotional practice being equal”. As regards to instruments: guitar, banjo, lap steel, tin whistle, autoharp, harmonium, mandolin, cuatro (a small guitar)…the list goes on. Recorded in various parts of the English countryside and the Irish midlands, this project/release is a collection of traditional and modern folk songs from the British Isles as interpreted by the band and inspired by Folkways. (Folkways Records documented folk, world, and children's music.)
The song that the album title refers to is at the end of the last track after some silence. Some may find a part of that song – about giving the wife two black eyes if she objects to her husband’s ale drinking – not to their liking because, in a way, it condones drunken domestic violence.
– FCC Compliant: YES
– Recommended Tracks: 7, 1, 4
– Track Reviews:
1. (5:59) Blacksands - instrumental piece, starts 4 seconds in with whispy piano; recorded in various parts of the English countryside and the Irish midlands; DJ BE AWARE that at 5:15 all you hear is quiet nature sounds of rain etc and then silence starting at 5:50
2. (2:04) Farewell Nancy - several singers; song is also known as “Nancy of Yarmouth”; it’s a sailor’s lament that Nancy is too delicate to travel with him on the sea
3. (2:15) Sullivan's John - spare rendition; song about how hard it is be a tinker (a traveling Jack-of-all-trades); use of “ass” refers to a donkey
4. (10:03) The Dalesman's Litany/The Burning Sea - sad and touching, listen for the viola lines; originally a poem by F.W. Moorman, “The Dalesman's Litany” was published in 1918 and is about a life of working in Yorkshire's manufacturing towns; UBS also presents it as a personal journey with the woman’s response to her man; DJ BE AWARE that the last 10 seconds is silence
5. (3:58) Sweet Streams Of Nancy - hard to hear the vocalist; originally “The Streams of Lovely Nancy” and dates as far back as 1830; it could be about Cornish tin ‘streamers’ (who wash for ore) or about miracles on St Michael's Mount, or even related to a medieval religious poem called “Cursor Mundi” - but no one knows
6. (6:43) Recruited Collier - DJ BE AWARE quiet sound of rain for first 18 seconds, then instrumental only until 3:13, then vocals start; song dates to 1808 and is about Jimmy who enlists in the military and how unhappy Jenny is about it; listen for the harmonium (a small pump organ) in the mix
7. (4:42) Twa Corbies - a bleak ballad in Scottish dialect about two birds discussing the pros and cons of eating a newly slain knight; this version starts with real birds squawking; female vocalist starts with plaintive echoing then the ballad begins at 1:28; “Twa Corbies” was first published in Ravenscroft's “Melismata” in 1611 as “The Three Ravens”
8. (6:16) Waiting For Another Day - sad song about loss
9. (7:42) Ten Thousand Miles - 18th-century English folk ballad; a lover bids farewell before setting off on a journey; DJ BE AWARE that at 3:31 the song ends and then there is silence until 4:40 whereupon the song “The Ale's What Cures Ye” is sung a cappella