Mediaeval Baebes: Sing Ivy

Taken from the album 'A Pocketful of Posies'
Join Mediaeval Baebes for their 25th anniversary tour this Christmas 2021. Get your tickets here:
https://www.mediaevalbaebes.com/live

https://mediaevalbaebes.bandcamp.com/...


Words: Traditional
, Music: Katharine Blake
Arrangement: Katharine Blake, Charlie Cawood



Video Directed by Amanda Burns, Katharine Blake
Edited by Katharine Blake
Art Direction: Katharine Blake
Director of photography: Amanda Burns
With additional filming and stills by Karla Da Silva



Katharine Blake: Lead Vocal and percussion
Charlie Cawood: Dulcimer, zhonguruan, zither, lyre, daruan, hurdy-gurdy, saz, bass
Ben Woollacott: Drums, perc
ussion
Ray Hanson: acoustic guitar,


Mediaeval Baebes
:
Katharine Blake
Marie Findley
Jo Bowis
Sophia Halberstam
Fiona Fey


Additional Vocals
:
Anna Pool
Sophie Charlotte Ramsay
Sarah Foster


Produced by Katharine Blake

Engineered by Katharine Blake and Rob Toulson
Mixed by Katharine Blake and Rob Toulson
Mastered by Rob Toulson


Masks by Estelle Riviere and Ella Guru

Dancing ladies: Heather Morris, Estelle Riviere, Dawn Torabi, Amanda Burns
Dancing children: Ava Marsh, Rosa Marsh, Sima Torabi, Magdelena Whitney Morris



Along with the well known folk song “Can You Make Me a Cambric Shirt” (better known now as Scarborough Fayre), this rhyme is derived from the ancient Scottish folk ballad “The Elfin Knight” in which the protagonist threatens to captures a young woman to make her his lover, unless she can perform an impossible task. She in turn sets him numerous impossible tasks to evade abduction.



My father left me three acres of land,
Sing ivy, sing ivy;
My father left me three acres of land,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!
My father left me three acres of land,
Sing ivy, sing ivy,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!

I ploughed it with a ram's horn,
Sing ivy, sing ivy;
I ploughed it with a ram's horn,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!
And sowed it all over with one peppercorn,
Sing ivy, sing ivy,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!

I harrowed it with a bramble bush,
Sing ivy, sing ivy;
I harrowed it with a bramble bush,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!
And reaped it with my little pen-knife,
Sing ivy, sing ivy,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!

The mice they carried it to the barn,
Sing ivy, sing ivy;
The mice they carried it to the barn,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!
And thrashed it with a goose’s quill,
Sing ivy, sing ivy,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!

The cat she carried it to the mill,
Sing ivy, sing ivy;
The miller swore he’d have her paw,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!
The cat she swore she’d sctatch his face,
Sing ivy, sing ivy,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!

My father left me three acres of land,
Sing ivy, sing ivy;
My father left me three acres of land,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!
My father left me three acres of land,
Sing ivy, sing ivy,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!

Sing ivy, sing ivy,
Sing holly, go whistle, and ivy!