The Charmer

A soldier is obsessed with his love - a true charmer.

For the charmer courted me,

And she stole away my love,

When my heart was young and fair,

She was the maid beyond compare.

When my head was hanging low

Well, she fought through frost and snow.

In my arms she'll rest away

For the charmer I would name.

She brought that summer fright,

We were separate every night.

On those winter days to prove

All away on the morning dew.

I wish but it`s in vain,

For the soldier I became,

Fighting lands I'd never see,

For the grass will cover me.

Tell it to the charmer, so fine and pretty.

Farewell charmer.

Well her bed is fine as silk,

The sheets as white as milk.

When my heart has gone away.

I`ll leave a bed as cold as clay.

She has two hearts I have none.

All alone when I am done.

To the charmer I endure,

For the price of love and war.

Vocals, Tenor Guitar, Violin - Seth Lakeman

Double Bass - Ben Nicholls

Guitar - Sean Lakeman

Bodhran, Percussion - Cormac Byrne

Vocals - Steve Knightley

The Lady of the Sea

Inspired by a Cornish ship wreck in 1780 at Silver Dollar Bay. People still dig for her treasure.

Out of the moonlight in the month of May,

This ship would take her last breath.

Her full mast it was draping,

Like a mermaid she was dressed.

Her lonely heart is setting free,

All her cares they went sailing out to sea.

All those people gathered round,

Flocked to view that lovely sight.

All young maidens came to town,

They waved her out into the night.

She tried to clear the rocks with swelling sails,

The ocean beat her everytime,

And with a crack her body failed.

Sea engulfed and filled our eyes.

When the news returned to the town,

Every maid sat on the pier,

With lovers lost and fathers never found,

For now that mermaid`s dressed in tears.

Her lonely heart has set us free,

As all our prayers they went sailing out to sea.

You can hear her calling,

Now that mermaid`s dressed in tears.

Vocals, Violins - Seth Lakeman

Bodhran - Cormac Byrne

Bouzouki - Benji Kirkpatrick

Childe the Hunter

One of Dartmoor's most enduring legends. Hunter Childe became lost in a blizzard. To save himself from dying of exposure he crawled inside his dead horse and wrote a note passing all his estate to those who would find his body.

Come and listen, brave and tall,

The greatest tale I have to tell you,

It was a bleak and barren moor.

In ancient days he fell.

There rode a man of high renown

His name it came as hunter Childe.

Every day he chased heath and waste

On a moor so black and wild.

CHR.

The wind blew in and that hunter

Fell upon a bed of snow.

The night drew in and that thunder

Stuck him in a steady hole.

He looked up high and he begged her

"Let me see my lover home".,

The moon called out to the hunter

"Come in from the shadows".

He drew a knife from off his back,

Upon the ground his horse was lying.

He cut a measure, just full size

To rest there for the night.

With a finger he dipped in blood

And scrabbled words along the stones,

"On my will, God fulfill,

Rest these heavy bones".

Take a warning when you`re in the wild,

Against the skyline, off the high road.

For the memory of hunter Childe

Should rest you on your way.

He was a man of high renown,

His name it came, then blew away.

Upon his will the moon to steal,

In the shadows he will lay.

Vocals, Tenor Guitar, Violin - Seth Lakeman

Bass - Ben Nicholls

Bodhran, Percussion - Cormac Bryne

Bouzouki - Benji Kirkpatrick

Vocals - Steve Knightley

The White Hare

A westcountry legend that tells of a witch who takes the form of a  white hare and goes out looking for prey at night. If she catches your eye she steals your soul away.

I heard her in the valley,

I heard her in the dead of night.

The warning of a white hare

Her eyes burning bright.

Careful you don`t catch her

Or give her right of way.

For she will look upon you,

Steal your soul away

For the white hare is calling,

Dancing in the night.

She'll be out `til the morning light.

Out upon the heather

A shadow came onto me.

Her hair was hanging over,

Her face I could not see.

She ran behind the rocks,

I heard the hounds cry,

The image of a woman

With her head held up high.

For the white hare is calling,

Dancing in the night.

She'll be out `til the morning

With eyes burning bright.

The white hare is calling you.

If you go hunting,

Calling out your prey,

If you see a fair maid,

With her hair ash and grey,

Careful you don`t catch her,

Give her right of way,

For she will look upon you,

Steal your soul away.

Vocals, Tenor Guitar - Seth Lakeman

Bass, Banjo - Ben Nicholls

Guitar - Sean Lakeman

Shaker - Cormac Bryne

Vocals - Kathryn Roberts

The Colliers

Based upon a true story at Gresford Colliery of one of the worst mining disasters of the 20th Century.

You've heard of the great disaster

Where a terrible price was paid.

One hundred and forty colliers lost, and twenty only saved.

Down in the dark they`re lying

With a dirt so thick inside.

CHR/

There were many lost in the dark and dust

When the colliers called out

"Hold your fire!"

The gas in the old deep section

Packed like a wintery drift.

And many a man had a blackened face before he'd finished his shift.

The manager had been told

"Don`t fire that shot, we'll die!"

The firemen report their missing,

Some say forty days.

The manager he ignored them to cover his criminal ways.

Now down in the dark they're lying

With a dirt so thick inside.

The family sent white lillies,

And paid for their Sunday best,

And the manager found, well all comes down

The colliers had their rest.

We`ll go one more time unto the mine

To hear those colliers cry!

There were many lost in the dark and dust

When the colliers called out

"Hold your fire!"

Vocals,Tenor Guitar - Seth Lakeman

Bodhran,Percussion - Cormac Byrne

Bass, Double Bass - Ben Nicholls

Vocals, Bouzouki - Benji Kirkpatrick

Vocals - John Jones

Vocals - Steve Knightley

King and Country

When her sweetheart is called up to fight in the Great War, a young woman is left to count the days until his return.

Folding hills, a silver lane,

A weeping maid, an evening in the rain,

Roses ramble and the trees hang low,

We sit and drink to all good friends we know.

`Tis I my love who I'll leave in June,

For twenty five days no more.

Now mark the spot from whence I came

For king and country I`ll come back again.

The first season passed without news.

Two weeks gone and still no autumn tune.

The leaves they weep for the loss of their spring,

The dimming days they serve no better king.

`Tis I my love who fought for you.

For twenty five weeks no more....

The wind blew in a few small drops of rain.

She followed them `til her tears ran down again.

I`ll do as much as any young man may.

Please don`t sit and mourn I`ll come back rich and brave.

`Tis I my love who fell for you,

after twenty five months or more....

Out of the doorway her hands upon her head,

The weeping maid, her love was lost or dead.

Her longest day had only just begun.

She cursed the man who favoured for the gun.

`Tis I my love who fell for you.

For twenty five years or more.

Vocals, Tenor Guitar - Seth Lakeman

Double Bass - Ben Nicholls

Guitar - Sean Lakeman

Vocals - Kathryn Roberts

Vocals - Cara Dillon

The Setting of the Sun

A young man is haunted by the lover he mistook for a swan.

Come all young fellows that carry a gun,

Beware of late shooting when the daylight is done.

It is my reckoning that many hazards they may run.

I shot my true love at the setting of the sun.

In a shower of rain my darling did lie,

All under the bushes to keep herself dry.

Her head in her apron I thought her as a swan.

I shot my true love at the setting of the sun.

I'll fly from my country, I nowhere find my rest,

Because I've shot my own true love, like a bird upon her nest.

Like lead in my heart lies the deed that I have done.

I shot my true love at the setting of the sun.

In the night my fair maid as a white swan appears.

She she says "Oh my true love quickly dry up those tears,

"I freely forgive you for this paradise that I've won,

"I was shot by my true love at the rising of the sun".

The years they pass leave me lonely and sad.

I can never love again `cause none make me glad.

I'll wait and expect you until my work down here is done,

Then I'll meet my true love at the setting of the sun.

Vocals, Tenor Guitar - Seth Lakeman

Double Bass - Ben Nicholls

Guitar - Sean Lakeman

Bodhran - Cormac Bryne

Shaker - Jonny Crosbie

Vocals - DBG

Take No Rogues

Tale of two young men and local huntsmen in fast pursuit.

Winter morning, I rode out to take the air.

I heard them calling, there`s a hunt today declared.

CHR.

Two young soldiers on the run,

Came in courting a maiden young.

They stole her beauty, took no gold.

Take no prisoners, take no rogues,

Judge and jury, forty huntsmen rode to town.

Their noble duty, track those footprints up and down.

We took a mountain, the moonlight shadows cast our way.

Wind was howling, we must catch our bird of prey,

Make us ready, I see a fire up ahead,

Go in gently, load those rifles up with lead.

Vocals, Tenor Guitar - Seth Lakeman

Double Bass - Ben Nicholls

Guitars - Sean Lakeman

Bodhran, Percussion - Cormac Byrne

Bouzouki - Benji Kirkpatrick

Vocals - DBG

1643

The Freedom Fields Battle was one of the turning points in the English Civil War. People of Plymouth stood united against the royalists leading to parliament as we know it today.

In this fair town we laid them down in 1643,

It was poor King Charles who travelled for miles

In the heart of a civil dream.

As fierce young men we took a mighty stand

and waited for the call.

We were the first ones over the wall.

These four walls, the heart of our kingdom.

A shot rang out from behind the hill

As we marched along the bank.

We were stuck in fast between a heavy marsh,

And our clothes were torn and damp.

"So steady your guns until the last man comes",

Our captain he did cry,

I was the last man to see him alive.

As night crept in, well the stars were dim,

No soldier made a sound.

We had lost all sight in that fading light,

The fires had gone aground.

So the captain went out to a scream and shout,

For an ambush he would find.

I was the the last man to see him alive.

At first light when the guns were quiet,

Reinforcements came to town,

They were put on our side with a parliament pride,

Our freedom it turned around.

So the battle was won, but the captain gone,

And forever we recall,

He was the first man over the wall.

Vocals, Tenor Guitar ,Violin - Seth Lakeman

Double Bass - Ben Nicholls

Guitar - Sean Lakeman

Drums, Percussion - Cormac Byrne

Bouzouki, Vocals - Benji Kirkpatrick

Vocals - John Jones

Vocals - Steve Knightley

The Riflemen of War

Inspired by one of the victories during the Anglo-Dutch war in 1653.

All you sailors old or young come light the guns for everyone.

We`ll take the ship and go to sea

Crush the north in `53

Fought upon a broken shore

With 20 thousand men or more.

We`re the riflemen of war

All you sailors old or young come light the guns for everyone

Make that shot against their bow, we watched their maiden sinking down.

Fired aloud and the cannons roar

With 20 thousand rounds or more.

We`re the riflemen of war

All you injured old or young, come let's steal the gold for everyone.

Take the ship, to England sail.

Good heroes welcome, we'll provail.

Pull the mast to better shores,

A hundred sailors back on board.

We`re the riflemen of war.

Vocals, Violins - Seth Lakeman

Double Bass - Ben Nicholls

Guitar - Sean Lakeman

Drums - Cormac Bryne

Pipe and Tabor - Bert Cleaver

Vocals - John Jones

Vocals - Steve Knightley

The Band of Gold

Promises made by a young couple and their tokens of gold.

Summer evening, a maiden fair

Was walking forth in the open air.

She met a lover on her way,

She called out her heart would stay.

Love not constant will quickly go.

Cold as winter, white as snow.

Summer treasure, hand to hold,

Love be constant in a band of gold.

The wind is fresh`ning upon her eyes,

Down the years that stretch so wide.

Angels sing far away,

His promises, they gently fade.

Vocals, Tenor Guitar - Seth Lakeman

Superstrummer - Sean Lakeman

Bouzouki - Benji Kirkpatrick

Vocals - Kathryn Roberts

The Final Lot

Story of a well-loved auctioneer named Joseph Wright.

Beneath this stone in the fading light

Lies the lonely soul of a Joseph Wright.

Few hearts knew his kindness warm,

Few heads grew with a knowledge more informed.

With a gracious voice and a humour broad,

He pleased both peasant, squire and a lord,

A length his breath had a fortune steered

We called Joe`s life the finest lot in years.

He's going under,

He's going under,

Poor Joe's life it was the finest lot in years.

The hammer went down on his soul that night.

His breath was cold but he suffered no fight.

He was the last one sold on a priceless tear,

For poor Joe's life it was the finest lot in years.

Vocals, Tenor Guitar - Seth Lakeman

Double Bass - Ben Nicholls

Guitar - Sean Lakeman