Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts VRC0338 The Dark Eyed Sailor

[@elinys2843]

First saw them at Dranouter Festival some 30 years ago. Beautiful concert in the big tent. They invited us the day after for a more intimate concert in a small town hall nearby. Pure magic. Lovely seeing an hearing them again, here. Great thing, this youtube.

[@MrsSnickerdoodle1]

Very nicely done. Also, Kate is quite the comedian.

[@GaryPFrench]

Went to see Kate Rusby in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon last week. She's the best English girl. When she walks up to a mic hits notes strongly and perfectly each time like no one else. Tells stories so well, in singing and chatting. Also has the best sense of humour; positively quirky, very intelligent and kind. Lyrics often reach my heart but rarely do vocals get that far... can bring tears to my eyes sometimes when she sings. Watched another KZbin video and someone sneezes at the end, and it makes her smile. She's really beautiful and balanced. I like the way she analyses things which I often feel many people overlook or wouldn't think about. A wonderful person and true artist. I wondered if she had developed her brilliant stage talk over time but seems it was there even at 21.

[@verityandstumclellan8585]

I first heard Kate and Kathryn's album having rented it from the local library in Fishponds back the other side of the Millennium. I was blown away by it - still am - and it woke me up to folk music. We've been hosting house gigs for about three years, and this Thursday, Kathryn and Sean are playing live at ours - can't wait.

[@AndyChesterton]

I was looking for Vaughan Williams and come across your video, it stopped me in my tracks, a really beautiful performance. Andy :)

[@kayegillanders8819]

Andy Chesterton the true voice of an angel x

[@sevantorosyan6868]

These girls are what i grew up on, i hope to meet them one day #socalgal

[@GreenmanrisingCoUk]

I played a gig with Kathryn (and Sean Lakeman) recently. A lovely couple, and the songs and musicianship are great. It's amazing to realise how long ago I first heard Kate and Kathryn singing together at Whitby Folk Week. Fantastic video clip, very funny commentary on the song, and, oh the singing :-)

[@SouthCountyGal]

Beautiful rendition! I always had the same questions as Kate, growing up hearing the whole range of broken-token songs. And I hated that the sailor always tries to trick his love first. I would be showing him the door! Why seven years? Most likely because it was a number invoked in lore as having magical significance. 3 and 7 are used in songs and stories with supernatural themes, and got co-opted into other genres. It was a trope in broken-token songs; the guy has always been gone 3 or 7 years. You find it in the songs where the lover ashore is mourning the dead or missing sailor, and the ones where his ghost comes to visit her in the night. The question of recognition: If you had a boyfriend who went off to live out in bad weather with hard labor and not enough food for several years, and you didn't have a picture of him, would you necessarily recognize him when he came back? Surely your idea of him wouldn't match the man in person, especially if he went off at age 16-19 and came home in his mid-20s. The half a ring issue: they actually made puzzle rings that could be fitted together. Whether the rings came around before or after songs about broken tokens became popular I don't know, but given Celtic traditions of fitting things together to form complicated patterns, I wouldn't be surprised if they existed in some form already, then became part of popular culture as they became a common theme in entertainment.

[@davidseed2939]

starts at 5:34

[@takayama1638]

Whew, thanks. Waste my time with all the blah blah blah

[@neilpusan7215]

@@takayama1638 Listen. It is Kate.

[@kayegillanders8819]

How old is this. Kate looks so young xx

[@BristolRon]

this was 1995

[@californiadreamin8423]

⁠@@BristolRon. They came to Stockton Folk Club. Great music. Very impressive. If my memory serves me, their tour was supported by an arts council award or similar.

[@summerof67]

The song is a metaphor. It isn't about a man and a woman meeting after 7 years.

[@emmamushroom257]

What's it about then?

[@summerof67]

Possibly the woman represents the feminine side of the man. That's how I interpret it.

[@SouthCountyGal]

The song is a broken-token song, a popular genre in love ballads concerning sailors. The token is symbolic of two halves of a heart, each partner carrying a half while they are apart, with the hope of reuniting the whole one day. Tokens might be promise rings or actually halved items such as lockets or even handkerchiefs. There's some conjecture that the idea was also so that the sailor's identity could be confirmed when he returned after years of hard living on the sea, since he might be unrecognizable. More likely, it was just a romantic gesture. I don't know how common it was for couples to actually do this, but it was incredibly popular in fiction. The theme of returning after either three or seven years away was also popular, most likely a number chosen for its magical or poetic qualities. Still, men who went to sea could be gone anywhere from a few months to several years. The Dark-Eyed Sailor" was published in broadsides (single-sheet publications of poetry and songs, usually from popular culture, that were hawked on the streets) as early as 1808. If you want to look at some original printings, search for Roud number 265. Broadside Ballads Online from the Bodleian Libraries is a great site for that.

[@bigoldgrizzly]

but in truth, she knows that, for the last 7 years, he has been free and easy with the totty in many a foreign port

[@nord1486]

*thought

[@peterday7820]

They both have hair enough to stuff a mattress! Lovely girls, though.

[@nord1486]

I though they were never going to play it

[@MrMusicguyma]

The introduction is tediously long Music starts at 5:30. Kate is a great and charming singer but I am sure she has learned to edit her ruminations in the intervening 20 years.

[@GaryPFrench]

MrMusicguyma I could listen to her all day... :D clever banter and everything she says is original. Doesn't miss anything in anything. Provides escape from the 'norm' - there are a few singer-song writers and actors who just being in the world make it a better place for me. "the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "awww!"

[@colinrandall5525]

You have half a point. It does go on but many find her banter charming. And this is a folk club performance, where everything is more intimate with deeper communication between artist and audience.

[@kayegillanders8819]

MrMusicguyma it's part of her charm I love her humour x

[@kayegillanders8819]

And of course you can fast forward if the talking is not to your liking x

[@bigoldgrizzly]

@@colinrandall5525 exactly - it wouldn't work so well in a 'concert'

[@jabodl1]

Planxty

[@Jacktors]

Ehh okay. Too much blah blah blah banter