About this site
This site has been in gestation for several years; the band's 20th anniversary finally gave me the impetus to complete the site - although "complete" is not really the right word, as it is intended to be a work in progress.
The level of information on each page varies according to a number of factors, not least how much information is available elsewhere on the web. In general, there is not very much here about the better-known songs and tunes - anyone who wants to find out about well-known songs such as Bushes and Briars or John Barleycorn can easily do so in books or on the web. However you won't find so much elsewhere on songs such as The Man That Lives, or Hymn for Christmas Day, or our signature tune, Magpie Lane.
All the information here is true to the best of my belief, but if you find errors - or, indeed, omissions - please do get in touch and I'll endeavour to update the relevant pages. I very much welcome people sending me corrections and/or additional information.
I must emphasise that this is my personal project: views expressed here are mine, and should not be taken to represent those of Magpie Lane as a whole, still less Tim Healey and Beautiful Jo Records.
Andy Turner
Thanks
Thanks are due to many people, including:
- Tim Healey
- Malcolm Taylor, Peta Webb and Elaine Bradkte and other past and present staff of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
- Steve Roud - for his research and scholarship; for talking and writing about ballads and songs in such a brilliantly commonsense way; and, of course, for his numbers
- Dave Townsend
- Reinhard Zierke for his compendious Mainly Norfolk site
- John Adams, Chris Partington and contributors to the Village Music Project
- Roy Palmer
- Mike Heaney, who originally oversaw the creation of the Bodleian Ballads site - and all who have continued to develop the site
- Rod Stradling of Musical Traditions
- Doc Rowe
- Ian Russell
- Richard Robinson
- Vic Gammon, for the Sussex Tune Book, and much else
- The Copper Family, especially Bob Copper
- Irene Shettle
- George Frampton
- contributors to the TradSong and TradTunes Yahoo mailing lists
- sensible and helpful contributors to Mudcat, especially the late Malcolm Douglas