Recordings & Info 236. The Laird o Drum
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
5) Folk Index
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 247: The Laird o Drum (100 Listings)
Alternate Titles
I Canna Wash
Gates of Drum
Laird of Doune
The Laird (Knight) and the Shepherd's Daughter
Traditional Ballad Index: Laird o Drum, The [Child 236]
DESCRIPTION: The Laird o Drum, instead of wooing a noble lady, chooses to court a poor working girl. All his relatives oppose this, but he notes that the girl is willing to work; instead of costing him money (as his previous wife did), she will help him earn it.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.; cf. Herd 1776)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1665-1710 - Life of Margaret Coutts, second wife of Alexander Irvine of Drum (previously married, in 1643, to Mary Gordon of Huntley. Drum died in 1687)
FOUND_IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (10 citations)
Child 236, "The Laird o Drum" (6 texts)
Bronson 36, "The Laird o Drum" (26 versions+1 in addenda)
Greig #46, pp. 1-2, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text plus 2 fragments)
GreigDuncan4 835, "The Laird o' Drum" (24 texts, 16 tunes)
Dixon VIII, pp. 53-56, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text)
GlenbuchatBallads, pp. 183-184, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 300-303, "The Laird of Drum" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Creighton-Maritime, p. 28, "The Laird O'Drum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 4-9, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
DT 236, LAIRDDRM*
Roud #247
RECORDINGS:
Lucy Stewart, "The Laird o' Drum" (on FSBBAL2) (on LStewart1)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
I Canna Wash
NOTES: Bodleian, 2806 c.11(7), "The Laird o' Drum" ("The laird o' Drum is a hunting gane"), unknown, n.d. could not be downloaded and verified. - BS
Child Ballad 236: The Laird o Drum
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
236 Alex Brown The Laird of Drum (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Alex Brown The Laird of Drum (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Alex Campbell The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Alex McEwen The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Alex Robb The Laird of Drum (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Alex Robb The Laird of Drum (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Alexander Clark The Laird O Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Bell Duncan The Laird O Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Christie The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Duncan Williamson The Laird O Drum Traveller's Joy - Songs of English and Scottish Travellers and Gypsies 1965-2005 2007 No
236 Duncan Williamson Laird O' Drum John Howson Collection 1970-1995 No
236 Elizabeth Craig The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Elizabeth Robb The Laird O Drum (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Elizabeth Robb The Laird of Drum (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Ellen Rettie The Laird of Drum (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Ellen Rettie The Laird of Drum (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Ellen Rettie The Laird of Drum (3) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Ethel Findlater The Laird O' Drum The Lover's Stone 1975 No
236 Ewan MacColl The Laird O' Drum Blood and Roses - Vol. 4 1986 5:13 Yes
236 Ewan MacColl The Laird O' Drum The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 1 [Reissue] 196? No
236 Ewan MacColl The Laird O' Drum The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 1 1956 No
236 Ewan MacColl The Laird O' Drum Ballads - Murder Intrigue Love Discord 2009 5:26 Yes
236 Frankie Armstrong The Laird O' Drum The Garden of Love 1999 4:55 Yes
236 Gordeanna McCulloch The Laird O' Drum In Freenship's Name 1997 5:51 Yes
236 Gordon Bok, Ann Mayo Muir & Ed Trickett Laird O' Drum Language of the Heart 1994 4:44 Yes
236 Gordon Easton The Laird O Drum The Last of the Clydesdales 2007 No
236 Hector Campbell The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Ian F. Benzie The Laird O' Drum So Far 2000 3:56 Yes
236 Isaac Troup The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 James Mason The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Jane Turriff I Canna Wash Back O' Benachie - Songs and Ballads from the Lowland East of Scotland 1968 No
236 Jean Campbell Laird O Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Jeannie Robertson The Laird O' Drum The Cuckoo's Nest and Other Scottish Folk Songs 1967 10:11 Yes
236 Jeannie Robertson The Laird O' Drum The Gypsy Lady - Jeannie Robertson Sings the Big Ballads [The Muckle Ballads of Scotland] 1979 7:54 Yes
236 Jessie Davidson The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Jock Tamson's Bairns The Laird O' Drum A' Jock Tamson's Bairns [Jock Tamson's Bairns + the Lasses Fashion] 1996 5:45 Yes
236 John Ross The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 John Strachan The Laird O Drum Glenlogie - The Classic Ballads 1975 No
236 John Strachan The Laird O Drum Songs from Aberdeenshire 2002 3:13 Yes
236 John Strachan The Laird of Drum (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 John Strachan The Laird of Drum (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 John Strachan The Laird of Drum (3) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 John Sutherland The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Johnny Mowat The Laird of Drum (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Johnny Mowat The Laird of Drum (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Lorre Wyatt The Laird O' Drum + The Hare in the Corn Roots and Branches 1985 4:24 Yes
236 Lucy Stewart The Gate of Drum The Green Wedding - The Classic Ballads 3 1976 No
236 Lucy Stewart The Laird O' Drum Lucy Stewart: Traditional Singer from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Vol. 1 - Child Ballads 1961 5:21 Yes
236 Lucy Stewart The Laird O' Drum Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland - Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Vol 2 2000 3:37 Yes
236 Mairi Morrison & Alasdair Roberts The Laird O' the Drum Urstan 2012 6:15 Yes
236 Mairi Morrison & Alasdair Roberts The Laird O' the Drum fRoots 39 2012 6:14 Yes
236 Miss Taylor The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Mrs Cameron The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Mrs M.S. Hastie The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Mrs Rettie The Laird O Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Mrs W.A. Reid (Reed) The Laird of Drum (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Mrs W.A. Reid (Reed) The Laird of Drum (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Norman Kennedy The Laird O' Drum 'Live' in Scotland 2002 No
236 Robert Nicol The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Singer from Port Gordon The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Stanley Robertson The Laird o Drum At the Blue Lamp 2010 No
236 Togo Crawford The Gates of Drum BBC Recordings No
236 Togo Crawford The Gates O' the Drum The Voice of the People, Vol. 23: Good People, Take Warning - Ballads sung by British and Irish Traditional Singers 2012 No
236 Tom Kines The Laird O' Drum Canadian Folk Songs - Chansons Folkloriques du Canada [Canadian Folk Songs: a Centennial Collection] 1967 2:34 Yes
236 Unknown The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Unknown Female Singer The Laird of Drum (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 Unknown Female Singer The Laird of Drum (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 William Mathieson The Laird of Drum The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
236 William Sharp Lonie The Laird O the Drum Hamish Henderson Collects - Songs, Ballads and a Story from the School of Scottish Studies Archives - Vol. 2 2006 4:37 Yes
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
236. THE LAIRD DRUM
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 300 / Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich 149.
Local Titles: The Laird (Knight) and the Shepherd's Daughter, The Laird o' Drum.
Story Types: A: A nobleman out hunting spies a sliepherd's lass who immediately captivates him. In the New Brunswick text, he offers to marry her and, in spite of her protests that he is joking, says he will go with her to herd sheep. Examples: Barry, Gardner and Chickering.
Discussion: The event, the marriage of Alexander Irvine to a woman of mean birth against his family's wishes, on which this ballad is based is given in Child, IV, 322. The American fragments have lost the story to some extent and, except for the last stanza in the New Brunswick version, make no reference to the family's objections. This Canadian stanza and its lines "For
it's herdin' sheep on yon hillside I'll gang wi' you my lovely Nancy" could result in a change in the story.
Barry, Brit -Bids Me, 301 points out that the Child versions of this ballad fall into two groups: the older forms that stick close to history (A, C, D, E, etc.) and the more recent forms which do not mention the suitor by name and do not indicate a previous marriage (B). The Canadian fragment shows influence from both groups, but follows the recent tradition more closely. Child, IV, 122 suspects his B version to have been contaminated by a song in the Motherwell Mss. concerning an earl and a shepherd's daughter. The Canadian fragment reflects the influence of this song, too, in the fact that the suitor's father is alive. (Barry, op. cit., 301 3.)
Gardner and Chickering, Bids Sgs So Mich, 149 indicate that Robert Chambers (ed.) in The Songs in Scotland Prior to Burns (London, 1862), 440 I names a song with identical words to the Michigan fragment which was composed by a well-born vagabond, Jean Glover. The text also resembles the Canadian fragment. Stanza 3 of the Michigan text is almost identical to Stanza 3 of the Canadian.
Folk Index: The Laird O'/Of Drum [Ch 236]
McCullough, Gordeanna. McCulloch, Gordeanna / In Freenship's Name, Greentrax CDtrax 123, CD (1997), trk# 13
Stewart, Lucy. Traditional Singer from Aberdeen. Vol. 1 - Child Ballads, Greentrax CTrax 031, Cas (Gre5), trk# A.04
Strachan, John. Songs from Aberdeenshire, Rounder 1835, CD (2002), trk# 15 [1951/07/16]
Wyatt, Lorre. Roots and Branches, Folk Legacy FSI 088, LP (1985), trk# B.06a