Recordings & Info: 281. The Keach i the Creel
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
6) Mainly Norfolk
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 120: The Keach I the Creel (82 Listings)
Alternate Titles
The Cunning Clerk
The Wife and the Creel
The Wee Toon Clerk
The Rock in the Same Auld Creel
The Little Scotch Girl
Traditional Ballad Index: Keach i the Creel, The [Child 281]
DESCRIPTION: A clerk and a girl wish to keep company, but she cannot escape her parents' home. He plans to to meet her by going down the chimney in a creel The suspicious mother enters the room and is pulled up in the creel, then dropped by the startled rope-puller
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: courting father mother elopement nightvisit humorous
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland(Aber,Bord)) Ireland US(MA,NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (13 citations)
Child 281, "The Keach i the Creel" (4 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Bronson 281, "The Keach i the Creel" (38 versions)
GreigDuncan2 317, "The Wee Toon Clerk" (20 texts, 15 tunes) {C=Bronson's #7, E=#38, F=#11, G=#10, H=#9, I=#18, J=#32, M=#2, N=#3, O=#31, P=#33}
Lyle-Crawfurd1 25, "The Auld Wife and the Peat Creel" (1 text, 1 tune)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 336-339, "The Keach i' the Creel" (1 text plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #5, #6}
Flanders-Ancient4, pp. 136-138, "The Keach i' the Creel" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 277-280, "The Wee Toun Clerk" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #13}
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 22-23, "The Keach i' the Creel" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #4}
FSCatskills 133, "The Little Scotch Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H201, pp. 265-266, "The Ride in the Creel" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 92-93, "The Cetch in the Creel" (1 text)
Kinloch-BBook XVII, pp. 61-63, "The Covering Blue" (1 text)
DT 281, KEACHCRL*
Roud #120
RECORDINGS:
Michael Gallagher, "The Keach in the Creel" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #36, with the title "Hurroo-Ri-Ah"}
Jamsie McCarthy, "Coochie Coochie Coo Go Way" (on Voice15)
SAME_TUNE:
Moody to the Rescue (File: FowM005)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Cunning Clerk
The Wife and the Creel
The Rock in the Same Auld Creel
NOTES: Kinloch's "The Covering Blue" omit the ride in the creel, but is obviously the same song (and Child included it as his "D" text). Thus, though most of the humor of the piece comes when the clerk hauls the auld woman up the chimney, the key point is the nightvisiting theme. - RBW
Child Collection Index- Child Ballad 281: The Keach I the Creel
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have
281 Alex Brown The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Alex Campbell The Keach in the Creel (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Alex Campbell The Keach in the Creel (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Alex Campbell The Keach in the Creel (3) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Alex Foster The Creel Folk Ballads from Donegal and Derry - Collected by Hugh Shields 1975 No
281 Alex Foster The Creel The Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Collection No
281 Alex Robb The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Alexander Campbell The Keach in the Creel (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Alexander Campbell The Keach in the Creel (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Alison McMorland, Geordie McIntyre & Kirsty Potts The Wee Toon Clerk Ballad Tree 2003 5:15 Yes
281 Andrew Calhoun A Shake in the Basket Telfer's Cows: Folk Ballads from Scotland 2003 4:00 Yes
281 Belle Luther Richards Keach I' the Creel The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
281 Bob Coltman Heist Her in the Basket Son of Child 1976 4:05 Yes
281 Briege Murphy The Creel From Now On 2004 3:27 Yes
281 Cilla Fisher & Artie Trezise The Keech in the Creel Cilla & Artie - Scotsfolk at Its Best 1976 No
281 Duncan Williamson The Wee Toon Clerk Jim Carroll & Pat Mackenzie Collection No
281 Duncan Williamson The Creel Traveller's Joy - Songs of English and Scottish Travellers and Gypsies 1965-2005 2007 No
281 Duncan Williamson Wee Toon Clerk (Keach in the Creel) John Howson Collection 1970-1995 No
281 Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr The Keek (or Ride) in the Creel Shape of Scrape 1995 6:22 Yes
281 Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr The Keek in the Creel On Reflection 2002 6:22 Yes
281 Elizabeth Stewart The Wee Toon Clerk Binnorie: Songs, Ballads and Tunes 2005 No
281 Ewan MacColl The Keach in the Creel The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 2 1956 3:53 Yes
281 Ewan MacColl The Keach in the Creel The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 4 [Reissue] 196? No
281 Ewan MacColl The Keach in the Creel [Scots] The Long Harvest, Vol. 10 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 3:58 Yes
281 Ewan MacColl The Keach in the Creel Ballads - Murder Intrigue Love Discord 2009 4:02 Yes
281 Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger The Keach in the Creel Bothy Ballads of Scotland 1961 4:16 Yes
281 Ewan MacColl & The Topic Singers The Keach in the Creel Ewan MacColl, Isla Cameron & The Topic Singers 1956 No
281 Fiddler's Green Creel 2007 Drive Me Mad 2007 1:51 Yes
281 Fiddler's Green The Creel Fiddler's Green 1992 2:06 Yes
281 Gordeanna McCulloch The Wee Toun Clerk Old Songs & Bothy Ballads - Nick-knack on the Waa 2008 No
281 Hanz Araki The Creel Wind and Rain 2010 No
281 Henry Cheyne The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Ian & Lorna Campbell Keach in the Creel The Great Scots Sampler, Vol. 1 1970 No
281 Ian & Lorna Campbell Keach in the Creel Best of Scottish Folk - The Vintage Years Volume 3 1978 No
281 Ian & Lorna Campbell The Keach in the Creel The Best of Scottish Folk 2002 3:10 Yes
281 Ian & Lorna Campbell The Keach in the Creel The Cock Doth Craw - Ballads from Scotland 1968 No
281 James Christie The Keach in the Creel (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 James Christie The Keach in the Creel (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 James Mason The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 James Reid The Keach and the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Jamesy McCarthy Coochie Coochie Coo Go Way The Voice of the People, Vol. 15: As Me and My Love Sat Courting - Songs of Love, Courtship and Marriage 1998 2:34 Yes
281 Jean Campbell The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Jean Redpath Keach in the Creel Ballad Folk 1977 2:37 Yes
281 Jessie Davidson The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Jim Nixon The Keach in the Creel Pass the Jug Round - Traditional Songs & Music from Cumberland 2003 No
281 Jimmy MacBeath The Keach in the Creel Scottish Tradition 5: The Muckle Sangs - Classic Scottish Ballads 1992 3:15 Yes
281 John Strachan The Wee Town Clerk The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Johnny Mowat The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Jon Loomes The Ride in the Creel Fearful Symmetry 2005 5:50 Yes
281 Larry Mulligan The Creel Early Ballads in Ireland 1968-1985 1985 2:28 Yes
281 Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick The Keesh and the Creel 100 Not Out - a Video Album Recorded Live in Concert 1991 5:49 Yes
281 Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick The Ride in the Creel Skin and Bone 1992 4:52 Yes
281 Mary Thain The Keach in the Creel (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Mary Thain The Keach in the Creel (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Michael Gallagher Hurroo-I-Ah BBC Recordings No
281 Michael Gallagher The Keach in the Creal The Song Carriers - Part 9 1965 2:23 Yes
281 Michael Gallagher The Keach in the Creel The Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5: The Child Ballads 2 1961 1:16 Yes
281 Michael Gallagher The Keach in the Creel Classic Ballads of Britain & Ireland - Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales, Vol 2 2000 1:18 Yes
281 Michael Gallagher + Jimmy McBeath The Keach in the Creel The Green Wedding - The Classic Ballads 3 1976 No
281 Mirk The Keech in the Creel Moddan's Bower 1979 5:03 Yes
281 Mrs James Christie The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Packie Byrne The Creel Songs of a Donegal Man 1975 No
281 Packie Byrne The Creel Donegal & Back! - Songs, Ballads & Whistle Tunes from Packie Byrne 2002 No
281 Paul Brady The Creel + Out the Door and Over the Wall Welcome Here Kind Stranger 1978 5:22 Yes
281 Paul Brady The Creel + Out the Door and Over the Wall The Missing Liberty Tapes 2001 7:22 Yes
281 Peggy Seeger The Little Scotch Girl [American] The Long Harvest, Vol. 10 - Some Traditional Ballads in Their English, Scots and North American Variants 1968 3:26 Yes
281 Peter Christie The Keach in the Creel (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Peter Christie The Keach in the Creel (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 Raymond Crooke The Keach in the Creel <website> 2007- 3:52 Yes
281 Rossavielle The Creel Very F. Tricky 1990 5:25 Yes
281 Tempest The Creel 15th Anniversary Collection 2004 8:14 Yes
281 Tempest The Creel (Celtic Society's Quickstep + The Drunken Piper) Sunken Treasures 1993 8:15 Yes
281 The Bothy Band Pretty Peg + Craig's Pipes 1975 [The Bothy Band] 1975 No
281 The Bothy Band Pretty Peg + Craig's Pipes The Best of the Bothy Band 1988 4:10 Yes
281 The Cheviot Ranters Northumbrian Waltz - Berwick Fair + Ma Bonnie Lad + Keach in the Creel The Sound of the Cheviots 1972 3:17 Yes
281 The Ian Campbell Folk Group The Keech in the Creel Folk on 2: Dave Swarbrick's 50th Birthday Concert 1996 3:15 Yes
281 The Pratie Heads The Creel We Did It! Songs About People Behaving Badly 2010 No
281 Tom Gilfellon The Keech I the Creel Loving Mad Tom and Other Unlikely Stories 1972 3:15 Yes
281 Unknown Female Singer The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 William Farquhar The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
281 William Mathieson The Keach in the Creel The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
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
281. THE KREACH I THE CREEL
Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 336.
Local Titles: The Kreach i' the Creel.
Story Types: None.
Discussion: The story of the ballad in Child is that of a young maid who captivates a clerk. To win her from her parents' strict watch, the hopeful lover has his brother build him a ladder, enters the locked house in a basket let down the chimney, and gets in bed with the daughter. Investigation by the father and mother are thwarted by the girl's telling her father that she is praying with a large book in her arms and by the mother's falling in the basket and being pulled up and down the flue by the clerk's brother.
Barry, Brit Bids Me, Maine text is a fragment, and it tells only of the bump the wife gets in the basket. The stanza follows Child D in the use of the word "lum" instead of "chimney". Herbert Halpert is now in possession of a more complete text.
Folk Index: The Keach in/i' the Creel [Ch 281]
Mf - Moody to the Rescue ; Overgate
Babad, Harry (ed.) / Roll Me Over, Oak, fol (1972), p 40
Seeger, Pete; with Jo Metcalf Schwartz / Incompleat Folksinger, Simon & Schuster, Bk (1972), p116 [1925]
Edwards, George. Cazden, Norman (ed.) / Merry Ditties, Bonanza Books, Bk (1958), p 10 (Little Scotch Girl)
Edwards, George. Cazden, Norman, et.al. / Folk Songs of the Catskills, SUNY Press, sof (1982), p492/#133 [1940s] (Little Scotch Girl)
Gallagher, Michael. Folk Songs of Britain, Vol 5. The Child Ballads, Vol. II, Caedmon TC 1146, LP (1961), trk# B.10 [1950s]
MacColl, Ewan. MacColl, Ewan / Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland, Oak, Sof (1965), p52
MacColl, Ewan. English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) Vol. 4, Washington WLP 718, LP (196?), trk# A.01
Okun, Milt. Merry Ditties, Riverside RLP 12-603, LP (1955), trk# A.07 (Little Scotch Girl)
Redpath, Jean. Scottish Ballad Book, Elektra EKL 214, LP (1962), trk# 9 (Wee Toon Clerk)
Redpath, Jean. Ballad Folk - from the BBC Scotland Television Series, BBC 22293, LP (1977), trk# B.09 [1970s]
Moody to the Rescue
Sm - Keach in/i' the Creel
Graber, Patrick. Fowke, Edith (ed.) / The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs, Penguin, Sof (1973), p 24/# 5 [1970]
The Overgate
Sm - Keach in/i' the Creel
Paton, Sandy. Many Sides of Sandy Paton, Elektra EKL 148, LP (1959), trk# A.05
Robertson, Jeannie. Songs of a Scots Tinker Lady, Riverside RLP 12-633, LP (1956), trk# B.01
Stewart, Belle. There Is a Man Upon the Farm, Topic TSCD 670, CD (1998), trk# 1 [1976/05]
Stewart, Belle. Kennedy, Peter (ed.) / Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, Oak, Sof (1984/1975), #187, p418 [1954]
Stewart, Belle. Queen Among the Heather, Greentrax CDTrax 9055, CD (1998), trk# 8 [1976/05]
Tannahill Weavers. Are Ye Sleeping Maggie, Plant Life PLR 001, LP (1976), trk# B.04
Mainly Norfolk: The Ride in the Creel / The Keek in the Creel
[Roud 120; Child 281; Ballad Index C281; trad.]
Martin Carthy sang The Ride in the Creel on his and Dave Swarbrick's 1992 album Skin and Bone. They also played this as The Keesh and the Creel on their 1992 video 100 Not Out. Martin Carthy commented in the original album's sleeve notes:
Francis James Child wrote in his notes to The Ride in the Creel, “no-one looks for decorum in pieces of this sort, but a passage in this ballad, which need not be particularized, is brutal and shameless almost beyond example.” He didn't relish the prospect of nosy parents being treated with such a lack of respect. Noses put well out of joint—and a few other things beside.
The Keek in the Creel is also on Eliza Carthy & Nancy Kerr's 1995 album Shape of Scape and on their 2002 compilation On Reflection. Eliza Carthy commented in their sleeve notes:
The Keek (or Ride) in the Creel comes from the delicious Packie Manus Byrne and the almost as delicious Paul Brady.
Lyrics
Martin Carthy sings The Ride in the Creel
Young girl's down to the market,
Fresh fish for to buy;
Her young squire he followed her down
That night with her be nigh,
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
“Oh how can I get in your chamber love?
Tell me how could I get in your bed?
When your father he locks your door at night
The keys lie under his head.”
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
Chorus:
Tum lum lay rigadoo-a-diddle-day
Tolly-rigadoo te-dum-day
“Go get you a ladder thirty foot,
Thirty foot and three,
And you climb up to the chimney top
Come down in the creel to me.”
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
Now this young fellow he had two brothers,
Brothers bold were they,
And the three of them got them a long long ladder,
It was thirty foot and three,
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
Yes they got them a ladder was thirty foot,
It was thirty foot and three,
And the three of them climbed to the chimney top
And down in the creel came he,
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
Chorus
Now the old couple woke in the middle of the night
With something that was said,
“Oh I swear to my life,” says the old, old wife,
“There's a man in my daughter's bed.”
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
So the old fellow rose in the middle of the night
For to see if it was true,
And she grabbed her darling round his neck
And under the cover he flew,
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
“Oh what do you do my daughter dear?
Oh daughter tell me do.”
“Oh I'm here with a bible in my hand,
I'm praying for just you two.”
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
Chorus
No sleep, no sleep could the old couple get
For the thoughts that run in their head,
“Oh I swear to my life,” says the old old wife,
“There's a man in my daughter's bed.”
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
”Oh get up get up you silly old fool,
Go and see if it be true!”
“You're a fool yourself, you can get up yourself
And the devil may go with you!”
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
Chorus
So the two of them rose in the middle of the night
And up to the roof went they,
But they tripped up on the chimney pot
And into the creel fell they,
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
Chorus
Now the boys they were up at the chimney top
And they thought the creel was full,
So they put their shoulders to the rope
And up the creel they drew,
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
Chorus
“Oh help help husband dear,
Oh husband help me do!
For the devil that you have wished me to
I fear he's got me now.”
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
And then they rocked them up and they rocked them down,
They give them the good down-haul,
Till every bone in their two sides
Went tolly-rigadoo down the hall,
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
Chorus
Oh the broom the bonny broom
And may the broom do well,
And may every old couple who do do so
Go rock in the creel to hell,
Rigadoo, tum lum lay rigadoo
Chorus
Acknowledgements
Transcribed from the singing of Martin Carthy by Garry Gillard.