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Over The Border

from Songs of Separation by Songs of Separation

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Karine writes: The Flowers of The Forest is a well known pipe lament first recorded in the Skene manuscript of the early 17th century. The best known Scots lyric is by Borders poet Jean Elliot, and is her only surviving lyric. She wrote it in the mid-18th century in minding of the 1515 Battle of Flodden, between Scotland and England. A history that was once bloody can become otherwise. Eliza writes: The Flowers of Knaresborough Forest was written by Frederic William Moorman, and published in Songs of the Ridings in 1918. I learned it from my Mam and Aunt Lal. It always struck me, the loneliness and shock of a working life without the men, the women doing the men's jobs, especially the young men of the First World War that would never return. In some ways the First World War changed the countryside of England forever, and some think it has never recovered its soul since then. The way it references the older song is to bring new heartbreak to what we all surely know: that in war, nothing ever changes, and those who are left singing alone carry the weight in small and terrible ways for those who make the bigger choices. Karine writes: Blue Bonnets Over the Border is a well known regimental march, which we adapted one evening into a song, with an eye on current events unfolding on our doorstep, the sheer human urgency, tragedy and necessity of the crossing of borders.

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from Songs of Separation, released January 29, 2016
The Withering music by Mary Macmaster / Flowers of the Forest music traditional and lyrics by Jean Elliot and Frederic William Moorman arranged by Eliza Carthy, Jenny Hill, Karine Polwart, Mary Macmaster / Blue Bonnets Over the Border: traditional arranged by Hazel Askew, Jenn Butterworth, Eliza Carthy, Hannah James, Jenny Hill, Mary Macmaster, Karine Polwart, Hannah Read, Rowan Rheingans, Kate Young / Hope Lies Over the Border: music and lyrics by Hazel Askew, Karine Polwart, Rowan Rheingans

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