Old Brown's Daughter At The Zoo...An interpretation of a traditional song.

@bobhallett Waking up on a tour bus parked in the middle of a Zoo is the sort of touring experience my inner 9-year old lives for. 8 July 2013

@greylioness Ole Brown’s daughter at the zoo. @alanthomasdoyle @bobhallett @great_big_sea @murrayfoster1 @greatbigsean 8 July 2013

(photograph by Stacy Grey @ greylioness no copyright infringement intended)

Perhaps one of the most interesting things about writing a blog is it can take you on many journeys.

This one is about a photograph I saw on Bob Hallett’s official Twitter page taken by a fan and the song 'Old Brown’s Daughter.'

On the 8 July 2013 Great Big Sea performed at the Weesner Amphitheatre at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, Minnesota. The song 'Old Brown’s Daughter' is a beautiful traditional song, sung without music and with love from the heart. I love this photograph and in particular of Alan Doyle singing a song that clearly he has sung many times before and from the heart.

According to Wikipedia 'Old Brown’s Daughter' was written by G.W.Hunt around 1878 and “was an English music hall song, sung by Alfred Vance and became a Newfoundland folk song”. It has been interpreted, sung and recorded by a range of English folk singers and musicians. 'Old Brown’s Daughter' found it’s way to Newfoundland, Canada where it was interpreted again by a number of Newfoundland musicians and singers including Johnny Bourke and Ron Hynes and then adapted again by Alan Doyle and Sean McCann for the Great Big Sea 'Turn' album. However, there is still considerable debate about how the song came to be absorbed into the Newfoundland traditional folk song culture.

'Old Brown’s Daughter' tells the story of an ordinary man who loves and wants to marry the daughter of a local shop keeper Mr Brown. However, Mr Brown has other ideas and wants his daughter to marry a local lord mayor, lord or marquis. The man knows he will never be a lord or marquis but decides he can run in the local election for mayor and win, then hoping to secure the hand of the daughter in marriage.

Anna Kearney Guigne, a folklorist from Newfoundland has researched and written extensively about the song. She wrote an interesting book titled 'Folksongs and Folk Revival: The Cultural Politics of Kenneth Peacock’s Songs of the Newfoundland Outports.', an article ‘Old Brown’s Daughter – Recontexualizing a ‘Locally’ Composed Newfoundland Song’ and gave an interview with CBC radio about the song.  

 Old Brown’s Daughter (no copyright infringement intended)

There is an ancient party at the other end of town
And he keeps a little grocery store, the ancients name is Brown
And he has a lovely daughter, such a treat I never saw
Oh I only hope someday to be the old man's son-in-law.

Well, Old Brown he sells from off his shelf most anything you please
He's got juice tarts for the little boys, lollipops and cheese
And his daughter minds the store, and it's a treat just to see her serve
I'd like to run away with her but I don't have the nerve

Chorus

And it's old Brown's daughter is a proper sort of girl,
Old Brown's daughter is a fair as any pearl
I wish I were a Lord Mayor, a Marquis or and Earl
And blow me if I wouldn't marry old Brown's girl.
Blow me if I wouldn't marry old Brown's girl.

Well poor old Brown now has trouble with the gout,
He grumbles in his little parlour when he can't get out
Oh and when I make a purchase, lord, and she hands me the change
That girl she makes pulverized, I feel so very strange

Chorus

But Miss Brown she smiles so sweetly when I say a tender word
Ah but old brown says that she must wed a Marquis or a Lord,
And I don't suppose it's ever one of those things I will be
But by jingo next election I will run for Trinity

Chorus