Songs sung by Robert Butcher senior

BUTCHER, Robert senior, the Boretrees, the Umbra; married, father of Robert, John, and Lizzie O’Hagan (all listed here). He died in 1966 aged about seventy; his house on the railway is now ‘tumbled’. I recorded Robert at Downhill in 1961 and also noted several texts and melodies in MS from him during the same visit at his own house (which lacked electricity for the recorder) and sang and recorded several of these melodies myself immediately afterwards (indicated in references thus: ‘6105 HS (RB)’). Robert was ailing in his later years and somewhat breathless. But the recordings reveal a quiet smooth style with interesting and varied melodic and syllabic embellishments. His repertory was evidently large, including many songs learnt from his father. Nos 3N, 9, 26K frag., 47, 49, 59, 69R frag.