It was a lovely warm spring evening on March 30th, on one of Bristol’s most beautiful Georgian streets, a wash with people moving between bars, clubs and cafés. A noisy bustle of inner city life on a Friday evening with people getting ready to make the most of the weekend. Bristol Park Street runs from the impressive Bristol Cathedral and College Green up a 
steep incline of a road to Bristol University. Squeezed in between the impressive old buildings on this road is a small gate and alley leading to a relaxing oasis that is The Bristol Folk House.
This building is set back behind the main street, surrounded by a relaxing court yard and inside a dimly lit room whose only light comes from the single candles on the various round tables and from the small bar to the left selling local ales and fine wines. The room is filled with a mixture of young and old who have come to listen to Mrs Price’s Parlour, who are fronted by Amanda Boyd, although this night she was joined by Nick Cocking on mainly guitar.
During the evening Boyd performed folk songs from Cecil Sharp’s Mendip and Somerset repertoire, recognised as the founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century. Sharp, a Fabian Socialist, just 
like other genuis such as George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf, he was also a lifelong vegetarian.
The evening was full of education and an appreciation of history and the simple and quiet way of life. Throughout the evening various origins and meanings of songs were explained in loving detail, and each song a tale expressed through the sometimes haunting but often fun and cheeky vocals from the lead singer of Mrs Price’s Parlour.
Cocking gave an exceptional display of his craftsmanship when playing his guitar, which complemented the vocals beautifully and at times appeared to take the audiances breath away due to the skill and technique on display. A musician over the past 20+ years, Cocking is also in a local folk band The Ceili, playing Irish folk and even the odd bit of bluegrass and blues.
Boyd kept the audiances attention captive with her gentle melodies, only raising this on occasions when she also sang whilst playing a Bodhrán. "Green Bushes" jigged along full of humour and "The Foggy Dew" saw Cocking take up a mandolin as Amanda’s voice swept the audiance along , with only the tables restricting people from getting up and having a jig.
Each song was met with rousing applause at it’s beginning and end, with Mrs Price’s Parlour taking time to tell stories and joke in between songs. The evening reached an ending with the audiance joining in with the chorus of some familiar songs. However, it was all over too quickly and before long drinks were finished and people left the charm of the evening to return to the noise and bright lights of the city night.
Mrs Price’s Parlour and the Somerset folk music Amanda Boyd has resurrected, will sit snuggly alongside its more famous Irish relations, but also nod towards other British folk artists who too have been influenced by Cecil Sharp – All About Eve, The Oyster Band, Amy Macdonald and Bellowhead to mention a few.
Hear are some links to some of the songs http://www.mrspricesparlour.com/music.html
And here is some video footage of the show http://www.mrspricesparlour.com/videos.html
Afterwards, QRO had a chat with Amanda Boyd (Mrs Price’s Parlour) and were able to get further insight into the music and history.
Somerset Folk Songs
An amble through the Somerset countryside with Mrs Price’s Parlour
Cecil Sharp collected hundreds of songs from local people in Somerset and The Mendips early 20th century. He also collected in the Appalachians in the U.S.A. Although the Somerset and Appalachian singers from that era never met, they were connected through the lineage of folk song and melody, as we are now with current singers from that region as we all celebrate the legacy of the songs, continuing to live through them as artists.
Although a London man, Sharp studied in Weston Super Mare as a young man and later married his sweet heart Constance in Clevedon. In 1911 Sharp founded the English Folk Dance Society, which promoted the traditional dances through workshops held nationwide, and which later merged with the Folk Song Society in 1932 to form the English Folk Dance and Song Society. (EFDSS). The current London headquarters of the EFDSS is named Cecil Sharp House in his honour.
Songs
"Green Bushes" – In this rendition I celebrate three singers, James Bale from Bridgwater, Mrs Louie Hooper and Mrs Lucy White from Hambridge. All three gave Cecil Sharp versions of this cheeky little number. He arranges to meet her, she arranges to meet him but she has another man coming down yonder woods. As a singer it is really fun to portray many perspectives during the song, first person, third person, taking on different characters and being the narrator.
"Sprig of Thyme" – This song was given to Cecil Sharp by George Say of Axbridge. Although this is a relative of "Seeds of Love", it is thought that this is the older of the two.
A tender poignant song full of symbolism. Thyme, rue, willow trees twisting, red roses. There’s a lot more at the heart of this song than first meets the eye.
(Girls once used thyme sprigs in ceremonies to discover the identity of their true loves. A more up scale lady of Medieval times would embroider a flowering thyme sprig along with a visiting bee as a token to be given to a favoured knight. A woman wearing thyme was once held to be irresistible. Rue is well known for its symbolic meaning of regret)
"Game of Cards" – Given to Sharp by Mrs Coombes at Bridgwater.
A lady outwitting a man at a game of cards. Was it beginners luck or was it a bluff? He thinks he may get lucky but she has the last laugh and on she goes along the highway.
"Sheep Shearing Song" – Collected from Mr William King from East Harptree.
A song of abundance, joy and celebration. The song was used by Gustav Holst to inspire his Somerset Rhapsody Suite.
