Porcupine in October Sycamore (with The Theme, Assorted Wildfowl and Skippool Creek)

An early demo of the opening track on Songs from the Barley Temple which we 'made' between The Barley Temple and Blackpool Zoo wherein dwell the North American Tree Porcupines that inspired it. So - this is some fantasy of an Appalachian Field-Holler in the Javanese Pelog Mode inspired by American Animals who live up a none-native species of tree in a zoo in Lancashire, historically at least because Blackpool is now a unitory authority. I suppose it's all about the myth of indigeneity!

The wild-fowl is hardly wild, though some of it is, being the ducks, geese and whistling swans we field-recorded at the the zoo. By way of a prelude you'll hear a wee Theme Rapunzel made on the Kaossilator one day not long after we bought it. On the album, alas, there is no Theme, nor yet any ducks, but I'm happy they have a home here. The tune at the end we call Skippool Creek after another old place in Lancashire; now a picturesque scene of old boats, hulks and crumbling jetties, it was once a thriving port of arrivals and departures...

Rapunzel - kaossilator, banjo and singing
Sedayne - drone, fiddle and singing

*

Oh porcupine in the sycamore tree
Oh tell me what you see
Looking out through the tumbling leaves
Can you see the sea, oh?
Can you see the sea?

Oh yes, sir, I can see the sea
From high in my sycamore tree
Looking out through the tumbling leaves
I can see the sea, oh
I can see the sea.

Oh porcupine in the sycamore tree
Oh tell me what you see
Looking out through the tumbling leaves
Can you see a ship that floats on the sea, oh?
Can you see a ship that floats on the sea?

Oh yes, Sir, I can see a ship
From high in my sycamore tree
I can see a ship - sail, mast and all -
And a fair and a fine lady, oh
And a fair and a fine lady

Oh does she laugh or does she mourn?
Or does she dance on the sea?
And does the sun that shines in the sky
Shine on her ring so brightly, oh?
Shine on her ring so brightly?

Her ring it shines like the sun or the moon
Her laughter rings like the bell;
And her sweet song sings in the wind and the wave
That rises with the swell, oh
That rises with the swell...

(Rapunzel & Sedayne - October 2009)