September Storyteller #1 - You are Wolf
September Storytellers - each week of September, one artist, one song and the story behind it.
I first came across You Are Wolf at the Irregular Folk Summer Session. I was immediately taken by front woman Kerry Andrew's wonderful voice and striking stage presence. By the end of the set I was totally captivated! Kerry takes traditional folk songs imprinting them with her own unique style. Here she tells us what led her to the song Molly Bawn and her re-creation of it.
You are Wolf - Photo by Dannie Price
"I work mostly with traditional folk songs, as I love their stories - and I can't help being attracted to the gloomy ones! I first heard Alison Krauss' version of the traditional Irish folk song Molly Bawn about fifteen years ago, and its dark sorrow stayed with me. When I was gathering materials for my 'Hawk to the Hunting Gone' album set, I know that I wanted to do something with it.
In the song, which has many variations, Molly is caught in the rain one night and hides under a bush, wrapping her white apron around her. Her lover comes along, mistakes her for a swan and shoots her. She often appears to him in court to proclaim his innocence. I have a big love of the West Highlands, and Loch Sunart in particular, and came across a story version of this when I was up there a few years ago, in which the mother of Molly's lover is so jealous of Molly that she in fact turns her into a swan, and when her lover sees what he has done, he throws himself into the loch. And that, they say, is why there are no swans on Loch Sunart...
I decided to combine the version of Molly Bawn as sung by Alasdair Roberts (and also old Irish singer Packie Manus Brown) with some spoken word elements which add in the transformation and Molly's lover hearing her call to him from the loch at the end.
This story and its many variations has really got its talons into me! In the last year, I've got heavily into fiction writing, and especially into finding ways of reinventing folk songs/stories into contemporary settings. I have written a novel called 'swansong' which does just this with the Molly Bawn story, and uses the journey of a folk song as a theme - it's like a rather expanded (by about 100,000 words!!) version of my song, with a contemporary character finding out about her. I'm hoping for it to be published next year, fingers crossed!"
In the song, which has many variations, Molly is caught in the rain one night and hides under a bush, wrapping her white apron around her. Her lover comes along, mistakes her for a swan and shoots her. She often appears to him in court to proclaim his innocence. I have a big love of the West Highlands, and Loch Sunart in particular, and came across a story version of this when I was up there a few years ago, in which the mother of Molly's lover is so jealous of Molly that she in fact turns her into a swan, and when her lover sees what he has done, he throws himself into the loch. And that, they say, is why there are no swans on Loch Sunart...
I decided to combine the version of Molly Bawn as sung by Alasdair Roberts (and also old Irish singer Packie Manus Brown) with some spoken word elements which add in the transformation and Molly's lover hearing her call to him from the loch at the end.
This story and its many variations has really got its talons into me! In the last year, I've got heavily into fiction writing, and especially into finding ways of reinventing folk songs/stories into contemporary settings. I have written a novel called 'swansong' which does just this with the Molly Bawn story, and uses the journey of a folk song as a theme - it's like a rather expanded (by about 100,000 words!!) version of my song, with a contemporary character finding out about her. I'm hoping for it to be published next year, fingers crossed!"
You can find out more about You are Wolf at www.youarewolf.com