10 Best Nic Jones Songs

Nic Jones emerged in the fertile folk scene of the late 1960s. While contemporaries like Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, and John Martyn ventured into pop and rock music, Jones remained stubbornly traditional. His first two albums, 1970’s Ballads & Songs and 1971’s Nic Jones, were austere, Jones playing solo in the studio without overdubs.

After Nic Jones, there was a half-decade pause in Jones’ discography. When he returned to the studio for 1977’s The Noah’s Ark Trap, his artistry had deepened. His voice and guitar were more malleable and expressive, his song choices were more interesting, and his albums were sequenced deliberately. Just after Jones hit his straps with 1980’s Penguin Eggs, he was largely silenced – a severe traffic accident left him hospitalised for eight months, unable to play the fiddle and his guitar skills severely hampered. While he’s played live occasionally, he’s never released another studio record.

To add insult to injury, much of Jones’ catalogue is out of print. Of his studio albums, only Penguin Eggs is readily available on streaming services and CD. This list is drawn from just three albums – the three albums Jones released between 1977 and 1980 are much stronger than his early work for my money. Even so, I had to leave off top-notch tracks like ‘Isle of France’ and the New Zealand-based ‘Farewell to the Gold’. In writing this post, I’m indebted to Mainly Norfolk for their encyclopedic database of folk songs.

10 Best Nic Jones Songs

#10 Barrack Street

from Penguin Eggs, 1980
Jones often gravitated to dark folk songs, but ‘Barrack Street’ is a rare moment of levity. It’s also known as “the shirt and the apron”, telling the story of a cheated sailor.

All sailors all come lend an ear, come listen to me song
A trick of late was played on me and it won’t detain you long

#9 Billy Don’t You Weep For Me

of From the Devil to a Stranger, 1978
Because much of folk music pre-dates recording technology, it was easier to preserve words than tunes. Often folk songs were printed as broadsides, large sheets of paper printed on only one side and produced widely in the 16th century. Jones wrote the music for this broadside, writing the tune in 9/8 to fit the meter of the words. It shows off his guitar-picking technique. It’s a cautionary tale of a woman who ditches her boyfriend in favour of her soldier cousin.

So young women take a warning from me
Never love a soldier or sit all on his knee

#8 The Flandyke Shore

from Penguin Eggs, 1980
‘The Flandyke Shore’ is a mysterious song – more like a fragment of a long-lost broadside than a coherent story. It’s based on the Battle of Landen during the Nine Years’ War.

I went unto my love’s chamber window
Where I often had been before
Just to let her know unto Flandyke Shore
Never to return to England no more

#7 The Lakes of Shilin

of From the Devil to a Stranger, 1978
This traditional tune boasts a wide array of names – it’s also known as ‘The Lakes of Coolfin’, ‘Lakes of Cold Flynn’ and ‘Willie Lennox’. You may be familiar with the tune, which is also used for the well-known hymn ‘Be Thou My Vision’.

#6 Ten Thousand Miles

from The Noah’s Ark Trap, 1977
‘Ten Thousand Miles’ is one of Jones’ prettiest songs. It’s also known as ‘The Turtle Dove’, while Scottish poet Robbie Burns turned it into ‘My Love Is Like a Red Red Rose’.

Nic Jones did the definitive version of this song, to my mind. For me to perform it was a kind of homage to him. Given that starting point however, this is what a group of musicians with no preconceptions about what traditional music is or should be, can do in terms of making a traditional song into a different kind of classic. This love song can hold its own against all comers.

June Tabor

#5 The Humpback Whale

from Penguin Eggs, 1980
‘The Humpback Whale’ is the only 20th-century song on this list. It was written by Harry Robertson, a Scottish-born seaman who worked as a whaler before moving to Australia and establishing a career as a singer-songwriter. Jones’ accident occurred at a time when he was modernising his approach – he’d started to perform some of his own songs live, and Penguin Eggs features other 20th-century compositions.

Oh you trawler men, come on
Forget your snapper and your prawn
For it’s out of Ballina we’ll sail
Fishing for the humpback whale

#4 Annachie Gordon

from The Noah’s Ark Trap, 1977
Many of these folk songs are dark – ‘Annachie Gordon’ is a tale of star-crossed lovers, a la Romeo and Juliet.

For Annachie Gordon, oh he’s bonny and he’s braw,
He’d entice any woman that ever him saw.
He’d entice any woman and so he has done me,
Oh never will I forget my love Annachie

#3 The Blind Harper

of From the Devil to a Stranger, 1978
Jones’ arrangements on his early records were austere, but he’d started to become a little more ambitious by his fourth album. He plays the guitar and fiddle parts here, and they sound beautiful together. The story was recorded by Sir Walter Scott in his book Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border – it tells of a cunning plot to steal the king’s horse.

Have you heard of the blind harper,
How he lived in Lochmaven town,
How he went down to fair England,
To steal King Henry’s wanton Brown.

#2 The Wanton Seed

from The Noah’s Ark Trap, 1977
This folk song isn’t dark, but it’s certainly lewd. It was earlier covered by A.L. Lloyd, who noted in the liner notes that “at seed-time in primitive communities, peasants would be expected to copulate in the furrows to give good example to the plants.”

If you are the man that can do the deed,
Come and sow my meadow with the wanton seed

#1 Canadee-I-O

from Penguin Eggs, 1980
Like ‘Ten Thousand Miles’, ‘Canadee-I-O’ is another of Jones’ prettiest songs, finger-picked gently. Bob Dylan later lifted Jones’ arrangements when he recorded ‘Canadee-I-O’ on his 1993 album Good As I Been To You.

“I’ll dress you up in sailor’s clothes, your jacket shall be blue,”
You’ll see that seaport town called Canadee-I-O.

Did I miss your favourite Nic Jones song?

Read more

• 10 Best Fairport Convention Songs
• Richard and Linda Thompson albums ranked