February’s Song: Rolling Home

The Ridgeway Singers and Band’s track for February is “Rolling Home”, a lovely foot-tapping sea shanty from a time when sailors went right round the world in sailing ships, relying entirely on the wind and on their sailing skills to get them to their destination. The song was collected by Stan Hugill and arranged by our own Phil Humphries.

There are many different versions of this song, as would happen when one sailor learned a song from another, moved ships and taught the song to another crew, making inadvertent (or deliberate) changes along the way. Search You Tube to hear some of them (though none are as good as ours, of course!)

It was amusing, putting the map in this video together, to note that the place names are not in the  order they appear as you sail up the English Channel from west to east. One suspects rhyme and scansion won over strict geographical location.

Definitely a track to cheer us up in a gloomy February with lockdown!

CD of our music

Our CD is available to buy mail order for only £11.00 including shipping.

RidgewayCD

Around 40 singers and 10 musicians – come and experience our vibrant and joyous sound!

Our thanks to Wessex FM for helping advertise our events.