Kate Rusby: I Courted A Sailor
[purchase]
Kate Rusby: The Sleepless Sailor
[purchase]
This is only my second post here and already I am breaking all the rules. The songs above come, respectively, from Kate Rusby's 2001 and 2003 albums, making them decidedly 21st Century releases. I hope to extricate myself and justify my posting of these songs, however, by making the argument that many of Rusby's songs are traditional sea shanties and are not 'modern' music as such. I do hope this washes! And her voice is just unbeatable within this genre.
This duo of songs look at both sides of the coin - the partner of a sailor as he leaves her to go off to sea, and the sailor himself whilst away from home.
The second of these tracks is anthropomorphic, with sleep as the seductress, beckoning the sailor into her comforting arms. And, therefore, if we look at both songs from the sailor's point of view they are essentially about exactly the same thing - comfort. And the comfort sleep's "arms" provide him when he is not able to be in the arms of his loved one. Poignant and beautiful.
Oh, lovely. Worth stretching the rules for, I think.
ReplyDeleteI thought so too :o)
ReplyDeleteAnd she's FAB live if you ever get the chance!
I've never heard Kate Rusby before - very nice stuff. Thanks for posting this...
ReplyDeleteHi BWR...seriously, you should check her out further...she is amazing! These aren't even (in my opinion) the best of her songs.
ReplyDeleteI posted her track 'Bold Riley' in my last post over at my blog about The Wailin' Jennys, and her song 'My Young Man' will be up in my next post (although there is already a great video for that in the archives of my blog) if you want a couple more samples.