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Track List
"The Whole Hog" was our 2nd studio recording, produced on cassette in 1994 and digitally remastered in 2001 with enhanced accompaniments
1. The Miner (Trad arranged)
2. Sussex Downs (Rana Hurst, arranged Pig's Ear)
3. Turpin Hero (Trad arranged)
4. The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily (Hamish Henderson/Robert Jameson)
5. The 23rd February (Trad arranged)
6. Leaving on the Tide (Sue Rule)
7. Hills of Connemara/The Long Room at Scarborough (Trad arranged)
8. Welcome Cold November (Pete & Chris Coe)
9. The Weaver's Dance (Sue Rule)
10. Sausages (Keith Rule)
11. A Drink for Each Song (Keith Rule)
12. Slip Jigs and Reels (Steve Tilson, arranged Pig's Ear)
13. Black Crow (Deirdre Shepherd)
14. Finnegan's Wake (Trad arranged)
15. The Painful Plough (Trad arranged)
16. Old Fid (Bill Lowndes)
17. Last Valentine's Day (Trad arranged)
18. The Peddler (Sarah Davies, arranged Pig's Ear)
Sleeve Notes
Surprising as it may seem, Pig’s Ear has been entertaining audiences in folk clubs, pubs and at festivals around Kent, Surrey and Sussex since before 1987.
The Whole Hog was our second studio album, originally released on cassette in 1994. It built on our recorded repertoire, incorporating material written by Sue and Keith, and our arrangements of traditional songs and those by other contemporary writers. These tracks continue to be some of our favourites, so they often turn up in Pig’s Ear sets. We hope you will enjoy this re-mastered and re-released recording on CD.
The 2001 re-mastered tracks contain new contributions from our wind section, Lyndsey. We hope you agree her accompaniments on recorders, flute, oboe and vocals greatly enhance the original arrangements.
The first track is a stomping rendition of The Miner, a traditional song we first learnt in the 1970’s – when there were still a few miners about! The first time we heard Rana Hurst sing Sussex Downs, we were determined to devise our own arrangement of a song that captures perfectly the serenity of those rolling hills. Turpin Hero, a dubious tale of highwayman Dick conning a naïve judicial gent into betraying the whereabouts of his gold, is one of the original arrangements that featured a 12 year old Lyndsey on recorder. The 51st Highland Division’s Farewell To Sicily is a wistful ballad of tired soldiers preparing to return home after WW2 – words by Hamish Henderson, tune by Pipe Major Robert Jameson. The 23rd Of February we learnt from a raffle prize LP (remember those?) three decades ago. It is the true-ish story of Captain Kempthorne aboard the ‘Mary Rose’ winning against all odds in 1669. So the men boarded the ship and the women watched husbands and lovers Leaving On The Tide. Next, it’s off to The Hills Of Connemara for a sup of poteen with those naughty excise men. The tune to the mid-section is The Long Room At Scarborough. Pete & Chris Coe’s Welcome Cold November is an evocative song to stir memories of childhood autumns, though residents of Edenbridge, Lewes, etc. may dispute the complaint that the 5th November is not celebrated today! May is more the time of year for The Weaver’s Dance, which Sue wrote after watching her daughters maypole dancing. We have three generations of the family Rule singing this chorus! (Thanks to Grandpa and the ‘Piglets’, Lyndsey and Helen). Keith’s song Sausages is a poignant lament, and if you don’t take it seriously he will be very cross! Incidentally, for the young or forgetful, ‘Bangers and Mash’ was an old hit record by Peter Sellers and Sofia Loren.
A Drink For Each Song is Keith’s ‘ultimate chorus song’. The lyrics were written with a local singaround venue in mind, shortly after reading Bob Copper’s ‘A Song for Every Season’. It was a photo of the old American frontier that inspired Steve Tilson’s Slip Jigs And Reels, a story of the rise and fall of an Irish immigrant who lived by the gun. Mixing with the wrong sort also proved the heroine’s undoing in our eerie tale, Black Crow, written by Deirdre Shepherd and learnt from the singing of Don Shepherd. Speaking of the supernatural, a dead man comes back to life in Finnegan’s Wake – but he was probably only dead drunk to begin with! It’s back to hard toil for The Painful Plough, a traditional song collected by Cecil Sharpe, in praise of the humble ploughman. Without him, it reminds us, we would have no ‘rice pudding and peas’ to feed our ‘jolly sailors’ – one of whom is perhaps Bill Lowndes’ retired mariner, Old Fid. For anyone interested, a 'fid' is a wooden spike used in rope-work aboard ship… and a 'pig's ear' is the shape made by the end of a neatly furled sail on a square-rigged ship… although that's not the origin of our name!
Sailors are famous for their tales of the ladies, but the huntsmen who were afield Last Valentine’s Day obviously had other priorities. Some of us have reservations about hunting with hounds, but this is a fine rousing song which seems to end up with the huntsmen falling off their horses and repairing to the pub… leaving Reynard alive and free – the way we prefer him. And rambling free is our final character The Peddler. This is the song Keith carries his bongos around for… and it also features Lyndsey playing the oboe, a somewhat unusual folk combination, perhaps. The lyrics and tune are by Sarah Davies. We thought it a good choice with which to bid our farewells and ‘be on our way’. We’ll see you somewhere soon. Cheers!
Copyright 2002-2005 PG Rule. All rights reserved.