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Avalon

by Johnny Campbell

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £7 GBP  or more

     

  • T-Shirt/Apparel

    For this order you will receive the Avalon Raven T-Shirt in your size.
    ships out within 30 days
    edition of 15  1 remaining

      £15 GBP or more 

     

  • For this order you will receive the Avalon Raven Tea Towel.
    High quality two colour screen print.
    ships out within 5 days

      £10 GBP or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    For this order you will receive the digipack album, T-Shirt in your size, Tea Towel and House Concert*.

    *House Concert is for UK, European and USA shows only. ***Please email Johnny at threesheetsbooking@gmail.com for further information BEFORE choosing this Order.***

    Includes unlimited streaming of Avalon via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 90 days

      £250 GBP or more 

     

  • Avalon: Album
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    For this order you will receive the digipack album.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Avalon via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
On the Banks of the Roses me love and I sat down And I took out me fiddle for to play me love a tune And in the middle of the tune-o she smiled and she said oh Johnny, lovely Johnny won't ya leave me When I was a young one I heard me father say That he'd rather see me dead and buried in the clay Sooner than be married to any runaway By the lovely sweet banks of the roses And then I am no runaway and soon I'll let them know That I can take a bottle or can leave it alone And if her daddy doesn't like it he can keep his daughter at home And young Johnny will go rovin' with some other And when I get married t'will be in the month of May When the leaves they are green and the meadows they are gay And me and me true love we'll sit and sport and play By the lovely sweet banks of the roses
2.
Wanderlust 04:03
I've been travelling a long and dusty road Where Woody and other folks did go To earn a dollar or a dime hoping folk are kind Where the outstretched arms of solidarity lie And the ever-changing leaves match the lives we lead Going down this long and dusty road Through backwoods, through city and through town It's there they say that New York wears the crown But the jewels of the East are found in dirty streets Where the gamblers of your soul they do not roam And a gentle lilting breeze dances through the trees In Delaware, Pittsburgh, Newark town My pockets are light and my heart is the same From Massachusetts, Maryland and Maine My pockets are light and my heart is the same Gentle as the wind that sweeps the plain Gentle as the wind that sweeps the plain And one day I'll find that golden track To the ones who keep the demons off my back And in times of misery are a distant memory Where the rivers they run wild and free And a true lover's kiss is purer than this The Whisky that flows through these veins
3.
The Drawbridges are being closed up, logic's left in the cold The rejection of power is liberally exercised just to spite your own A chorus sings as a mantra from the weary and the meek You can hear cries of freedom from those with no voice to speak A solitary voice cries from the mass, a noise that rings loud untrue As I view with peculiar derision down Leaver's Avenue Now the ones who hoard the power throw their their hands in the air Conceding all their knowledge and admittance to the affair The hero leaves his castle spreads his wings to new found lands Inviting those who seek 'freedom' to embrace another crooks plans Though they might fall for this old story, a calculated rouse As I glance with admonition down Leaver's Avenue The horizon now is hazy, the leaves begin to fall Which side am I on now, if even which side at all Truth is left meandering down the rivers of time Cast aside with false prophesies that led to Rome's demise Is unity immunity from the fears we've been sold? Questions that lay unanswered down Leaver's Avenue
4.
I had a first cousin called Arthur McBride He and I took a stroll down by the by the sea side A seeking good fortune and what might be tide 'Twas just as the day was a dawning After resting we both took a tramp We met Sergeant Harper and Corporal Cramp Besides the wee drummer who beat up for camp With his rowdy dow dow in the morning Says he me young fellows if you will enlist A guinea you quickly have in your fist Likewise the crown for to kick the dust And drink the king's health in the morning From a soldier he leads a very fine life He always is blessed with a charming young wife And he pays all his debts without sorrow or strife And always lives happy and charming Ah now me bold sergeant we are not for sale We'll make no such bargain, your bribe won't avail We're not tried of our country we don't care to sail Although that your offer is charming And if we were such fools as to take the advance This right bloody slander would be our poor chance For the Queen wouldn't scruple to send us to France Where we would be shot with out warning He says me young fellows if I hear but one word I instantly now will out with my sword And into your body as strength will afford So now my gay devils take warning But Arthur and I we took in the odds We gave them no chance for to launch out their swords Our whacking shillelaghs came over their heads And paid them right smart in the morning As for the wee drummer we rifled his pouch And we made a foot- ball of his rowdy dow dow And into the ocean to rock and to roll And bade it a tedious returning As for the old rapier that hung by his side We flung it as far as we could in tide To devil I pitch you sez Arthur McBride To temper your steel in the morning
5.
Showtime 03:52
Let us peel away this curtain of blue, it's not what we're encouraged to do And step into a time where justice ain't no crime It's showtime for drier climes poor boys, It's showtime for drier climes Illusory wealth and immortality, so that's what it's meant 'to be free' Let convenience be a sin when we don't have to win It's showtime for drier climes poor boys, It's showtime for drier climes Curiosity did kill the cat, is that the only thing that holds us back? Let this trepidation drive a force for new sensations It's showtime for drier climes poor boys, It's showtime for drier climes If there's gonna be a better prize, it's staring at us right before our eyes In the air we breathe and reflections in the streams It's showtime for drier climes poor boys, It's showtime for drier climes
6.
It’s hard when folks can’t get their work where they’ve been bred and born When I was young I used to think I’d bide my time ‘mid the roots and the corn But I’ve been forced to flee the town so here’s my litany From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me When I was courting Mary Anne the auld squire he said one day I’ve got no room for wedded folk choose to wed or stay I could not leave the girl I loved so town we had to flee From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me I’ve worked in Leeds and Huddersfield where I’ve addled honest brass In Bradford, Keightley, Rotherham, I’ve kept my bairns and lass I’ve travelled all three ridings round and once I’ve been to sea From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me I’ve been through Sheffield lanes at night ’twere just like being in hell The furnaces thrust out tongues of flame that roared like wind o’er the fell I’ve sammed up coal in Barnsley pit with muck up to my knee From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me I’ve seen grey fog creep o’er Leeds Brig as thick as Bastille soup I’ve been where folks are stowed away like rabbits in a coup I’ve seen snow fall on Bradford Beck as black as ebony From Hull and Halifax and Hell good Lord deliver me But now my children all have flown to the country I’ll go back There’ll be forty miles of heathery moor ‘twixt me and the coal pit slack And oft at night as I sit round the fire I’ll think of the misery From Hull and Halifax and Hell good lord deliver me
7.
Last Year 02:02
Last Year I wandered in the deepest of valleys This year I'll repent all I've done Last year I was dancing to the music of a fiddle This year I swing to seven bells a-ringing Last year I sang with the lark in the morning This year I sang with the devil in the moonlight Take warning by me these words they are plain who knows when does the happiness refrain When it happens to you these lines you'll explain
8.
Of all the trades in England a-beggin' is the best For when a beggar's tired he can lay him down and rest Black patch on me fusty coat there's a black patch on me ee But when it comes to tuppeny ale I can see as well as thee Me britches they are nowt but holes me heart is free of care As long as I've a belly full me backside can go bare Pocket for me oatmeal pocket for me salt And a pair of little crutches that should see how I can bolt I got deaf at Duckinfield and I've got blind at Shaw And many's the reet and willing lass I've bedded in the straw There's a bed for me where'er I like and I don't rent I got no noisy looms to mind and I am reight content I can rest when I am tired and I heed no master's bell But men'd be daft to be a king when beggars live so well
9.
10.
Gonna write you a tear stained letter About the way that things used to be Worlds collide emerge mountain so high Under whisky soaked river and stars in the sky Tilling the fields we gazed upon Harvest came where we should be strong Put to the test I joked and I cried Under whisky soaked river and stars in the sky I'm so lonesome I could cry Sang Hank on the Jukebox he's waiting to die Know the feeling he got as the river ran dry Under whisky soaked river and stars in the sky Write my tale of sorrow and pain Write it true and as cold as the clay Tear it up and write it again and again and again Under whisky soaked river and stars in the sky

about

For this pre-order you will receive the digital album to download once released.

credits

released December 15, 2017

Johnny Campbell: Vocals, Guitar.
Tim Holehouse: E Bow
Efa Supertramp: Backing Vocals
Bethan Prosser: Violin, Viola

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about

Johnny Campbell England, UK

Johnny has performed over 600 shows, toured 22 countries from USA, Mainland & E.Europe, Scandinavia & Nordic countries.

Performing established festivals such as Belladrum Festival & Tradfest Edinburgh & being billed with BBC Folk award nominees & winners in recent years such as Stick In the Wheel, Martin Carthy, Ye Vagabonds, Lankum, Daoiri Farrell, Ewan McLennan, The Men They Couldn't Hang.
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