Cara Dillon Trivia

1. The opening track has the title "Black is the Colour". But what is black the colour of?

From Quiz The Titular Cara Dillon

Answer: Hair

A simple question, answered by the opening line of the song. "Black is the colour of my true love's hair". The singer is longing for the day, which may never come, that he can be with his love. A short love song from the large collection of songs that is referred to as "traditional". This version is set in Scotland, as evidenced by the last verse; "Off to Clyde for a weep and mourn, dissatisfied, I never can sleep. I'll write to you in a few short lines, I'd suffer death, ten thousand times."

From Quiz Cara Dillon Wanders Over the Waters

Answer: Lough Neagh

A song of an exile, yearning for the lands of home. All the verses end with the same pair of lines; "Where Bann and black water Sweep down to Lough Neagh" Lough Neagh is in Northern Ireland and is the largest lake in the UK. The two principal rivers flowing in are the Rivers Bann and Blackwater. Although the song is listed as "trad" sources indicate it might have been written by Nailly Coney of Killygonland in Northern Ireland, from whom the first record of the song comes.

From Quiz The Titular Cara Dillon

Answer: Mount Ider

Donald has been absent from Glencoe for 10 years, he returns. He starts by idly wandering around the fountain in Glencoe to the slopes of Mount Ider. There he meets a woman who has a ribbon and tartan around her. "And on her who the prize on Mount Ider was won. Then approached me a lassy as bright as the sun" This turns out to be his sweetheart, Flora, who he last saw a decade previously. There are a multitude of songs like this. Man goes away to serve in the army or navy (not "The Army and Navy", because that's a shop). Returns after several years and isn't recognised by his sweetheart until he produces a "true love token" or some such. Sometimes the man has disguised himself and is trying to see if his love is true to him. If she really doesn't recognise him then he could be anyone who has acquired the token. Versions of this song also go by titles such as "A Fair Maid Walking", "The Broken Token" and "The Plains of Waterloo". The idea of a broken lovers' token, also forms the central idea of the musical "Half A Sixpence", the token being the broken coin. Another take on this is the Richard Thompson song "Woods of Darney", where a soldier finds a woman's picture in the pocket of a dead comrade, likes what he sees, then seeks the woman out and marries her himself.

From Quiz The Titular Cara Dillon

Answer: America

The plot of this song is the male being off to make his fortune by buying a plantation in America, or as the lyrics have it, America-y. His lover wants to come with him whereas he thinks she should wait until he has made his money, at which point: "We'll be happy as Queen Victoria, all in her greatest glory We'll be drinking wine and porter, all in America-y" Craigie Hill, in this rendition anyway is somewhere in Ireland. The song also mentions the banks of the Bann, which is a river in Northern Ireland and Doorin Shore which is found in Eire.

From Quiz The Titular Cara Dillon

Answer: Jamie & Mary

As indicated in the question, this is a song of lovers parting. The first verse includes the lines: "I am loath to part from my friends and comrades And my dear sweetheart, who I love dear" However, he can't be that loath as by the end of the verse he is resolved to "try my fortune in Americay". In the second verse he is busy saying goodbye, but the third is the lady's response. Here is where the man's identity is given. "Oh Jamie dear, do you remember When I sat with you for manys the hour" She carries on telling him her worries that she will be forgotten. The next verse is Jamie's reply, which I think a bit ambiguous. "Oh Mary dear, I don't disemble For to all the other maids I'll prove untrue" Which suggests he will woo them first then prove untrue to them. He could just reassure Mary he will be true to her. These two verses give the names Jamie and Mary. Of the other options, Shane and Dixie they were two-bit crooks, at least according to the Richard Thompson song. Fire and Ice is a Steeleye Span song from the album Wintersmith. The final option Thomas and Eleanor is taken from the names in the traditional song "Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor".

From Quiz Cara Dillon Wanders Over the Waters

Answer: Foyle

This song was written by Cara Dillon and her husband Sam Lakeman. Coincidentally, the only other song they wrote for this album is also about leaving one's homeland. This song is described in some places as being about emigration, something that Ireland has been associated with for a long time. As well as many traditional ones, here are more recent examples in the folk world. As examples consider Show of Hands' song "Suntrap", Ralph McTell's "The Setting" and several by Eric Bogel, himself an emigrant from Scotland to Australia.

From Quiz Cara Dillon Wanders Over the Waters

Answer: Derry

Another song of parted lovers, but for a change it is the female of the couple who must leave. The song is of her yearning to return to her beloved in Derry, on the banks of the Foyle. The penultimate verse gives all of the information required: "But a wee bird came flying from over the sea And he brought me a letter from my true love to see Saying "Come home, my darling, to your native soil And I'll wed you in lovely Derry on the banks of the Foyle" Ireland being what it is, with political wrangling over the name of a city being Derry or Londonderry I feel it is right to point out that this song is also sung with the words "lovely Derry" replaced by "Londonderry" throughout. I have settled for the words used in this specific recording.

From Quiz The Titular Cara Dillon

Answer: Samuel Ferguson

Sir Samuel Ferguson was a nineteenth century poet and lawyer. Many of his poems (although not this one) were inspired by Irish mythology. The song (and the poem) are of happiness, a woman awaiting her returning lover who is due back the next day. The final couplet of the song: "It is this that gives my soul all its joyous elation As I hear the sweet lark sing In the clear air of the day" Of the other options, Shane MacGowan was a singer with The Pogues and Ronnie Drew performed the same role for The Dubliners. Oscar Wilde hopefully needs no introduction.

From Quiz Cara Dillon Wanders Over the Waters

Answer: She died in grief

A typical example of a maid losing her true love. He is a sailor goes off to sea. The woman goes off to find him, but he has been drowned. In despair she kills herself. Leading to the last verse: "Oh father, father, dig me a grave Go dig it long and go dig it wide Place marble stone at my head and feet That the world may know that I died in grief" This is also a good example of how folk songs mutate, not just in their contents but in their titles. The lyrics appear to be similar to those in the version sung by Sandy Denny with the title "A Sailor's Life", the verses match "Willie the Bold Sailor Boy" as sung by Norma Waterson. But the first verse of the version recorded here seems closer to that of "Sweet William" as recorded by Mike Waterson. These lyrics of these versions are all as found on the "Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music" website. The second verse where the lady asks her father to build her a boat, is common to all of these, and others.

From Quiz The Titular Cara Dillon

Answer: Madness

All plausible answers and probably in songs somewhere but the answer here is: "The world is full of madness and I find it hard to smile". My interpretation of the song is that it is about the tranquillity of nature. The calming influence of flowing water, in this case the Blue Mountain River. This song was written by Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman. I don't know if there is a particular river that inspired this track, certainly there doesn't appear to be a river of this name in either Northern Ireland or the west of England.

From Quiz Cara Dillon Wanders Over the Waters

Answer: Bridge of Drumahoe

This is another traditional song which has been arranged by Sam Lakeman and Cara Dillon. The answer is found at the start of the second verse "Well it's about three miles from Derry to the bridge of Drumahoe". We are continuing with the theme of parting here. In this song, the singer is reminiscing about their homeland, along the River Faughan. However, they are also contemplating emigration, "I have a notion of going to Ameri-cay". Looking at the map, in Drumahoe there is a bridge over the River Faughan which is about three miles from the centre of Derry. The bus stop adjacent to the bridge is called "Three Miles". From here the River Faughan runs parallel to the River Foyle until it empties into the estuary of the latter, which is also known as Lough Foyle.

From Quiz The Titular Cara Dillon

Answer: London

The song opens with the line "Leaving sweet lovely Derry for fair London town". I think there is some poetic license at this part. This song is set during the Irish emigrations of the nineteenth century, when London was big, rich and dirty. The young man sees his love, the maid of the title, as she "sailed down Loch Foyle and away from Culmore". He must subsequently have been a bit geographically disorientated, as he then decides to go to "the back parts of America" and search for his love there; "And if I don't find her I'll return home no more". If she went no further than London I fear his searching was all in vian.

From Quiz Cara Dillon Wanders Over the Waters

Answer: Juno

The song itself is the story of an immigrant to Ireland, "When first to this country a stranger I came", who meets the woman of his dreams. But the relationship is prevented by her parents because he is poor, "Because she is rich and above my degree". According to the song, "She appeared like great Juno the fair Grecian queen". This is problematic, as Juno was the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Hera. Uni was the Etruscan equivalent of these. Freya was either a Norse goddess or an elderly little dog of my acquaintance, (possibly both). Other versions of this song have a slightly different line, "She appeared like fair Juno or a Grecian queen". The Shirley Collins version goes "like an angel or Egypt's fair queen". Still, this is a song, not a work of historical analysis so it doesn't matter much.

From Quiz The Titular Cara Dillon

Answer: Primroses

The second verse contains the lines; "Picking the lovely primrose. The more she plucked the more she pulled. Until she's got her apron full". But a little later she climbs a hill, "to give a rose unto her love". What a shame her apron is full of primroses. Alas it is all in vain, the last verse reveals her love's response. "How foolish, foolish you must be. To think I loved no one but thee. This world's not made for one alone. I take delight in everyone."

From Quiz Cara Dillon Wanders Over the Waters

Answer: Some on the mountains

The answer to this (and the source of the song's title) are to be found in the chorus: "Some swear the valley is their home Some on the mountains need to roam But in this narrow place in time I watch the lakeside swans go by" The song itself was written by Cara Dillon about the migration crisis of those trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in small boats. Another song inspired by this situation is "Life in a Paper Boat" by Kate Rusby.

From Quiz The Titular Cara Dillon

Answer: Stormy

The first lines of the song set the scene; "As the lonesome scenes of winter in stormy winds do blow. Clouds around the centre inclined to frost and snow." Another song of a relationship not working out. The woman goes to her love and asks when they will be married. His response is that he prefers the single life, oh and by the way he has another sweetheart now, thank you very much. At the end of the song the woman has realised that there are plenty more fish in the sea. The song ends with: "Now my mind is changing that old love for the new This wide and lonesome valley I mean to ramble through' In search of someone handsome that might my fancy fill That world is wide and lonesome, if he don't another will"

From Quiz Cara Dillon Wanders Over the Waters

Answer: Sailing

The song opens with: "Dhubdara, he's a-sailing Far out in the blue ocean" The theme is a woman waiting for her loved one while he is away at sea. Reading between the lines, she must be hoping for his return before the weather changes for the worse. "And the rainclouds move among the islands Far down in Clew Bay" All of the other songs on this album are either traditional and arranged by Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman or written by them. This song was written by Irish composer Shaun Davey. (OK one song, "Both Sides the Tweed", is traditional poem lyrics, arranged by Dick Gaughan then arranged by Cara and Sam.) Dubhdara is an Irish name which means translates as "black oak". The Anglicized version is given as Dudley. Dudley is a town in the English black country. So the circle is completed. As a comparison, Dublin, which in Irish is Dubhlinn translates as Black (for dubh) and lake or pool (for linn) thus Dublin is Blackpool and Blackpool in England is on the other side of the Irish Sea from Dublin. In the north of England and Scotland the term linn is still found in place names, often referring to a waterfall.

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