The Philosophers, Poets and Kings of Kate Rusby Quiz

Answer: Horse

Jenny in this case is a horse, I hesitate to call her a racehorse. But in the song, she wins the race as she has stamina, although initially she is far behind the sprinters. The words are shown as being traditional with the tune written by Kate Rusby.
Songs about race horses, or horses that race, seem to be a common feature in the modern folk world; as examples, Richard Thompson wrote "Both Ends Burning" and Steve Knightley wrote "The Galway Farmer". In common with both of these, Jenny is a horse who is the plucky underdog, or under horse as Kate Rusby describes her.
I can think of several songs about humans called Jenny (or Jennie), possibly a song about a homing pigeon (but not called Jenny). But so far, I have no recollection of a song specifically about Staffordshire Bull Terriers. Although that might change in the future.
Kate does talk about her family quite a lot and at the time of the album's release it is noted in the sleeve notes about her two current 'staffies' Freda and Beebo as well as the late "Doris the Dooge".

Answer: Married to an itinerant tinker

Although I think I have heard versions with all of these happening, in this case although her father rejects her suitor as not being a suitable match. Normally if there is a marriage it is an arranged one to someone far more to the father's liking, but in this telling the daughter ends up being married to someone of a far lower status than the song's narrator. This song is a traditional one arranged by Kate and her husband.
Following on about Kate's love of 'staffies', she notes that when she was young, she had a Staffordshire Bull Terrier called Belle who was named after this song.

Answer: Diogenes

All of these philosophers (and Plato) have a verse to themselves although in all cases connected to good wine. The second half of the chorus gives the song and album's title, "If it wasn't for wine we couldn't sing. Of Philosophers, poets and kings." [Capitalisation as per the lyrics in the booklet accompanying the album.]
The general theme of each verse is that it was only good wine that enabled the philosopher to be so profound. Without, they were nothing.
The concept of truth being found in wine appears in the sayings from many cultures, mostly implying that under the influence of alcohol people fail to suppress their true views and say what they intended to keep secret.

Answer: Fly

Conveniently rhyming with "drifting by", the second line is "And tomorrow you can fly". Another song from the pen of Kate Rusby, and another common theme in song writing generally of comforting people in their deepest depths of despair.

Answer: Ray Davies

Although Kate writes much of her material, she also sings traditional songs. A lot of these are arranged by Kate and her husband, (at the time of writing, who knows in the future), Damien O'Kane, a fine musician in his own right.
The track "Crazy Man Michael" is by Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick, and the Noel Gallagher song "Don't Go Away" also appears on this album.
She has recorded a Ray Davies song, "The Village Green Preservation Society" which appears as a track on her album "Awkward Annie".

Answer: Mining

The Huskar Pit disaster of 1838 resulted in the deaths of 26 children. One of the results of this was the Mines Act of 1842 prohibiting children under ten working underground in mines.
The words and music of this song are by Kate Rusby and it is written from the perspective of a mother of one of the children killed in the tragedy.
The phrase "halt the wagons" is a reference to stopping the wagons taking the children to the grave so a mother can look once more at her dead child.

Answer: Parson

The song is titled, "The Squire and the Parson". In the story, even the next day the two heroes are proud of how they threw so many punches and chased the highwayman off. All the while the household staff are sniggering having heard the accurate version from the coachman, who, sitting on top of the coach, had seen the true version of events.

Answer: The wide world over

According to the notes with the album, this song was inspired by the walking of a gentleman with Alzheimer's, whose remaining pleasures include walking around his local village. Being a small village people know him and look out for him.

The song's refrain and the last line of each verse is "I'll walk the wide world over".
The wrong answers refer to a nursery rhyme (round and round the garden), the writings of J R R Tolkien ("There and back again" being the subtitle of "The Hobbit") and a song and album by Show of Hands ("The Long Way Home").

Answer: Lark

The relevant line of the chorus is "And the lark is my daily alarmer". The message of the song is the farmer content as he can provide for all of his needs, and that without the farmer the rest of us would surely starve.
Another traditional song arranged by Kate and her husband.

Answer: Stars

Writing this quiz as I am in a Corvid-19 lockdown, an upbeat song like this is a nice way to end. The song is written by Kate Rusby and the relevant phrase, repeated at points in the song is "Tonight the stars are yours and mine".