The Titular Cara Dillon Trivia Quiz

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."

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.

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.

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".

Answer: In red rosy lines

The song is about a couple splitting up and the woman seems to have a problem with this. She still loves him; he has moved on. As the third verse ends: "Though he hates and detests me I love that lad still".

Then we get to the crux of the question in verse four.

I wrote him a letter in red rosy lines
He wrote back an answer all twisted and twined
Saying keep your love letters and I'll keep mine
You write to your love and I'll write to mine.

The title of this song comes from the opening of the first verse. This verse in turn is more commonly the songs chorus. Other versions of this song can be found, in some the name is the same but the plot is very different to the one found here.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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"