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Nancy Whisky / The Calton Weaver / Long Cookstown

[ Roud 883 ; G/D 3:603 ; Henry H745 ; Ballad Index K279 ; Bodleian Roud 883 ; Mudcat 125898 ; trad.]

Katherine Campbell: Songs from North-East Scotland Gale Huntington: Sam Henry's Songs of the People John Ord: Bothy Songs and Ballads Willie Scott: Herd Laddie o' the Glen Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl: The Singing Island

Willie Mitchell of Campbeltown, Argyllshire sang Nancy's Whisky in December 1956 to Hamish Henderson. This recording was included in 2006 on the Kyloe CD Hamish Henderson Collects Volume 2. Mike Yates noted:

This song is perhaps best-known, as The Calton Weaver, through the version that Ewan MacColl often sang. MacColl had learnt it from Hughie Martin, a Glasgow singer and the song has been especially popular in Scotland, although in most of the versions collected by Gavin Greig and James Duncan the song is set in Dublin, which suggests that it may be originally from Ireland (Willie's tune certainly has an Irish feel to it). There are two London broadsides, as Nancy Whisky, from Pitts and Jennings, which date to the early part of the 19^th century. Cecil Sharp found a couple of sets in Somerset and Oxfordshire and George B. Gardiner likewise noted a single text in Hampshire. An Irish set, collected in County Tyrone by Sam Henry, is included in Songs of the People (University of Georgia Press. 1990. p. 47). Stewarton, mentioned in Willie Mitchell's version, is a village found at a junction of the main roads from Southend and Machrihanish to Campbeltown.

Ewan MacColl sang The Calton Weaver in 1958 on his Topic album of industrial ballads, Second Shift. This recording was also included in 1964 on his Topic album Steam Whistle Ballads and in 2003 on his anthology The Definitive Collection. The album's liner notes commented:

The village of Calton no longer exists, having been swallowed up by the City of Glasgow more than half a century ago. Of its once thriving weaving trade, nothing remains but this wry little song. Ewan MacColl learned this version from Hughie Martin of Shettleston, Glasgow, who insisted that MacColl's father had written the tune “because he didna tak' to the ither yin”.

Jimmy MacGregor sang Nancy Whiskey in a recording made by Peter Kennedy at Cecil Sharp House that was published in 1960 on the HMV anthology A Jug of Punch.

The Clancy Brothers with Louis Killen sang Nancy Whiskey live at the Bushnell Auditorium in Hartford, Connecticut on 17 March 1972. This concert was published in the following year on their album Live on St. Patrick's Day.

Andy Irvine sang Longford Weaver in 1980 on his Tara album Rainy Sundays…Windy Dreams.

Scotch Measure sang The Calton Weaver in 1985 on their eponymous Topic album Scotch Measure.

Chris Sherburn and Denny Bartley sang The Longford Weaver on their 1995 CD Last Night's Fun.

Davy Steele sang Calton Weaver on his 1996 CD Chasing Shadows.

Norman Kennedy sang Nancy Whisky at one of two live concerts in Aberdeen in 1996 that were published on 2002 on his Tradition Bearers CD Live in Scotland.

Ellen Mitchell sang The Calton Weaver on her and Kevin Mitchell's 2001 Musical Traditions anthology Have a Drop Mair. Ellen Mitchell and Rod Stradling noted in the accompanying booklet:

Ellen: I learned [this] by osmosis in my growing up. Calton is now a district of Glasgow, whereas at the time of the song it was a village (full of weavers I believe!).

More widely known as Nancy Whisky, this song was printed by both Pitts and Jennings (London) and has been found in the oral tradition throughout these islands, though most frequently in Scotland; Greig-Duncan has 12 examples—but there seem to have been no sound recordings made of the song. It was, perhaps, unexpectedly popular in Bampton, Oxfordshire, where both Shepherd Haden and Jinky Wells sang it, half a century apart.

Battlefield Band sang Nancy's Whisky in 2002 on their CD Time & Tide.

Steve Black sang Nancy's Whisky, a “Kintyre song that Steve learned from Willie Scott who picked it up from Willie Mitchell of Campbeltown during the 1968 Blairgowrie Festival”, at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival, Collessie, Fife in May 2007. This recording was published in the following year on the festival anthology Nick-Knack on the Waa (Old Songs & Bothy Ballads Volume 4).

Alistair Ogilvy sang Calton Weaver on the TMSA Young Trad Tour 2011.

Mark Dunlop sang Long Cookstown in 2015 on Malinky's CD Far Better Days. Their liner notes commented:

This Irish version of the Nancy Whisk(e)y tale is also taken from Sam Henry's Songs of the People. It was published on 5 March 1938 and was submitted by Paddy McGuckin of Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. Until the 1960s, Cookstown was of considerable importance in the Irish linen industry. It is referred to as ‘Long’ Cookstown at it has what is reputed to be the longest Main Street in Ireland. The song also features in the repertoire of Joe Holmes from Mark [Dunlop]'s birthplace of Ballymoney in County Antrim.

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