Here I Am Amongst You is among the latest in a spate of books focusing on an individual singer and musician and his repertoire (cf. Abrahams 1970, Morton 1973, Gower and Porter 1995, McMorland 2006). Unlike the aforementioned works, this book focuses on songs, tunes, and traditions--including Christmas mumming and hurling. Tantalizing questions are, however, suggested in the brief biographical sketch and in the notes and commentaries to the songs (see below). This book, which contains eighty songs, fifty-three fiddle tunes, and descriptions of Christmas mumming and hurling, constitutes a loving tribute to a master singer and musician by a devoted protégé. It also adds to the body of folksong first documented by Sam Henry (Herrmann and Huntington 1990) and suggests remarkable continuity in the tradition.

The short introductory chapter (11–20) describes Graham’s and Holmes’ first encounter and gives a thumbnail sketch of Holmes’ life. Joe Holmes was born into a musical family in Killyramer, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland, in 1906. His mother, Jane Getty, was a fine traditional singer, from whom he acquired much of his repertoire. Both his grandfather and his older brother Harry were fiddlers, and it was Harry who gave the twelve-year-old Joe his first fiddle. In addition, the family home was a "ceili house" where "fireside philosophers, rustic bards, storytellers, songsters, balladeers, traditional musicians, and dancers" regularly gathered (15). In a rich environment that included ceiliing and barn-dancing, Joe Holmes encountered many fine singers, some of whom had been Sam Henry’s informants in the 1920s and ’30s. Unfortunately, when a schoolteacher told Joe that he was tone-deaf and couldn’t sing, Joe ceased singing until he met Len Graham in 1963, choosing, instead, to concentrate his public performance on fiddling.

Nonetheless, Joe continued to seek out and soak up songs at every opportunity—on the job or in his travels. In his first job at age fourteen, as a carrier of a red flag in front of a steam roller, he encountered a fair number of singers and musicians as he traveled from town to town. Encounters with singers and musicians continued during his employment at the Milltown Flax Mill in Ballymoney. His purchase of a motorcycle in the 1930s enabled him to travel farther afield to attend musical events.

Joe Holmes met Len Graham in 1963 at a meeting of the Antrim and Derry Fiddlers’ Association. Graham’s performance of "The Murlough Shore" sparked Holmes’ memory of that song, which he had learned from his grandmother. Graham delivered the words of the song to Joe at his house, and thus began a friendship and collaboration that would last until Holmes’ death in 1978.

Holmes blossomed as a singer, and he and Graham recorded two albums of unison singing, which is commonly found in the North of Ireland. In addition, his travels through Ulster and Ireland at large with Graham gave him the opportunity to interact and exchange songs, both with traditional singers and singers and musicians prominent in the Folksong Revival: among the latter were Christy Moore and The Chieftains. Some of these encounters are described in the song notes.

The eighty songs that comprise the bulk of the book (23-228) are presented in alphabetical order, using Holmes’ titles, thus making quick comparative look-ups difficult. Both words and music are transcribed, but only the bare bones of the tunes are given, with no guidance with regard to tempo or nuances of Holmes’ singing style. Some statement, on the part of the music editors with regard to transcription practice, or some treatment of Holmes’ performance style would have been helpful to those either unfamiliar with Holmes’ singing, or with regional performance styles.

The notes to the songs are meticulously researched but are occasionally whimsical and quirky. The thorough research is demonstrated in Graham’s citations of published song collections and of broadsides found all over the English-speaking world. Indeed, the entire book is well-spiced with photographs, with woodcuts, and with facsimiles of broadsheets.

The occasionally whimsical notes are fun to read and portray Joe and his friends colorfully indeed. One example of this colorful detail is found in the note to "The Beggarman" (34). Joe learned the song from a workmate in the Milltown Flax Mill in Ballymoney: "Joe said this was a hard-earned song as Jimmy was fond of his pint of porter and pickled eggs. Jimmy scutched in the berth in front of Joe, and, particularly on a Monday morning, Joe said you would have needed a gas-mask to withstand the smell." A sometimes stream-of-consciousness style of writing, while amusing, sometimes detracts from a concise presentation. An example of the free-association in the notes is found in the commentary to "Bonny Brown Jane" (36–37). Here Len Graham describes visiting a musician and tinsmith, Mickey Doherty, who also had that song, and then recounts a story of Mickey’s being chased to a remote cottage by a rampaging bull as Doherty plays the tune, "The Yellow Heifer." As the bull crashes into the house door, Mickey says, "It’s a good job he was a musical bull."

The book is mainly a book of songs and tunes, so that questions that a scholar might ask remain unanswered. For example, what were the criteria for inclusion? Does the proportion of local songs to music-hall pieces to Child ballads represent accurately the proportion of each song type in Joe’s repertoire? Did Joe have any particular song genres which he preferred, and were there songs that were especially meaningful to him? As Joe, an emergent singer, came into contact with singers from beyond his locale, were there discernible influences on his song choices, and, indeed, on the performances of specific songs? Sandy Ives (1988) provides a fine model for such inquiry.

To sum up, Here I Am Amongst You is a beautifully crafted tribute to a master singer and musician, and its ample notes and illustrations add to the body of work on Ulster song. Treatment of some of the questions raised by this reviewer may need to wait for future publications.

WORKS CITED

Abrahams, Roger D. 1970. A Singer and Her Songs: Almeda Riddle’s Book of Ballads. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

Gower, Hershel, and James Porter. 1995. Jeannie Robertson: Emergent Singer, Transformative Voice. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.

Herrmann, Lani, and Gale Huntington, eds. 1990. Sam Henry’s Songs of the People. Athens: University of Georgia Press.

Ives, Edward D. 1988. "Oral and Written Tradition: A Microview from Miramichi,” Acadiensis 18:148–56.

McMorland, Alison. 2006. Herder Laddie o’ The Glen. Selkirk: Scottish Borders Council.

Morton, Robin. 1973. Come Day, Go Day, God Send Sunday: The Songs and Life Story, Told in His Own Words, of John Maguire, Traditional Singer and Farmer from County Fermanagh. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

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[Review length: 1117 words • Review posted on March 9, 2011]