W. G. Whittaker – Blow the wind southerly (1921)

Blow The Wind Southerly – Reprinted by W. G. Whittaker (1921).

Here is a single track release “Blow The Wind Southerly” a reprint of this beautiful song from the book “North Countrie Ballads, Songs and Pipe Tunes”, edited and arranged by W. G. Whittaker. I reached this position through Stan Hugill, who mentioned the origins of “The Fishes”, in his book, on page 197 of the first edition (1961). Stan Hugill says that this is the original from which the sea shanties of the same title were made.

As we know, this song is undoubtedly a song by Scottish fishermen. The origin is of course much older. Jim Mageean told me that, It’s a Tyneside song from where He lived, the first time this song appeared in print was in The Bishoprick Garland (Cuthbert Sharp 1834), and the Northumbrian Minstrelsy ( Bruce & Stokoe 1887), then in Songs and Ballads of Northern England (John Stokoe 1892).

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to the Blow The Wind Southerly

Frederick J Davis; Ferris Tozer – Sailors’ songs or “chanties” (3rd Edition) – (1906)

Joanna Colcord – Roll And Go – Songs of American Sailormen (1924)

John Sampson – The Seven Seas Shanty Book (1927)

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