Transports, The

Bellamy, Peter

album cover

An Opera of Folk Songs

This 1977 "opera" aligns with the topical and historical songwriting that became fashionable during the folk revival of the early 1960s. At that time, Scottish poet Ewan MacColl and others developed extended story-songs that often held a novel's worth of detail—one, MacColl's 1965 The Ballad of John Axon, told about a railroad man who dies trying to stop his runaway train. British singer and songwriter Peter Bellamy (1944–1991) was deeply influenced by this style; his discography includes five albums devoted to the poetry of Rudyard Kipling as well as The Transports, one of the hidden beauties of traditional folk.

The Transports uses period instruments and British ballad forms to tell the sad but true tale of Henry Cabell and Susannah Holmes. Convicted under British law of larceny, they were part of the "First Fleet" of criminals transported by boat to Australia in the eighteenth century. Bellamy starts by setting the scene in England, with songs that describe the socioeconomic forces that vex lower-class citizens ("Us Poor Fellows"). In the manner of opera, the songs are all sung "in character," with each of the principals played by a well-known folk singer (June Tabor, A. L. Lloyd, Martin Carthy, Mike and Norma Waterson, among others). Bellamy often wrote new lyrics for traditional songs, transforming sea chanteys into sprawling songs about the hardship of the voyage and human misery in general. These are sung with a hearty pub-going zest, by people who obviously enjoy playing a role (the work has been presented theatrically several different times in London). The participants also seem to enjoy Bellamy's wry lyrics, which are studded with fascinating historical perspective and a strong empathy for those being transported. Though it's purely pleasurable from start to finish, The Transports is so loaded with detail it's hard to avoid learning something as it unfolds.

Genre: Folk
Released: 1977, Topic (Reissued 1997, Free Reed)
Key Tracks: "Us Poor Fellows," "The Black and Bitter Night," "The Robber's Song," "The Green Fields of England."
Buyer Beware: The "Silver Edition" box offers the original recording plus a 1997 "re-creation" by contemporary artists, which is not nearly as engrossing.
Next Stop: Ewan MacColl: The Ballad of John Axon
After That: Oysterband: Holy Bandits
Book Pages: 73–74

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About 1,000 Recordings

Celebrate the joy, the revelation, the mystery, the fun, the sheer shivers-up-the-spine pleasure of great music.

Essential operas. Milestone rock albums. An education in the blues. The world of world. Classical from Bach to Bartók to Beethoven to Brahms. And dozens of unexpected gems, surprising discoveries, and long-lost masterpieces.

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