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Halt the Wagons

from Philosophers, Poets and Kings by Kate Rusby

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    This 17th studio album from Kate seamlessly blends old and new across 12-tracks of traditional folk, covers and self-penned songs.The album is a deeply personal collection which pays homage to her family and musical heritage, and home life in Yorkshire. With Philosophers, Poets & Kings, Kate raises a toast to her parents. She recalls an upbringing filled with music; whether recording songs performed during wine-fuelled family singalongs or her formative years spent watching festival performances by famed musicians.

    1 Jenny
    2 Bogey's Bonnie Belle
    3 Philosophers, Poets and Kings
    4 Until Morning
    5 Crazy Man Michael
    6 Don't Go Away
    7 The Squire and the Parson
    8 The Wanderer
    9 Farmer's Toast
    10 As the Lights Go Out
    11 Jenny (Ordinary Remix) bonus track CD only
    12 Halt the Wagons

    Includes unlimited streaming of Philosophers, Poets and Kings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
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about

H A L T T H E W A G O N S
words & music K.Rusby PRS/MCPS

July 4th 2018, saw the 180th anniversary of the Huskar Pit disaster, where 26 children working in the mine lost their lives when a freak storm flooded the steam engine, called The Black Horse, which pulled the cage and coal up and down the mine shaft.

The children panicked, and ran to a different part of the mine, which then flooded when the stream burst its banks, they were trapped. 15 boys, 11 girls aged 7-17 years old, were drowned. They were found with arms around each other for comfort. The children were brought back to the village of Silkstone on carts.

The tragedy came to the attention of Queen Victoria and led to a Royal Commission and a law prohibiting women and children under 10 working underground.

I was asked by Sylvia Le Breton, who I’ve known since childhood, to write a song to commemorate the disaster, it was an honour.

Here we are joined by 26 members of Barnsley Youth Choir, 15 boys and 11 girls, their ages 7-17. Together we went underground at The National Coal Mining Museum Of England to film and record the children singing on the song. They were brilliant.

I wanted people to see and hear 26 children, to understand what a huge effect the terrible tragedy had on the small village of Silkstone (just up the road from me).

Most of all I wanted to give a voice to those children and their mothers. One in particular, Joey Birkinshaw was 7 and just started in the pit

lyrics

Stop now, halt the wagons,
It’s too much for me to bear,
To see my baby sleeping,
In the cart laying there,
Oh take me Lord and keep me,
Please don’t leave me here,
For I cannot keep breathing,
He was all I held dear.

Chorus
Hush now, don’t cry
As you hear my lullaby
Hush now don’t cry
As you hear my lullaby.

From the Black Horse there was silence,
As the storm raged up above,
So desperate was the tempest,
To steal the one I love,
Oh nature sick with vengeance,
As we carve up her tongue,
Tiny arms around each other,
Her work here done
.
Chorus

Children are the future,
Children are a gift,
But these are children of the darkness,
With a twelve-hour shift,
So take him Lord, be gentle,
With his tired, weary bones,
Now I’m a mother of the darkness,
For he’ll never come home.

We do not mine for riches,
We do no mine from love,
But merely to keep the food
on our tables above,
So I’ll dry up my tears now,
Keep his soul in my heart....
And call up the wagons,
So the next shift can start.

Chorus

Please hear my lullaby.

credits

from Philosophers, Poets and Kings, released May 17, 2015
Vocals
Kate Rusby

Guest vocals
Barnsley Youth Choir

Electric Tenor Guitars
Damien O’Kane

Double bass & Moog
Duncan Lyall

Cornet
Gary Wyatt

Flugelhorn
Rich Evans

French Horn
Sam Pearce

Euphonium
Robin Taylor

Tuba
Mike Levis

license

all rights reserved

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about

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Kate Rusby England, UK

Forever proud to call herself a folk singer, Kate celebrates her own 50 yrs with her 'Established 1973' tours.

2022 marked 30 yrs as a professional musician with the album 30:Happy Returns

Hand Me Down (2020) was her highest-charting album.

Named in the Top 10 Folk Voices of the Century and a Mercury Prize in 1999

Yorkshire roots the carols in her Christmas tour. ... more

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