VARIOUS ARTISTS – Mo Ogg – The Bard Of Coleby (Folk Round ‘Ere SCM1043)

Maurice Charles (Mo) Ogg was a joiner, musician, song-writer and song collector in and around north Lincolnshire. He died tragically young at the age of 34 but by which time his fame had spread and Alistair Anderson wrote ‘Air For Maurice Ogg’ in his memory. Fellow Lincolnshire man Martin Simpson recorded a beautiful version of it but piper Andrew Park has the honour of closing Mo Ogg – The Bard Of Coleby. Incidentally, this soubriquet was bestowed on Maurice by Roy Palmer.

The album was put together by Scunthorpe community group Folk Round ‘Ere, a band of singers and musicians who are the mainstay of the folk scene in the area. They are probably not well-known outside north Lincolnshire; in fact the only name I recognise is that of a chap I was at school with over fifty years ago. He sings ‘Oats And Beans’ should you wish to identify him.

Most of the titles are traditional. Some, like ‘All For Me Grub’, ‘The Ploughman’s Song’ and ‘Mary Had A Ploughboy’ are variants of other songs, a couple come from the music halls and one, ‘Sludger Tom’, was written by Mo himself, a cautionary tale which also serves as a primer for the north Lincolnshire dialect. Mo also performed on melodeon and penny whistle and this aspect of his work is represented by ‘Lincolnshire Medley Of Tunes’ and the mournful air, ‘Roslin Castle’.

There are twenty-two songs and tunes on Mo Ogg – The Bard Of Coleby, plus four extended introductions by Mo himself. The album is fundamentally honest which is great and one of the things that I like about it. There is no tidying up or tarting up, and no-one succumbed to the temptation to invite Martin Simpson along to add a bit of extra gloss although it would have been perfectly legitimate to do so. I must admit, though, that I thought I’d heard the last of ‘Granny’s Old Armchair’ on Children’s Favourites back in the 1960s. It seems that it was one of Mo’s party pieces so who am I to complain?

Dai Jeffries

Artists’ website: https://www.facebook.com/Folkroundere/?locale=en_GB

‘The Air For Maurice Ogg’:

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