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Gettin' a Rise

from Tunnellers by Nancy Kerr

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about

This shanty/slightly raucous playground rhyme draws on miners’ accounts of the great physical demands made upon them in the construction of the Dartford Tunnel – as well as their camaraderie.

It is based on the old hop-picking song Hopping Down in Kent (Roud 1715) which I (the descendent of economic migrants to Kent) learned as a child, from my mother Sandra:

"Some say hopping’s lousy, I don’t believe it’s true
I think I’ll go down hopping and earn a bob or two
With a tee i ay, tee i o, tee i ee i o"

Hopping Down in Kent was sung by Mary Ann Haynes and collected by Mike Yates in 1975. It was released in 1979 on the Topic anthology Travellers: Songs, Stories and Tunes from English Gypsies and in 2003 on the Musical Traditions anthology Here's Luck to a Man: Gypsy Songs and Music from South-East England.

mainlynorfolk.info/guvnor/songs/hoppingdowninkent.html

lyrics

As I was going to Dartford all on a winter’s day
Those lads of Kent were downward sent
With the pilot underway
And we were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o
We were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o

Well we were feeling jammy
Gone down to 8-hour shifts
Then the foreman cries
You’ll be gettin’ a rise
Every time you take the lift!
We were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o
We were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o

The craic was up to ninety
But the foreman’s face was drear
“There’s industry in the old country
But beggar-all happening here!”
We were getting’ a rise, getting’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o
We were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o

And it’s oh the cruel compressor
And oh the miners’ moans
And oh the shock of the medical lock
When the wind gets in your bones
But we were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o
We were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o

Well love can move a mountain
But we could shift the moon
We could shovel to hell
Then sleep so well
That we wouldn’t wake up till noon
We were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o
We were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o

Well some say digging’s lousy
But miners know it’s grand
When you’re down the hole you’ll bless the soul
Of a Dartford tunnelling man
We were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o
We were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise
With a tee i ee i o

Words and music © Nancy Kerr 2021

credits

from Tunnellers, released April 15, 2021
Nancy Kerr: Voice
James Fagan, Matt Quinn: Voices
Tom A Wright: Drums, Voice.

Engineered and produced by Tom A Wright at Powered Flight Music, Sheffield

Photography: James Fagan

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Nancy Kerr Sheffield, UK

Folk Singer of the Year BBC Folk Awards 2015

"Outstanding chamber folk" (The Guardian) "Folk's Poet Laureate" (FRUK) "One of the UK’s foremost composers of modern folk and social commentary songs” (Royal Shakespeare Company).

Photo credits: James Fagan, Elly Lucas
Album design: Lizzy Doe ... more

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