Cannily, Cannily by Ewan MacColl

Album: The Anthology (1960)

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Songfacts®:

This is Ewan MacColl the songwriter at his very best. According to the 2001 publication The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook: Sixty Years Of Songmaking: "Cannily, Cannily" is "a lullaby in the Northumbrian dialect, this beguiling song is sometimes taken for a traditional piece". It was written in the 1950s and is copyright Workers' Music Association, 1960.
Played with the carpo high up the fretboard, this arpeggiated miniature is in 6/4 time although it can also be rendered in 3/4 time.
Although MacColl was born at Salford, Lancashire, and never lived in Northumbria, this is a song written from his usual working-class perspective rather than simply a dialect song, but devoid of the inherent nastiness that permeates so many of his political songs. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 3

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