Tabor's earliest public performances were at the Heart of England Folk Club (at the Fox and Vivian pub) in Leamington Spa in the mid 1960s. In the late 1960s an appearance at the Sidmouth Folk Festival led to folk club bookings and she contributed to various records. One of her earliest recordings was in 1972 on an anthology called Stagfolk Live. She also featured on Rosie Hardman's Firebird (1972) and The First Folk Review Record (1974). At the time she was singing purely traditional unaccompanied material but in 1976 she collaborated with Maddy Prior on the Silly Sisters album and tour, with a full band that included Nic Jones. It provided the launching pad that same year (1976) for her first album in her own right, Airs and Graces. She later joined again with Prior, this time using the name Silly Sisters for their duo. Starting in 1977 Martin Simpson joined her in the recording studio for three albums before he moved to America in 1987. (Simpson has returned from America to be a guest guitarist on albums in the 2000s.) After his departure, she started working closely with pianist Huw Warren.
In 1990, Tabor recorded an album with the folk-rock band OysterBand entitled Freedom and Rain. She went on tour with OysterBand, and the Rykodisc label published a limited-run promotional live album the following year. Many of her current fans first discovered her through this tour and album with the OysterBand. In 1992 Elvis Costello wrote "All This Useless Beauty" specifically for Tabor, and she recorded it on Angel Tiger.
Since then her solo albums have included:
A Quiet Eye (1999)
Rosa Mundi (2001)
An Echo of Hooves (2003)
At the Wood's Heart (2005)
Apples (2007)
Ashore (2011)
Ragged Kingdom is a 2011 album by June Tabor & Oysterband.
Since 2006, Tabor has also been working with Huw Warren and Iain Ballamy as Quercus.
Website: www.junetabor.co.uk
Apples and Potatoes
June Tabor Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
He was digging up potatoes on the turnpike road
The road it was so hard and he couldn′t get 'em up
And away ran the devil with his tail cocked up
Dee dai diddle dai, etc., etc
Yonder come the devil with his pitchfork and shovel
The road it was so hard, he couldn′t get 'em up
And away ran the devil with his tail cocked up
Dee dai diddle dai, etc., etc
Who's that a-climbing up my old apple tree?
Bridget, my darling, I′m longing to see
I′m not stealing apples, oh, I can explain
The wind bloweth high and knocked 'em down
So I′m putting 'em back again
The lyrics to June Tabor's song "Apples and Potatoes" draw upon the imagery of folklore and the supernatural, painting a picture of the devil himself digging up potatoes along a difficult road. The opening lines present the devil as a common laborer, ostensibly performing the mundane task of digging up potatoes. However, the image is subverted by the devil's inability to complete the task due to the hardness of the road, a difficulty that seems disproportionate to the supernatural powers he possesses. As a result, the devil runs away with his tail between his legs, mocking his own lack of success.
The narrative then shifts to a more domestic scene, with Bridget climbing up an apple tree. The singer, presumably her lover, asks who is climbing the tree, and Bridget reassures him that she is not stealing apples but is instead replacing some that had been knocked down in a gust of wind. The narrative thus ends on a more hopeful note, with the singer and Bridget appearing to be building a life together in harmony with nature.
Overall, the lyrics to "Apples and Potatoes" function as a playful exploration of traditional themes from folklore and the supernatural. Through its use of simple, repetitive phrasing and a minimalistic narrative structure, the song creates a sense of whimsy and delight that is both memorable and evocative.
Line by Line Meaning
Yonder come the devil with his pitchfork and shovel
An ominous figure arrives wielding tools associated with death and labor
He was digging up potatoes on the turnpike road
He was engaged in the drudgery of digging up crops from an unforgiving path
The road it was so hard, he couldn't get 'em up
The ground was unforgiving and refused to yield its harvest
And away ran the devil with his tail cocked up
The devil was unable to complete his task and retreated in a humorous manner
Who's that a-climbing up my old apple tree?
The artist notices someone ascending a cherished tree and is surprised
Bridget, my darling, I′m longing to see
The singer recognizes the climber and expresses romantic yearning
I'm not stealing apples, oh, I can explain
The climber is not intending to take apples and wishes to clarify
The wind bloweth high and knocked 'em down
Nature caused the apples to fall from the tree
So I'm putting 'em back again
The climber is attempting to right the seemingly random occurrence
Writer(s): Emerson, Tabor
Contributed by Aaron R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.