June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is considered one of… Read Full Bio ↴June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is considered one of the foremost English folk singers of her generation. Aside from her highly-acclaimed solo music career, she has also combined her talents with greats such as Maddy Prior (as one half of Silly Sisters), Martin Simpson, Elvis Costello and Oysterband. In 2004, and again in 2012, she was named Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In 2011 the album "Ragged Kingdom" by June Tabor & Oysterband was named "Album of the Year" in the fROOTS critics poll.

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

Fine Horseman
June Tabor Lyrics

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Sleeping in my bed
Strange thoughts are running through my head
I dreamed you were
Playing with my hair
Fine, fine sparrow
Fine, fine horseman

Rain falls and the wind roars

All the folks are indoors
We came through a ford
Riding over the moors
Fine flying sparrow
Fine, fine horseman

Your dreams among my dreams
Are blue seas amongst sunbeams
Shades of yellow, shades of green
These are your dreams among my dreams
Fine flying sparrow
Fine, fine horseman

Good morning to you, farming man
Here′s to your heart, your family and land
I'll pay down a ring and a golden band
On a field for a ride around
For a fine flying sparrow
Fine, fine horseman

Morning likewise maiden and man
My family′s dead, my heart is in the ground
I have no land
This is no time for a farming man
Nor a fine flying sparrow
Or fine, fine horseman

Sleeping in my bed
Strange thoughts are running through my head
I dreamed you were
Playing with my hair

Fine, fine sparrow
Fine, fine horseman

Overall Meaning

In June Tabor's haunting folk ballad Fine Horseman, she describes a vivid dream of a lover playing with her hair. The opening lines set the melancholic and reflective tone of the song, with the singer lying awake in bed with strange thoughts running through her mind. She dreams of a fine horseman - a symbol of nobility and prowess - accompanied by a fine sparrow - a symbol of lightness and agility. The juxtaposition of these two beings represents the contrasting aspects of her lover's personality. The horseman is strong and powerful, yet gentle and romantic, while the sparrow represents fleeting beauty and fragility.

Throughout the song, the imagery of the natural world is used to illustrate the landscape of her dreams, with rain falling and the wind roaring while they ride over the moors. The dream is presented as a kind of utopia, an idyllic world of blue seas among sunbeams and shades of yellow and green.

The final stanza of the song is a dialogue between the singer and a farming man, where she offers to pay for a golden band and a ride around the field for the fine horseman and sparrow. She seems to be trying to hold onto this dream world, clinging to the idea of a perfect romance even as the farming man reminds her of the harsh reality of the world outside.

Overall, Fine Horseman is a beautiful, ethereal song that captures the fleeting nature of love and the desire for a perfect romance that can never truly exist.

Fine HorsemanJune Tabor Lyrics

Fine Horseman
June Tabor Lyrics