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
Mississippi Summer
June Tabor Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Burned in the sun for a hundred years
Furrows so deep you could hide yourself
Ain't plantin' cotton no more this year
I'll just sit on the porch with my eagle eye
Watch for a change in the wind
Roads are as straight as a shotgun barrel
You know how hot it gets in Mississippi
You know how dry it gets in the summer sun
The dust clouds swirl all down the Delta
I just hope that I don't die before the harvest comes
Black clouds gathering at the edge of town
But no rain's gonna fall on us
Hoes rise and fall in a distant field
Earth takes a beating for all of us
Thought I heard the Angel of Death overhead
But it's only the crop-duster's plane
Hoes rise and fall like the beating of wings
Lord send us freedom and rain
You know how hot it gets in Mississippi
You know how dry it gets in the summer sun
The dust clouds swirl all down the Delta
I just hope that I don't die before the harvest comes
June Tabor’s song “Mississippi Summer” is a poignant tribute to the harsh realities of life in the American South during a period of agricultural upheaval. The song’s narrator is a farmer worn down by years of labor in the searing Mississippi heat, and her cracked hands and deep furrows are testament to her struggle. She notes that this year she won’t be planting cotton anymore, and instead she will sit on her porch with her “eagle eye” and wait for a change in the wind.
The roads are “straight as a shotgun barrel” and long enough for a bullet to spin, underscoring the flat, oppressive landscape the farmer is contending with. She talks of the oppressive heat that makes life in Mississippi so difficult, and the dust clouds that swirl around the Delta. As dark clouds gather above, the farmer thinks she hears the Angel of Death overhead, but it’s only the hum of a crop-duster’s plane. The farmer is hoping for freedom and rain, but both seem elusive.
The song is a haunting and mournful elegy for the farmers of the South who have been worn down by years of labor and who are struggling to survive in a rapidly changing world. June Tabor’s spare, resonant voice conveys the pain of the farmer’s existence, while the lyrics paint a vivid picture of a harsh and unforgiving landscape.
Line by Line Meaning
My hands are as cracked as an August field
My hands are rough and dry like the parched August fields that have been exposed to the sun for a hundred years.
Burned in the sun for a hundred years
My hands have been exposed to the sun and feel as if they have been sunburnt for a century.
Furrows so deep you could hide yourself
The farm land has furrows so deep that you could hide yourself in them.
Ain't plantin' cotton no more this year
I am not planting cotton this year, it is too difficult to maintain in this dry and hot weather.
I'll just sit on the porch with my eagle eye
I will sit on the porch and watch carefully for any changes in the wind, ready to take action when needed.
Watch for a change in the wind
I am looking for any signs that the wind may change direction and bring with it some much needed relief from the heat and drought.
Roads are as straight as a shotgun barrel
The roads in this area are incredibly straight and long, like the barrel of a shotgun, with no relief from the heat.
Long as a bullet can spin
The roads are so long that a bullet could spin for ages without hitting anything.
You know how hot it gets in Mississippi
The heat in Mississippi is almost unbearable and can be very dangerous.
You know how dry it gets in the summer sun
The summer sun in Mississippi can turn the land and air so dry that it can be difficult to breathe.
The dust clouds swirl all down the Delta
The dryness of the air in Mississippi causes dust clouds to swirl all throughout the Delta region.
I just hope that I don't die before the harvest comes
I'm worried that the harsh weather conditions will affect the harvest and I won't survive to harvest anything at all.
Black clouds gathering at the edge of town
Dark clouds are gathering on the outskirts of town, but unfortunately it doesn't mean any rain is coming.
But no rain's gonna fall on us
Despite the threatening clouds, there will likely be no rain to quench the parched land and crops.
Hoes rise and fall in a distant field
The work of farmers can be seen in the distance as they manually labor to cultivate the land with their hoes.
Earth takes a beating for all of us
The land and earth is suffering through this difficult and dry harvest season to provide food and resources for all of us.
Thought I heard the Angel of Death overhead
The harsh conditions have made it feel like the end may be near, giving the impression that the Angel of Death may be approaching.
But it's only the crop-duster's plane
It turns out that the sound that was heard was just the crop-duster's plane flying overhead, causing no harm.
Hoes rise and fall like the beating of wings
The sound of the farmers' hoes as they work in the field can be heard as a rhythmic beat, much like the sound of wings flapping.
Lord send us freedom and rain
We need the freedom from the harsh conditions and rain to help the crops and land get the life-giving nourishment they need to survive.
Writer(s): si kahn
Contributed by Skyler W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.