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
Soldiers Three
June Tabor Lyrics
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We be soldiers three
Pardona moy, je vous an pree,
Lately come forth of the Low Country
With never a penny of money.
Here, good fellow, I drink to thee
To all good frllows, wherever they be.
And he that will not pledge me this,
Pay for the shot whatever it is.
Charge it again, boy, charge it again,
As long as there is any ink in thy pen.
The opening lines of June Tabor's rendition of the traditional song "Soldiers Three" initiate a call-and-response chant from the perspective of three soldiers who have recently returned from the Low Countries of the Netherlands. The soldiers plead for forgiveness and beg for generosity from their listeners as they have no money to their name. The chorus deviates from this theme and instead celebrates the camaraderie of good fellows everywhere. The final verse instructs the bartender to keep the liquor flowing even if the soldier's debts have not been paid.
Line by Line Meaning
We be soldiers three
We are three soldiers
Pardona moy, je vous an pree,
Pardon me, I beg of you
Lately come forth of the Low Country
We have recently arrived from the Low Countries
With never a penny of money.
But we don't have any money
Here, good fellow, I drink to thee
I offer a drink to you, my friend
To all good frllows, wherever they be.
And to all good friends, no matter where they are
And he that will not pledge me this,
And if anyone refuses to drink with me
Pay for the shot whatever it is.
They must pay for the drink, whatever the cost
Charge it again, boy, charge it again,
Keep charging it to their tab, boy, keep charging it
As long as there is any ink in thy pen.
As long as you can keep writing it down
Contributed by Maria V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.