Shirley Collins MBE (born Shirley Elizabeth Collins on 5 July 1935 in Hasti… Read Full Bio ↴Shirley Collins MBE (born Shirley Elizabeth Collins on 5 July 1935 in Hastings, Sussex) is an award-winning British folksinger who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s. She often performed and recorded with her sister Dolly Collins, whose accompaniment on piano and portative organ created unique settings for her sister's plain, austere singing style. Collins's seminal recording is considered by many to be 'Anthems in Eden', released in 1969. With her second husband Ashley Hutchings she created the all-acoustic Etchingham Steam Band. She was awarded an MBE for services to music in 2006.

Collins and her sister, Dolly, grew up in the Hastings area of East Sussex in a family which kept alive a great love of traditional song. Songs learnt from their grandfather and from their mother's sister, Grace Winborn, were to be important in the sisters' repertoire throughout their career.

On leaving school, at the age of 17, Shirley Collins enrolled at a teachers' training college in Tooting, south London. However, in London she also involved herself in the early folk revival and in 1954, at a party hosted by Ewan McColl, she met Alan Lomax, the famous American folk collector, who had moved to Britain to avoid the McCarthy witch-hunt which was then raging in America. Lomax and Collins began a romantic relationship which led to their undertaking a folk song collecting trip in the Southern states which lasted from July to November 1959 and resulted in many hours of recordings, featuring performers such as Almeda Riddle, Hobart Smith, and Bessie Jones and culminated in the discovery of Mississippi Fred McDowell. Recordings from this trip were issued by Atlantic Records under the title "Sounds of the South" and also featured in the Coen brothers’ film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. The experience of her life with Lomax and the making of the recordings in religious communities, social gatherings, prisons and chain gangs was described in Collins's book America Over the Water (published 2004).

Back in Britain, Shirley Collins proceeded with her own singing career, and in a series of influential albums, she helped to introduce many innovations into the English folk revival. In 1964, she recorded the landmark jazz-folk fusion of Folk Roots, New Routes, with guitarist Davy Graham. 1967 saw the essentially southern English song collection, The Sweet Primeroses, on which she was accompanied for the first time by Dolly Collins's portative organ.

In 1969 there was another collaboration, this time with The Young Tradition (featuring Peter Bellamy, Heather Wood and Royston Wood) and Dolly Collins, The Holly Bears a Crown.

Shirley Collins's seminal recording is considered by many to be Anthems in Eden, released in 1969. It featured a suite of songs centred on the changes in rural England brought about by the First World War. Dolly Collins created arrangements featuring David Munrow and various other players from his Early Music Consort. The highly unusual combination of ancient instruments included rebecs, sackbuts, viols and crumhorns and hinted that the guitar was not the only appropriate accompaniment for the folk song. Several critics have suggested that it is impossible to imagine that electric accompaniment for traditional song, as successfully purveyed by Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, could have developed quite as it did without the pioneering 'Anthems In Eden'.
All these recordings strove to marry a deep love and understanding of the English folk music heritage with a more contemporary attitude to musical settings. Anthems In Eden was followed by Love, Death & The Lady, and No Roses, recorded in 1971 with the Albion Country Band, and a total of 27 musicians.
Shirley Collins married Ashley Hutchings in 1971. He left Steeleye Span and the couple created the all acoustic Etchingham Steam Band with Terry Potter, Ian Holder and Vic Gammon. The Etchingham's repertoire was drawn from the traditional music of Sussex. With The Albion Dance Band, performing traditional material on a mixture of modern (electric) and mediaeval instruments, Shirley Collins recorded The Prospect Before Us.

1978's For As Many As Will was the last studio album recorded by Shirley and Dolly Collins. Shirley Collins soon retired from public performance, although she continues to lecture and to appear on radio as an authority on traditional music.

In 2004, Collins was awarded a Gold Badge by the English Folk Dance and Song Society and became patron of the South East Folk Arts Network in 2006. Also in 2006, Shirley appeared on Black Ships Ate The Sky, finishing the album with a sung version of the poem 'Idumæa'.

Collins was awarded the MBE for services to music in the Queen's New Year's Honours List, announced 30 December 2006. On 14 April 2007, she was awarded an Honorary Degree by the Open University, for a "Notable contribution to education and culture", while in 2008 she was given the "Good Tradition" award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

In 2008 Collins was elected as president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

Bonnie Boy
Shirley Collins Lyrics

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I once loved a boy, a bonny, bonny boy
And I loved him, I will vow and protest.
I loved him so well, so very, very well,
That I built him a bath on my breast.

It was through the green valley and up a green hill,
Like one that was troubled in mind,
I called and I shouted and played on my pipe,

But no bonny boy could I find.

I looked up high and I looked down low,
And the sun it shone wonderful warm;
When who should I see but my own bonny boy
That's so close in another girl's arms,
Oh, so close in another girl's arms.

Now, my bonny boy has gone far away,
And I fear I shan't see him again.
But were I to have him or were I to not,

I will think of him once and then,
Yes, I'll think of him once now and then.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Shirley Collins's song 'Bonnie Boy' portray a love story that has gone awry. The singer narrates how deeply she loved a boy, and how she built him a 'bath on her breast,' which metaphorically implies that she gave him all her love and affection. However, despite her intense feelings for the boy, the singer could not find him when she went out to look for him in the green valley and up the hill. She played her pipe, called and shouted, but her love was nowhere to be found.

The singer finally locates her 'bonny boy' in another girl's arms, which shatters her heart. The realization that her love is with someone else causes enormous pain and leaves her questioning if she will ever see him again. Nonetheless, she resigns herself to this fact and promises only to think about him from time to time.

The song's lyrics explore the themes of heartbreak, unrequited love, and loss, which are prevalent in many classic folk ballads. Through the singer's pain and longing, the song captures the listener's attention and creates a mood of melancholy and reflection.

Line by Line Meaning

I once loved a boy, a bonny, bonny boy
I fell in love with a beautiful boy at one point in my life.

And I loved him, I will vow and protest.
I swear that I loved him and will continue to love him.

I loved him so well, so very, very well,
I loved him deeply, more than anyone else.

That I built him a bath on my breast.
My love for him was so strong that I offered my body as a sanctuary for him.

It was through the green valley and up a green hill,
I traversed through a beautiful landscape to find him.

Like one that was troubled in mind,
My mind was troubled as I searched for him.

I called and I shouted and played on my pipe,
I sang and played my pipe as I searched for him.

But no bonny boy could I find.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find him.

I looked up high and I looked down low,
I searched everywhere for him.

And the sun it shone wonderful warm;
The weather was perfect and pleasant.

When who should I see but my own bonny boy
To my surprise, I saw my beloved bonny boy.