Alice Penfold

Alice Penfold: unlike Joe and Lena Jones or the Smiths or Willetts, was settled with her husband and daughters in a bungalow in Sussex in the early 1970s.  Many of her songs had come from her father, Eli Frankham, though others, such as Catch Me if You Can, The Shannon Side and Jenny On the Moor were from her husband, Edwin, a Cornish traveller.  Having recorded Lord Bateman, I was intrigued to hear Alice’s daughters arguing among themselves as to whether or not a man could really marry two women in one day.  So far as the girls were concerned this was real life and not just a story.

Part of the booklet notes, written by Mike Yates, to the Musical Traditions Records CD Here's Luck to a Man ... (MTCD320)