Cecilia Costello

Cecilia Costello (nee Kelly), singer of Irish descent who lived most of her life in Birmingham. Born October 24th 1884, died April 1976 aged 91.

"Mrs. Costello was bom in 1883, the daughter of Irish parents living in England, and spent most of her life in Birmingham. She came to the notice of folk-song scholars in 1951 during the BBC programme of recording traditional music of the British Isles. Marie Slocombe and Patrick Shuldham-Shaw recorded her, later presenting transcriptions of seven of her songs, with a brief commentary, in the December 1953 number of the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Her repertory was there described, ambiguously, by Miss Slocombe as comprising "thirteen songs and fragments"; Later visits by Charles Parker, Pam Bishop, Jon Raven and not least Roy Palmer produced further material, amounting to a repertoire of seventeen songs."

Extracted from a short article in The Folk Mag. See full article

Patrick, grandson of Mrs Costello and member of Bromsgrove Folk Club, has set up a web memoir of his grandmother including some family photographs.

Repertoire

• The Cruel Mother
• I wish, I wish
• There was a Squire in Edinboro' lived
• The Wexford Murder
• The Handsome Cabin Boy
• My Johnny
• The Frog and the Mouse
• Betsy of Ballantown Brae
• The Jew's Garden
• I am a Maid that is deep in Love
• Wedding Song
• Shule agra
• The Lover's Ghost

Discography

• Cecilia Costello Leader LEA 4054 (1975)

External links

• http://www.btinternet.com/~radical/thefolkmag/costello.htm
• http://ceciliacostello.webs.com/