Straight from the Tunnel's Mouth - The Boatmen Sweet Folk and Country SFA 018 (1975) 1 Waterways Lament David Blagrove 2 Poor Old 'Orse - 3 The 'Orrible Trip David Blagrove 4 Tommy Note - 5 Boaty, Boaty, Spit in the Cut - 6 Lass of Coventry - 7 Single Bolinder - 8 Girl on the Cut - 9 Winson Green Jail - 10 Dudley Tunnel - 11 Hard Working Boater David Blagrove 12 Tom Beech's Last Trip David Blagrove 13 Tipton Slasher - 14 The Humber Belle - The Boatmen were Eric Blackburn, John Grace, and Pat Slattery. Nick Coster, Alison Grace and Joe Stead also feature. David Blagrove has provided the following additional information : The group called "The Boatmen" were really an ad hoc group formed to produce "Straight from the Tunnel's Mouth". I was not a member, but provided much of the material for them. Sleeve Notes : Introduction The songs on this record do not pretend to be a comprehensive or complete collection of canal songs. What they do represent, however, is a selection of songs which have entertained canal folk, and more recently, a new enthusiastic section of the public who have recently discovered the waterways of England and their culture. Like the boats and their working families these songs span the years from Napoleon Bonaparte to the Common Market. Not all of them are boating songs but the theme of the English Canals run through them somewhere. Until very recently it seemed that the working tradition would be lost and with it all the raison d'etre of these songs. Today the economic and ecological crises which we face may entail a revival of this environmentally sound and indeed civilised form of bulk transport. Should this be the case we may hope that the tradition represented by this record will continue to flourish. David R Blagrove