News and Offers
	A MISCELLANY OF GUITAR MUSIC Michael Raven Book £12.00 Companion CD £10.00 A new 80-page, A4 paperback with laminated cover. All the music is in staff notation and tablature. Contents include Recuerdos de la Alhambra, the famous tremolo study played by all the top concert guitarists, Taranatos, a show-stopping flamenco solo, Concert Suites in E and D, a transcription of Maria Eleanor by Los Tabajaros (No.1 a few years ago), Warrior’s Welcome Home, Comical Fellow, Bushes and Briars, The Two Butchers (Greek), Leonore (French), Aymara Indian Dance, McKinnon’s Lament and Jig, New Mown Hay, Bouree, Rough Music, Hope Forlorn, Merthyr Tydfil, Kinlet Hall, Lakes of Pontchartrain, Jonathan Wild’s Jig, Black Joke/To the Weavers, Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, Gavotte (Bach), Serenade, and Sauteuse.
	A GOOD CHRISTMAS BOX Michael Raven Price £12.00 A new 64-page A4 paperback with laminated cover. It contains a reprint of the famous original collection of 37 traditional English carols published in Dudley in 1847. They have all been reset and illustrated with the superb early 16th century woodcuts of Albrecht Durer. This is an historical source book from which the best and most complete versions of many well known carols have been taken. A most handsome book printed in a Limited Edition of only 200.
	SONGS OF THE BLACK COUNTRY AND THE WEST MIDLANDS Michael Raven Price £10.00 This is a CD of the LP record first released in 1968 by Broadside Records (BRO100). Performers: Michael Raven and Jon Raven with Jean Ward. Contents: King Henry IV and the King of France, Bold Robin Hood and the Three Squires, The Rose Tree, Cold Blows the Wind, Come All Yew Blades, Brave Collier Lads, Collier Lass, Ballad of Trubshaw and Green (wrestlers), Wife for Sale, Nailmakers’ Strike of 1862, Wedgebury Cocking, Gabriel’s Hounds, John Wesley, William Booth, Darlaston Dogfight, Staffordshire Hornpipe, Hampton (Wolverhampton) Lullaby, Ye Three Tall Men. Jon Raven is in especially good voice on this recording.
	THE BLACK COUNTRY THREE The Black Country Three Price £10.00 CD of the LP record first released in 1966 by Transatlantic Records (TRA140). Performers: Michael Raven, Jon Raven, Derek Craft and a session bass player. Contents: The Boxing Match, Long Ago Far Away, Buttermilk Hill, Song of the Western Men, Three Ravens, Jolly Joe, Row Bullies Row, Wedgefield Wake, Villancico, Wine of Gaul, She Moved Through the Fair, Mission of San Miguel, Riflemen of Bennington, All Bells in Paradise.
	THE DUTCH CONNECTION Michael Raven and Joan Mills Price £10.00 CD of the LP record made by Michael Raven and Joan Mills in Utrecht for Munich Records called Can y Melinydd (MU7430). Contents: Katie Cruel, Maid of Tottenham, Owain Glyndwr, Tenpenny Jig, Bedlam Boys, Constant Lover, Clerk Colvill, Burning of Auchindown, Brisk Young Widow, Night Visiting Song, Young Jane/Lord McDonald, Brave Nelson, Widow Woman’s Daughter, Can y Melinydd.
	THE FOLK HERITAGE RECORDINGS Michael Raven and Joan Mills Price £10.00 CD of the majority of tracks from two LP records made by Michael Raven and Joan Mills and released on the Folk Heritage label: Death and the Lady (FHR047); Hymn to Che Guevara (FHR054). Contents from Death and the Lady are: The Jolly Highwayman, Lisa Lan, Ladies Don’t Go a-Thievin’, Robin Hood’s Dance, Sarabande, Captain’s Apprentice, Can y Melinydd/Troseg y Gareg (instrumental), Sarah Collins, White Gloves, La Russe Waltz/Paris Polka, Queen of the Night. Tracks from Hymn to Che Guevara are: Belle Star and Jesse James, Twenty Years, Melancholy Pavan, Hymn to Che Guevara, Great Train Robbery, Magpies in Picardy, little White Donkey, Dancing Lady.
	THE JOLLY MACHINE Michael Raven and Joan Mills with Saga Price £10.00 CD of the LP record made by Michael Raven and Joan Mills with folk group Saga in 1974 for the Folk Heritage label (FHR053). Subtitled: Songs of Industrial Protest and Social Discontent from the West Midlands as printed in the book of the same name. Contents: Chartists’Anthem, Nailmakers’ Lament, Charlie’s Song, Needlemakers’ Lamentation, Landlord Don’t You Cry, Freedom and Reform, John Whitehouse, Potters’ Chant, Waiting for Wages, Wednesbury Town, Jolly Machine, Colliers’ Rant, Tommy Note, Dudley Canal Tunnel Song (Push, Boys, Push) performed by the Black Country Three.
	GUITAR MAGIC Michael Raven Price £10.00 CD of Michael Raven’s first solo guitar LP record made for Transatlantic (XTRA 1046) in 1966. This is a record of flamenco music and was made in one three hour session in Birmingham. Contents: Jota Aragonesa, Bulerias, Black is the Colour (as a Granadinas), Zambra, Romance d’Amour, Bobby Shaftoe (with flamenco variations), Alegrias, Garrotin, El Vito, Freight Train, Soleares, Farruca.
	POPULAR MUSIC FOR GUITAR Michael Raven Price £10.00 CD of the entire contents of the book of the same name. (See the Guitar pages of this website.). Previously only available as a cassette. Contents: Eton Boating Song, Schubert’s Serenade, Cwm Rhondda, Lovely Joan, Geordie, Fur Elise, Tom Dooley, Freight Train, Rosalita, Frankie and Johnny, Bill Bailey, Grandfather’s Clock, Ash Grove, John Brown’s Body, Juanita, Bluebell Polka, Be Thou My Vision, Old rugged Cross, Walsingham, Red Flag, Scottish Soldier, Blarney Pilgrim, Crimond, Loch Lomond, Tango Argentina, O Sole Mio, Greensleeves, Lillebulero, Prelude in E Minor, English Tarantella, Going Home, Daisy Belle, French Popular Song, Abide with Me, Don Giovanni Minuet, Claire de Lune.
	WEST MIDLANDS’ BALLADS Michael Raven Price: £14.99 A collection of 171 ballads from Shropshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the Birmingham-Black Country conurbation. The songs range in subject from: medieval knightly romances (Sir Guy of Warwick), pastoral courtship (Wanton Seed), descriptions of great battles (Waterloo), adventures of highwaymen (Dick Turpin), the lives of national heroes (Robin Hood), blood sports (Wedgebury Cocking), wife selling (Bandy Legged Lett), crime and punishment (Jonathan Wild and William Palmer), 19th century industrial developments (Iron Mad Wilkinson), movements of social and political discontent (the Chartists), humorous pieces (Lady Chatterley’s Lover), canal songs (Old Sam and the Dudley Canal Tunnel Song), Folk Tales in verse (The Legend of Ellesmere), sea songs (The Battle of Algiers), and many more. Tunes, notes and 168 pictorial illustrations are included. 288 pages, A4 size, paperback with matt laminated cover. First Edition, March 2008; ISBN: 978 0 906114 85 8. Numbers of the songs have been recorded by leading performers such as Martin Carthy, Nic Jones, Martin Wyndham Read, Jon Raven, Tony Rose, The Halliard, Fred Jordan, The Black Country Three, Steeleye Span and others.
	UPDATED REPRINTS OF THE FOLLOWING BOOKS WERE ISSUED IN 2007: English Folk Guitar (the original first book of the series, with black and white cover) English Folk Guitar Book 2 (now has a new cover with a picture of swans on a lake) Popular Songs for Guitar Book 1 (now has a new cover with a picture of Michael Raven) Popular Songs for Guitar Book 2 Popular Tunes for Guitar Book 2 John O’Barbary (This limited edition of only 200 has much new material, all reset and re-illustrated. A handsome book.)