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Sovay (trad) 2 March 2021

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You certainly don't want to cross this young lady!

This short and popular song seems to be most often called "Sovay", the name of the heroine in this version (though in others she's also called Sylvie, Sophie, Cecilia etc). An alternative title "The Female Highwayman" gives a hint of the story: our heroine decides to test the love of her sweetheart rather chancily, by cross-dressing as a highwayman, then holding him up and robbing him (!), to see whether he will surrender the ring she had given him as a pledge of love...

As usual I listened to a few different versions to learn it; what I'm singing is mainly based on the version by The Witches of Elswick, who call it "Sovai" on their album 'Out of Bed'.

For more notes and lyrics see https://mainlynorfolk.info/martin.carthy/songs/sovay.html
Category
Highway Men
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