The Keach i the Creel

The Keach I the Creel is Child ballad 281.

ynopsis

A young woman tells a man that her parents keep her too close for them to meet. The man has his brother make a ladder and a reel; the ladder takes him to the chimney, and by the reel, he is lowered into her bedroom. Her mother guesses there is a man in her bed and sends the father. She hides her lover and persuades her father she was praying. Her mother, still suspicious, goes herself. She is caught in the reel and tossed all about on it.

Performances

This ballad has been performed by:

*Ewan MacColl on "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads vol 2" (1956)
*Ian Campbell Folk Group on "Cock Doth Craw" (1968)
*Jean Redpath on "Ballad Folk" (1977)
*Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick on "Skin and Bone" (1992)
*Eliza Carthy and Nancy Kerr on "Shape of Scrape" (1995)
*Paul Brady, on "The Liberty Tapes"

External links

* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch281.htm "The Keach I the Creel"]