The Music of one of the "Last Hereditary Bards"

James William Carling, poet, artist, musician, painter, philosopher, songwriter...... referred to himself as one of the "last hereditary bards".

He was born into a very poor family on New Year's Eve in 1857 to Rose and Henry Carling in the "Irish Quarter'' in Liverpool.

His father Henry was a singer and composer of songs, ballads and poems, and by trade a blacking maker, as was his father before him. There was music, song and talent in the family, both in the present and the ancestors.

I have arranged 5 pieces of music transcribed from the handwritten (often difficult to decipher) melodies of James Carling, as he says, "one of the last hereditary bards".

The PDF file offered on this page contains these 5 transcriptions arranged with simple piano chords and named guitar chords. These basic music arrangements can be used as a basis to create many versions of these unusual melodies

You can listen to sample MP3 arrangements of these unique melodies on the "product URL" page.