Like the previous Morris On (1972) and subsequent "Descendant Of" Morris On albums, it features English
Morris dance tunes and songs, played with a combination of traditional instruments (concertina, melodeon, fiddle, etc.) and modern ones (electric guitar, bass, drums). In common with later records, dancers complete with bells and sticks were also included extensively in the sessions. In retrospect, Hutchings remarked that with Son Of Morris On it was 'attempted to move the Morris forward a little', compared with the Morris On album which featured 'very little dancing' and had a certain rawness to it, which Hutchings found developable and 'endearing' at the same time.[1]
A couple of Morris tunes had already been played by early incarnations of Ashley Hutchings'
Albion Country Band. The coupling of Jockey To The Fair and Room For The Cuckoo was part of a Morris dance medley in 1972, which was framed by an acoustic and electric setting of Fieldtown Processional. A BBC recording of this medley appears on volume 2 of Ashley Hutchings' The Guv'nor compilation.[2]Saturday Night[3] and a version of Winster Processional (Furry Dance)[4] were performed in the same year as well.
The cover photo by Peter Vernon mirrors that of the original Morris On album with a photograph of the principal participants (left to right: Michael Gregory, Phil Pickett, Ashley Hutchings, Simon Nicol and John Tams) in morris-associated costumes, but with modern accessories.
It has been compared favourably with the original Morris On album. Paul Saunders in a review for the BBC Radio 2 website described it as 'a far more subtle and interesting affair'.[5]
Track listing
'Winster Processional' (0.56)
'Monck's March' (2.53)
'Old Hog or None' (1.15)
'As I Was Going to Banbury' (1.23)
'The Happy Man' (3.02)
'Fieldtown Processional / Glorishears' (2.50)
'Bob and Joan' (0.15)
'Ladies of Pleasure' (1.38)
'Bring Your Fiddle' (2.17)
'Jockey to the Fair / Room for the Cuckolds' (2.36)
'Saturday Night' (2.20)
'Roasted Woman / Rigs of Marlow / Getting Upstairs' (3.06)
'Y'e Wild Morris / The Wild Morris' (1.39)
'The Postman's Knock' (1.59)
'Ring O' Bells' (2.41)
'The Gallant Hussar' (3.21)
'Bonnets So Blue' (1.54)
'Old Hog or None (reprise)' (1.17)
CD bonus tracks from the 1994 CD (Harvest CZ 535) and 2003 CD (Talking Elephant TECD051):
^recorded by the Albion Band, presumably during the July 1978 sessions for the Albion Band single A-side Pain Or Paradise, which too was recorded at Chipping Norton Studio, Oxfordshire