Salut! Live

Andrew Curry writes: Colin’s piece last week about the Oysterband’s two fine records with June Tabor reminded me of the American singer and activist Si Kahn. Kahn wrote Mississippi Summer, the opener to Freedom and Rain, and the album’s title is taken from Kahn’s lyric. His song What You Do With What You’ve Got is on its way to becoming a folk standard.

Mississippi Summer is a little elliptical, and none the worse for that, but it was inspired by Kahn’s trip in 1965 to work with civil rights activists. And it’s not much covered, although there is also a version on Katie Oates’ recent album of Si Kahn’s songs, We Go On. All the same, it’s hard to imagine that the version on Freedom and Rain will be topped any time soon.

(Si Kahn. Photo courtesy of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame.)

But it was a reminder that another of Kahn’s songs has now been widely covered by British folk musicians. What You Do With What You’ve Got first appeared on Kahn’s 1984 record Unfinished Portraits. Since then it’s been sung by—among others—Roy Bailey, Dick Gaughan, and Eddie Reader, as well as younger performers such as Siobhan Miller, Aoife Scott and the duo Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith.

It’s also part of Magpie Arc’s repertoire, and they played it at the recent Indoor Folk Festival, which we covered here on Salut! Live. The connection: Martin Simpson, who plays with Magpie Arc, is Roy Bailey’s son-in-law.

You can see the attraction: it’s a radical song with a strong tune. Here’s the chorus:

It's not just what you're born with, It's what you choose to bear

It's not how big your share is, But how much you can share

And it's not the fights you dreamed of, But those you really fought

It's not what you've been given, It's what you do with what you've got.

 

One of the reasons that there’s a number of Scots singers in that list is because Dick Gaughan recorded it at the turn of the century. Siobhan Miller’s said she learnt the song from him.

Here’s a version of Gaughan playing it live:

The young Irish singer Aoife Scott recorded the song on her first record, Carry the Day. She’s part of Irish folk royalty, since she’s the daughter of Frances Black and the niece of Mary Black. She builds the song as her band get more involved. There’s a good violin solo in the break as well.

There’s also good interplay between guitar and violin in the version by Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith.

Slightly strangely, one of the videos of Eddi Reader singing the song is recorded at a TED talk in Monterrey—TED’s more associated with talks about improving ideas than singers—and slightly unexpectedly, the ‘80s electro-pop performer Thomas Dolby is on keyboards. It turns out that these days he is the musical director of Ted Talks. You can see that here if you want to take a look. She sings it so slowly it seems a bit like an improving talk.

And, for a bit of contrast, here’s an electric version of the song by Magpie Arc. It’s the second half of this video, coupled with their song Canon. What You Do With What You’ve Got comes in around the five minute mark, after Martin Simpson swaps his guitar at the left hand side of the stage.

So which to pick? I think I’m going to go with Dick Gaughan. All of the versions here are good, but I think that Gaughan brings just the right amount of steel to the lyric.

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