(a placemarker at the moment!)
Sam Cowell (1820-64) spent his early years in America and made his stage debut in Boston at the age of nine. He spent some time working as an actor in Scotland, initially supplementing his income by appearing as a “character singer”, before dropping the acting entirely. Apparently he had “a remarkable gift for facial expression [which] emphasised his comedy…” and this goes some way to explaining how he could take apparently serious songs and make them funny. He was well-known for singing similar ballads to comic effect, always dressed in character, most famously Billy Barlow and Villikins and his Dinah. He toured extensively in the late 1850s and early 1860s, both in the UK and America, but the hectic lifestyle caught up with him, and he died tragically young the age of 44.
He wrote many of his own songs – songs which feature in the repertoire of traditional singers, where he had a writing credit include:
- Alonzo the brave and the Fair Imogine (Sam Cowell’s Parody)
- Billy Barlow
- O My Love is Dead
- Ratcatcher’s daughter, The
- Reuben Wright and Phoebe Brown
Other songs he famously performed include:
- Bacon and Greens
- Billy Taylor
- Barbara Allan The Cruel
- The Cork leg
- Lord Lovel
- A Norrible Tale
- Villikins and his Dinah
- Workhouse Boy, The
Last Updated on June 6, 2025 by John Baxter | Published: March 8, 2024
