A Leadsman, Landsmen and Dances begins with The Jolly Sailor, a boisterous portrait of the subject. Then comes O Shepherd, O Shepherd, Won't You Come Home? which perhaps presents both austere and idyllic aspects of the countryside. Rufford Park Poachers is a heart-felt tribute to Grainger, who once said, that the true worth of his own music would never be gauged until it was understood to be a pilgrimage to sorrows. The Keel Row is depicts a spontaneous folk-dance for the musical and the not-so-musical.
