The Black Velvet Band
"The Black Velvet Band" (Roud number 2146) is a traditional folk song collected from singers in Ireland describing how a young man is tricked and then sentenced to transportation to Australia, a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century. Versions were also published on broadsides.
In Europe, The Dubliners released a popular version of the song in 1967 based on a version sung by the traditional English singer Harry Cox. In the US, also in 1967 The Irish Rovers released Black Velvet Band sung by the band's co-founder George Millar. The Rovers single was a multi-million seller at the time and in 2013 reached the Billboard top 20 World Digital Sales charts.
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