With love

Coulter's Candy (Photo: alistair fitchett)

Sadly we were back down to two singers last week though there are even more promises of newcomers and visitors, so let's hope that comes to fruition soon. The sooner the better since this week one of the pair won't be around.

One plan to talk of is that we'll have a theme of Wales for a slightly belated St David's Day session on 4 March. As always the theme is optional but your efforts will be appreciated, and if a few songs about whales, daffodils, leeks and whatever creep in then that will be par for the course. As always, check Wikipedia for what St David is patron of apart from the obvious.

In the meantime, the session on 25 February will be theme-less so pretty much anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Back to last Friday, we still seemed to have a few songs of love and lust left over from the previous week's Valentine's Day session, but some other things popped up as well. Colin was MC and started us off with Sing me a song Mr Bloom (Ian Walker). Mr Bloom is a character in the film 'Twilight Zone - The Movie'. In the film he visits homes for old people and, magically, turns them into children again.

Simon continued with another story, this time the Ballad of Patch Eye and Meg (Michelle Shocked). Sadly, but understandably, Michelle has expunged almost all of her songs from YouTube, so you'll have to search out her first album, The Texas Campfire Tapes if you want to hear it. Famously the album was recorded by a campfire at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas by Pete Lawrence using a Sony Walkman. Some people know that Michelle later disowned the album at one stage. What fewer people perhaps realise is that the battery of the Walkman that Lawrence used was running down, so the tape was transported more slowly than usual. This resulted in the published songs being faster and at a higher pitch than when Michelle originally sang them. It still sounds great though with the cicadas and trucks in the background.

A few of the videos I have included in the playlist at the usual "a selection" link below probably bear a little explanation, so I will use those as my theme for the week.

Simon experimentally brought out a song he has been threatening to sing for a long time. It is a pity that classical scholar Derek wasn't with us to hear it, but I'm sure it can be sung again sometime when he returns. The song was Flanders and Swann's The Hippopotamus Song, but this time sung in Latin. The version in question was sung by Ian Wallace at his inauguration as Rector of St Andrews University. His version is not on YouTube, but here is a recording of Ian singing The Hippopotamus Song in English on the BBC programme, The Good Old Days recorded at the Leeds City Varieties. There is a version in Latin on YouTube, but it's not the one.

Colin sang Chris Sugden's (Sid Kipper) By the cobblers which is set to the tune of Clementine (roud 9611). I have found a recording, but it is part of a much longer recording of a folk session on Zoom and I have no easy way of including the required part in the playlist - I wouldn't want you to have to listen to an hour of no doubt perfectly reasonable but off-topic singing just to listen to the Dragon playlist this week. So here, off-playlist, is a link to the appropriate part of the video.

Colin also sang Malvina Reynolds' version of Billy Boy (roud 326). It doesn't appear in the playlist because, like Colin, I can't find it on line, but here is are the words. Colin was concerned whether he had the right tune because Reynolds' words don't appear to fit the traditional one he knows, but he says they do seem to fit the one sung by Martin Carthy.

Simon sang Sovay (roud 7, laws N21), the tale of a young woman who dressed herself as a highwayman to test the commitment of her lover on his return. Simon mentioned that, like Colin's last song, he was influenced by Martin Carthy. However, he wanted to trace a recording of Isla St  Clair singing it on her 1980s children's television programme The Song and The Story. I didn't find that precise clip, but for the benefit of the playlist I found a recording of St Clair singing the song.

Colin can be assured that the song Elsie which he sang was indeed written by our friend Gary Hopwood.

It should be said that we don't tend to shy away from controversial words and topics when they are authentic; this is a folk club and we like to maintain the traditions. If anyone is squeamish then look away now. While Simon sang Oh Susanna (roud 9614), it wasn't quite as ... err ... historically accurate, as this recording.

I was particularly pleased to be able to roll out this recording when Colin sang Coulter's Candy (roud 19019) which was written by a former Galashiels weaver, Robert Coltart (1832–1880). The song was an advertising jingle for the aniseed-flavoured sweeties that he manufactured in Melrose and sold around the markets of the Border towns. The reason this video is special to us is because the singer is Helen Barr who used to occasionally visit the club from her home in Swindon.

I Fear IKEA, sung by Colin, is another song from the repertoire of Gary Hopwood, but under the slightly different title of I Hate IKEA. This one was however written by The Lancashire Hotpots.

Simon closed the session with Ian "Nobby" Dye's Bristol-based song Welsh Back Quay.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 2 of whom 2 performed)