Stories and links

19th-century lithograph of William Price

It was a quieter session for the Dragon Folk Club last Friday for a number of reasons, but not least because the flow of people through our room had been alleviated by the reinstatement of the proper gents toilet. There were again only two singers and this time no extras. Fewer songs were sung (a total of just 20) because we had some good chat on a wide variety of topics, among them: old friends, post-Roman Britain, BBC's Repair Shop, and even on the subject of folk songs.

Rather than a theme or even themes emerging through the evening we tended to have pairs or small groups of songs with mutual connections, some of which I will refer to here.

Talking of themes, this Friday's session will have the theme of St George's Day. The patron saint of England has among his other patronages: agricultural workers, farmers, field workers; soldiers; archers; armourers; equestrians, cavalry, saddle makers; chivalry; peacekeeping missions; skin diseases, lepers and leprosy, syphilis; sheep, shepherds, and scouting (oh and let's not forget he's said to have slain a dragon). That should give plenty of scope for songs to sing, tunes to play and stories to tell for all those types of performance and more are welcome as long as they are acoustic. Also, don't worry if you can't stick to the theme, it's intended as a fun guideline, not as a straitjacket.

Colin as MC started things off with Doctor Price (Meic Stephens) about William Price a Welsh physician and political activist best known for his support of Welsh nationalism, Chartism and involvement with the Neo-Druidic religious movement. After cremating his dead son in 1884, Price was arrested and put on trial by those who believed cremation was illegal under English law; however, he successfully argued that there was no legislation that specifically outlawed it, which paved the way for the Cremation Act 1902. Upon his death, he was cremated in a ceremony watched by 20,000 onlookers.

Simon started something with Jez Lowe's song The Bergen because Colin replied immediately with The wrong bus from the same writer, and later with his Tether's end.

Colin said he had experienced some difficulty finding the story behind The London steamer (roud 17760). The song is about the SS London which sank on 11 January 1866 in the Bay of Biscay on its way from Gravesend, England to Melbourne, Australia. A story later highly publicised after the loss states that when the ship was en route down the Thames, a seaman seeing her pass Purfleet said: "It'll be her last voyage…she is too low down in the water, she'll never rise to a stiff sea." Indeed she was overloaded and the words were prophetic.

Colin's Jim, the carter lad (roud 1080) is a surprising new addition to the Dragon database. It must surely have been sung at the club before, but probably not recently. It was also Colin who came up with the next database addition: Canny miner lad (Ian Campbell).

Colin brought out Coaly Tyne (roud V21088) which led Simon to sing Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia which quotes the same description of the river in its chorus.

Colin sang the only song of the evening not included in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below, and that was his own song In the country. This led Simon to respond with that "country chap" Buttercup Joe (roud 1635).

The third and final addition of the night to the Dragon database was Colin's singing of the theme tune of BBC sitcom Last of the summer wine by Ronnie Hazelhurst with lyrics added by Roy Clarke (series scriptwriter), Bill Owen (the actor who played Compo), Alan Bell (series producer/director).

Simon finished off the evening with a song which, when he originally tried to learn it, confused him by its tune's similarity in part to that of Last of the summer wine. The song in question was When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

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

Tiny fish in a small pond

MV Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin passing through Lock 7
of the Welland Canal between Lakes Ontario and Erie
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

The numbers at the end of this report are a bit misleading. On the one hand there were two singers who met for the Dragon Folk Club session last week. On the other, due to the gents toilets being out of action, there was a constant stream of people passing through. Most, but not all, were respectful. Some were complimentary. One performed. A drunken Irishman (apparently) was effusive in his praise. We were even joined briefly by our friend Allie who was very appreciative and gave a few brief snippets from her folk repertoire.

Things started off early as John, having visited the facilities borrowed Simon's guitar and played a few riffs including Wonderwall (Noel Gallagher) for which his unnamed friend joined in with vocals.

Once we got underway properly, Simon, the stand-in MC, started things off with Windmills (Alan Bell).

Remarkably, the two singers, that is disregarding John, who appeared again later with some more riffs, and Allie with her brief medley of songs, sang a total of 39 during the evening. It was almost 11pm by the time it all finished, but the main reason for stopping at 39 was that Steve said he'd run out of songs, and almost out of voice.

You can follow the link from "a selection" below to a playlist of all the songs we sang except one. That one came from Steve and was When Adam was first created (roud 728).

No new songs were added to the Dragon database this week, although it was the first recorded singing of Steve's version of roud 369, laws L5, that being Sam Hall rather than Jack Hall which was already there.

Steve sang a couple of other songs which hadn't previously been recorded in the database for him: Adieu sweet lovely Nancy (roud 165) and The leaving of Liverpool (roud 9435).

Of course we had a few Stan Rogers songs from Steve: White squall, Tiny fish for Japan, and The field behind the plow. I also see that Rogers recorded Cyril Tawney's Sammy's bar.

The evening was completed by Simon singing Jackson C Frank's Blues run the game.

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

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 3 performed)

Tales of the sea and the iron road among others

Edward Harrigan in "Old Lavender"

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session had no theme, so the selection of songs was quite eclectic. Some minor, ad hoc themes emerged as often happens. Most notably though it was pleasing to see us back to decent numbers. Initially five arrived, though Paul apparently had a doctor's note excusing him from singing. Then Simon arrived to make six. We also had a couple of welcome, extended visits by a member of the bar staff who I believe may have been off duty.

Colin, as MC, started off the evening with Get up Jack, John sit down (roud 2807 - Edward Harrigan, David Braham) which came from a play called "Old Lavender". The play premiered on 3rd September 1877 though the songs came in a later version which was first performed on 1st September 1885. Braham was Harrigan's father-in-law. I could go on, but if you want lots more detail you can find it on Mudcat.

This not surprisingkly started off a maritime mini-theme, immediately followed by Steve C with Haul away Joe (roud 809).

Denny took us inland with Dalesman's litany (poem by Frederic William Moorman, music by Dave Keddie).

Bob was still getting his guitar and other gear together, so he passed, opting to sing two songs on the next rotation. This meant that Simon, who had just arrived, was put on the spot and so sang his party piece, King of Rome (Dave Sudbury).

Colin's second song Captain Kidd (roud 1900, laws K35) took us back seaward. Steve's lake song is excused for being effectively about an inland, freshwater sea, being Stan Rogers' song White squall, about sudden localised storms which have often taken casualties on the Great Lakes.

Denny's Three score and ten (roud 16873 - William Delf) certainly saw us back off-shore with a notorious storm off the East coast of England on 9th February 1889 involving the loss of at least eight vessels including two from Hull.

As promised, Bob's first contribution comprised two songs: Back to Tennessee (George Frayne, Billy C Farlow) from Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, and Blood red river (roud 15807).

It was Bob who later started a mini theme of railways with Golden rocket (Hank Snow). Simon followed on with City of New Orleans (Steve Goodman). Bob retaliated with I'm moving on (Hank Snow) to which Simon came back with Drill ye tarriers drill (roud 4401 - words by Thomas Casey [1888] with later music by Charles Connolly).

And so it went on. You can hear all 36 songs which were sung (but mostly not by the actual singers) by following the link to the YouTube playlist from "a selection" below.

Our friendly bar lady came in for a second time towards the end of the evening and said that her Irish mother had encouraged her to request The Fields of Athenry (Pete St John) and Simon was able to oblige. That just left it to Colin to close the evening with Waltzing's for dreamers (Richard Thompson).

This Friday's session will once again have no theme, so please come along and sing, play or perform in any way you prefer as long as it's acoustic. Failing that we would love to see you as our audience, to join in the banter, and maybe to sing along with a chorus or three.

You will find us from 8:15pm this and almost any Friday in the "barn" at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG. You will also find free entry, a warm welcome, excellent acoustics and a reasonably priced bar. Some of the regulars will be missing this week, so we need newcomers and irregulars - you will all be very welcome.

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

(Number of people present - 7 of whom 5 performed)

Easter 2024

Last week's session at The Dragon Folk Club was back to form with an adequate set of four singers meeting. Most had prepared some songs with relevance to the Easter season.

Colin started us off with Stan Rogers' The Mary Ellen Carter.

The first rotation continued with Denny singing I do like to be beside the seaside (roud 32459), a well known music hall song written by John H. Glover-Kind.

Paul gave us Waking Dreams (roud 22620) and Simon sang Elizabeth Cotten's Freight Train.

The only song of the evening not included in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below is Paul's Tracks in the snow (Steve Thomason).

Simon finished off the session with his only offering the evening to mention Easter: When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

I'm not aware of any theme this Friday so anything goes as long as it's acoustic. Come and sing, play, recite a poem, tell a story or perform in any other way you wish. Failing that come and be our audience, join in the banter and maybe help out with a chorus or two. See you there!

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

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 performed)

Solo @ The Dragon

The Abbey Road zebra crossing
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Oh dear, only one person turned up to the Dragon Folk Club session last week. To be fair, with some core members away, it wasn't entirely unexpected, but it would have been nice if some of you could have kept Colin company for the evening. You see, when Colin is alone at a session he goes a little rogue and tends to sing well known songs that he would only usually bring out one or two at a time at our sessions, and when you hear what he's been doing you "sorta, kinda" wish you had been there - or at least that's my usual reaction.

Because they are so well known I could easily have picked videos for the playlist (see the "a selection" link below), which featured the original, or otherwise expected, artists, but that would have been too obvious, so I've treated it like one of those albums that bring together a variety of artists to do covers. Some of them are well known, others less so, but I think it's worth a watch and a listen. Just don't expect any "proper" folk music.

On the first side of his "album", Colin featured songs from the Beatles' repertoire including, in my mind, some lesser well known ones as well as some of my favourites. On side two he went for mostly Americana with a few gems from our side of the pond thrown in for good measure. I hope you enjoy this approach for a change. Well done Colin!

Normal service will be resumed this Friday when there will be a session despite it being Good Friday. There is officially no theme, but if you have anything appropriate to Easter or to any other anniversaries you can find going on then I'm sure it will all go down well. As usual, anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

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

(Number of people present - 1 of whom 1 performed)

St Patrick's Day 2024

The Shandon Arms, Cork, Republic of Ireland
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We had a great St Patrick's Day session (two days early) last week with a pleasing total of eight singers giving us 36 performances, mostly with some connection to Ireland.

This Friday's session will have no theme so anything goes as long as it's acoustic. Well, that's always the case theme or not. Your presence will be very gratefully received since we will be well down on the usual crowd with several people away. This is your chance to try out something new or to try singing or playing in public if you are unaccustomed. Colin, our MC, will be waiting to welcome you. With the weather starting to warm up and having found a heater the welcome indeed be warm.

Last week it was Denny who started off the session with Mountains of Mourne (Percy French).

The only song of the evening not to appear in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below is Tom Lewis's the St Patrick's Day song which Colin gave us. It's not that the song isn't available on YouTube, but the recording of it alone has been removed and it only remains on a full recording of Lewis's album 360 Degrees (All Points of the Compass).

Another one that just scraped through t the playlist was Paul's "Old times of old Ireland", a lightly reworked version of Hard times of old England (roud 1206).

Some songs less often sung at the club and deserving a mention, whether Irish or not, include:

• Colin - Ancient and old Irish condom
• Stuart - The cuckoo (roud 413)
• Stuart - KC moan (roud 4958)

Simon brought the session to a close with the classic joiner-inner, Wild Rover (roud 1173).

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

(Number of people present - 8 of whom 8 performed)

First times and name checks

Boston Dock, Boston, Lincolnshire

Last week's session of the Dragon Folk Club had no theme and a wide variety of songs was sung, forty in all. It was good to see Steve C join us for the first time in a while.

This Friday's session (15th March) being just two days before Paddy's Day will have a theme of St Patrick and all things Irish. You may be interested to know St Patrick's full list of patronages in case you run out of Irish songs. They are:

Ireland, Nigeria, Montserrat, the Archdiocese of New York, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark (New Jersey), the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Boston (Massachusetts), Rolla, Missouri, Loíza, Puerto Rico, Murcia (Spain), Clann Giolla Phádraig, engineers, paralegals, and the Archdiocese of Melbourne. He is also invoked against snakes and sins.

Back to last week, Colin as MC started off the session with Boston Harbour (roud 613). We briefly discussed which Boston this referred to before deciding it was Boston, Massachusetts rather than Boston, Lincolnshire which has a man-made dock, opened in 1884, rather than a harbour. Nevertheless it is this dock which has inspired the featured image.

The only song of the night that doesn't feature in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below is Paul's self-penned parody of Close the coalhouse door (Alex Glasgow) which he wrote while waiting in the car for Denny to have some dental treatment, and which he calls "Close the dentist's door". Of course "...there's blood inside".

There was only one song during the evening that was new to the Dragon database and that was from Colin, The pensioner's complaint (roud 1663).

Simon started a theme of firsts. The first song he sang at a folk club was Suzanne Vega's Tom's diner. The first song Denny sang in a similar situation was Oh! Oh! Antonio (roud V36813 - C W Murphy, Dan Lipton) and Paul's was Fathom the bowl (roud 880).

Steve arrived during the second rotation of the evening, and his first song of the evening was Jolly Waggoner (roud 1088).

Another ad hoc theme, first spotted by Colin, was songs with someone's name in the first line. I'll leave it to you to listen to the playlist and work out how many there were.

We had eight complete rotations of the room and while Steve missed the first Colin made up for it by starting a ninth just before the end, so his singing of New York girls (roud 486) brought us to a round tally of forty songs in the evening.

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

(Number of people present - 5 of whom 5 performed)

St David's Day 2024

(AI image from Stable Diffusion)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session actually fell on St David's Day, so no excuse was required to try to sing things related somehow, sometimes tenuously, to Wales... or even sometimes to whales (oh well). We were fine with four singers, but unusually we also had an audience member in the person of Denny's sister, who was a very welcome addition. I hope she enjoyed her evening; at least she laughed in all the right places.

This Friday's session (8th March) will have no theme, but then next week (15th March) we will be celebrating St Patrick's Day just two days early. I'll leave detailed suggestions of what you might like to do until next week's report.

We had a bumper set of 40 performances last Friday, and I should say that if any of them appear derogatory to Wales or the Welsh, no offence is intended. These are songs and poems from all sorts of different sources and of varying ages. Please enjoy all the recordings linked from "a selection" below in the spirit of entertainment.

There were just three performances for which no representative YouTube video could be found:

• Colin - Children born to the valleys (Dawson Smith)
• Simon - The ice cream bells of Porthcawl (Les Barker)
• Colin - From green to black (Dawson Smith)

It was in fact Denny who kicked off proceedings with a song variously called "Always eat when you are hungry" or "Don't forget to breathe or else you'll die. The song features sung by Gracie Fields at the end of the film Molly and Me from 1945 and an earlier recording can be found at 2:05 in this Vitaphone short from 1928 called The Beau Brummels and featuring the vaudeville act Shaw and Lee. Denny however sang more words and to the tune Cwm Rhondda.

Simon took a leaf out of our friend Derek's book in order to follow the theme by trying and not always succeeding to sing songs from the repertoire of traditional Gower singer Phil Tanner. The Gower Wassail (roud 209) was partly successful, and Barbara Allen (roud 54, child 84) more so as was The oyster girl (roud 875, laws Q13), albeit not Tanner's version, but acquired from the singing of Rosie Upton (who is in the linked video). Although he had a couple more songs in this vein on file he cut his losses at this stage.

Colin's singing of The bells of Rymney (Idris Davies) gives me the chance to roll out a fun video made by our friend Gabe in which he visited each of the locations mentioned in the song/poem.

As people started to run out of Welsh songs (except for Colin who lasted out the night) we had a number of perfectly good if geographically random mining songs such as Paul with Close the coalhouse door (Alex Glasgow), and Denny with Down in your mine (Colin Wilkie).

Well' I've just about run out of time to write this report, so I'll just mention that Simon finished the evening with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

(Number of people present - 5 of whom 4 performed)

A mixed bag

A Lincolnshire fenland farm in 2023
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

A happy band of four met for last week's un-themed session of the Dragon Folk Club. I'm rather late writing the report this week, so I will keep it short.

First of all let's get out of the way the advert for this Friday (1 March) when the theme will be St David's Day, which it is. Of course Welsh songs, songs about Wales and the Welsh, and at a push even songs about whales are very welcome, but really anything goes as long as it's acoustic, whether that's a song, a tune, or any other sort of performance.

And don't forget St David's other patronages, which compared to the other national saints of the UK and Ireland seem to be quite thin on the ground: Pembrokeshire (in South West Wales), Naas (the county town of County Kildare in Ireland), vegetarians, and poets.

To keep this brief I will mention just some of the less-often sung of the things we heard last week. You may think some of them are less-often sung for a reason, but I hope you will agree that others are gems.

• Colin - Radio Times (Tom Lewis)
• Paul - One more pull (Ian Woods)
• Simon - Jolene (Dolly Parton)
• Colin - Old Molly Metcalfe (Jake Thackeray)
• Simon - Love is like a butterfly (Dolly Parton)
• Colin - The frog's courtship (roud 16)
• Denny - Sweet thyme (John Conolly, Pete Mundy)
• Simon - The Lincolnshire song (John Sykes)
• Colin -  The herring song (roud 128)
• Denny - Loving Hannah (roud 454)
• Colin - Ivor (roud 2570)

I'll pause there just to note that we learnt the song Ivor tells the true story of dramatist, singer and composer Ivor Novello who was sentenced to eight weeks in Wormwood Scrubbs prison, serving four of those weeks, for misusing wartime petrol coupons. An admiring fan had stolen the coupons from her employer, but the court found that Novello was also culpable. This was a serious offence under rationing laws in wartime Britain.

• Colin - The pitmen poets (Jez Lowe)
• Colin - Little Mohee (roud 273, laws H8)
• Paul - Bird on the wire (Leonard Cohen)

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session - in fact it's all 36 of the songs we sang that evening.

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 performed)

Valentine's Day 2024

(AI image from Stable Diffusion)

Last week's session saw us mark Valentine's Day albeit two days later than the rest of the world. A perfectly happy, not even too cold, band of four singers got the evening underway, only to be joined around the half-way mark of the evening by Keith G who we hadn't seen for a long time, and a welcome joiner he was. Keith said he hadn't played the guitar for a long time so we didn't hear his excellent playing, but he gave us some worthwhile, unexpected, unaccompanied contributions.

You can hear versions representing all of the songs sung by following the usual "a selection" link below.

Colin, MC as usual, started off the evening with The Eddystone Light (roud 22257).

I'll just give a mention to a few of the other contributions from the evening, a few of which were new to the Dragon database:

• Sue - Hey there Delilah (Tom Higgerson)
• Bob - Blue days black nights (Ben Hall)
• Simon - It was a lover and his lass (V18701 - William Shakespeare, Thomas Morley)
• Bob - Blues stay away from me (Alton Delmore, Henry B Glover, Rabon Delmore, Wayne Raney)
• Sue - My guy (Smokey Robinson)
• Sue - Eternal flame (Susanna Hoffs, Billy Steinberg, Tom Kelly)
• Keith - Better off without a wife (Tom Waits)
• Colin - Black Jack Davy (roud 1, child 200)
• Keith - Behind blue eyes (Pete Townshend)
• Keith - I'll get you (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)

Sue finished off the evening with In other words (fly me to the moon) (Bart Howard).

This week's Dragon session (Friday 23 February) will have no theme so as usual anything goes as long as it's acoustic. The next flurry of themes (just for fun) will probably be some more saints' days: St David (1st March on the nose), St Patrick (15th March for 17th), and St George (26th April for 23rd). We'll let you know if we come up with any more ideas. In the meantime you are welcome to join us any Friday evening from 8:15pm.

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

(Number of people present - 5 of whom 5 performed)

How to keep warm

(AI image from Stable Diffusion)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was enjoyable not least for some rarer songs being sung. Five singers met and managed not to freeze too hard by singing some songs of warmer climes and warmer times. You can hear all of those songs by following the "a selection" link below to a YouTube playlist.

Slightly bizarrely, Colin as MC started us off with The last shanty (Tom Lewis) and keeping to a maritime theme Simon, inspired by Rob's singing of The tow-rope girls on his last visit,which we remember is by Cicely Fox Smith and not by Tom Lewis at all, gave us Wave over wave (Jim Payne) to the same tune. Rob himself kept it nautical with The Greenland whale fishery (roud 347, laws K21), the first song of the evening totally new to the Dragon database.

We hadn't finished with the sea yet with Paul singing Roll Aladama Roll (roud 4710) and Denny selecting Bye-bye my Roseanna (roud 12380).

Colin's singing of The Roman gladiator (Bruce Campbell) recalled our friend Mike Starkey who we haven't seen for some time. Bruce Campbell, a Groundsman at Wethered's Brewery in Marlow, wrote the song around 1940.

Likewise, Simon's singing of Lasso the moon (Tom Mossman) reminded us of Tom of whom we receive regular reports, but who has not been able to join us for a long time. The song was written as a result of conversations between Tom and our late friend Ray Croll.

Another new song to the database was Mississippi summer (Si Kahn) sung by Rob, who also introduced another "new" song (definitely not new to the club though another entry in the database), General Taylor (roud 216).

Rob was definitely hot on finding gaps in the database because it was he who contributed I think it's going to rain today (Randy Newman). The final new song though came from Colin with Port of call (Kieran Halpin).

I'll leave you to listen to the rest of the songs from the evening. Suffice to say that the last song was The Holmfirth anthem (roud 1046) given to us by Denny.

This Friday's session (16th February) will be our Valentine's Day theme. Of course we know what St Valentine's Day means to most people, but bear in mind he patron saint of affianced couples, beekeepers, happy marriages, love, mentally ill people, plague, epilepsy, and Lesvos.

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

(Number of people present - 5 of whom 5 performed)

Friends and neighbours

Sam Cooke in 1963
(Photo from Billboard)

It was a theme-less evening at the Dragon Folk Club last week and we were pleased to see seven singers gather including occasional visitor Malcolm who hopped over the bridge from Wales.

It was Malcolm who started off the session with Dion DiMucci's Here in America, written following the killing of fellow singer Sam Cooke in 1964.

There are 34 songs in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below. There were 35 songs sung, which included a brand new song by Paul on its debut outing. It tells of his experiences several years ago with cancer and is entitled "Fathom my bowel". I have cheated somewhat by including a recording of the source song, obviously Fathom the bowl (roud 880).

The other song missing from the playlist was sung by Colin and is Harry Brown, written by our friend Mike Starkey, together with Pete McNab and tells the story of the last days of the Bristol sand dredger of that name and its final journeys to Barry and then to Bahrain.

The final song of the evening also came from Colin and provided a good opportunity for some singing along. It was Botany Bay (roud 3267).

This Friday's session (9 February) will be theme-less again in preparation for the Valentine's Day of the following week. See you at either of those sessions or on any Friday night except when occasionally notified here.

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

(Number of people present - 7 of whom 7 performed)

Burns' Night 2024

The haggis season?
(Image with thanks to Paul Welcomme)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session again saw four singers meet to make a noise. This time is was for Burns' Night, belated but only by one day. There were several performances which had in some way been touched by Rabbie, and most others had some connection with Scotland, some strong, some more tenuous.

You will find everything performed on the evening represented in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below. I'll list some of the more Burnsian ones here, and sorry for any I miss:

• Denny - Ye Jacobites by name (roud V21021, Robert Burns)
• Simon - Address to a haggis (Robert Burns)
• Denny - Leezie Lindsay (roud 94, child 226, Robert Burns)
• Colin - Such a parcel of rogues in a nation (roud V31022, Robert Burns)
• Simon - Geordie (roud 90, child 209, but not Robert Burns' version)
• Colin - Afton water (roud 24637, Robert Burns)
• Denny - The collier laddie (roud 3787, collected by Robert Burns)

This Friday (2 February) is a theme-less session so anything goes as long as it's acoustic. Bring your own theme if you wish. While are of course there for your enjoyment every Friday evening, the next theme should you wish to prepare will be a slightly belated Valentine's Day on 16th February. I'll give you some food for thought on that in next week's blog report.

See you there any Friday, but remember to wrap up warm at this time of year. We are promised a snowy blast this weekend in Bristol.

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

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 performed)

Frozen? Perseverence! When all men sing (and a lady too).

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

At last week's Dragon Folk Club session we were four singers and we had a good range of songs. You can judge for yourself by listening to the playlist linked below from "a selection". The selection in fact includes all but one song that was sung. The missing one is (not a typo) And the band played 'And the band played Waltzing Matilda', written by Tony Miles and sung on this occasion by our MC, Colin.

This Friday (26 January) is our slipped by just one day Burns' Night, so while the usual "anything goes as long as it's acoustic" does apply, it's extra brownie points if it's Burns, Scottish or somehow about Scotland or the Scots.

See you there, but remember to wrap up warm.

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

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 performed)

In the salt sea

Kaskelot (Photo: Simon Meeds)

At last week's Dragon session we had a quorum of five singers. There was no theme so we enjoyed a wide variety of songs and styles including some new to the Dragon database, and I suspect at least one, maybe two, that were actually new to the club. There were notably quite a few songs somehow related to the sea, so that is the inspiration for this week's featured image.

You can hear every one of the songs we sang (some even by their Dragon singers) by following the "a selection" link below.

This Friday's session (19 January) will again have no theme, but next week's (26 January) will be our Burns' Night. I'm afraid there will be no actual haggis nor sgian dubhs, and probably no pipes, but the singing of Burns' songs, or in fact anything more or less related to Scotland and the Scots will be encouraged, though not required.

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

(Number of people present - 5 of whom 5 performed)

New Year 2024

Last week's Dragon session was our first of 2024 and therefore logically had a New Year, January theme, augmented by the fact it was actually held on Twelfth Night. We met as a perfectly respectable band of six singers including regular MC Colin.

I'm afraid I've run out of time to write one of my in-depth reports on the event, but you can still find most of the songs we sang in the YouTube playlist linked below.

This Friday's session (12 January) has no official theme as far as I am aware, so anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

Back for 2024

This is a reminder that the Dragon Folk Club is back in action tonight (5 January 2024) after a two week Christmas break. You may like to try out a theme of New Year, January and Twelfth Night. Yes, it's actually Twelfth Night, so get those decorations down and come along to the "barn" at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG. You will find us tonight and almost every Friday night from 8:15pm.

We crave your presence whether you sing, play, perform in some other way, or just join in the odd chorus - or even if you don't. Don't worry too much about the theme - when we have one it's always optional, nice to follow but no forfeits if you don't.

Most importantly you will always find FREE ENTRY, a warm welcome, excellent acoustics, and a reasonably priced bar. What more could you want on a Friday night? One warning though, at this time of year the welcome may be warm, but the room isn't always so hot - wrap up warm and we'll all huddle close together to sing and create some body heat. Let's have some fun - I don't care about those who say "this is a folk club, you're not here to have fun". Anything goes as long as it's acoustic.
See you there!