May-be, may-be not

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We had a fine session last week at the Dragon Folk Club. There was no official theme so we had plenty of scope for variety. This Friday too there will be no theme so as always anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

In the absence of regular MC Colin, Simon took up the reins, but he was narrowly beaten in his arrival, so the opening song went to Paul who gave us Too old to go back to sea (Rod Smith).

For her first song Denny decided to try some thing new. I think she might have called it Old May song. She had "collected" it the previous week from Jenn Reid who was the support act for Eliza Carthy at Bristol Folk House. Denny spoke to Jenn who told her that the song had been sung by The Oldham Tinkers, a group with which Denny is familiar.

Digging a little further into the song I quickly found that Roud gives it the number 305 in which it is grouped with a number of other May songs. It seems that the song is indeed very old so I think it's worth pointing out a few versions of it and some more information.

In his book "Lancashire Sketches" (1869), Edwin Waugh wrote:

By the way, that phrase, "the drawing near of spring," reminds me of the burden of an ancient May song, peculiar to the people of this district [between Stretford and Flixton, now in Greater Manchester]. In the villages hereabouts, they have an old custom of singing in the month of May; and companies of musicians and "May-singers" go from house to house among their neighbours, on April nights, to sing under their chamber windows this old song about "the drawing near unto the merry month of May." An old man, known in Stretford as a "May-singer," an "her-gatherer," and a "Yule-singer," who gets a scanty living out of the customs of each season of the year as it comes, furnished me with a rough copy of the words and music of this old "May Song." In one verse of the song, each member of the sleeping family is addressed by name in succession,-

Then rise up, Sarah Brundrit, all in your gown of green;

 and as each appears at the window, they are saluted with a "Merry May." Since the time of my visit I have been enabled, through the kindness of John Harland, Esq., F.S.A., to give this old May song, in complete shape, as it appears in his first volume of "Lancashire Ballads," recently published by Mr. Edwin Slater of Manchester.

Waugh goes on to give the full words of the song, which are also available on mudcat.org.

Here are some versions of the song:

• Old May song (The Oldham Tinkers) - included in the "a selection" YouTube playlist linked below because it was Denny's reference
• Swinton May Song (The Watersons)
• Drawing nearer to the merry month of May (The Copper Family)

...and here are two other songs under the roud 305 umbrella from the Dragon database (both sung at the club by Colin):

• May day carol
• Padstow May song

After singing a few verses of the above song Denny stopped because she wasn't happy with her grasp of the tune. Bearing in mind we aren't too fussy about how people stick to tunes and that it sounded OK, there really was nothing to worry about, but she didn't want to continue. Simon suggested that the tune she was singing was reminiscent of "The <fill in colour> cockade", so Denny proceeded to sing The white cockade (roud 709).

The only song of the evening not available for the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below was also sung by Denny, and was Wayhill fair. This song comes from a tape she has of The South Bank Grunters. It seems to be related to Weyhill Fair (roud 1086), but isn't so much about horses at the fair.

Having spent a lot of words on one song I will skip straight to the end of the evening. The last three songs were:

• Simon - No sir no (roud 146)
• Paul - Country life (roud 1752)
• Denny - Pleasant and delightful (roud 660, laws O30)

So that's it for another blog report. Remember to keep music live and we'll hope to see you at The Bridge on Friday!

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

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