The Leaves of Summer

[Having been absent myself from last week's session, this report has been ably written by the deputy scribe for which I am very thankful. It has been a week of turmoil and strong discussions across the country. When I write these reports I try to keep them balanced or at least an objective report of the events of the evening. I hope you will agree that Mr Deputy Scribe has also achieved this. This should be taken against a background that by the nature of folk music individuals will sing songs including strongly worded views with which they may or may not agree themselves, and with which the assembled crowd may or may not agree. The Dragon Folk Club however seeks to be an inclusive venue for any acoustic music. We can be very non PC in what we sing or recite, either because of strongly held personal views or, at least as often, simply because much of our material is historical in nature and some of our members are reasonably keen to maintain authenticity - we will not apologise for this. Do not however be put off; we try and I hope succeed to be very welcoming and to accept anyone who comes along to our sessions for themselves. So now I hand over to the deputy scribe for his report.]

This week's session was marked by the absence of the regular Scribe, which meant that not only do you have to suffer my account of the proceedings, but many of us were forced to make up wholly imaginary cricket scores to get us through the evening.

Danger, men at work

Photo by James Butler

There was no official theme this week, so song subjects were a little all over the place. We initially gathered as nine but when Colin, who MCed, asked Steve G to sing, Steve said he had to leave immediately. It's OK, we hadn't upset him, but it did mean we were down to eight and Steve didn't get to sing this time.

Derek kicked off the evening with The Ballad Of William Bloat by Raymond Calvert and Mike responded with The Deserter/Ratcliff Highway (Roud 493).

Pot pourri

The title page of an edition of The Sacred Harp

Mike wasn't feeling too well at last week's session, so Richard was put in charge, and he ably MCed the evening.

Chico made an appearance at the club for the first time in 10 or 15 years according to his memory. We were certainly entertained by his songs: Roll along, Seaman's shuffle (a ragtime tune) and 21st century troubadour (download sample). Let's hope we see him at The Bridge before the next decade starts.

Terry isn't anywhere near as rare a visitor to the club as Chico, but this time he was missing his usual companion: his classical guitar. It was therefore from a slightly different repertoire that we hear him sing on this occasion. Terry sang The Dutchman by Michael P Smith, John Willie's ferret by the Oldham Tinkers, and Lamorna. The last song, appearing to be about a place in Cornwall, seems to be derived from a 19th century broadside providing words to a song called Down to Pomona, which is set in Manchester.