Rare finds

Mike Starkey (Photo: Simon Meeds)

At last week's Dragon Folk Club session it seems that we made a theme of singing less frequently sung songs from our repertoire, with a possible sub-theme of singing Mike's songs after his appearance at the previous week's session.

Listen to the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" at the bottom of this report to hear everything we sang - I even recorded a couple specially to give us a full house this week. Here is a run down of a few highlights.

After Mike Starkey's first visit to the club in a long time last week, Colin started off proceedings this week with Southern Star, written by Mike Starkey and Dave Marshall. Sorry for my dodgy rendition - Colin's was much better. This was a first for Colin according to the database, though we had of course heard Mike sing it many times before.

Simon followed along with Tracy Chapman's more solemn Behind the wall.

Colin added to the Dragon database Steve Knightley's Widecombe fair, a mysterious whodunnit rather than the traditional song of that name.

Simon sang The oyster girl (roud 875, laws Q13) for possibly the second time; a song he acquired from the singing of Rosie Upton.

Colin had acquired a song from the singing of Rose Little who used to be an occasional visitor to the Dragon Folk Club. That was A maid in Bedlam (roud 578). His next song, which he remembered Ray Croll singing, was London Danny (Jez Lowe). Colin has sung this at least twice before: once just a few weeks ago, and also on 20th July 2018, which may have been his first time.

Simon tried a debut with The hog-eye man (roud 331) and that was followed by Colin singing the American version of The miner's lifeguard (roud 3510) - we often hear the British (Welsh?) version, but rarely this one.

Simon has sung The Hippopotamus song (Michael Flanders and Donald Swann) in Latin before, but only now is there a YouTube video to go with it (imperfect I'm afraid). We don't know the author of this version, but we do know that they don't claim it to be perfect Latin, but at least is rhymes and is able to be sung. Ian Wallace sang it at his inauguration as Rector of St Andrews University.

The final song new to the Dragon database was Sail away ladies (roud 17635). Here Colin didn't sing the hit version credited to Bill Varley, Wally Whyton and first recorded by The Vipers Skiffle Group, but the remarkably similar, earlier version, sung and probably collected by Uncle Dave Macon.

Simon finished the evening in time-honoured fashion with 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)

Forward planning

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Thanks to everyone who came along to our Dragon Folk Club session last Friday. I believe a good time was had by all. We just need to keep up the flow of new or visiting performers and audience members. Don't be afraid. We meet every Friday in the pool room of The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG. Anything goes as long as it's acoustic, but we have some optionally themed sessions coming up:

• 17 February - Valentine's Day (Love, Affianced couples, against fainting, beekeepers, happy marriages, mentally ill, plague, epilepsy - even a massacre)
• 3 March - St David's Day (Wales, Pembrokeshire, Naas, vegetarians, poets)
• 17 March - St Patrick's Day (Ireland, Nigeria, Montserrat, Archdiocese of New York, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Boston, Rolla, Missouri, Loíza, Puerto Rico, Murcia (Spain), Clann Giolla Phádraig, engineers, paralegals, Archdiocese of Melbourne)
• 21 April - St George's Day (England, agricultural workers, farmers, field workers, soldiers, archers, armourers, equestrians, cavalry, saddle makers, chivalry, peacekeeping missions, skin diseases, lepers and leprosy, syphilis; sheep, shepherds, scouting)

Don't forget we are still there on other Fridays, just without a theme... unless one crops up by accident.

Back to last week, Colin was as usual the MC and he started things off with Billy Edd Wheeler's Coal Town Road. Simon followed with Elusive Butterfly (Bob Lind).

Bob's first offering was Sing Me Back Home which was written and first recorded by Merle Haggard, and Sue gave us Take Me Home, Country Roads (Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, John Denver).

Colin went off on a maritime theme of his own, starting with Stan Rogers' Mary Ellen Carter, one from the repertoire of our friend Mike Starkey, and a fine one to get everyone singing. Meanwhile Simon tried to out-miserable Bob with Tracy Chapman's Behind the Wall and Bob and Sue, performing together, went off in their own direction entirely with Spanish Harlem (Jerry Leiber, Phil Spector).

One of only two songs from the evening not represented in the linked YouTube playlist (see "a selection" link below) is Sue's own song Recycled Teenager, which tells of the goings-on at a ukulele jam.

The other unrecorded song is Simon's Story of John Twigg which tells of an eccentric chap who lived in Alford, Lincolnshire. The singing of this song was brought about because Colin mentioned our fried Derek's assertion that any folk song could be sung to one of two tunes: Blow the Man Down or Villikins and his Dinah. John Twigg is put to the latter, but a conversation ensued that few people seem to sing Villikins and his Dinah (roud 271, laws M31), so Simon gave it a go.

Colin followed this with Dick Darby The Cobbler (roud 872) and so Simon finished off the evening with Michelle Shocked's Memories of East Texas.

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

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

Tea for two

Fisher lasses, Pittenweem, Scotland

Last Friday's session saw Colin and Simon have a good chat before alternating songs. There must have been something wrong with the evening because not only were we down to a pair but there was hardly anyone in the rest of the pub and it closed early at 10pm because we were the only customers left. In fact I believe there were only four others at 9pm. So whatever was the mystery problem we will forgive you for not being there as long as you turn up this week from 8:15pm on Friday.

The parish notices were that we will have two weeks break over Christmas since Fridays fall on significant dates this year. We will not be meeting on 24 December nor on 31 December, so 17 December will be our last session of 2021 and 7 January will be the first of 2022.

While Colin was MC he ceded his customary opening spot to Simon who sang Tracy Chapman's Behind the wall. Maybe it has some relevance to the Arthur Labinjo-Hughes case, though perhaps Suzanne Vega's Luka would have been more appropriate.

Colin said he would continue his partial Scottish theme of the week before, taking as his first song Come by the hills (W Gordon Smith).

I won't go through all of the songs we sang; you can hear them all in one form or another at the "a selection" link below, but maybe I will mention one or two.

Colin challenged me to find a recording of The Pittenweem fisher-wives song (roud 13136). Well, it took a bit of digging and I won't claim 100% success. California State University, Fresno gives us some hints, including that it is related to We'll Go To Sea No More [no not Go to sea no more (roud 644, laws D7)], but a song which appeared in a book The odd volume (page 267), by the Misses Corbett. Mudcat Café tells us that Grace Corbett (c. 1765-1843), when eleven years old, composed the melody to a new version of "The Siller Crown" and along with her sister produced several works of fiction, tales, legends, etc.

The Corbett song has very similar verses to Colin's, but a different chorus. Anyway, this is the only version of We'll go to sea no more that I can find on YouTube - not very traditional I'm afraid. If you want to track down a version of the Pittenweem fisher-wives song, then you probably need to track down a copy of the album The Sailor's Day by Mainbrace (Minstrel Records - JD-217).

Colin closed the evening with Dougie McLean's Caledonia.

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

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

To join my voice with yours and sing a song with all our might

Harry Bridges

We were a little thin on the ground this week but keen enough that when Mike suggested calling it a day at half time, it was decided to carry on. As the song, Friends like these, by George Papavgeris, sung by Robin, says "I've been waiting since last [Friday] just to be with you tonight, just to join my voice with yours and sing a song with all our might".

I didn't discern any themes, intended or otherwise this week and there were no visitors to mention, so I'll just list at random a few of the songs that were sung - maybe some of the less well known (at least to me) ones.