A bunch of "new" songs

A decorated door in Villefranche-de-Conflent, France
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session saw two visitors joining us for a lot of singing and chat. I will consider both Heather and Hazel new to the club although I believe I heard that Heather had been before though I think before any of the others present had first attended. Some of us however knew her a little from other sessions. Hazel did not perform, but it was noticed that she sang along to many of the songs and her presence was very welcome.

Before I go any further there is an important announcement. Our room at The Bridge is double-booked this Friday (3rd October 2025), so it will be a very rare Friday with no Dragon Folk Club session. We will however be back on Friday 10th October for a Harvest themed session. As always the theme is optional, but if you can bring along some appropriate songs that would be great.

Returning to last Friday, Colin as MC started the ball rolling with Tom Lewis' Sailor's prayer.

Heather's first song was Snowbird (* Gene MacLellan), a hit for Anne Murray in 1969.

Stuart and Carrie started off performing together, first with Under the boardwalk (Kenny Young, Arthur Resnick), followed immediately by Cool water (* Bob Nolan).

Sue, this week without partner Bob, sang Beyond the sea (Charles Trenet, Albert Lasry, Jack Lawrence).

Simon gave us Michelle Shocked's Ballad of Patch Eye and Meg. While this brought the first rotation to an end, Denny and Paul, who had just returned from far flung places, arrived at the beginning of the second rotation and their respective first songs of the evening were The water of Tyne (roud 1364) and One more pull (Ian Woods).

i'm going to be busy enough cataloguing, as our blog's tradition requires, the songs Heather sang on her first visit in club memory and the remarkable number which were new to the Dragon database, so I will get straight down to the job.

Heather's other songs were:

• Nobody's child (Cy Coben, Mel Foree)
• Secret love (* Sammy Fain, Paul Francis Webster)
• Bunch of thyme (roud 3)
• Paper roses (* Fred Spielman, Janice Torre)

Other songs new to the Dragon database:

• Stuart and Carrie - A horse with no name (* Dewey Bunnell)
• Carrie - Close to the wind (* Stuart Marson)
• Colin - The next Best Western (* Richard Shindell)
• Stuart - Reuben's train (* roud 3423)
• Carrie - Until morning (* Kate Rusby)
• Colin - William Taylor (* roud 158, laws N11)
• Carrie - All of me (* Gerald Marks, Seymour Simons)

Simon closed the session with Stan Rogers' Northwest passage.

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

(Number of people present - 9 of whom 8 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and any songs not included in the "a selection" playlist are marked with a hash (#).

Vistors welcome

Bob Watson who died on 31st May

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session saw us able to welcome two new first time visitors: Richard and Anne are from the Stroud area and they brought some excellent songs, singing and playing to our evening as well as their two very well behaved canine companions. We hope they return soon. We really have had some great visitors recently and long may it continue. Perhaps some of them will even become regular?

This Friday there will be no official theme once again though you are welcome to bring your own or make one up as you go along. A bit of an early warning - next week's report is likely to be brief, probably without a YouTube playlist. Normal service should be resumed the following week.

Back to last week's session, Colin, MC as usual, opened the account in memory of the recently deceased Bob Watson by singing Bob's Shantyman.

Richard and Anne opened their Dragon account with No telling (* Linda Thompson) and Harvest moon (* Neil Young).

Bob's first song was So much trouble (* Brownie McGhee) and Sue's was Beyond the sea (Charles Trenet, Albert Lasry, Jack Lawrence). The latter being an English language version of Charles Ternet's La Mer.

Simon marked the 81st anniversary of the Normandy landings and completed the first rotation with D-Day Dodgers (Lance-Sergeant Harry Pynn).

In the second rotation Anne sang Cold Missouri Waters (* James Keelaghan) and Richard gave us his own version (*# Richard Cox) of Carrickfergus (roud 17556). The popular version of the song is attributed to Dominic Behan who said he learned the third verse from Peter O'Toole. Richard's version tells of a man who would like to go abroad for his holiday, but his wife wants to stay in Ireland.

Colin debuted a song which he heard from the singing of friend of the club, Terry Cock, that being What happened to the ponies (Jim Moreland). This is the first time I've been able to find a recording of the song to add to the playlist linked from "a selection" below.

Continuing the tradition of mentioning all songs from newcomers to the club, Anne and Richard sang Stan Rogers' Lock-keeper, and Richard went solo on his own version (*# Richard Cox) of Spencer the Rover (roud 1115) in which Spencer is dissatisfied with the service being provided by the council in Stroud. He tries moving to Wales, but finally returns.

On the next rotation Richard and Anne gave us Graham Nash's Wasted on the way (*), and Richard sang The man who wrote the songs (*) which was written by our very own Derek Brinkley who had paid us a long awaited visit only the week before.

Returning to singing solo, Anne performed In search of angels (* Calum McDonald, Rory McDonald) from the band Runrig, of who she was clearly a fan having attended their last gig in Stirling in 2018.

Richard's last song of the evening was Chris Smither's Origin of species (*).

Sue sang her own song, Recycled teenager (#) and Bob evoked Lynyrd Skynyrd's version of J J Cale's Call me the breeze (*).

Simon finished the session off with Stan Rogers' Northwest passage.

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

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

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and songs not to be found in the playlist linked from "a selection" are marked with a hash (#).

Visitors from across the pond

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

After two weeks without a report the Dragon Folk Club blog is back and this is going to be a good one though I say so myself. There were sessions in the intervening weeks and I will try to put something together to briefly cover the necessaries of those events. In the meantime though here is the latest news from the club.

Last Friday's session sounds like a smasher though I'm afraid I wasn't there. There were three visitors, two of whom were singers. Not only that, but they were from another continent, though I believe one of them is currently resident in the vicinity.

Colin, as usual in his MC's seat, started things off with Leave her Johnny (roud 354). Bob followed on with Matchbox (Carl Perkins) and Sue sang Beyond the sea (Charles Trenet, Albert Lasry, Jack Lawrence).

Kate, visiting from Philadelphia, clearly picking up on Colin's first song, gave us Archimedes (The Lever) written by Nat Case and parodying Leave her Johnny. This was also the first of several new songs to be added to the Dragon database this week. The remainder I will simply tag with an asterisk (*).

Kate's friend Sadie, who also hails from across the pond, sang Tom Lewis' The last shanty. Since Sadie's friend Tom wasn't singing this marked the end of the first rotation of the evening.

As is traditional I will list all of the remaining songs sung by newcomers Kate and Sadie.

Kate:

• Will the circle be unbroken (Ada R. Habershon, Charles H. Gabriel)
• Mingulay boat song (Sir Hugh S Roberton)
• Goodnight Irene (roud 11681)
• Preacher and the slave (roud 9612 - Joe Hill)
• Wild mountain thyme (roud 541 - Francis McPeake)
• Solidarity forever (* roud 15158 - Ralph Chaplin)

Sadie:

• Tonight you belong to me (* Billy Rose, Lee David)
• Little boxes (Malvina Reynolds)
• Swingin' on a star (Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke)
• Take me out to the ball game (* roud 36252 - Jack Norworth, Albert Von Tilzer)
• Ten thousand miles away (* roud 1778 - attributed to Joseph B. Geoghegan)
• The rattlin' bog (* roud 129)

The other songs new to the Dragon database, though not necessarily new to the club, were:

• Colin - Erin grá mo chroí (* roud 14056)
• Sue - Tickle my heart (* Joe Brown)
• Colin - Death of a clown (* Dave Davies, Ray Davies)

There was just one song in the evening which isn't in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below and that was Sue's own autobiographical version of House of the Rising Sun. There's nothing dodgy there, it tells of how she met her late husband on cycle tours of the Cotswolds and the course of her family life since.

It was also Sue who finished off the evening with George Harrison's Something.

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 5 performed)