Time is ticking

Bristol Exchange Clock times three
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We had a great theme-less session at the Dragon Folk Club last week with 47 songs being sung by five singers. It's great that Heather and Hazel are now regulars when they don't have other commitments.

We will be without a theme again this Friday (6 Feb) and Simon will be MC, so he would very much like to see you whether you sing, play, perform in some other way (as long as it's acoustic) or simply come and listen, partake of the banter and maybe join us in a chorus or two.

Back to last week, Colin was in his MC. He would have started the evening, but Paul pre-empted him, getting us all to join in singing Happy Birthday to you - Heather (roud 36104 - Mildred J. Hill, Patty Hill).

Colin started the session proper with The apprentice song (Ian Campbell).

Heather reprised her Highland fairy lullaby from the previous week's Burns' Night celebration before Paul took us to Old Maui (roud 2005) and Denny carried on a sort of maritime theme with The pickled herring man (# Cathy Wallis) which together with Paul's Tracks in the snow (# Steve Thomason) are the two songs of the evening not found on YouTube and therefore not on this week's playlist.

Staying with the sea Simon gave us Bonnie ship the Diamond (roud 2172) and brought the first rotation to an end.

There were only three songs at this session which were new to the Dragon database. Heather sang Mother of mine (* Bill Parkinson) which was made famous by Neil Reid in 1971 to win ITV's Opportunity Knocks. In reply to Heather's singing of Grandfather's clock (roud 4326 - Henry Clay Work), Simon gave us the less famous Sequel to grandfather's clock (* Henry Clay Work). The final on this week's "new to" list is Heather's singing of Home on the range (* roud 3599 - Brewster M. Higley, Daniel E. Kelley).

Colin brought the evening to a close with Haul away Joe (roud 809).

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 5 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 (#).

A welcome return

Redcliffe Wharf, Bristol (Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last Friday's Dragon Folk Club session was special to those of us who have been around for a while. Not only did we have a highly respectable head count, being joined by regular irregulars Roger, Stuart and Steve, but were able to welcome back to the fold the long absent Derek and Maggie, complete with new canine companion Bertie.

Like last week's, this week's session will be without a theme so as usual anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Despite having memory issues and having not sung in public for three and a half years, Derek made a valiant attempt with four songs from his formerly vast repertoire. Both Derek and Maggie joined in with numerous choruses in fine voice and we hope to see them again soon.

Colin started us off with Last night I had the strangest dream (Ed McCurdy) and Roger followed him with This land is your land (Woody Guthrie).

Stuart had expected to be accompanied by Carrie, so when she turned out to be unavailable he had to quickly rework his set-list. His first was Bert Jansch's Soho (*).

Simon opened his account with Bonny ship the Diamond (roud 2172).

Paul sang Song for Ireland (Phil Colclough, June Colclough) and Denny stayed in the Irish Sea with The Ellan Vannin tragedy (Hughie Jones).

Derek offered us the first song he had sung at the beginning of his singing career, suggesting that this evening was the end of it (we hope not). The song was Roger Watson's Invalid miner (#).

Steve closed the first rotation with The rare ould times (Pete St John).

In the second rotation Stuart gave us a song new to the Dragon database which I believe was How long, how long blues (* Leroy Carr).

Derek's second song was one I think he calls The lobster (roud 149) though I wouldn't be surprised if he collected it from Cyril Barber who apparently called it Jimmy Johnson. His next song was Mary went to a tea party (# roud 24991) which he collected from Bertha Brown.

Colin sang Robb Johnson's More than enough (*).

The last "new" song of the evening came from Stuart and was Roger McGuinn's version of the traditional He was a friend of mine (*) which deals with the subject of John F Kennedy's assassination. Stuart's final performance was a repertoire first with Lady Franklin's lament (roud 487, laws K09).

Derek's final song was Jack Hall (roud 369, laws L5) and the final song of the evening, coming from Steve, was Leave her Johnny (roud 354).

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 songs not to be found in the playlist linked from "a selection" are marked with a hash (#).

St Andrew's Day 2023

We knew that some of our stalwarts would be missing from last week's Dragon session, but with just two singers present you could say we met a bit short. Nevertheless we sang 33 songs, all somehow on the theme of St Andrew, whether songs from or about Scotland, by Scottish writers, or relating to Andrew's other patronages which include fishermen, miners, textile workers and pregnant women. We didn't even have to resort to his patronage, very useful in this context, of singers.

Now we have one week's respite without a theme (on Friday 8th December), before our Christmas session on 15th. We will see how the wind blows before deciding whether we will meet for a final Christmas bash on 22nd, so watch this space closely.

Colin as MC started things off last Friday with Matt McGinn's The hielan' man (*), marking songs new to the Dragon database as usual with an asterisk (*).

Simon for the first time sang a song from the repertoires of our friends Derek B and Rob W: The dowie dens o'Yarrow (roud 13, child 214). And so ended the first, very short rotation of 16 and a half through the evening before the landlady gave us a not-so-subtle hint that it was time to pack up.

Colin's next song was interesting for the casual way he proclaimed that he may have written it, or maybe not. I have been unable to trace it anywhere, so let's assume he wrote The Thistle (* Colin Owen). The song told of that symbol of Scotland, comparing it with England's rose, Wales' daffodil and Ireland's shamrock. It definitely wasn't The shamrock and the thistle (Hamish Henderson, from a trad fragment heard on board an Irish ferry), which Colin has sung before.

I won't quite count Colin's Tommy Linn (roud 294) as a song new to the database since it is a version of Tam Lin, which we heard from Derek B in times past in the form of Old John Wallis. The linked video isn't Tommy Linn, but Tam Linn sung by Steeleye Span, for which Colin had been searching.

Simon had long wanted to sing The twa magicians (roud 1350, child 44), but couldn't get the tune to stick. This time he had a breakthrough, that the verses go tolerably well to the tune of Bonny ship the Diamond (roud 2172), which he also sang - the chorus being sung to approximately the correct tune.

Colin brought another new song to the party in the shape of Morris Blythman's Superintendent Barratt (*), one of several songs about the theft of the Stone of Scone (Scone pronounced "scoon" in this context of course).

Eric Bogle's Glasgow lullaby (*) gave Colin his next "new" song. Running out of songs about Scotland, Simon also drew on the songwriting of originally Scottish Eric Bogle with The band played waltzing matilda before resorting to songs of St Andrew's other patronages:

• Miners - Dark as a dungeon (Merle Travis)
• Textile workers - Poverty knock (Tommy Daniel)
• Fishermen - Fiddlers' green (John Connolly)

Colin sang St Andrew's day - a toast, which is a poem by Jean Blewett and doesn't appear on YouTube.

Colin added two more songs to the database before we closed for the evening. The first was The broo road (*) about which we know very little. It was composed during the depression in Dundee, and was included by John A Brune in his collection "The Roving Songster". His last and the final song of the evening was Tramps and hawkers (* roud 1874)

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

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

Valentine's Day 2023

It was a really useful turn-out at last week's Dragon Folk Club session. The official theme was Valentine's Day, Love and Lust. While there was plenty of that in our songs, there were also some interesting groups of songs so that is what this report will focus on.

Colin, taking his usual role of MC, started us off with Liverpool Judies (roud 928).

John B continued with The Rose (Amanda McBroom). This song featured in the film of the same name which was loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin. The film follows a self-destructive rock star in the late 1960s who struggles to cope with the pressures of her career and the demands of her ruthless business manager.

Geoff's first of the evening was The Lakes of Ponchartrain (roud 1836, laws H9). The song is about a man who is given shelter by a Louisiana Creole woman. He falls in love with her and asks her to marry him, but she is already promised to a sailor and declines. It is set on the shores of the major estuarine water-bodies of the Pontchartrain Basin, including lakes Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and Borgne.

Simon's Bonnie Ship the Diamond (roud 2172) tells of whalers leaving the port of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland for the whaling grounds near Greenland, later returning to port to be greeted by their sweethearts and wives.

Sue gave us I Will (Paul McCartney). Like numerous other Beatles songs, this was credited to Lennon-McCartney, but we now know that many of them were actually written by one or the other.

Geoff gave us two songs from the singing of Waylon Jennings: Amanda (Bob McDill) and Wrong (Steve Seskin, André Pessis).

John B sang two songs from Bob Dylan: One too many mornings and Marchin' to the city.

We had two songs from the singing of the Carter Family. For the first, John B sang Will the Circle Be Unbroken? (roud 3409) though strictly speaking the linked version is A.P. Carter's reworking of the original Ada R. Habershon and Charles H. Gabriel song into "Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)". The second Carter song was Bob's Bear Creek Blues which was actually written by A. P. Carter.

Colin sang Ruby Tuesday (Keith Richards, Mick Jagger) which was covered by Melanie Safka. This inspired John B to follow on with another Melanie song: What have they done to my song Ma (Melanie Safka, HM Saffer II).

I wondered whether Geoff might follow up with Brand New Key (Melanie Safka), but he didn't; instead singing Cheryl's Goin' Home (Bob Lind), a response to Simon's earlier Elusive Butterfly (Bob Lind), the former being the B-Side of the latter on the 7" original single.

We also had a pair of Joe Brown songs with Sue singing I'll see you in my dreams (Isham Jones, Gus Kahn) and Geoff giving us A Picture of you (John Beveridge, Peter Oakman).

Simon finished off the session with the rousing When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

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

A Kist o’Tales

Heckmondwike English Concertina Premier Prize Band 1909

Before we deal with this week’s events I need to convey two important messages, one relating to the previous meeting, and one to the next.

Firstly it would appear that last week the Regular Scribe (whose humble servant addresses you herewith) should have attributed the Last Shanty sung by Mike to Tom Lewis, and not to any other individual who (according to one of this week’s stories, of which more shortly) might have a small copyright hang-up.

[RS: In my defence, I was not present for the singing of the said song, and it appears I may have misunderstood the message given to me by Colin about the song Mike sang last week]

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

I was a good turnout with fourteen people and three dogs at last week's session. We had two Maggies for the first time in a while, and Paul was joined by former colleague, Jan and her husband. Canine presence was provided by regular Indy with Gertie and Freddie.

The official theme was St George (dragons, England, etc.) and that was complemented by William Shakespeare (400th death anniversary) and Derek even picked up on my suggestion of "disturbing songs", from a theme brought up by the BBC.

Best Known To Fame

The Runcorn Ferry (Old Ted, The Boatman)
drawing by John Hassall

We started off a bit thin on the ground last week; in fact it seemed that few of us that there were, we were perhaps the only people in the pub. However we gained a few people during the evening and some more appeared in the other bar as well.

Richard was MC and he started off with Bessie Of Ballantown Brae (Laws P28). Lesley's singing of A Kiss In The Morning Early set her going on a theme of cobblers ("And off to the shoemaker's shop sure she goes For a kiss in the morning early") which she followed up with more rubbish (I jest) in the shape of Cobbler's Daughter (Kate Rusby). I have previously credited Cobbler's Daughter to Kate Rusby and have not been challenged. This time I found a video claiming to predate Kate's singing of the song but I'm not sure I believe it. Your comments on this matter would be very welcome.

Saint Andrew, Scotland and the sea

The Beauchamp - the lifeboat
involved in the Caister disaster of 1901

Last Friday people were very thin on the ground at the session. I suggested that we might get more people in if we removed the poster from the door; not because people are discouraged by the folk club poster, but because removing it would reveal the sign showing the way to the alternative toilets.

I can't quite remember the reason, but it may have been this comment that started Maggie singing Seven old ladies locked in the lavatory. Well, I say she started singing... No, I don't mean there was anything wrong with Maggie's singing, it's just that although it is officially her folk club, Maggie almost never sings, and she tried to stop the fact that she had sung being recorded. Well, it went into the official book, and it's recorded here on the blog as well!