More welcome young blood

Brinegar Cabin, Milepost 238.5, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

After remarking the previous week that the presence of singer/songwriter/guitarist Gabriel had significantly reduced the average age of our Dragon Folk Club session, it was as if someone was trying for some sort of record when 13 year-old singer Grace, accompanied by her father, Greg on banjo, turned up last week to our lair. Your scribe wasn't present, which also accounts for the order of songs in the YouTube playlist probably being awry, but I am told that Grace's voice "really suited the songs she had chosen to sing". I hope I get to hear her in the future.

As far as I'm aware there will be no theme at this Friday's session, and let's hope we continue the streak of being able to welcome fantastic new singers and musicians into our lair... maybe some of them, as several have already, will return for more. We really are a friendly, non-judgemental bunch, and the Dragon Folk Club is a great place whether you are sharing your old party piece or trying something new.

Back to last week, Colin, in the MC's chair, started the session with Caledonia (Dougie MacLean).

Paul's first song of the evening was The bard (Steve Thomason) and Denny followed that with Old fid (Bill Lowdes).

Grace, with Greg on banjo, sang the Crawdad song (roud 4853) and being a duo I assume went straight into Charming Betsy (* roud 7052), thus completing the first rotation.

Of course I will mention all of the songs sung and played by our first-time dragons:

• Grace and Greg - Little birdie (* roud 5742)
• Grace and Greg - Gum tree canoe ( * roud 759 - Silas Sexton Steele, Anthony 'Tony' Fannen Winnemore)
• Grace and Greg - Old Dan Tucker (* roud 390 - Daniel Decatur Emmett)
• Grace and Greg - Jimmie Brown the newsboy (* roud 4996 - William Shakespeare Hays)
• Grace and Greg - I'm my own grandpa (* roud 10444 - Dwight Latham, Moe Jaffe)
• Grace and Greg - Keep my skillet good and greasy (* roud 7479 - Uncle Dave Macon)
• Grace and Greg - Five pounds of possum (* Timothy W. White)
• Grace and Greg - Zombie (* Dolores O'Riordan)
• Greg - Long black veil (roud 18510)
• Greg - Bad moon rising (John Fogerty)

There was just one other song new to the Dragon database:

•  Colin - The dive (* Steve Knightley)

Songs not found on YouTube and therefore not in the playlist linked from "a selection" below were:

•  Colin - Sea dog (# Bob Zentz from a poem by Burt Franklin Jenness)
•  Colin - As long as someone sings a song (# George Papavgeris)

Denny was asked to finish the session, which she did with The Holmfirth anthem (roud 1046).

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

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

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though not 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 (#).

St Andrew's Day 2025

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Our faithful MC Colin was otherwise engaged during last week's Dragon Folk Club session so Simon took up the pen, ledger and metaphorical gavel. Theme accuracy was not 100% given that Paul and Denny, who had been absent the previous week, both started by harking back to Remembrance before honouring Denny's native county on Lancashire Day and eventually joining us in Scotland. Roger on the other hand took the opportunity that our themes are always optional and sang a wide variety of styles, but of course since St Andrew is the patron saint among other things of singers, nothing was truly off-topic this time anyway.

Roger had been first to arrive at The Bridge so he was called upon to start the evening, which he did with Proud Mary (* John Fogerty).

Simon was first to take us to Scotland with Dougie MacLean's Caledonia.

As already mentioned, Paul and Denny started off in a remembrance theme with Poor murdered men (*# Jon Heslop) and A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square (Eric Maschwitz, Manning Sherwin) respectively. The latter was Denny's late father's favourite song and was sung at his 90th birthday party by her late sister-in-law. Denny's singing of the song also marked both of their birthdays.

And so we came to the end of the first rotation.

Having already mentioned two above, there were a further two songs new to the Dragon database this time, both sung by Denny. The first was November drinking song (* Bryan Hawes, Martin Graebe). The second gave me a little more of a problem. The only trace I could find of Drink to the Laddies (* Sue West) on YouTube (and therefore the version I included in the playlist linked from "a selection" below) was this slightly raucous and badly recorded "Drink to the lassies". But we don't give up so easily here, and a more respectable version, sung by Dutch shanty choir De Kaapstander, was found here in the middle of a longer video.

LATE ENTRY: Another version of Drink to the laddies has been found.

It also fell to Denny to round off the session with a Scottish version of Rolling home (roud 4766).

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

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 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 (#).

Tunes help you breathe...

David Holgate's statue of Julian,
outside Norwich Cathedral,
completed in 2000
(Photo: Tony Grist)

At last week's Dragon Folk Club session it was great to be joined by first timer Nick, and a pleasant surprise to have a visitor to this predominantly singers' club who mostly played tunes. In fact Nick's weapon of choice is the mandola.

Our regular MC, Colin, started things off with Tom Lewis' Marching inland, which in a slightly obtuse way started a maritime or at least watery theme for many of the songs sung in the evening.

As usual I will mark songs new to the Dragon database (though not always new to the club) with an asterisk (*).

Next came Simon with Dougie McLean's Caledonia followed by Nick's Dragon debut with Egan's polka (*).

Paul had clearly been adding to his repertoire and sang The old miner (* roud 1136) while Denny gave us John Conolly's Fiddlers Green. And so endeth the first rotation.

As is traditional, I will mention everything Nick performed. All but the last were tunes played on the mandola. For the last one he borrowed Simon's guitar and sang; something we understand he is not accustomed to doing in public.

• Ten penny bit (*)
• Mairi's wedding
• Drowsy Maggie (*)
• John Ryan's polka (*)
• Moonstruck (* Kev Carmody)

Other songs new to the Dragon database were:

• Denny - Julian of Norwich (Sydney Carter) Julian lived in permanent seclusion as an anchoress in her cell, which was attached to St Julian's Church, Norwich. She died sometime after 1416.
• Colin - Essequibo River
• Colin - I fought the law (Sonny Curtis)

It fell to Simon to close the evening with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

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

A friendly session

(Photo: Vaibhav Sharan)

Last Friday's Dragon Folk Club session saw four singers meet in our usual venue at The Bridge Inn. Colin being MC and having been the first to arrive started things off with a song which we agreed was a suitable starter or finisher: George Papavgeris' Friends like these.

Rob sang us his own Minstrel of the sea about a musician of his acquaintance. He told us that he has not yet made a video of it, so I won't waste time looking.

Simon's first was Dougie MacLean's Caledonia. Colin later sang another of Dougie's songs: Ready for the storm.

Geoff completed the first circuit of the room with his first performance of Ewan MacColl's Morrissey and the Russian sailor.

Geoff sang the last song of the evening, a version of Seven drunken nights. Sorry for the abbreviated report again. Normal service may be resumed next week.

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

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

Solo

Busker in Oxford (Photo: Simon Meeds)

Colin was ploughing a lonely furrow at last week's Dragon Folk Club session. While we may ask "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" we should probably trust that Colin did indeed sing some songs and he says he may sing some of the same ones this Friday when he hopes there will be someone to hear them.

In fact he did pretty well to sing a total of eleven songs before calling it a night - and presumably draining his glass. I clearly wasn't there, so I may have incorrectly guessed some of the songs he sang, but here goes nothing:

• Caledonia (Dougie MacLean)
• Sinner Man (African traditional)
• Aragon mill (Si Kahn)
• Somebody's grandmother / The Kugelsburg bank (Charlie King, Lu Mitchell)
• The South Medomsley Strike (Tommy Armstrong)
• Preab San Ól (Riocard Bairéad)
• Bucketful of mountain dew (roud 938)
  
• The gaol song (roud 1077)
• The dancing / It's Saturday night at the Adam Smith hall (Andy Shanks, Jim Russell)
• Bruton town (roud 18, laws M32)
• Goldwatch blues (Mick Softley)

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

(Number of people present - 1 of whom 1 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)

All things wise and wonderful?

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

It was great to see more new faces at last Friday's session, the third week in a row that we have had newcomers or visitors who seem to have gone away happy. This time it was singer, Barry from North Wales with his non-performing entourage, Kath and Charlotte. Thank you very much for coming to The Bridge and we hope to see you again soon or at least the next time you are down this way on a Friday.

Given that Colin was a bit late as expected this time, Simon took over the mantel of MC and started the evening off with Dave Sudbury's King Of Rome. I am a bit fussy about the versions of this song that I link from these blog posts. I don't absolutely love Lucy Ward's version but I like it and coming from Derby she has as much right to sing it as most people.

Burns' Night 2016

Burns' Cottage (photo by Bethany Weeks)

Some of our number had made it to The New Inn hot-foot from the wake after Alan Mitchell's funeral. Richard, who had officiated at the funeral service even came bearing left-over food which we gannets descended on well, taking with us most of what was not eaten on the spot. This meant that Richard and Lesley would not be eating ham rolls for the next three weeks!

Being just three days before Burns' Night, the plan was to sing some Scottish songs. Unfortunately some present didn't seem to have their diaries quite in sync. Never mind, our themes are always optional.

Burns' Night 2015

Robert Burns (1759-96)

A fine turn-out for our pre-Burns' Night session with 19 humans and three dogs including Gertie, who could possibly be described as a "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie" if she wasn't listening. There were plenty of Scottish, psuedo-Scottish and debatably Scottish songs in evidence. I won't comment too much on their relationship to Burns unless it's reasonably obvious or was stated.

Richard was once again MC for the evening - it's becoming quite a habit. We were pleased to see Maggie S for the first time in a few weeks, but she and Mike still had to leave at half time.

A couple of other notable anniversaries were mentioned. Derek pointed out Ewan McColl's 100th birthday on Sunday 25 January, and Keith G mentioned the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's death on Saturday 24 January.

Keith G proposed as appropriate to Churchill, Leonard Cohen's First We Take Manhattan (then we take Berlin).

Mainly shanties and death - but keep smilin'

Though short in numbers this week, we were good in voice. Richard and Lesley brought two visitors, I believe they were Lesley's brother and sister-in-law (sorry if I'm wrong). Unfortunately they didn't sing but they provided a very welcome audience. We were told that Richard and Lesley's two sons (and one son's girlfriend) were invited to join us but when they picked themselves off the ground laughing, they politely refused. Well, I suppose we can be grateful they were polite about it! We really don't bite (often) and there is something for everyone, especially if you bring some of it along yourself - a song, a tune, a poem, a story, whatever.

Mike kicked off the evening with what he jokingly called "a very quiet song", Bully in the alley; we all joined in and made sure the start of the evening represented how we intended it to go on.

Robin reprised his performance of last week, singing Rosario in the style of the Young'uns. Another left-over from last week was that Derek had teased us with a snatch of Rigs of the time. He was surprised that Mike hadn't started this week with it, so he took that task upon himself.