Roll, roll, row and blow

Kaskelot (Photo: Simon Meeds)

It was another fun session for the Dragon Folk Club last Friday. There was nothing spectacular to report, but certainly a good range of songs was sung.

Colin, the regular MC, started things off with Mary Ann (roud 4438), which Denny followed up with Down where the drunkards roll (Richard Thompson). Simon started a bit of a personal Mike Harding theme with his Accrington Pals. Paul completed the first rotation with Hard times of old England (roud 1206).

There were just two songs from the evening which are not available on YouTube and therefore not included in the playlist linked from "a selection" below. They were Colin's singing of The Kipper Family's Wraggle-taggle travellers-o (Chris Sugden), and also from Colin, As long as someone sings a song (George Papavgeris).

The following songs (or versions) were new to the Dragon database, though not necessarily new to the club:

• Colin - Row bullies row (a version of Liverpool Judies using instead the line "Liverpool girls" - roud 928)
• Simon - Roll Down (Peter Bellamy)
• Colin - Darby Kelly (roud 21859)
• Denny - Watford Gap (Roy Harper)

I also managed to find a recording very similar to the extra-bawdy version of Blow the man down (roud 2624) that Colin sang. We're not afraid of a bit of bawd or controversy at the Dragon Folk Club as long as it does no one any harm.

With a total of forty-one songs, it was Colin who presented the last of those: Rescue me (Dougie McLean). For the record, since it was mentioned, Dougie is 69 years of age at the time of writing.

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

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

White Acres

Roger Whittaker (Photo Wilfried Wittkow)

Summer is a time when people head to the hills and beaches or wherever, so we might expect some of our regulars to miss a few weeks but we are here waiting every Friday to welcome all our folky friends, even those we have yet to meet, who are gravitating in the direction of the South West of England, whether they're staying in the Bristol area or just passing through. Please come and swell our ranks, even if it's only for one session. Perhaps you'll like us enough to drop in another time when you're down our way, others have.

Colin was MC and started the session off by referring to a new fast food outlet being built in Fishponds, and sang a song he had "collected" from Maggie S: McDonald's Kitchen (Seamus Kennedy).