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)

Digging deep

William Keating being recorded in the Pottsville Public Library
(Photograph from the George Korson Collection,
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress)

After a Friday where snow stopped play for the players of the Dragon Folk Club, we were back at the folk face again last week though somewhat depleted in numbers.

Colin, the MC, started the session off with Midnight Special (Roud 6364), a song made famous by Lead Belly. There followed Simon's opener which was King Of Rome (Dave Sudbury).

Derek pointed out that I had incorrectly linked in a recent report to Ewan MacColl's Jamie Foyers rather than the traditional Jamie Foyers (Roud 1941). Apparently in an attempt to annoy me, this week Derek sang the MacColl version but I remain cool. The traditional song is set during the Peninsular War of 1807-1814, whereas MacColl's song, based on the original, is set during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.

Trains and mines

The Trimdon Grange rescue(photo by she_who_must - Flickr)

Last week's session had no official theme but that didn't last long. As has become usual, Colin was MC and he asked Derek to start us off.

Derek alluded to 16 February 1882, the date of the Trimdon Grange colliery disaster before singing the song about it, written by Tommy Armstrong: Trimdon Grange Explosion (Roud 3189). This led us straight into a theme of mining which Mike followed with Morley Main (Keith Marsden) about the 1872 disaster there.

Colin claimed a tenuous connection with The Fireman's Growl (FW Skerrett); at least a railway fireman worked with coal. This allowed Simon to follow on with The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore (Jean Ritchie) which deals with both railways and mines.