Goodbye Tony, hello Neil

Tony Bennett in the 1960s

At last week's Dragon Folk Club session it was great to invite Neil on his first visit. He came in just as Geoff was finishing the first round and so was straight in to sing. To his credit he didn't flinch and simply asked if we wanted a happy song or a sad one. He contributed to another great evening and we hope to see him again very soon.

Colin as MC started the singing, and noting the recent death of jazz singer Tony Bennett gave us one from his repertoire: Anything goes (Cole Porter).

In a similar musical vein Sue sang Everything stops for tea, written by Al Hoffman, Al Goodhart and Maurice Sigler. Both of these first two songs were new to the Dragon database, though of course not necessarily entirely new to the club.

Bob's first song of the evening was Gordon Lightfoot's Early Morning Rain.

Simon brought us a more sombre tone with Peat bog soldiers, written by prisoners in the Börgermoor Nazi moorland labour camp in Lower Saxony, Germany.

Denny sang the Scottish love ballad, Broom of the Cowdenknowes (roud 92, child 217). Paul called his song old, but finally admitted that Cyril Tawney's Grey funnel line was slightly younger than his own years.

Geoff was singing Ralph McTell's Streets of London as Neil walked into the room. Barely catching a breath, Neil gave us The rebel soldier, which is seems is a precursor to songs such as Jack o' Diamonds and Rye whiskey. All these songs are under 259 in the roud index. While Rye whiskey was already in the database, The rebel soldier was a new entry.

And so we completed the first circuit of the room.

Tradition is that I mention all the songs of a newcomer to the club, Neil in this case:

• The most laementable ballade of Edward the Young (Daniel Kahn) - new to the database
• Tiny notes (Sean Cooney) - new to the database
• Oh Shenandoah (roud 324) - bizarrely, new to the database (it must previously have escaped)

A little more about Neil later in this report.

Sue sang another "new" song: The ugly bug ball written by brothers Robert B Sherman and Richard M Sherman. It was written for the Disney film Summer Magic in which it was sung by Burl Ives. At first, Walt Disney didn't care for "Ugly Bug Ball", but Robert Sherman explained that to bugs, other bugs were not ugly even if they looked ugly to us, beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Disney liked the idea and the song went on to become one of the most popular songs of the year.

It fell to Neil to close the evening which he did with Picture in a frame (Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan) which was alos the final new entry into the database for the evening.

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

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

King Charles III Coronation

Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023)

We met the day before the coronation in the knowledge that we probably didn't all have the same view of the King or of his coronation. Not all of the songs sung had anything to do with the theme, but those that were sung were both sung and heard non-judgmentally. The sentiment of each song may or may not represent the thoughts or beliefs of the singer.

The group of singers who met numbered a very respectable eight persons and good sing was indeed had.

Colin, as MC and first arrival, started off with Rod Shearman's London River.

Some of us were fairly tenuous in our connections, satisfying ourselves with mentions of some king or queen, and so did Denny who sang Vin Garbutt's Beggar's Bridge.

Paul had written one song especially for the evening, a version of Bold Riley (roud 18160), which I suppose he called Old Charlie. Charles III is of course the oldest British monarch to be crowned. Later he even wrote another song on the fly: a version of Roll the Old Chariot (roud 3632) which he presumably called Roll the Old Carriage.

Rob often reacts to the words of Child Ballads, realising that either the story isn't finished or lacks some element of exposition - he proceeds then to write a companion song which attempts to fill in the gaps. In just this spirit he sang his own rewrite of the Hindhorn (roud 28, child 17) story, which he calls Young Horn and Lady Jean.

Simon brought out the kings in force with a rendition of The Vicar of Bray (roud V4266).

Bob created a secondary theme for the evening (not followed up on) which referred to the recent death of Gordon Lightfoot. On this theme Bob sang Lightfoot's Early Morning Rain.

Sue took to the plains of the Wild West with Don't Fence Me In (Robert Fletcher, Cole Porter).

Geoff completed the first round of the evening with Joseph McHugh (Dermot Kelly).

I was particularly pleased to hear Rob's version of The Handsome Cabin Boy (roud 239, laws N13) which I don't think I'd heard for many years at a folk club. I wonder where Rob got his starting line "It's of a lass for Staffordshire as you will understand..."? As with all folk songs, the words vary, but the more usual version seems to be "'Tis of a handsome female, as you will understand". It's the specificity that is of interest, not simply the difference.

The other new entry in the database this week was Bob and Sue's singing of Creeque Alley (John Phillips, Michelle Phillips). It caused some discussion, so I hope this helps resolve things...

Recorded by the Mamas and the Papas, the band of which the writers were members, the song narrates the story of how the group was formed, and its early years. The title of the song, which does not occur in the lyrics, is derived from Creque or Crequi (pronounced "creaky") Alley, home to a club in the Virgin Islands where the New Journeymen, John and Michelle Phillips' original group, spent time on holiday.

The lyrics mention, directly or indirectly, many artists and bands who were part of the folk music scene at the time, including fellow band members Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty, Zal Yanovsky and John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, and Barry McGuire of The New Christy Minstrels. Several locations important to the band's story are mentioned, such as the Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village. Michelle Phillips is referred to in the lyrics by her nickname Michi ("John and Michi were getting kind of itchy, just to leave the folk music behind"). John Phillips said that he wrote the song to tell their producer Lou Adler "who was who" in the band's history.

Rob sang his version of Raggle Taggle Gypsy (roud 1, child 200), which while faithful to the usually words, puts a darker slant on the mood of the song - in the linked version Alison Moyet goes some way to getting the same feel as Rob.

It was Geoff who finished off the session with Dandy Vernon (Michael Snow).

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

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

Ouch!

The Lambton Worm

The main story at this week's session was the death this week of our good friend, banjo player and singer, Betty. Her funeral will be on 28 October 2014 at 12 noon at Westerleigh Crematorium.

Another important announcement was that two recent sessions: Harvest and the celebration of the life of Pat Hyett had between them raised £110 for St Peter's Hospice. Thanks go to everyone who attended those sessions and contributed to that fine total.

We were pleased to see a large number of visitors, some of whom have been recently, some new faces, and one long absent friend of Maggie's who has promised to come again.