Pre-Christmas lull and important news

Sheila Stewart

Before I get down to telling you what happened at this week's session there is very important news about next week's. Next Friday, 19 December, will be the club's Christmas party. As usual that means you may decide to bring contributions to a Christmas buffet as well as bringing your Christmas songs and tunes. However you need to be aware that the venue isn't The Bridge but is rather The New Inn at Westerleigh. This isn't yet an announcement of a permanent change to our venue but keep watching this blog for news. In the meantime please tell everyone you know in the folk world that our 19 December Christmas Party will be at this different venue.

With the parish announcement out of the way we can get straight into the session report, as Derek got straight into the session the way he meant to go on.

Another message from the Substitutes' Bench

SS Orsova (1954)

In the absence of the Head Blogger, may I take the opportunity to thank Simon for all the effort he expends on this blog. The research he puts into linking songs to sites throws up lots of valuable information – some deliberate, some serendipitous. Last week he put up a link to a YouTube performance of the somewhat obscure song Charlie Cassidy's Courtship. I wasn't, in truth, greatly impressed by the performance, but when it finished I was exposed to YouTube's usual selection of 'If you enjoyed that, why not try these'. One of those selections was of a Joe Doherty singing Glenswilly. On a whim (oh all right: I was confusing him with the late great Irish fiddle player John, brother of Michael!) I clicked on it and was rewarded with one of the best performances of that fine ballad I have ever heard. If you do nothing else this week, give it a click!