Cowboys and war

"The Cow Boy", taken near Sturgis,
Dakota Territory (now South Dakota)

This Friday (18th March 2022) we will have a theme for our session closest to St Patrick's Day, so any songs from Ireland, of Ireland, about Ireland, or about any of the other patronages of Patrick, will be very welcome. Failing that, remember our themes are always optional. Also bear in mind that there will be no session on the following Friday (25th March 2022), so don't go to The Bridge Inn, Shortwood that evening expecting folk in the pool room, but do go if you would like a drink. There may even be other types of music in the bar. but I haven't got the pub calendar to hand.

We were back down to three singers for last Friday's session, but it was worthwhile nevertheless. There was maybe less "folk music of these islands" in evidence than usual, but variety is no bad thing and anything goes at the Dragon.

Colin, in his usual post as MC, started off with Graham Nash's Teach your children. Simon followed with Graham Moore's Tom Paine's Bones.

One of the mainstays of Geoff's repertoire consists of Irish songs, so when he heard about the following week's theme, he needed to be careful about what he sang. He therefore focused mainly on another of his genres: cowboy songs, and particularly on this occasion the songs of Marty Robbins, from whose pen he sang: El Paso, Five brothers and Big Iron.

Not to be outdone, Simon went a little bit country with The Gambler (Don Schlitz) and The son of Hickory Holler's tramp (Dallas Frazier).

The link between cowboys and war might be found in children's games, but the reason for war and anti-war songs is obvious today with conflict going on in Ukraine, and so it was that we had songs of this genre.

Colin sang PF Sloan's Eve of destruction and Lenny Galant's Maria Diaz - Garth Hewitt's I didn't speak up could also fit here. Simon came in with Mike Harding's Jimmy Spoons and Eric Bogle's The band played Waltzing Matilda. Geoff contributed Buffy Sainte-Marie's Universal Soldier.

It was Geoff who closed the evening on a lighter note with Bird Dog (Boudleaux Bryant).

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

(Number of people present - 3 of whom 3 performed)

No discernible thread

Martin Niemöller (Photo: J.D. Noske / Anefo)

It was a pleasant surprise last week to see two people who hadn't joined us for quite a while. Paul was a regular Dragon attendee before he moved some distance away. Robin was also once a regular but hasn't been since 2014, at least partly due to his extreme folk festival attending ways - then I saw him twice in as many days, but that's another story.

Colin was MC and started off the session with Crazy Man Michael (Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick) and Geoff followed him singing Dandy Vernon (Michael Snow).

Paul, as is his usual way gave us a collection of self-penned songs. The first of these was Moondance Again, inspired jointly by Van Morrison's famous hit and a beach holiday Paul once had with his wife. For his second song Paul had planned to sing part of his song Then 'Til Now, a nine-verse epic inspired initially by the death of an American blues-man he admired. Each verse details an atrocity experienced by black people in the USA in a different decade of the blues-man's life, starting in the 1920s. Colin suggested he sing all nine verses, and after some discussion Paul decided the sing it in two sections, which he did over his next two turns. His last song of the evening before taking the long and winding road back home was That's All I Know.