May Day 2025

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was our first one of May, so our optional theme was that very month, and certainly there are lots of songs which mention it.

This week's theme will be VE Day and everything that goes with it. No doubt songs of war and anti-war will emerge.

We were pleased to see Stan who has been an occasional visitor for some time, as well as Stuart and Carrie who are become more frequent which is great. Denny was without Paul who was apparently biting his nails over the snooker on television.

Stand-in MC Simon, while not late, was last to arrive and so was relegated to the graveyard shift on each rotation. It was Stuart and Carrie who kicked things off with Bonny light horseman (* roud 1185).

As usual with a duo Stuart and Carrie (or should that be Carrie and Stuart?) were asked to sing again immediately and they gave us Hills of Shiloh (Shel Silverstein, Jim Friedman).

Denny started the May theme with Rosabella (roud 21134) "One Monday morning in the month of May...".

Singing I'd never find another you (* Gerry Goffin, Carole King), Stan referred to the version by Billy Fury, but here we have the original version by Tony Orlando.

Simon finished off the first rotation with Lady Franklin's lament (roud 487, laws K09). Stuart mentioned that he had been asked by someone to sing this song and wanted to play along. Simon suggested he might play the same tune again later (which he did).

On the second rotation Stuart and Carrie sang Joni Mitchell's Urge for going (*). If you watch the video, please bear with the first minute because it's worth the wait for this less-well-known of her songs.

It was on this second time round also that as promised Simon gave Stuart a chance to try his accompaniment, this time to Les Barker's Lord Franklin. Stuart continued, joined by Carrie to sing Mark Knopfler's Why worry (*).

Carrie was very pleased when Stan introduced one of her favourite songs, Don MacLean's Castles in the air (*).

Stuart and Carrie introduced yet another new song for the Dragon database in You've got to walk that lonesome valley (* roud 7098), represented here by the earliest recording of the song with The Jenkins Family singing it in 1925.

Carrie performed Jake Bugg's Country song (*) alone followed by Stan introducing us to Hier encore (Georges Garvarentz, Charles Aznavour), but in its English version: Yesterday when I was young (*), with words by Herbert Kretzmer.

Stan's final song was Always on my mind (* Wayne Carson, Mark James, Johnny Christopher). He was thinking of Willie Nelson's version, but here we have the original recording by Brenda Lee.

Simon finished off the session with Big rock candy mountain, claimed to have been written by Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock. This version is a bit harder-hitting than that sung by Burl Ives and a mainstay of BBC Radio's children's programmes.

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

(Number of people present - 5 of whom 5 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and songs not to be found in the playlist linked from "a selection" are marked with a hash (#).

A bit of everything

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten

Well, last Friday's Dragon session was a breath of fresh air. Not only was it the second time in two weeks that we had a roll call of seven at The Bridge Inn, but this time they were all in the room at the same time and they all performed.

Unfortunately we are going to be down on numbers this week unless you come along, and it would be absolutely splendid if you could, whether you mainly sing, play, recite or listen. As usual anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Back to last week, Colin as MC started things off with his own song, Hergest Ridge, to a tune borrowed from Mike Oldfield's album of the same name. Hergest Ridge is a large elongated hill which traverses the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom, between the town of Kington in Herefordshire and the village of Gladestry in Powys. Its highest point, which is in England, is 426 metres high.

All of the songs sung during the session with the exception of the aforementioned Hergest Ridge are to be found on the "a selection" playlist linked below as is T S Eliot's poem Journey of the Magi, which was read by Jane.

What are missing are Jane's stories, which are worth a mention. They concerned:

• the stress of being Father Christmas
• The Brighton Story about a ghost ship seen near Shoreham
• a bird-friendly thatcher and his encounters with Death
• why does some idiot have to write a book about where I live?

I'll pick a handful of songs to mention because they may not be entirely obvious.

Freight Train, sung by Sue, was written by Elzabeth Cotten in her early teens. For a large part of her life she didn't play the guitar. When she was working for the Seeger family as a maid, they were out one day and on their return they heard music. The found it was the maid having picked up someone's guitar and playing it upside down as she continued to do. And so Libba Cotten was discovered and in her later years became a recording and performing artist.

Colin sang Sonny's Dream which was written by Ron Hynes, a folk singer-songwriter from Newfoundland and Labrador. The song was heard by Scottish artist Hamish Imlach while on a trip to Canada. He modified it somewhat and played it in folk-clubs in Britain. There it was heard by Christy Moore who recorded it and passed it on to other artists in Ireland. A version titled "Sonny" was recorded by Mary Black.

Bob gave us Lost Highway, made famous by Hank Williams, but written and first recorded by Leon Payne.

Simon's Lady Franklin's Lament (roud 487, laws K09) first appeared as a Broadside ballad around 1850 and has since been recorded with the melody of the Irish traditional air "Cailín Óg a Stór" by numerous artists. It has been found in Ireland, in Scotland, and in some regions of Canada.

Rob sometimes takes a traditional ballad, particularly one of those indexed by Francis James Child, and writes a new ballad to look at the story from a different perspective or to explain missing pieces of the tale. Young Horn and Lady Jean is just such a song, inspired by Hind Horn (roud 28, child 17).

Bob and Sue sang Jackson, which is usually associated with Johnny and June Carter Cash, but was written by Billy Edd Wheeler and Jerry Leiber.

We had some discussion about Sue's song Busy doing nothing. Written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke it came from the film of Mark Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court where it was sung by Bing Crosby, William Bendix and Cedric Hardwicke.

It was Rob who finished off the evening which cut a little short by landlady Helen informing us that we were the last customers and she would be shutting up. Rob sang The Dowie Dens O'Yarrow (roud 13, child 214).

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

(Number of people present - 7 of whom 7 performed)

Dulce et decorum est pro sodalitate cantare

Appalachian Dulcimer as played by John S

Last Friday's session was the last of our series of 50th anniversary celebrations for the club. With three of the regulars unable to be there and Simon exceptionally running things, Simon and Derek were sitting pondering an evening of a couple of rounds of two songs followed by a very early finish when the singers started pouring in. Well, that may be an exaggeration but for a start it was John S who walked through the door for the first time in a very long while. Patience was rewarded when Steve G arrived, quickly followed by Jo, then came a promised second appearance by Steffan. And so, we were quorate with a respectable showing of six singers! Thanks are due to all who came, and stayed, to make the evening a very enjoyable one.

While our anniversary celebrations are now over (for another fifty years maybe), the club soldiers on and we will be here every Friday from about 8:15pm unless there's a very good reason not to be. All comers, whether performers or not, are very welcome to enjoy some music and chat. Performances don't even have to be musical: stories, monologues, poems and jokes are all within our remit; anything in fact as long as it's acoustic.

Christmas 2018

A very satisfactory number of singers were present at our Christmas session last week and not only did they enjoy the singing but also the nibbles at the break - more than just the expected mince pies though there were plenty of those too. Officially this Friday's session (21 December) has no theme but if you want to continue with Christmas, Yule, Bah Humbug or anything else seasonal then no one will stop you.

MC Colin made an earlier-than-usual start with Gather Round The Family (Bonny Sartin), so it was only during Tom's first song, You've Got A Friend (Carole King), that Mike and his canine companion, Indy arrived.

Terry H was trying some of the songs he plays less frequently and some entirely new material. The first of these was Lady Franklin's Lament (Roud 487, Laws K09).

Where is our recruiting sergeant?

The Female Drummer (Photo: Simon Meeds)

In the absence of Derek last week, perhaps watching his beloved Glamorgan narrowly beat Gloucestershire at the cricket, we were very pleased to see Tom again so soon after his last visit, bringing us up to a just quorate five singers for the evening.

Colin, MCing as usual, started things off with Matt McGinn's Manura Manya, followed swiftly by Geoff, with the song which inspired it, The Kerry Recruit (Roud 520, Laws J8).

The latter led Mike to propose a recruiting theme, for which he provided The Female Drummer (Roud 226). Geoff retorted with The Good Ship Calabar and Mike came back with The Bold Fusilier (Pete Coe, based on a traditional song).

Simon continued his Canadian theme of two weeks previously with The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald (Gordon Lightfoot), Peggy Gordon (Roud 2280), Lady Franklin's Lament (Roud 487, Laws K9) and Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell).

New Faces for May

Photo: Nikki T

I often say how great a session was in the report and I always mean it but last week was rather special. At the beginning of the evening we assembled as seven regulars, which would have been quite respectable but then a trickle of people started to file into our room, finally making up seven members of the Island Folk Choir. We were very pleased that as well as sharing some of their group singing, several members performed solo and in small groups.

As usual, Colin was MC and he started off the evening and the theme of "May" by singing Pleasant Month Of May (Roud 153); all of Colin's songs of the evening had May connections, however tenuous.

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

I was a good turnout with fourteen people and three dogs at last week's session. We had two Maggies for the first time in a while, and Paul was joined by former colleague, Jan and her husband. Canine presence was provided by regular Indy with Gertie and Freddie.

The official theme was St George (dragons, England, etc.) and that was complemented by William Shakespeare (400th death anniversary) and Derek even picked up on my suggestion of "disturbing songs", from a theme brought up by the BBC.

Mini themes galore

CSS Alabama

The report has to be a quick one this week before I hand over to the deputy scribe, and I'm afraid there won't be any YouTube links.

Next week's Dragon Folk Club session could be very thin on the ground, so if you are an occasional or lapsed dragon, I would encourage you to make a special effort to come and support the club; the more of us there are, the happier the landlord is.

This week's session was MCed by Richard who started off with The Lark In The Morn.

Mike said his first song was about a place that could be very cold, at which Colin and Derek suggested, almost in unison, Weston-Super-Mare. An amusing suggestion, but not what Mike intended. He rather gave us a sing-a-long favourite that I don't think he's done for a while: Lish Young Buy-A-Broom (Roud 1865) - the intended location being Kirkby Stephen.

Do you feel like a challenge?

The landing place at Rockstone from which the start
to the gold fields at the Essequibo River is made

We were a small but pretty enthusiastic band last week. Early conversations ranged through subjects relating to funerals and crematoria. This isn't perhaps as unusual as you would think, given that Mike works at the crematorium close to our venue and Richard also frequently finds himself at such premises in a professional capacity.

Our resident canine, Indy, was in fine voice and his timing does seem to be improving. During the singing of at least three songs I noticed him coming in perfectly on cue: variously as a wailing ghost, a howling dog and a baying wolf when the lyric required it.

One song to the tune of another

The cast of Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue in 2010

First an important parish announcement: there will be no Dragon Folk Club Session this week (7 August 2015). The next session will be on Friday 14 August. There is nothing sinister behind this. The New Inn where we meet has a "big do" on 7th. They offered us space on Saturday evening but after some consideration we decided just to have a week off. Sorry if you are visiting Bristol this week and were hoping to come along. If you are resident in the area or staying a few nights you may like to consider going along to the Chipping Sodbury Folk Night on Thursday 6 at the Beaufort Hunt, Chipping Sodbury. CSFN meets on the first Thursday of every month and kicks off at 8pm. It is usually quite popular so an early arrival is advised in order to be sure of a seat.

Now for the report on last week's session. Quite frequently we have a themed night but apart from ad hoc themes that emerge informally, the only official themes we have are usually calendar based (Christmas, Burns' Night, St George, Andrew, David or Patrick, and so on). Last week's session however was an exception, being "One Song To The Tune Of Another". It's an idea borrowed from Radio 4's programme, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. Understandably, not everyone present was able to follow the theme but nevertheless it was pretty successful.