The gathering

George Müller

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was notable mostly for the presence of first time visitor, Gavin who sang entirely his own songs, most of which were about local events and people. He had been planning on visiting us for some time and last week the stars aligned. He seemed to enjoy the evening and we enjoyed his singing, so let's hope he returns soon.

Not least with Gavin's presence there were quite a number of songs which were new to the Dragon database (if not in all cases new to the club) so I'll simply mark them with an asterisk (*). There were also a few which aren't in the playlist linked from "a selection" below, so I'll mark those with a hash (#).

Colin, the MC as usual, started things off with Let union be in all our hearts (* roud 1238) and Simon followed that with Tom Paine's bones (Graham Moore).

Gavin informed us about the Cooper's Hill cheese-rolling with his song Cheese rolling (* Gavin Ball).

He says he may attend the event one day, but not to take part - for that you have to be slightly crazy and prepared for the possibility of coming home with broken bones.

Denny gave us Young banker (roud 3321) before Paul took us back to the cultured milk with Les Barker's Hard cheese of old England. That was really the end of the first rotation, but when Steve arrived a little later his first song was Farmer's toast (roud 1603).

Colin's second song of the evening was The saucy Arethusa (* roud 12675), the words of which are attributes to Prince Hoare while the tune is Turlough O'Carolan's tune Miss MacDermott also used for The Princess Royal. The subject of the song is HMS Arethusa, originally a French frigate (Aréthuse) launched in 1757 and captured by the British in 1759. She remained in Royal Navy service for twenty years until she was wrecked off Ushant after being badly damaged in battle.

As it tradition on his first visit I will mention all of Gavin's songs although being self-penned they would have been mentioned anyway since they were all having their Dragon debut:

• I want to win the FA Cup (*# Gavin Ball)
• W G Grace (* Gavin Ball) - about the famous cricketer of that name
• Don't play with fire (* Gavin Ball) - A tribute to Fleur Lombard, a Bristol firefighter who lost her life dealing with an incident of arson
• Money was the reason (*# Gavin Ball)
• George Muller (*# Gavin Ball) - About Christian evangelist and director of Bristol's Ashley Down orphanage, George Müller
• Beard tax (* Gavin Ball) - about one of Peter the Great's bold and controversial attempts to civilise 18th century Russia.

Denny introduced us to the thoroughly English concept of A nice cup of tea (* Henry Sullivan, A P Herbert) while Colin took us across the pond for The night they drove old Dixie down (* Robbie Robertson) before sailing the seas with Tom Lewis for Recall.

I wonder whether it was Denny's singing of The Leezie Lindsay (roud 94, child 226 - Robert Burns) which includes the lines "For my name is Lord Ronald McDonald, a chieftain of high degree" that prompted Colin to dig out Carol McNelly's parody of Ralph McTell's Streets of London that is McDonald's kitchen (*)?

The last song of the evening was When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford) which came from Denny, accompanied by all present.

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

Colourful June

Statue of Jack Crawford in
Mowbray Park, Sunderland

It was great that Tony and Hillary, the previous week's newcomers, hadn't been frightened away and came back again. They even said they'd enjoyed it, which according to some is actually against the principles of a folk club, but let's not worry about that.

MC, Colin asked Derek to start the evening and he headed straight into a June theme with The Three O'Donnells.

Mike's first song of the evening was Let Union Be In All Our Hearts (Roud 17141).

The now familiar pattern of Hillary singing a song accompanied by Tony and Tony playing a tune accompanied by Hillary held fast for the evening with Hillary's first contribution being I Still Miss Someone (Johnny Cash, Roy Cash Jr) and Tony's a set made up of Lady In The Boat and Rakes Of Kildare.

Colin picked up where he'd left off last week, sticking up for workers' rights with Woody Guthrie's Union Maid. Simon stayed on familiar territory, singing Laird Of The Dainty Dounby and only nearly choked on the third verse.

Gala, Bastille and Concertina

The Cotia (Nova Scotia Mine) banner
depicting Jack Elliott and Jock Purdon

Before I get down to the report for last week there are couple of important parish announcements. First, the pub is having a major event of some sort on Friday 7 August, so there will be no Dragon Folk Club session that night. The pub has however offered us the bar on Saturday 8 August if we want it. please let us know if you would be interested in attending a session at The New Inn, Westerleigh on that evening. If there are enough people we will take the pub up on its offer; if however it doesn't look worthwhile we will not.

The other parish announcement is that the session on 31 July will have a special theme, and one we have been discussing since at least April. The theme, possibly inspired by a round on Radio 4's comedy quiz programme I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, is One Song To The Tune Of Another. So if you can sing The Lincolnshire Poacher to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, or Pack Up Your Troubles to the tune of My Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me A Bow-wow, then the thirty first is your chance to shine.