St David's Day 2023

After a good run of well peopled sessions we were down to a core of two last week. With one of those due to be absent this Friday (10th March) it's really important that you make an effort to join us whether you are a regular, an occasional visitor or a first timer.

There will be no theme, we don't bite and anything goes as long as it's acoustic. So, whether you mostly sing, play, recite or just listen, you will be equally welcome to experience our free entry, warm welcome, great acoustics and the reasonably priced bar.

Join us this or (almost) any Friday from 8:15pm in the pool room of The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG.

Once at the pub, if you need help to find us, be sure to mention "Dragon Folk Club" at the bar and you should be pointed in the right direction.

And now back to last week. With the theme of St David's Day there was some effort made to sing things Welsh or about Wales or the Welsh, and then as usual that was stretched a bit: to wales, New South Wales, and a few songs which missed the mark, but never mind.

MC Colin started us off with Welsh history 101B (Heather Rose Jones) which Simon followed with Fiddler's Dram's Day Trip to Bangor (Debbie Cook).

Simon read a poem by recently deceased, adopted Welshman, Les Barker. The poem in question was The Ice Cream Bells of Porthcawl. This required the reader to pronounce that well-known Welsh village name which also gave one of Colin's songs its title; that title being Llanfairpwllgwyngyll...gogogoch!, a parody of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, written by Kristof Robertson.

Most of the other songs not included in the "a selection" playlist linked below were sung by Colin from the pen of Dawson Smith. He sang three of these: Rebecca, Rebecca about the Rebecca Riots, Children Born to the Valleys, and From Green to Black.

Simon finished the evening with the Bristol-based Welsh Back Quay written by local shanty singer Ian "Nobby" Dye.

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

(Number of people present - 2 of whom 2 performed)

St David's Day

Phil Tanner (www.folkwales.org.uk)

This week's session was held on the eve of St David's Day, so the theme was anything vaguely related to that day, to Wales or symbols of Welshness. Well for the sake of convenience it was also stretched to whales, or rather whaling!

Mike started the evening off with Hob y Deri Dando, even singing one verse in Welsh, while Steve kicked off the pseudo theme of whaling with Bonny ship the Diamond.

Our one Welsh regular, Lesley, despite earlier promises, wasn't able to be with us, but Richard, her husband, filled in ably, singing all of his songs in Welsh. He started off with Rhyfelgyrch Gwŷr Harlech (Men of Harlech), went on to ffoles Llantrisant (Foolish Llantrisant girls) and Calon Lân (Pure heart) with words by Daniel James and tune by John Hughes). Next came fflat Huw Pugh by John Glyn Davies (link in Welsh), about legendary Welsh sailor, Huw Pugh the captain of a 60 ton "flat" ship named the Ann of Liverpool.