Folk wherever it comes from

Bob Dylan at the Aust Ferry, just twelve miles from
our venue at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood

Last Friday's session saw the return of erstwhile regulars to the Dragon Folk Club: John B, Alan K and Steve G. It was great to see all of them. While we had seen John once before in 2023 I am pretty sure Alan and Steve hadn't joined us since well before the pandemic. It's great to see a good variety of singers at recent sessions. Everyone is welcome any Friday whether they have been to The Bridge recently, long ago or never before.

We're not all Americana by any means, but this session saw quite a lot of that genre come out for the evening. Whatever is your thing in acoustic music, wait a few weeks and you may well find it come up in a Dragon Folk Club session.

Colin was MC as usual and started off proceedings with Mick Softley's Goldwatch Blues. John B followed with Leon Payne's Lost Highway.

After some quick last-minute guitar tuning Simon gave us Tom Paine's Bones (Graham Moore).

Steve had a bit of a false start when a technical failure of a table caused his full beer glass to fall to the floor, but he eventually got into John Smith's Salty and Sweet. Alan followed that with One too many mornings, the first of several Bob Dylan songs heard in the course of the evening.

And so we had completed the first circuit of the room.

There are several things I want to draw out of the evening, so I hope I can do that accurately.

As already mentioned, there were several Bob Dylan songs. Apart from One too many mornings we had three more, all of which were new to the Dragon database, though not necessarily first outings at the Dragon Folk Club:

• Steve G - You're gonna make me lonesome when you go
• John B - It's all over now Baby Blue
• John B - Chimes of freedom

We had two songs from Leonard Cohen:

• Alan K - Suzanne
• John B - Tower of Song (another one new to the database)

Apart from the aforementioned Salty and Sweet, Steve G gave us another John Smith song, There is a Stone.

Other songs new to the Dragon database were:

• Alan K - I still miss someone (Johnny Cash, Roy Cash)
• Colin - Rolling Drunk (Chris Sugden) - one of two songs not in the "a selection" playlist linked below
• Steve G - Catch of the Day (Steve Goodfield) - i.e. his own song
• Steve G - Lawrence, KS (Josh Ritter)
• Alan K - A clear, still day (Alan Kirkpatrick) - another self-penned song and the second one not to feature in the YouTube playlist
• Steve G - Hold On (Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan)
• Colin - The Song goes on (Mick Ryan) - A posthumous tribute to Cyril Tawney

It finally came to John B to close in rousing chorus with Down by the Riverside (roud 11886), yet another one new to the database.

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

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

Valentine's Day 2023

It was a really useful turn-out at last week's Dragon Folk Club session. The official theme was Valentine's Day, Love and Lust. While there was plenty of that in our songs, there were also some interesting groups of songs so that is what this report will focus on.

Colin, taking his usual role of MC, started us off with Liverpool Judies (roud 928).

John B continued with The Rose (Amanda McBroom). This song featured in the film of the same name which was loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin. The film follows a self-destructive rock star in the late 1960s who struggles to cope with the pressures of her career and the demands of her ruthless business manager.

Geoff's first of the evening was The Lakes of Ponchartrain (roud 1836, laws H9). The song is about a man who is given shelter by a Louisiana Creole woman. He falls in love with her and asks her to marry him, but she is already promised to a sailor and declines. It is set on the shores of the major estuarine water-bodies of the Pontchartrain Basin, including lakes Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and Borgne.

Simon's Bonnie Ship the Diamond (roud 2172) tells of whalers leaving the port of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland for the whaling grounds near Greenland, later returning to port to be greeted by their sweethearts and wives.

Sue gave us I Will (Paul McCartney). Like numerous other Beatles songs, this was credited to Lennon-McCartney, but we now know that many of them were actually written by one or the other.

Geoff gave us two songs from the singing of Waylon Jennings: Amanda (Bob McDill) and Wrong (Steve Seskin, André Pessis).

John B sang two songs from Bob Dylan: One too many mornings and Marchin' to the city.

We had two songs from the singing of the Carter Family. For the first, John B sang Will the Circle Be Unbroken? (roud 3409) though strictly speaking the linked version is A.P. Carter's reworking of the original Ada R. Habershon and Charles H. Gabriel song into "Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)". The second Carter song was Bob's Bear Creek Blues which was actually written by A. P. Carter.

Colin sang Ruby Tuesday (Keith Richards, Mick Jagger) which was covered by Melanie Safka. This inspired John B to follow on with another Melanie song: What have they done to my song Ma (Melanie Safka, HM Saffer II).

I wondered whether Geoff might follow up with Brand New Key (Melanie Safka), but he didn't; instead singing Cheryl's Goin' Home (Bob Lind), a response to Simon's earlier Elusive Butterfly (Bob Lind), the former being the B-Side of the latter on the 7" original single.

We also had a pair of Joe Brown songs with Sue singing I'll see you in my dreams (Isham Jones, Gus Kahn) and Geoff giving us A Picture of you (John Beveridge, Peter Oakman).

Simon finished off the session with the rousing When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

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

Songs from school and many more

At last Friday's session it was great to see Rob return for a second helping of the Dragon Folk Club. Happily he had also persuaded his friends Andy P and Pat P, newly moved to the South West of England from Scotland, to join us. We were therefore reasonably quorate despite lacking a couple of the usual faces.

Unfortunately as has become a habit recently, I am a bit short of time to do this report, so it will be light on commentary, but you can follow the "a selection" link below to hear some version of all but two of the performances. Also, in line with tradition, I will mention all of the performances of our two first time visitors. Pat P is a poet and gave us just one of her amusing pieces. Andy P made a full and excellent contribution throughout the evening.

Colin, being MC, started the evening. He said he had decided to look out some songs he learned at school and got the ball rolling with Bobby Shafto (roud 1359).

Andy P:

• Willie o' Winsbury (roud 64, child 100)
• Kit's tune / When a knight won his spurs (the former by Martin Simpson; the latter Jan Struther) - following Colin's ad hoc theme of songs learned at school
• On Raglan Road (Patrick Kavanagh)
• When these shoes were new (Michael Marra)
• Hollow Point (Chris Wood)

Pat P:

• Remember remember (poem by Pat Popplestone)

It fell to Andy P to finish off the evening, which he did with One too many mornings (Bob Dylan)

This Friday (6 May 2022) will be another session with no theme, so anything goes as long as it's acoustic. See you there.

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

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

Whilst the Rest of Us are Back at Work…

The Monument was erected by
Sir Christopher Wren, to commemorate
the fire of London

Your regular scribe was still on holiday this week, thereby allowing Mike to appropriate Spanish Ladies (Roud 687), albeit in a non-Newfoundlandic format, and subjecting you all once again to the rantings of the Substitute Scribe.

In fact, my last week’s RANT (Railing Against Nonat Tenders) proved to have had an effect, having been read by John, who had attended many sessions at the Bridge in ye olde dayes, and came to sample the new venue.

Our number of performers was also swollen by two newcomers: Geoff, who performed a wide range of predominantly Irish songs, and Zenara who brought with her not only a fine unaccompanied singing voice, but also that scarcest of all folk club assets – an Audience!

When Derek opened with False Lover Won Back (Roud 201, Child 218) one would probably have given reasonable odds that it might turn out to be the longest song of the night. But next to Courting in the Kitchen (Geoff - Laws Q16) and Bruce Campbell’s The Roman Gladiator (Mike) it soon paled into insignificance.