Old friends

Tom, just a few years ago

The usual scribe was absent for last week's Dragon Folk Club session and will also be away this Friday. The report will take a slightly different format for now: not all facts will be checked and there will be no YouTube playlist of songs at least for the moment.

It was great to see that our old friend Tom turned up
for the first time in quite a while and complete with his banjo! Occasional visitors Steve and Jane also made a welcome appearance.

• Colin - Bring it on home (Sam Cooke)
• Denny - Collier Laddie (roud 3787)
• Paul - God speed the plough (roud 1475)
• Geoff - The Cape (Guy Clark)
• Tom - Raining in my heart (Felice Bryant, Boudleaux Bryant)
• Steve - Jolly Waggoner (roud 1088)
• Jane - A new story "Belief", on the subject of war and refugees
• Colin - Day-o (Jerry Silverman)
• Denny - The wizard of Alderley Edge (Pete Coe)
• Paul - The Farmer's Boy (roud 408)
• Geoff - The Manchester Rambler (Ewan MacColl)
• Tom - Everyone (Bryan Cookman)
• Steve - Adieu, sweet lovely Nancy (roud 165)
• Jane - The beggar the priest and the cobbler (given to Jane by Sheila Stewart)
• Colin - Between the wars (Billy Bragg)
• Denny - Miner's Lifeguard (roud 3510)
• Paul - Rolling down to old Maui (roud 2005)
• Geoff - Universal soldier (Buffy Sainte-Marie)
• Tom - Eyes of a painter (Kate Wolfe)
• Steve - The lock keeper (Stan Rogers)
• Colin - The rigs of the times (William James Emberley - roud 876)
• Denny - Young Banker (roud 3321)
• Paul - Rose of Allandale (Charles Jefferys and Sidney Nelson - roud 1218)
• Geoff - Copper kettle (Albert Frank Beddoe)
• Steve - Bonnie ship the Diamond (roud 2172)
• Jane - Old Nick's cow café

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

Keeping the music alive

Poster for the Winter Dance Party tour
featuring the ill-fated Buddy Holly,
Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper

Last week's session was billed as having the dual theme of rugby, for the start of the 2018 Six Nations Championship, and the anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly. Well, we didn't get much rugby but we did make a fair stab in before the break at "The Day The Music Died", hence the title of this report. And yes, the report doesn't mention much "real" folk music this week but I hope you find it interesting and there's still plenty of the "real drop" if you follow the "a selection" link at the bottom of this account.

Colin was MC and he started off the session with Sting's Fields Of Gold. much later in the evening, Simon suggested pairing that with his Sailing To Philadelphia (Mark Knopfler), both songs being written by rock musicians from the North East of England. Derek recalled a local singer when he was based in the North East himself who often sang the songs of Graeme Miles, a Middlesbrough man. One of the songs he sang was Fields Of Gold and with Derek's knowledge of modern popular music being limited, he assumed for a long time the song had been written by Miles. Colin too was surprised to learn that it was by Sting since he associated it with Eva Cassidy's enchanting version.

Good Friday to Easter

This week's session was held on Good Friday. In the Christian tradition this commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and is therefore a sombre day, preceding his glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. We only have one session a week though, so this one has to cover the whole week-end. We had songs representing, more or less literally, the events of the whole weekend, and some with no particular relevance at all.

Mike started off the evening with the Pace Egging song. The Pace Egg Plays are traditional village plays, with a rebirth theme, in which St George smites all challengers and the fool, Toss Pot, rejoices. The drama takes the form of a combat between the hero and villain, in which the hero is killed and brought to life, often by a quack doctor. The plays take place in England during Easter, indeed the word 'Pace' comes from the old English word 'pasch' literally meaning 'Easter'. They are a tradition that was once widespread throughout England, but is now only practiced in a few areas, particularly Lancashire and West Yorkshire.