Harvest 2019

(Photo: Herry Lawford)

Last Friday was our annual Harvest theme. Thanks go to Colin for organising some nibbles, and to Jim, who was our first-timer for the evening. At the start he hid his light under a bushel before being persuaded to sing and finally get his banjo from the car. If Jim reads this, your presence was really welcomed and we hope you return very soon. It was also great to see Mike back after his spell in hospital.

Due to some business I had to do earlier in the week I have not got round to adding detail to this report until now (Thursday). I't's way too late to be writing a full report of last week's session so I will just touch on two things.

New Inn and the Deathly Halloweens

The imminence of All Hallows Eve resulted in the welcome appearance of Maggie S with her ancient trusty pumpkin-head (NOT a reference to Mike). It also resulted in a full assortment of songs dealing with Ghoulies, Ghosties and Things that go Bump in the Night (Long Leggedy Beasties were separately represented by Freddie and Indy – sorry Gert!)

This assortment included The Wee Wee Man (Richard - Roud 2865, Child 38), Lowlands (Mike - Roud 681), Binnorie (Leslie - Roud 8, Child 10), Ballad of the 13th Lock (Derek) – believed by the Deputy Scribe, who is composing these lines, to be by James Healy [Ed: The song is in James N Healy's book "The second book of Irish ballads" but I'm not sure that means he wrote it] – and Jim Parker & Muriel Holland’s Dancers of Stanton Drew (Colin).