Christmas 2024 (Part 2)

The bells of St Paul's Cathedral, London
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was our second Christmas-themed evening, though Simon took the suggested opportunity to base his songs rather on Saint Nicholas' varied patronages. It was great to welcome Stuart and Carrie back to the club with their eclectic mix of songs, which they dredged deep to keep it almost entirely on topic.

Remember that this Friday (27th December) is one of those rare times when we won't be meeting to sing. Despite whispers of possible instability in our venue we hope to be back on 3rd January to welcome in 2025 with a song or thirty. The theme will of course encompass New Year, Twelfth Night, Wassail and anything else that seems appropriate. Failing that the theme is as usual optional and anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Back to last week, there was a slew of songs new to the Dragon database, though as usual not necessarily new to the club, so I will concentrate on those, marked with an asterisk (*).

In Colin's absence, Simon took on the rôle of MC, asking Carrie and Stuart to start of the evening. They sang two songs together: Sweet bells (roud 936) being the version incorporating much of While shepherds watched recalled from childhood by Kate Rusby; and Kate's own song, Home (*).

Simon reprised Tom Paxton's The Marvelous toy (sic), which he also sang the previous week, but this time with chords which he considered more appropriate than those he had found with a spur-of-the-moment Google.

Paul started of a trend for his singing of the evening with The friendly beasts (*). While the English words were written by Robert Davis in the 1920s, the song seems to have originated in 12th-century France, set to the melody of the Latin song "Orientis Partibus".

While Mary's boy child (Jester Hairston), sung later by Stuart and Carrie, was already in the database, Denny's singing of the Boney M combination of Mary's boy child and O my Lord (* Jester Hairston, Frank Farian, Fred Jay, Hela Lorin) is a new entry. As fans and detractors of Boney M know, Frank Farian was not only the writer of most of the group's songs, and the producer who brought them together, but was the singer of most of the male parts with dancer Bobby Farrell lip-synching in the videos.

Carrie reminded us of Raymond Briggs' book The Snowman and the film of the same name by singing its song, Walking in the air (* Howard Blake).

Paul gave us March of the kings (*), a Christmas carol of provençal origin celebrating the Epiphany and the Wise Men. Recognition of the theme spread outside Provence when Georges Bizet used it in his incidental music for Arlésienne. The lyrics are regularly attributed to Joseph-François Domergue (1691–1728). In the 21st century, several American scholars have suggested that the March of the Kings has a medieval origin dating back to the 13th century. It could then be one of the oldest Christmas carols listed with Veni redemptor gentium and one of the first entirely composed in vernacular, and not in Latin.

Denny sang It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (* Meredith Willson) which Carrie followed with A spaceman came travelling (* Christopher Davison, which is Chris de Burgh's real name) and Stuart performed Blue Christmas (* Billy Hayes, Jay W Johnson).

Carrie sang Serving girl's holiday (*) which is a traditional song, performed by Maddy Prior and Tim Hart, and later by Kate Rusby, but I've drawn a blank on any more information about it.

Paul left his ancient French carol phase and went for Here comes Santa Claus (* Gene Autry, Harriet Melka, Oakley Haldeman) and his next song was Jingle bells (* roud 25804 - James Lord Pierpont).

Denny channelled her inner Ella Fitzgerald by singing Santa Claus got stuck (in my chimney) (William D Hardy, William "Billy" Moore Jr).

Stuart found the words of Calyspo carol (* Michael Perry) hidden among his music. He hadn't thought of the song much less sung it for years. It is often thought to be a traditional folk carol from the West Indies, but in fact the writer is an Englishman who wrote the song while he was a student at Oak Hill Theological College in 1964. Perry became one of the UK's leading contemporary hymn writers, but the Calypso Carol remained his most popular work. Perry originally wrote the song for a college carol concert, and it only became famous by accident. Cliff Richard was hastily assembling a selection for radio, and included the song to replace a missing recording. It gained popularity and was included in the 1969 songbook Youth Praise 2.

Denny sang John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Happy Xmas (war is over) (*) and it was also Denny who finished the session off with Ding dong merrily on high (* roud 46420 - George Ratcliffe Woodward)

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

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

Christmas 2024 (Part 1)

Vancouver (Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was the first of two we are having with a Christmas theme. It was an excellent evening not least because Keith G joined us for the first time in a while. To our surprise Keith has given up the guitar which he played so well in favour of the piano, and as such he brought along a keyboard with which to accompany his singing. We'll forgive his bending of our "rule" that anything goes as long as it's acoustic on the basis that a piano is acoustic, but difficult to haul in from the car park, never mind to fit in the car.

This Friday's session (20 December 2024) will be our second Christmas themed one, but in recognition that some of us may be running a bit low on strictly seasonal songs let's widen it out a bit. We have missed Saint Nicholas' Day which was on 6th December, but since he is so closely associated with Christmas, let's consider his patronages which include: children, coopers, travellers, sailors, fishermen, merchants, toymakers, broadcasters, the falsely accused, repentant thieves, brewers, pharmacists, archers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, Aberdeen, Galway, Albania, Russia, Greece, Liverpool, Moscow, Amsterdam, and Lorraine. That should give some scope. Also remember various Christmas traditions around the UK, Europe and the world such as Krampus (Austria) and Zwarte Piet (Netherlands).

Back to last Friday, there was a suggestion that we broke the record for songs sung in an evening at the Dragon Folk Club. This is a slightly controversial claim, mostly because it relies on double-counting a medley performed by Keith, but also because some other songs (if not performances) were arguably double counted. Nevertheless, the YouTube playlist below includes a full forty nine songs, omitting just one from the evening; that being The first hard sell sung by Colin and from the pen of Christopher Hershey.

Some people enjoy seeing which songs are new to the Dragon database, though as ever not necessarily new to the club, so they are marked below with an asterisk (*).

Colin started off the session with the version of Sweet bells (roud 936 - Nahum Tate) remembered from childhood by Kate Rusby who grew up in the Sheffield carol tradition. This is where the controversy starts since Colin's (and Kate's) version of Sweet bells is in fact a mash-up between Sweet Bells and While shepherds watched, and Denny's first song of the evening was Cranbrook (roud 936 - Nahum Tate, Thomas Clark). Sheffield carols are often known by their tune rather than their words, and in this case it is While shepherds watched to the tune better known these days as being used for Ilkley Moor bah't 'at. If this doesn't muddy the waters enough, Denny later sang Sweet chiming bells (roud 24506), which is another version of the Sheffield carol with which Colin started the evening.

Simon's first song of the evening was Gaudete, sung in Latin and from the manuscript From Piæ Cantiones, a collection of late medieval Latin songs first published in 1582, and compiled by Jacobus Finno, a clergyman and headmaster.

Paul started his evening off in a light-hearted mood with Dominick the donkey (* Ray Allen, Sam Saltzberg, Wandra Merrell). Since Keith was yet to arrive that finished off the first rotation.

Paul was next to add to the controversy, singing The holly and the ivy (roud 514) and later coming up with the Sans day carol (roud 514), which is considered to be a variant of the same song.

The real controversy though came with the arrival of Keith G and his combining of two songs: Is you is or is you ain't my baby (* Billy Austin, Louis Jordan) and Hit the road Jack (* Percy Mayfield). If we consider these as two performances, as Colin is inclined to do, then fifty songs and an all-time club record was scored; if we don't then the record was equalled at forty nine.

Keith's next song, this time from the singing of Bonnie Raitt, was Too long at the fair (* Joel Zoss) and he went on to give us an improvised version of Love is the sweetest thing (* Ray Noble).

With the main controversy over, let's just list a few more notable performances (not that others weren't also notable):

• Colin - The forest carol (* Leonard Clark, Johnny Coppin)
• Paul - Carol of the creatures (* Sydney Carter)
• Keith - Light your windows (* Gary Duncan and David Freiberg of Quicksilver Messenger Service)
• Paul - Herod and the cock (* roud 306, child 55)
• Keith - Drinking alone (* Graeme Douglas, Will Birch of the Kursaal Flyers)
• Denny - See amid the winter snow (* Edward Caswall)

That left it to Paul to finish off the evening with an unusual version of I saw three ships (* roud 700) known as the ‘Crawn’ version. It was collected in 1895 from a Humber estuary boatman, and ultimately published by Baring-Gould in his Garland of Country Songs in the same year. It finally makes sense out of the puzzle of why three ships appear in the Christmas narrative at all. Legend has it that the skulls (‘crawns’ = ‘craniums’ = ‘crowns’?) of the ‘Kings’ or ‘Wise Men’ were taken and lodged in the cathedral at Cologne.

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

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