Rare finds

Mike Starkey (Photo: Simon Meeds)

At last week's Dragon Folk Club session it seems that we made a theme of singing less frequently sung songs from our repertoire, with a possible sub-theme of singing Mike's songs after his appearance at the previous week's session.

Listen to the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" at the bottom of this report to hear everything we sang - I even recorded a couple specially to give us a full house this week. Here is a run down of a few highlights.

After Mike Starkey's first visit to the club in a long time last week, Colin started off proceedings this week with Southern Star, written by Mike Starkey and Dave Marshall. Sorry for my dodgy rendition - Colin's was much better. This was a first for Colin according to the database, though we had of course heard Mike sing it many times before.

Simon followed along with Tracy Chapman's more solemn Behind the wall.

Colin added to the Dragon database Steve Knightley's Widecombe fair, a mysterious whodunnit rather than the traditional song of that name.

Simon sang The oyster girl (roud 875, laws Q13) for possibly the second time; a song he acquired from the singing of Rosie Upton.

Colin had acquired a song from the singing of Rose Little who used to be an occasional visitor to the Dragon Folk Club. That was A maid in Bedlam (roud 578). His next song, which he remembered Ray Croll singing, was London Danny (Jez Lowe). Colin has sung this at least twice before: once just a few weeks ago, and also on 20th July 2018, which may have been his first time.

Simon tried a debut with The hog-eye man (roud 331) and that was followed by Colin singing the American version of The miner's lifeguard (roud 3510) - we often hear the British (Welsh?) version, but rarely this one.

Simon has sung The Hippopotamus song (Michael Flanders and Donald Swann) in Latin before, but only now is there a YouTube video to go with it (imperfect I'm afraid). We don't know the author of this version, but we do know that they don't claim it to be perfect Latin, but at least is rhymes and is able to be sung. Ian Wallace sang it at his inauguration as Rector of St Andrews University.

The final song new to the Dragon database was Sail away ladies (roud 17635). Here Colin didn't sing the hit version credited to Bill Varley, Wally Whyton and first recorded by The Vipers Skiffle Group, but the remarkably similar, earlier version, sung and probably collected by Uncle Dave Macon.

Simon finished the evening in time-honoured fashion with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford)

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

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

Digging deep

William Keating being recorded in the Pottsville Public Library
(Photograph from the George Korson Collection,
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress)

After a Friday where snow stopped play for the players of the Dragon Folk Club, we were back at the folk face again last week though somewhat depleted in numbers.

Colin, the MC, started the session off with Midnight Special (Roud 6364), a song made famous by Lead Belly. There followed Simon's opener which was King Of Rome (Dave Sudbury).

Derek pointed out that I had incorrectly linked in a recent report to Ewan MacColl's Jamie Foyers rather than the traditional Jamie Foyers (Roud 1941). Apparently in an attempt to annoy me, this week Derek sang the MacColl version but I remain cool. The traditional song is set during the Peninsular War of 1807-1814, whereas MacColl's song, based on the original, is set during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.

Peace as a starting point

International Day of Peace logo

It was great last Friday to be joined by Steve C and Jane to make us properly quorate for the first time since the harvest. The pub was very quiet, so we had a good session.

Colin MCed as usual and kicked us off by announcing that it was International Day of Peace. As it happens I knew this because I'd heard the Dean of Bristol Cathedral asking the cathedral bell ringers to mark it by ringing a special "touch" at their practice. Colin sang Where Have All The Flowers Gone (Pete Seeger, Joe Hickerson).

Derek said he hadn't worked out a song for the day, 21 September, but he had songs for 20th, 22nd and 23rd. His first three songs were therefore Kevin Barry (Roud 3014) who was executed for his part in an ambush which took place on 20 September 1920, The Gresford Disaster (Roud 3089) which took place on 22 September 1934, and The Boys From Gwent (Meic Stephens) who on 23 September 1962 hampered construction of the Tryweryn Dam which would flood the village of Capel Celyn.

A bigger session

(Photo: Karl-Axel Lagerholm)

Well, last Friday was a surprise and not just because of the arrival since the week before of a pool table and it's associated accoutrements in "our" room. No, despite the absence of our regular MC, Colin, we had a surprisingly large throng, a wealth of performers, and it was mainly thanks to Rose, her decision to come from her distant home to see us, and her power to draw in the crowds. Thanks Rose! We managed to work around the elephant, or rather table, in the room and cued up an impressive array of songs.

Simon took the baton as MC for the evening and reminded us that in two weeks (now a little over one week as I write), on the 31 August, we will have our annual harvest session. Everyone is encouraged to attend, bringing if they so choose performances related more or less to the harvest, also produce from their gardens, allotments or supermarkets, and cash to spend and donate to the chosen charity, which isn't yet finalised - watch this space. It's always a fun evening and even more so if we can gather a good crowd.