To the sea via Scotland and Lancashire

USS Tennessee was originally named
USS Madawaska in 1865 and
was renamed in 1869

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session combined songs left over from the previous week's dual themes of Scotland and Lancashire with quite a number of songs from or about the sea as well as some references to the imminent extreme weather (Storm Darragh was to bring gale force winds). As always, you can listen to most of the songs we sang by following the link from "a selection" below to the YouTube playlist set up for the purpose.

This Friday (13th December) the theme will be Christmas, so you can show your love for the festival your "bah humbug" or simply appreciate the related historical and/or religious themes. As always the theme is optional so anything goes as long as it's acoustic. And if that wasn't enough, next week's theme (20th December) will be "Christmas Leftovers". Yes, at the DFC we like to get started early on the turkey fricassée.

Remember that 27th December will be one of those rare Fridays when we don't meet, so save up those New Year and Twelfth Night songs for 3rd January when we will be back in the swing of it.

Returning to last week's session, Simon was unusually early arrival and so was asked to start: he sang The twa magicians (roud 1350, child 44). Colin followed on with Pay me my money down (roud 21449). Paul's first song of the evening was The leaving of Liverpool (roud 9435) and Denny gave us Ye Jacobites by name (roud V31021). The original song simply attacked the Jacobites from a contemporaneous Whig point of view, but Robert Burns rewrote it in around 1791 to give a version with a more general, humanist anti-war, but nonetheless anti-Jacobite outlook. This is the version that most people know today.

Like the week before there were no songs sung during the evening that were new to the Dragon database. There was just one song that couldn't be found on YouTube and is therefore not included in the linked playlist. There may be a very good reason for that...

The song in question, sung by Colin, was The war junk Tennessee (Willis). According to The Beaufort Tribune and Port Royal Commercial of 8th March 1877, "on board the United States steamer Tennessee a pleasant minstrel entertainment was given by the enlisted men. Among the features of the performance was a 'Chinese opera,' composed by a well known sailor poet and author, Willis, a quarter-gunner on the ship, who comes honestly by his knack of rhyme". It goes on to say that Willis was the nephew of Nathaniel Parker Willis (January 20, 1806 – January 20, 1867), an American writer, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Presumably "Willis" was the son of NP's brother, Richard Storrs Willis who was a composer, mostly of hymn tunes.

The Beaufort Tribune continues that the song "is supposed to be sung in the character of a Chinese tailor, who sought a contract for supplying the crew with clothing."

The session was closed by Denny who sang Come by the hills (W Gordon Smith).

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

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 performed)

St Andrew's Day 2023

We knew that some of our stalwarts would be missing from last week's Dragon session, but with just two singers present you could say we met a bit short. Nevertheless we sang 33 songs, all somehow on the theme of St Andrew, whether songs from or about Scotland, by Scottish writers, or relating to Andrew's other patronages which include fishermen, miners, textile workers and pregnant women. We didn't even have to resort to his patronage, very useful in this context, of singers.

Now we have one week's respite without a theme (on Friday 8th December), before our Christmas session on 15th. We will see how the wind blows before deciding whether we will meet for a final Christmas bash on 22nd, so watch this space closely.

Colin as MC started things off last Friday with Matt McGinn's The hielan' man (*), marking songs new to the Dragon database as usual with an asterisk (*).

Simon for the first time sang a song from the repertoires of our friends Derek B and Rob W: The dowie dens o'Yarrow (roud 13, child 214). And so ended the first, very short rotation of 16 and a half through the evening before the landlady gave us a not-so-subtle hint that it was time to pack up.

Colin's next song was interesting for the casual way he proclaimed that he may have written it, or maybe not. I have been unable to trace it anywhere, so let's assume he wrote The Thistle (* Colin Owen). The song told of that symbol of Scotland, comparing it with England's rose, Wales' daffodil and Ireland's shamrock. It definitely wasn't The shamrock and the thistle (Hamish Henderson, from a trad fragment heard on board an Irish ferry), which Colin has sung before.

I won't quite count Colin's Tommy Linn (roud 294) as a song new to the database since it is a version of Tam Lin, which we heard from Derek B in times past in the form of Old John Wallis. The linked video isn't Tommy Linn, but Tam Linn sung by Steeleye Span, for which Colin had been searching.

Simon had long wanted to sing The twa magicians (roud 1350, child 44), but couldn't get the tune to stick. This time he had a breakthrough, that the verses go tolerably well to the tune of Bonny ship the Diamond (roud 2172), which he also sang - the chorus being sung to approximately the correct tune.

Colin brought another new song to the party in the shape of Morris Blythman's Superintendent Barratt (*), one of several songs about the theft of the Stone of Scone (Scone pronounced "scoon" in this context of course).

Eric Bogle's Glasgow lullaby (*) gave Colin his next "new" song. Running out of songs about Scotland, Simon also drew on the songwriting of originally Scottish Eric Bogle with The band played waltzing matilda before resorting to songs of St Andrew's other patronages:

• Miners - Dark as a dungeon (Merle Travis)
• Textile workers - Poverty knock (Tommy Daniel)
• Fishermen - Fiddlers' green (John Connolly)

Colin sang St Andrew's day - a toast, which is a poem by Jean Blewett and doesn't appear on YouTube.

Colin added two more songs to the database before we closed for the evening. The first was The broo road (*) about which we know very little. It was composed during the depression in Dundee, and was included by John A Brune in his collection "The Roving Songster". His last and the final song of the evening was Tramps and hawkers (* roud 1874)

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

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

St Andrew's Day 2019

(Photo: Elke Wetzig)

Last week's St Andrew's Day session (one day early) saw a good selection of Scottish and non-Scottish songs. There will be no theme this Friday, and I can now give advance warning of our Christmas session, which will be on 13 December - some Christmassy treats may be available.

Colin kicked off the session with the appropriately Caledonian St Andrew's Day - A Toast by Jean Blewett. Although herself born in Ontario, Blewett's parents were Scottish. Colin performed her poem as a song.

Tom declared that his first Scottish song would also be his last, being The Echo Mocks The Corncrake (Roud 2736), which he acquired from Jim and Sylvia Barnes. It's always nice to be able to link here to a video of the person singing who we heard on the night, and so it is here with Tom. Simon went on to sing two songs which he acquired from the Barnes family, via the album Scotch Measure from their band of the same name. These songs were The Twa Magicians (Roud 1350, Child 44) and The Handweaver And The Factory Maid (Roud 17771).