Sea and land

Dungeness (Photo: Simon Meeds)

It was another great session at the Dragon Folk Club last week. Rob made one of his occasional appearances to give us some great unaccompanied singing and we enjoyed a first visit from Mark who provided more unaccompanied singing as well as the unusual but enjoyable experience of solo five string bass guitar.

There will be no set theme again this week though that doesn't preclude people arriving with their own or something developing over the course of the evening. Remember that even when we set a theme it is always just for fun and very much optional.

Colin, MC as usual, started us off with Steve Knightley's Cousin Jack. Rob followed on with a different version of Geordie (* roud 90), which I have found in the singing of June Tabor.

Simon sang The Handweaver and the factory maid (roud 17771) and Mark's first contribution was Cyril Tawney's Grey funnel line.

Denny sang another song which I found in June Tabor's repertoire: Lisbon (roud 551, laws N8) and Paul finished the first rotation with The ship in distress (roud 807).

As usual I will mention all of newcomer Mark's songs together with anything else that needs highlighting.

Mark announced his second song as O my love's gone, which is a version of The forsaken mermaid (roud 466, laws K17).

Colin's version of The soldier and the sailor (roud 350) included versions with relatively modern verses including one about a "radiation-proof room".

Rob sang two songs written by his late friend Adey Shaw. The first was Monkey in the hold (*). The other one, about Adey's cat called Bosun, which was killed by a dog is simply To Bosun (*#).

Mark sang two of his own songs: Back and forth (*# Mark Gunner) and When it ends (* Mark Gunner). His last two songs of the evening were The crafty ploughboy (* roud 2637, laws L1) and Stan Rogers' Mary Ellen Carter.

Denny closed the evening with Dave Dodds' I can hew boys.

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and songs not to be found in the playlist linked from "a selection" are marked with a hash (#).

St Andrew's Day 2024 (with added Lancashire)

The Lancashire Fusilier pulling
The Jacobite (Hogwarts Express)
over the Glenfinnan Viaduct
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was officially themed for St Andrew's Day. Saint Andrew is patron saint of Scotland among many other things. However Denny asked us also to consider that it was the week of Lancashire Day, her native county, and therefore that was a secondary theme.

Before getting down to business, it's worth pointing out that this week's Dragon session (6th December) will be themeless before we make the big move to Christmas on 13th, and have a premature Christmas leftovers (turkey curry, etc.) session on 20th. 27th December will be a very rare Friday of rest for the Dragon before we come back with a bang for New Year and a slightly early Twelfth Night on 3rd January. It's important to note that our themes are always optional and therefore anything goes at the Dragon as long as it's acoustic.

Back to last Friday, we had a variety of approaches. Colin and Paul stuck with Scotland, while Denny concentrated on Lancashire and Simon alternated between the two. Remember that Lancashire was considered to be the traditional county which includes places no longer in it such as Liverpool, Manchester and Salford.

Colin, MC as usual, started off with Dougie MacLean's Ready for the storm. Simon started off with a song which he obtained from a Scottish source (Scotch Measure, Jim and Sylvia Barnes), but which he has hear attributed not only to Scotland, but also to Ireland and even to Lancashire! The song is The handweaver and the factory maid (roud 17771).

Paul remained firmly north of the border with A Scottish soldier (Andy Stewart) and Denny comlpeted the first rotation in Lancashire with a monologue: The lion and Albert (Marriott Edgar). Edgar was in fact born in Scotland, but his father and two aunts were born in Lancashire, so this actually hits both themes.

At this stage I'll say that unusually there were no additions to the Dragon database this week, and there was only one song not to be found on YouTube, and therefore not in the playlist linked from "a selection" below. That lone song is The pickled herring man (Cathy Wallis).

I could end this report there and fast forward to the last song of the evening, which indeed came slightly earlier than usual when the pub closed prematurely. Presumably the closure was due to lack of customers, and we might have predicted it would be so since all of us managed to park on the pub forecourt when we arrived: a very uncommon occurrence.

Nevertheless, let's have a look first at a handful of our other notable performances of the evening - not that all are not notable.

Paul referred to his apparently fictional collection of Judith Durham records before singing The Eriskay Love Lilt. [Ed: I have some albeit from my father's collection, but I definitely grew up with The Seekers on the record player]

Denny revisited to the plight of a small boy in Blackpool with Albert's return (Marriott Edgar).

In The Hielan' man perhaps Colin selected one of the rarer songs of the evening, and one with its own challenges to the researcher being from the pen of Scotsman Matt McGinn, not to be confused with the Irish Matt McGinn or the American Matt McGinn, or indeed the English Matt McGinn.

Simon warned before singing Mike Harding's Small high window (a Lancashire contribution) that he might end up drifting into too higher key. In the end he admitted that the actual problem was more one of over-compensation and signing in his boots.

After a request from the pub staff to finish quickly there was a hasty last round which finished with Denny singing Icy Acres (Colin Wilkie).

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

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

Burns' Night 2022

Robert Burns

It was a cosy early Burns' Night before a blazing fire. Who am I kidding, but with unseasonably mild weather I'm not complaining either. I've had my haggis and tatties and neeps since then, have you? We met on Friday to sing Scottish songs, and with a little poetic licence here and there that's what we did.

MC Colin went against tradition and asked Simon to start the evening which he did, with an actual Burns song, or at least one of those he collected and changed to be his own, Ye Jacobites by Name (roud V31021). Colin kept it Burns with Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation (roud V31022 - sequential roud numbers no less!).

Most of the remaining songs were Scottish, though not all Burns by any means. I will mention some of the more eccentric or less Scottish ones.

Colin brought out his customary ode to the chieftain of the pudding race, no not Address to a Haggis (Robert Burns) but Captain Beaky's offering: Haggis Season (Jeremy Lloyd, Jim Parker).

Simon's regular song, The Handweaver and the Factory Maid (roud 17771) is generally accepted to be from either Lancashire or Ireland. The version Simon got from the singing of Sylvia Barnes is clearly based in Glasgow. Whether it is traditional or Sylvia's own rewrite we do not know, but Roud doesn't list a Scottish version.

Colin borrowed from the repertoire of The Smothers Brothers the song Eskimo Dog (Dick Smothers, Tom Smothers), replacing "North Pole" in the first line of the first verse with "Scotland". The song is a parody of Whiskey in the Jar (roud 533).

Colin's A Scottish Holiday (JW "Bill" Hill) is a parody of The Road to the Isles (roud 32843). We learn that Bill is a retired local government officer who also worked in the field of education. He wrote some of the funniest songs to have come out of Scotland before retiring from the music circuit due to family commitments. He is now an Edinburgh tour guide.

It fell to Simon to close the evening which he did with what on the face of it is an Irish Song. Wild Mountain Thyme was written by France McPeake, but it is based on The Braes of Balquhither (roud 541) by Scottish poet Robert Tannahill (1774–1810) and Scottish composer Robert Archibald Smith (1780–1829).

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).

St Andrew's Day 2017

Point of Sleat, Isle of Skye, Scotland
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last Friday's session saw a satisfactory number of seven bums on seats for a St Andrew's Day theme. I had pointed out in publicity that St Andrew is patron saint of many places and things other than Scotland, including singers, but it was barely needed since I think there were only two songs clearly unrelated to Scotland, one very deliberately and the other was written by someone with what appears to be a Scottish name.

Colin was the MC and he called on Steve C to start us off; Steve sang Jock Stewart (Roud 975).

St Andrew's Day 2015

The Saltire (Cross of St Andrew)

While there was no official theme this week Richard, as at the same time last year, pointed out that this was our closest session to St Andrew's Day, so a thin veneer of Scots Pine came over the club.

While we weren't exactly a huge throng it was "pleasant and delightful" to be joined by Gary, who hasn't attended for a while, by Terry H, who probably hasn't previously been to our current venue, and by Malcolm, a newcomer to the club and happy to sit and listen to the rest of us make fools of ourselves! (Only joking)

Loud and proud

1961, Dancing Bonny Green Garters in Canterbury, Kent:
Woodside Morris on one of its regular Whitsun tours

After a very poor showing the previous week, last week's session was better attended though there is still plenty of room for improvement. What's more, due a very long running wake going on in our usual bar we were consigned to the main bar and it seemed sensible to most of us to sing loud and proud. The regulars didn't appear to mind and I even heard them joining in once or twice.

Colin took up the role of MC, sitting rather mister speaker-like at the pool table and taking no nonsense, though applause was permitted. Mike kicked off the evening with Sixteen Tons (Merle Travis).

Burns' Night 2015

Robert Burns (1759-96)

A fine turn-out for our pre-Burns' Night session with 19 humans and three dogs including Gertie, who could possibly be described as a "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie" if she wasn't listening. There were plenty of Scottish, psuedo-Scottish and debatably Scottish songs in evidence. I won't comment too much on their relationship to Burns unless it's reasonably obvious or was stated.

Richard was once again MC for the evening - it's becoming quite a habit. We were pleased to see Maggie S for the first time in a few weeks, but she and Mike still had to leave at half time.

A couple of other notable anniversaries were mentioned. Derek pointed out Ewan McColl's 100th birthday on Sunday 25 January, and Keith G mentioned the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's death on Saturday 24 January.

Keith G proposed as appropriate to Churchill, Leonard Cohen's First We Take Manhattan (then we take Berlin).

Saint Andrew, Scotland and the sea

The Beauchamp - the lifeboat
involved in the Caister disaster of 1901

Last Friday people were very thin on the ground at the session. I suggested that we might get more people in if we removed the poster from the door; not because people are discouraged by the folk club poster, but because removing it would reveal the sign showing the way to the alternative toilets.

I can't quite remember the reason, but it may have been this comment that started Maggie singing Seven old ladies locked in the lavatory. Well, I say she started singing... No, I don't mean there was anything wrong with Maggie's singing, it's just that although it is officially her folk club, Maggie almost never sings, and she tried to stop the fact that she had sung being recorded. Well, it went into the official book, and it's recorded here on the blog as well!