A happy band

Matthew II and SS Great Britain
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We had the best turn-out for a while at the Dragon Folk Club last week, and that included Gordon, a new face for the club, and a very welcome one who we hope to see again.

Colin, MC as usual, started off the session with Stan Rogers' The Mary Ellen Carter.

Gordon's debut song at the club was Old Zeb (Larry Kaplan). Kaplan says that the song is about Zebulon Northrup Tilton who was born in 1867, and died in 1952 at the age of eighty-five. He lived long enough to see the coasting schooner trade all but disappear. This was the first of six songs sung during the evening that were new to the Dragon database (though not necessarily new to the club) - I'll simply mark the rest with an asterisk (*).

Denny kept to the watery theme with Row on (roud 2084 - Tune: Tim Laycock). Also keeping to that theme was Paul with Wee pot stove (Harry Robertson), although taking after Nic Jones, Paul sang "Little pot stove".

With the 80th anniversary of the landings just past, Simon found another theme of his own, singing D-Day dodgers (roud 10499 - Lance-Sergeant Harry Pynn).

Rob sang a song sometimes sung by Steve: Just as the tide was flowing (roud 1105), followed swiftly by Steve singing a song sometimes sung by Rob: Rio Grande (roud 317). We're not territorial here when it comes to songs.

Bob gave us Blues stay away from me (Alton Delmore, Henry B Glover, Rabon Delmore, Wayne Raney), followed by Sue finishing the first rotation with Soon may the wellerman come, which contrary to popular belief is not a shanty (a working song), but a forebitter (a ballad sung by seamen while off duty). Nevertheless, Nathan Evans' recording of the song published on social media during the pandemic triggered a revival in shanty signing, which can't be a bad thing.

There were two songs sung during the evening which are not available on YouTube as far as I can tell, and therefore not in the playlist linked from "a selection" below. The first was Colin's singing of Chris Sugden's The Pharmacist (*), a parody of Farmer's boy (roud 408, laws Q30), sung by Sugden and Dick Nudds as The Kipper Family. The second song not on the playlist was sung by Rob, and written by his late friend Pete MacGregor: Modern banker (*).

As is customary, I will mention all of the songs sung by newcomer Gordon. His second song was Singing in the May (Mike O'Connor *) - a little late, but we will forgive him. Next he put on his one-man-band contraption (yes, really) and sang Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster's Me an Bobby McGee.

Unstrapped, Gordon gave us Joe Hill (Alfred Hayes, Earl Robinson), one of the songs in a set he is developing about rights that have been gained and could easily be lost.

The songs not so far mentioned which are new to the Dragon database were:

• Rob - Waiting for a train (Rob Winder *), not to be confused with the song of the same title which is roud 699, laws H2 and was written by Jimmie Rodgers
• Denny - Shift and spin (Ewan McVicar *)

It fell to Sue to close the evening with Love of the common people (John Hurley, Ronnie Wilkins).

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

(Number of people present - 9 of whom 9 performed)

Easter 2023

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was actually held on Good Friday, but was optionally themed for Easter. While there were some Easter and tenuously Easter songs, I won't claim most of us stuck religiously to the title. It was great to see six singers once again and a good time was had by all, I believe.

Colin, our usual MC, started off the session on topic with Three Weeks Before Easter (roud 154).

Rob at least invoked the season with When Spring Comes In (roud 439), but Simon went a bit off the rails with Wee Pot Stove (Harry Robertson) - OK, it mentions penguin eggs.

Sue and Bob, working together, together gave us San Francisco Bay Blues (roud 20960 - Jesse Fuller). Since duets can't count for both singers, Bob followed up with Lucinda Williams' Lake Charles.

Geoff brought the first round to a close with That's What Love Will Do (Trevor Peacock) . Yes, that's Trevor Peacock who played Jim Trott in the Vicar of Dibley. The song was made famous by Joe Brown.

I'll mention the songs we sang which were new to the Dragon blog database.

Rob said that the write of his song Saint Patrick Battalion, David Rovics, is a prolific song writer. So much so that when he was once in Rob's audience, he was knocking off songs at the back of the room. Rob was a bit put out that Rovics wasn't listening until after he finished his set they had a conversation and it was clear the American had been listening as well as writing. The song tells the story of John Riley, one of the Irish fighters who switched sides in the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848, joining the Mexican side as the Batallón de San Patricio.

Geoff, maybe inspired by Rob's contribution, sang Allan Sherman and Lou Busch's comedy lyrics for the Mexican Hat Dance.

Bob sang Blood Red River (roud 15807). There seem to be many versions of the song, and many related songs, but Rob's seems to have been close to, or maybe exactly, Josh White's version.

Rob gave us The Brisk Young Sailor (roud 60, laws P25). Both Roud and Laws index this song together with There is a Tavern in the Town.

It was also Rob who sang Rocking the Cradle (roud 357). He referred to a version which had inspired him. I think it may have been the one I found by Bill Jones.

Geoff sang Sally Ann, written by Alan Klein. Geoff cited the version sung by Joe Brown, but it seems to have been originally recorded by Freddie and the Dreamers.

The final newcomer song also came from Geoff, being Andy Kim's Rock Me Gently.

The session was rounded off by Colin, back on the Easter, or at least Good Friday, topic with The Old Rugged Cross (George Bennard).

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

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

Bonfire Night 2019

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Despite Halloween being well out of the way for another year, we were down to a skeleton staff for our Bonfire Night, or more accurately campfire themed session last Friday. Perhaps more will turn out for our Remembrance session this Friday, 8 November when songs, tunes, stories and other performances relating to remembrance, war and anti-war will be particularly welcome though as usual anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Our MC, Colin started us off with the one Bonfire Night song of the evening, Guy Fawkes (Roud V18439).

In place of a campfire, Simon had us in a dark engine room, huddled round a Wee Pot Stove (Harry Robertson). Mike eschewed fires altogether in his first song, instead opting for a reference to "the fifth of November" in Spencer The Rover (Roud 1115).

Geoff also claimed to miss the theme but we thought he could probably use the campfire to cook the sausages and potatoes from his song Lidl And Aldi (Mickey MacConnell). Mike also wanted it to be known that garden equipment bought from Lidl is too resilient to be made fun of.