Canadian Pacific

Ships in English Bay and Burrard Inlet, Vancouver
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was another corker, but not this time a matter of quantity, but rather of quality and interest. We were joined by another newcomer. Mandy isn't from around here, but she does visit regularly so there is hope that she will be back. She certainly seemed to enjoy the evening and commented how friendly and welcoming we are.

There's quite a lot to tell so hold on to your hats. I'll mark songs new to the Dragon database, but not necessarily to the club, with an asterisk (*). Of course, as it traditional, I will mention all of newcomer Mandy's songs.

We started off with no official theme, but things moved on quickly.

Colin, MC as usual, started us off with Christy Moore's Viva la Quinta Brigada (*).

Denny's first song of the evening was Holmfirth Anthem (roud 1046) and Paul gave us The ship in distress (roud 807 *). Simon found safe ground with Tom Paine's Bones (Graham Moore) - note that for the first time I have found a recording of the author singing his own song.

Mandy's debut at the club was an Appalachian version of Black Eyed Susan (roud 560, laws O28). Apparently the words come from a poem written in 1720 by John Gay and entitled Sweet William’s Farewell to Black-Eyed Susan.

Bob and Sue arrived just in time to join the end of the first rotation, but elected to take their time and skip to the second. Bob's first offering was You got gold (John Prine), which started a bit of a friendly Prine-off between Bob and Mandy.

Sue meanwhile sang Love of the Common People, known by many from the 1983 recording by Paul Young, but first recorded in 1967 having been written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins.

Mandy's second song of the evening was I'm so lonesome I could cry from Hank Williams, another name that would crop up again.

Colin asked me to check whether he had previously sung Jez Lowe's London Danny at the club and I confirm he did on 20th July 2018, so almost exactly six years ago. He may have sung it at other sessions, but I think that would have been the first since I mentioned in the report on that session that it was a song previously sung by our late friend Ray Croll.

Mandy joined the previously mentioned John Prine mini-theme set by Bob with That's the way the world goes round (*).

Bob followed the Hank Williams mini-theme set by Mandy with Lost highway, which wasn't written by Williams, but by Leon Payne.

It was Simon's singing of The Ryans and the Pittmans (roud 21113), which is a Newfoundland version of Spanish ladies, that caused Mandy to admit that she had lived for several years in Canada. She was pleased to be reminded of that time and that caused another not-so-mini theme of Canada to be established. With all these themes and it also being remarked that we sang quite a lot of railway songs, you really couldn't move for themes at the session - all very optional of course.

Mandy's singing of Stan Rogers' Barrett's Privateers allows me to link one of my favourite music videos from YouTube. Bear with the brief preamble and you will see a group of people really enjoying themselves. It is an excerpt from a documentary and I'm sure someone told me that during several takes the crew kept everyone's whisky glasses topped up, which perhaps explains the mood. Don't you just wish you were there? Of course this continued the Canadian theme.

Having not so far mentioned the railway theme, in quick succession we had Bob singing Golden Rocket (Hank Snow), Sue with City of New Orleans (Steve Goodman), and Denny with King of the railway (Roy Duffield), the latter being the only song of the evening not to feature in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below. I note now that Hank Snow was a "Canadian-American" - another theme ticked.

Simon followed the Canadian and Stan Rogers themes with Northwest Passage and Mandy introduced us to Canadian band Blue Rodeo by singing Falling down blue (Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor). Sue's Canadian offering was Ian Tyson's Four strong winds.

Denny took us to Canada via Chile with 150 days out from Vancouver (Cicely Fox Smith, Tom Lewis).

Apart from Mandy's final song of the evening, the Canadian I'se the b'y (roud 1340), we finished with another rush of train songs: Simon with the L&N don't stop here anymore (Jean Ritchie), Bob with New train (another John Prine song), and finally Sue with Elizabeth Cotten's Freight train.

So, we finished having sung a total of forty songs. Mandy was very game, entertaining us on her first visit with seven songs. If you are thinking of visiting us or even becoming a Dragon regular, don't worry, no one is going to complain if you pass on some rounds - you don't need a vast or even well practised repertoire to join us at the Bridge on a Friday night.

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

(Number of people present - 7 of whom 7 performed)

Burns Night 2023

What a great session we had last Friday, and a total contrast to the week before. There were six of us, including two newcomers who both sang. This is definitely a result. The newcomers were Alan and Paula. Alan is a member of the Barnacle Buoys shanty group.

The theme was Robert Burns since we were meeting just a couple of days after Burns Night. Though there were quite a few Scottish songs there weren't many actual Burns songs in evidence. In fact I only counted two, but I may have missed others.

Colin, in his usual role as MC started us off in pseudo-Scottish mode with Haggis Season (Jeremy Lloyd, Jim Parker).

Simon's single Burns offering was Ye Jacobites By Name (roud 31021). Bob and Sue wisely stayed off topic, Bob singing John Prine's You Got Gold (writing credits shared with Keith Sykes), and sue bringing out Homeward Bound (Paul Simon).

Talking of Paul Simon, we probably all know about the historical tension between Simon and Martin Carthy over Scarborough Fair (roud 12, child 2). That's all well known, but just this week we found out that Martin's daughter, Eliza Carthy only heard Paul Simon's version of the song for the first time a few weeks ago.

Alan's first song is perhaps called Why Did They Take Them All. I can't find anything about it, so I suspect it may be his own work. Paula skipped the first round, but she will be mentioned since it is traditional to mention all songs sung by newcomers.

Alan gave us two more songs which were definitely at least partly his own work: When The Shanty Men Come Steaming In and Queen And Country. He also sang some more familiar fare: Johnny Come Down To Hilo (roud 650), Wave Over Wave (Jim Payne), The Mermaid and I Wish They'd Do It Now (roud 1401).

Paula started off a little later than the rest but in fine form with The Fisherman's Lassie going on to sing The Yellow Handkerchief (roud 954), Pleasant And Delightful (roud 660, laws O30) and Rosabella. That last linked video is of the Barncale Buoys singing Rosabella and Alan can be seen bottom centre, so there's a bonus for this blog report.

There were a few points that need to be cleared up on other songs sung during the evening where discussion on the night was inconclusive or misleading:

• For House Of The Rising Sun (roud 6393) which Sue sang, I have linked a video of Dave Van Ronk's version because he seems to have coined the popular tune made famous by The Animals. While the song has its origins in England, the current song crossed the ocean and was known by American miners in 1905. The oldest published version of the lyrics is that printed by Robert Winslow Gordon in 1925 and started "There is a house in New Orleans, it's called the Rising Sum, It's been the ruin of many poor girl" (rather than boy).
• Bob's Empty Bed Blues is a rather raunchy, maybe even bawdy song written by J C Johnson and first recorded by Bessy Smith.
• Colin's Campbeltown Loch wasseems to have been written by Alan Cameron. The tune is The Glendaruel Highlanders.
• Sue's Something was of course written by George Harrison.
• Colin had what I believe was the second and final Burns song of the evening with Parcel Of Rogues (roud V31022).

It was indeed Colin who finished the evening with Air Fa La La Lo, which is a traditional Gaelic song translated into English by Hugh S Roberton.

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

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