King Charles III Coronation

Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023)

We met the day before the coronation in the knowledge that we probably didn't all have the same view of the King or of his coronation. Not all of the songs sung had anything to do with the theme, but those that were sung were both sung and heard non-judgmentally. The sentiment of each song may or may not represent the thoughts or beliefs of the singer.

The group of singers who met numbered a very respectable eight persons and good sing was indeed had.

Colin, as MC and first arrival, started off with Rod Shearman's London River.

Some of us were fairly tenuous in our connections, satisfying ourselves with mentions of some king or queen, and so did Denny who sang Vin Garbutt's Beggar's Bridge.

Paul had written one song especially for the evening, a version of Bold Riley (roud 18160), which I suppose he called Old Charlie. Charles III is of course the oldest British monarch to be crowned. Later he even wrote another song on the fly: a version of Roll the Old Chariot (roud 3632) which he presumably called Roll the Old Carriage.

Rob often reacts to the words of Child Ballads, realising that either the story isn't finished or lacks some element of exposition - he proceeds then to write a companion song which attempts to fill in the gaps. In just this spirit he sang his own rewrite of the Hindhorn (roud 28, child 17) story, which he calls Young Horn and Lady Jean.

Simon brought out the kings in force with a rendition of The Vicar of Bray (roud V4266).

Bob created a secondary theme for the evening (not followed up on) which referred to the recent death of Gordon Lightfoot. On this theme Bob sang Lightfoot's Early Morning Rain.

Sue took to the plains of the Wild West with Don't Fence Me In (Robert Fletcher, Cole Porter).

Geoff completed the first round of the evening with Joseph McHugh (Dermot Kelly).

I was particularly pleased to hear Rob's version of The Handsome Cabin Boy (roud 239, laws N13) which I don't think I'd heard for many years at a folk club. I wonder where Rob got his starting line "It's of a lass for Staffordshire as you will understand..."? As with all folk songs, the words vary, but the more usual version seems to be "'Tis of a handsome female, as you will understand". It's the specificity that is of interest, not simply the difference.

The other new entry in the database this week was Bob and Sue's singing of Creeque Alley (John Phillips, Michelle Phillips). It caused some discussion, so I hope this helps resolve things...

Recorded by the Mamas and the Papas, the band of which the writers were members, the song narrates the story of how the group was formed, and its early years. The title of the song, which does not occur in the lyrics, is derived from Creque or Crequi (pronounced "creaky") Alley, home to a club in the Virgin Islands where the New Journeymen, John and Michelle Phillips' original group, spent time on holiday.

The lyrics mention, directly or indirectly, many artists and bands who were part of the folk music scene at the time, including fellow band members Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty, Zal Yanovsky and John Sebastian of The Lovin' Spoonful, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, and Barry McGuire of The New Christy Minstrels. Several locations important to the band's story are mentioned, such as the Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village. Michelle Phillips is referred to in the lyrics by her nickname Michi ("John and Michi were getting kind of itchy, just to leave the folk music behind"). John Phillips said that he wrote the song to tell their producer Lou Adler "who was who" in the band's history.

Rob sang his version of Raggle Taggle Gypsy (roud 1, child 200), which while faithful to the usually words, puts a darker slant on the mood of the song - in the linked version Alison Moyet goes some way to getting the same feel as Rob.

It was Geoff who finished off the session with Dandy Vernon (Michael Snow).

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

(Number of people present - 8 of whom 8 performed)

A bit of everything

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten

Well, last Friday's Dragon session was a breath of fresh air. Not only was it the second time in two weeks that we had a roll call of seven at The Bridge Inn, but this time they were all in the room at the same time and they all performed.

Unfortunately we are going to be down on numbers this week unless you come along, and it would be absolutely splendid if you could, whether you mainly sing, play, recite or listen. As usual anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Back to last week, Colin as MC started things off with his own song, Hergest Ridge, to a tune borrowed from Mike Oldfield's album of the same name. Hergest Ridge is a large elongated hill which traverses the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom, between the town of Kington in Herefordshire and the village of Gladestry in Powys. Its highest point, which is in England, is 426 metres high.

All of the songs sung during the session with the exception of the aforementioned Hergest Ridge are to be found on the "a selection" playlist linked below as is T S Eliot's poem Journey of the Magi, which was read by Jane.

What are missing are Jane's stories, which are worth a mention. They concerned:

• the stress of being Father Christmas
• The Brighton Story about a ghost ship seen near Shoreham
• a bird-friendly thatcher and his encounters with Death
• why does some idiot have to write a book about where I live?

I'll pick a handful of songs to mention because they may not be entirely obvious.

Freight Train, sung by Sue, was written by Elzabeth Cotten in her early teens. For a large part of her life she didn't play the guitar. When she was working for the Seeger family as a maid, they were out one day and on their return they heard music. The found it was the maid having picked up someone's guitar and playing it upside down as she continued to do. And so Libba Cotten was discovered and in her later years became a recording and performing artist.

Colin sang Sonny's Dream which was written by Ron Hynes, a folk singer-songwriter from Newfoundland and Labrador. The song was heard by Scottish artist Hamish Imlach while on a trip to Canada. He modified it somewhat and played it in folk-clubs in Britain. There it was heard by Christy Moore who recorded it and passed it on to other artists in Ireland. A version titled "Sonny" was recorded by Mary Black.

Bob gave us Lost Highway, made famous by Hank Williams, but written and first recorded by Leon Payne.

Simon's Lady Franklin's Lament (roud 487, laws K09) first appeared as a Broadside ballad around 1850 and has since been recorded with the melody of the Irish traditional air "Cailín Óg a Stór" by numerous artists. It has been found in Ireland, in Scotland, and in some regions of Canada.

Rob sometimes takes a traditional ballad, particularly one of those indexed by Francis James Child, and writes a new ballad to look at the story from a different perspective or to explain missing pieces of the tale. Young Horn and Lady Jean is just such a song, inspired by Hind Horn (roud 28, child 17).

Bob and Sue sang Jackson, which is usually associated with Johnny and June Carter Cash, but was written by Billy Edd Wheeler and Jerry Leiber.

We had some discussion about Sue's song Busy doing nothing. Written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke it came from the film of Mark Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court where it was sung by Bing Crosby, William Bendix and Cedric Hardwicke.

It was Rob who finished off the evening which cut a little short by landlady Helen informing us that we were the last customers and she would be shutting up. Rob sang The Dowie Dens O'Yarrow (roud 13, child 214).

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

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