Two men went to sing

Glen Etive (Photo: Simon Meeds)

Sorry for a very brief report this week. I seem to have run out of time with various other jobs to do.

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was again depleted to a total of two singers yet we managed plenty of chat and still had time to sing 19 songs between us. As usual you can find an indication of those songs in the playlist linked below.

Your presence and voice are really needed for this Friday's session otherwise it could be a very lonely sing. If one man sings to himself in a room and no one is there to hear, has he really sung at all?

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

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

Ray remembered

Last week's session mustered only two singers, but they each sang thirteen songs, which isn't bad going. Twenty three of them are represented in the playlist linked below.

Colin started the evening by singing Granny's old armchair (roud 1195) which he said he knew from the singing of our late friend Ray Croll and nowhere else. It turns out that it was written around John Read 1879 by John Read and was popular in the music halls. It returned to fame in the folk revival of the 1960s having been being kept alive among others by traditional singers Fred Jordan and Walter Pardon.

Simon had been listening to Radio 4. One programme was about people who have been influenced by the singing of Kate Bush, one of which was Bristol singer Katy J Pearson. Although her styl;e may resemble Bush, Simon thought Pearson's voice was more like that of Nanci Griffith. Another programme was Last Word which featured an obituary of Loretta Lynn. Simon brought these two (and indeed listening to the radio albeit talk rather than music) together by singing Griffith's song Listen to the radio.

Colin continued by consciously and unconsciously singing songs from the repertoire of Ray Roll and his wife Vee. I won't catch them all, but the next, from Vee, was Get a little table (Harry Linn, William Sim - 1882). Another from Ray's singing was Girl from the hiring fair (Ralph McTell).

Colin sang Come by the hills (W Gordon Smith) which we thought may have been one in Ray's repertoire, but we weren't sure.

Simon had been notable in not singing any Ray Croll songs. He often sings Rudyard Kipling's The smuggler's song, but wasn't prepared. When asked to close the session it was only after deciding which song to sing that he realised it was in fact from Ray's repertoire: Wee dark engine room (Harry Robertson).

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

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

Harvest 2022

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session had our annual Harvest theme. The theme is no longer compulsory as it once was and wasn't this year accompanied by a feast and a vegetable auction, but harvest and autumn songs were in evidence from at least two of our singers.

Colin, MC as usual, started us off with All of a row (roud 1474). Geoff declared himself off-topic and sang Keith's hit song, 98.6 (George Fischoff, Tony Powers). Simon followed that with Alan Bell's Windmills.

We had at least three songs from the singing of The Yetties: Colin sang Dorset is Beautiful (Bob Gale) and All the good things (Bonny Sartin), and Simon sang Buttercup Joe (roud 1635).

Simon pointed out that the closest Geoff came to a harvest song may have been Golden Brown (Hugh Cornwell, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Dave Greenfield, Jet Black), which is about heroin (not cocaine as suggested on the night).

By that time Simon himself had moved temporarily into the "harvest of the sea" with The Candlelight fisherman (roud 1852) and The Bergen (Jez Lowe).

Colin sang two versions of John Barleycorn: Steeleye Span's version of (roud 164) and later roud 2141.

It seemed that Simon had peaked too early, singing his usual finishing-off song When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford), but he kept one in the bag for the end of the evening: Wild mountain thyme (Francis McPeake - roud 541).

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

(Number of people present - 3 of whom 3 performed)

Absentee reporter

I wasn't at last week's Dragon Folk Club session, but I'm told there were three singers and one story-teller. It was particularly good that Steve C and Jane swelled the ranks in my absence.

I have set up the "a selection" playlist link in the usual way, though the songs are not in the order they were sung, and if there are any incorrect songs you can blame it on Chinese whispers.

Please remember that this Friday's session will be our annual Harvest theme. Songs, tunes and stories appropriate to the theme will be very welcome, though don't worry if you can't match it.

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

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

A quick report

There were three of us at last week's Dragon Folk Club session. There was quite a lot of chat to season the singing: medical topics, bell ringing, and engineering featured. Nevertheless we sang fourteen songs, versions of most of which can be found by following the "a selection" link below.

Sorry for the lack of a full report again, but please enjoy listening.

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

(Number of people present - 3 of whom 3 performed)

A little bit of royalty

Squeezy Belly Alley, Port Isaac, Cornwall
(Photo: Portwenn Online)

Last Friday's Dragon Folk Club session saw four of us convene at The Bridge Inn for an evening of song and chat. Of course the death of Queen Elizabeth II featured a little, but there was much more to it than that.

Before I start with this week's report proper, let me tell you that we will be having our annual Harvest session on 30 September, so please come along that week prepared to sing "harvesty" songs - John Barleycorn is a valid option but there are many more.

Last week's session started with MC Colin singing George Papvgeris' "As long as someone sings a song". It was written for the 39th birthday of London-based folk club, Herga, where the club is a "friend". Sorry, I've failed to find a recording of the song.

Rob was the first to dip his toe into royal waters with Nancy Kerr's song Queen of waters. When Rob first knew Nancy, she and James Fagan lived on a narrowboat of that name in Bath. The song was written about the boat when they moved to live on dry land in Sheffield.

Simon drew one obvious and a couple of tenuous topical links from his first song, The vicar of Bray (roud V4266). Mike however eschewed all temptation with his first song, All among the barley (roud 1283).

Rob introduced us to an interesting song written by Maggie Duffy and called Squeezy belly alley after a similarly named street in Port Isaac, Cornwall.

When Mike sang We're all surrounded (roud 9164) Rob asked, given that many of the references are biblical, where the words "we're all surrounded" came from given that he couldn't place them in any other song. No one knew, so Simon found a partial answer in The Traditional Ballad Index at fresnostate.edu:

Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips gives this as an example of a Negro cotton stowing song that was adapted as a shanty. - SL

The reference to "Martha wept and Mary cried" is presumably a reference to the sisters of Lazarus who mourned over their brother in John 11. I don't have a good explanation for the "We're all surrounded" chorus (unless it's a mistake); it occurs to me that it might, just possibly, be a reference to Hebrews 12:1, where we are told that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (who might well include Martha and Mary). The problem, is, the King James version uses the verb "compassed about" rather than "surrounded" (the Greek means something like "having an encirclement"). There is, in fact, no instance of the English verb "to surround," in any form, in the King James Bible.

The first line, "Oh! Martha wept and Mary cried," is found in a song, "Carry the News to Mary," with words by Charley Howard and music by Walter Bray; see Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #275, p. 19. I do not know the relationship between the songs, if any. - RBW

Rob, a fan of Leonard Cohen, referred to his song The Partisan, adapted by Hy Zaret (who wrote Unchained melody) from a song of the French Resistance composed in 1943 by Russian-born Anna Marly, and with lyrics by French Resistance leader Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie. Rob sang the original song, La Complainte du partisan.

Colin gave us a Newfoundland version of Rigs of the time (roud 876) called Hard hard times.

Surprisingly I wasn't able to find a recording (or really much more than a trace) of Peggy Seeger's song Where have all the felon's gone? which Colin sang. Of course it is based on the tune of her half-brother Pete's song Where have all the flowers gone?

Simon closed the evening with Nobby Dye's song about leaving and returning to Bristol, Welsh Back Quay.

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

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

End of an era, start of another

(Photo: Lichfield / Getty Images)

I had expected to run off a blog report for last week's Dragon Folk Club session quickly on Monday or Tuesday, but other commitments ensured that didn't happen, so here I am on Thursday evening with another session imminent tomorrow and what's more Queen Elizabeth II has just died.

I realise our followers represent a broad church on all spectra, not least the monarchist / republican one, but I suspect we all recognise that today is an important one in the history of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and to some extent the world. We don't know exactly what will change and what will remain the same any more than we do following any major event, but we will all watch, listen and maybe for some of us play our small part.

Just now let's recognise that a family is grieving, and many people in this country and in other countries are also grieving in their own ways.

Three of us gathered last Friday to sing a wide variety of songs, traditional as well as from the works of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Show of Hands, Fred Wedlock and Donovan among others. We will meet again this week, hopefully in greater numbers to sing again.

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

(Number of people present - 3 of whom 3 performed)