Remembrance 2022

Yes, we were back down to two singers at the Dragon Folk Club session last week, but those who were there stuck pretty well to the Remembrance theme throughout and an interesting variety of songs were sung. If you can be there this Friday that would be great and to make things easier there will be no theme.

Colin was MC as usual and started of proceedings with Jim Woodland's Ghost Story, from the singing of Roy Bailey.

Simon gave a first outing to his rendition of Mike Harding's The Accrington Pals. This was the first of four songs Simon gave us from Mike's singing, three of which he wrote. The others were: Jimmy Spoons (Mike Harding), Bomber's Moon (Mike Harding) and And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda (Eric Bogle).

In the absence of Derek who sometimes sings it, Colin performed The 51st Highland Division's Farewell To Sicily by Hamish Henderson (roud 10501), set to the first, third and fourth parts of the pipe tune 'Farewell to the Creeks' by Pipe Major James Robertson of Banff.

Colin sang the Vera Lynn version of Lili Marlene (roud 15403, German words by Hans Leip, tune Norbert Schultze, variously translated into English by Norman Baillie-Stewart, Tommie Connor, and Theodore Stephanides). After this Simon had to sing The D-Day Dodgers (roud 10499, Lance-Sergeant Harry Pynn) to the same tune.

I was unable to find a YouTube recording of The Kriegie Ballad (roud 10516, Robert Garioch) which Colin sang so you won't find it in the playlist linked from "a selection below". 

Colin sang a couple of Steve Knightley (Show of Hands) songs: Battlefield dance floor and The Gamekeeper.

Simon finished the evening, probably slightly off-topic with Claudy Banks (roud 266, laws N40).

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

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

Bonfire Night 2022

Cleeve Hill Youth Hostel

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session had a theme, variously described as "Bonfire Night", "Guy Fawkes" and "Campfire Songs". This gave a reasonably large scope and of course our theme's are always optional, so there were plenty of off-topic songs.

Before I report what happened last week, you may be interested to know that this Friday's session will have a "Remembrance" theme though of course as always it is optional and anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

We were pleased last week to see the return of Bob J and Sue for their second visit. We know they won't be around this week, but let's hope they return very soon.

There were an unusually large number of songs which I couldn't find on YouTube for one reason or another, so I will concentrate on those, but you can find the others as usual in the "a selection" link at the end of this report.

Colin, our regular MC, started us off with his own song "Guy" with lines such as "The rain is falling and we're getting wet" and "give us a penny or more if you can", referring of course to the tradition of "Penny for the Guy" where children went door to door asking for money to spend on their bonfire party. It was noted that this tradition seems to have ceased... no doubt ousted by the American tradition of Trick or Treat for Halloween, which was just last week.

Sue's first song of the evening was inspired by her ukulele group having practised Sam Cooke's Only Sixteen. Her version, possibly autobiographical, was "Seventy Three".

Simon brought out a song he has sung at previous "campfire" sessions: When the scouts come hiking in. Apart from obviously using the tune to When the Saints go marching in I haven't found any information on this song.

Sue's last song, which it eventually became obvious would be the last song of the evening, was another self-penned one. She had attended a ukulele workshop and everyone had to perform a song. She chose to adapt The House of the Rising Sun to an autobiographical story. In her story the house in question was a pub of that name on Cleeve Hill, near Cheltenham with which your scribe is quite familiar. It was significant on a cycling club tour where Sue and her companions stayed at the nearby (now defunct) Youth Hostel. It also started the story of Sue and her late husband.

After Bob J and Sue had left we might have continued as a two-some but we were joined by the landlady's husband, Mark who chatted to us about the current difficulties of the hospitality trade and some of the ideas he has for diversifying the offering of The Bridge Inn. When Mark left us we decided to call it a night.

See you this Friday for more fun, music, song and laughter.

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

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

Halloween 2022

Stanton Drew (Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session had the theme of Halloween. Happily we were back to reasonable numbers with five singers. We didn't all slavishly follow the theme, but that's fine.

While I think of it, this Friday's theme is variously "Bonfire Night", "Guy Fawkes" and "Campfire Songs", so that is a fairly large target to aim for, but as always the theme is optional. You are welcome to sing, play or otherwise perform anything as long as it's acoustic.

The five at last week's session included two first-timers, Bob J and Sue. In line with tradition I will aim to mention everything that they performed through the evening.

Colin, in his usual MC role, started us off with Chris Hoban's Hallows Eve, a song from the singing of Show of Hands. Steve Knightley says:

It came from socialising with Chris [Hoban]. He’s a Topsham resident, he’s about my age. He’s actually a music teacher. He’s possibly the best unknown songwriter I know, and he’s able to research a topic like this because he’s quite an intellectual guy and from a devout background. His father was seriously high up ecclesiastical figure in London in the Catholic church.

Chris knows his religious history, and in the course of just hanging out he played me this song, and I said “Wow, I love that!” We haven’t really changed the arrangement from how he originally played it to me. There was some debate when we recorded it about the lyric: “the worlds that part us now are twain”, about what that actually means.

I thought it should be “the worlds that unite us now are twain”, but you’d need to talk to Chris about that! It’s a great song, and you’ve just reminded me that it’s one that we should be playing round about now.

Simon gave us another theme-appropriate piece with The Souling Song (Roud 304).

Last week brought a welcome return for Rob who has been busy the last few weekends including singing with Eagle Alley at Mevagissey Shanty Festival. His first song of the evening was The wife of Usher's well (roud 196, child 79). It's always good when it's possible to link to our own singer performing a song.

And so to our welcome first-timers at the Dragon Folk Club... Bob hit the theme with Ghost Trains, written by Famous Lashua. Sue, unable to find what she was looking for to match the theme, gave us Big Rock Candy Mountain (roud 6696), believed to have been originally written by Harry McClintock. Sue's version seemed to be closer though to the Burl Ives, family friendly, version - which is absolutely fine by us.

Colin took us to Somerset to meet the devil in Dancer's of Stanton Drew (Jim Parker, Muriel Holland).

Simon offered With her head tucked underneath her arm (RP Weston, Bert Lee - roud 37117) with mentions of "King Henry", so Rob followed up with King Henry (roud 3967, child 32).

Bob, who variously sings blues and bluegrass it seems, said that his next song had been sung by various rockers, but that his version was from a blues-man whose name I didn't catch. Blind Lemon Jefferson wrote and recorded a song entitled Match Box Blues in 1927, possibly based on Ma Rainey's 1924 Lost Wandering Blues. From the snatches that I noted down of Bob's song it more closely matched Carl Perkins' Matchbox released in 1957. Carl Perkins's father Buck suggested that he write a song based on snatches of lyrics that he remembered. Buck knew only a few lines from the 1927 song from the recordings by Jefferson or the Shelton Brothers. As Perkins sang the few words his father had suggested, Jerry Lee Lewis, who was at that time a session piano player at Sun Studios, started a boogie-woogie riff. Perkins began to improvise on his guitar and with lyrics. Perkins maintained that he had never heard Jefferson's song when he recorded "Matchbox". Of course the Jerry Lee Lewis link is appropriate on the day of his death. Sorry if I've misrepresented Bob's intentions.

Next Sue sang us House of the Rising Sun (roud 6393). It seems that the popular tune made famous by The Animals was first put together by Dave Van Ronk. Van Ronk had learned it sometime in the 1950s, from a recording by Hally Wood, the Texas singer and collector, who had got it from an Alan Lomax field recording by a Kentucky woman named Georgia Turner. Van Ronk put a different spin on it by altering the chords and using a bass line that descended in half steps.

After this Simon couldn't resist sharing Mary McCloud's parody of the same song, House of the Rising Damp (sorry no recording yet).

Colin was still battling away on the theme, singing A Lyke Wake Dirge (roud 8194)

Bob and Sue joined forces to perform In other words (Fly me to the moon) written in 1954 by Bart Howard. At this point, Sue's potential Halloween song turned up among the "Fly me" sheets held by Bob so she went on to sing Riders in the sky (Stan Jones), better known as "Ghost riders in the sky".

Bob's next contribution was Fireball Mail written by Fred Rose and Floyd Jenkins. Sue's last contribution before they both left for the evening was Don't fence me in. Cole Porter received the original writing credits for tune and lyric of this song which was to be used in the film Adios, Argentina which was never made. porter had been asked to write a cowboy song for the movie. He bought a poem by Robert Fletcher for $250 and reworked it. Porter wanted to give Fletcher co-authorship credit, but his publishers did not allow it. After the song became popular Fletcher hired attorneys who negotiated his co-authorship credit in subsequent publications. Although it was one of the most popular songs of its time, Porter claimed it was his least favourite of his compositions.

In the rest of the session we were treated to a couple of "rare songs". The first was from Rob, who sang White dog of Yockenthwaite, a poem by Dorothy Una Ratcliffe set to music by Brian Bedford of Artisan fame. The other was Great Uncle Frank, a song sung by Colin from his own pen.

The penultimate song of the evening, sung by Simon was The Lambton worm (roud 2337) which by coincidence Rob was at that very moment considering singing. Instead Rob finished the session off in theme with Ballad of cursed Anna, written by Jonathan Kelly.

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

(Number of people present - 5 of whom 5 performed)

The lonely singer

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Last week's session was unfortunate in two ways. First and most importantly Jan N, an excellent performer, singer and guitarist, turned up slightly early to The Bridge Inn and because of a misunderstanding was turned away by the landlady. We have been trying to get Jan to come down to the Dragon Folk Club for several years and for this to happen is awful. There is a lesson to be learnt. We must tell newcomers, if it isn't obvious how to find us in the pool room, or if we aren't there yet, please tell the staff you are there for the Dragon Folk Club.

That unfortunate incident led to the second... Simon, who was due to be MC for the evening, was on his own. He sang some songs to himself before calling it a night at about 10pm. This leads to the philosophical quote above. Did he really sing? Trust me, he did, and he sang some songs he hadn't previous sung in public... errr, well he still hasn't really, so you'll have to take my word for that as well. Let's call it a practise session.

All of the songs he sang are in the linked playlist (see "a selection" below) except one. It was written about Simon by our friend Richard Gillion - The dodgy Doombar.

Let's hope for more people next week. In theory there should be at least three of us. We'll be able to raise the roof anyway, so why not come along to sing, play, recite or even just to listen (I'm sure we'll get you singing along to choruses) and we can absolutely smash those roof tiles.

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

(Number of people present - 1 of whom 1 performed)

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)