Tunes help you breathe more easily

With your regular scribe away on the road to Gallivant, I find myself thrown off the comfortable subs' bench to report the pre-Easter meeting of the Dragon Club. [With notes like this from the regular scribe]

The unfortunate incapacity of Maggie, who broke her wrist in a dog-walking-related incident, meant that Indie (apparently not suffering any Maggie-walking-related injuries) arrived accompanied only by Mike. Mike surveyed the book to count the shell holes put into his repertoire during last week's Mikeless free-for-all, but had no difficulty in beginning with a couple of Keith Marsden songs – Idlers and Skivers and The Drovers.

We welcomed our old friend Joe, accompanied by his chauffeuse [Josci], on their first visit to the new site. Although he had not brought any song texts with him, he took the lead in singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot, eked out by other verses contributed by assorted (probably) ex-rugby players. This was enough to qualify him as one of 8 performers among the ten people present.

Mikesongs

Aurora Borealis

Since Mike and Maggie, and particularly Mike, were off Rockin' and Rollin' this week, it is customary to take the opportunity to sing some of Mike's songs. Richard, MCing again, got the ball rolling in that sense with Trevor Crozier's Dead Dog Cider.

Steve G was very topical with Neil Young's Pocahontas which starts "Aurora borealis. The icy sky at night". Only a few nights ago this phenomenon was visible in many parts of the country though not I think as far South as Bristol. Richard seemed to think that Colin would have something appropriate to the solar eclipse that had happened this very day, but he didn't have one.

Phil - Profile

This article is one of a series on regulars at the club.

Phil first came to the folk club about ten years ago. He says he sings anything that takes his fancy but he has a strong affinity for early American rural music. He sings, and plays guitar and harmonica.

Phil's musical tastes developed by listening to skiffle bands and the AFN (American Forces Network) during his national service with the British Army of the Rhine (1954-56). While recovering from an operation about ten years ago, he encountered an excellent guitarist who encouraged him and taught him some of the basic skills required to play the guitar. Phil's hearing is now severely impaired, so he thinks it unlikely that he will improve his playing further.

Phil has a wide selection of music on CD and vinyl, such as hillbilly blues and string bands (The Carolina Tar Heels, North Carolina Ramblers, Carter Family and Memphis Jug Band)., and individuals and duos (Jimmie Rodgers, Cliff Carlisle, Kelly Harrell, Darby and Tarlton, Riley Puckett, etc.). He would like to know whether anyone else is interested in this type of music.

St Patrick's Day (and Mothering Sunday) - 2015

Spinning and carding

With a couple of regulars missing from the throng this week we were slightly thin on the ground but in good voice to celebrate a slightly premature St Patrick's Day. I was also the nearest session to Mothering Sunday, something which didn't escape the attention of Derek, though his maternal contributions weren't necessarily as loving as one might expect.

Richard once again performed the duties of MC asn asked Mike to start us off, which he did with Red Haired Mary.

Death warmed up

I am slightly nervous about this week's blog report. The main reason is that I was quite justifiably roasted for an error I made (now corrected) in my previous report. Secondly because Derek typically took my error as a challenge and sang several versions of similar and not-so-similar songs, in an attempt to make the point about my error, or our "little domestic" as he put it. It was all in good humour of course but gives me a challenge since it was the difficulty of working out the background to what he sang last time that led to the error in the first place. I make no guarantees I have it right this week!

Richard took up the mantle of MC, and started us off himself with The Girl I Left Behind Me.

St David's Day 2015

Celebrating St David’s Day in Barmouth

The important factor which both constitutes news and explains the whole session is that there will be no Dragon Folk Club on 27 February but we will be back on Friday 6 March at the usual venue. It's simply a matter of our room being booked for another function. We were given at least two weeks' notice and the possibility of an alternative night, which was nice. Unfortunately the alternative night didn't work for enough of the regulars, so we're having a week off.

This hiatus meant that we wouldn't be meeting any closer to St David's day, so adopted Welshman, Richard, who MCed for the evening, announced at the last moment that. All things Welsh would be the theme. Given that there had been no leek (sic) of this information beforehand the level of preparedness was fairly low, except for Richard himself, who had obviously been planning it.

Valentine's Day 2015

CWAC Valentine's Day 1944

Ignoring the fact that it was Friday 13th, we concentrated on it being the day before Valentine's Day with a theme described by Mike as "Lust and Unrequited Love". I think everyone pretty much stuck to the theme even if we strayed even further than usual from the folk tradition. Roger set out on a tour of songs from the shows, claiming he was "doing a Simon", since Simon sang Summertime a couple of weeks ago.

Colin took the mantel of MC and got Mike to kick off with Black Sloven (Last Valentine's Day), which is not about love at all but is a hunting song. Nevertheless, it somehow got us off on theme.