Back with a bang

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last Friday's Dragon Folk Club session was the first after an extended break which began before Christmas. After the holidays we were faced with a pub that was closed for refurbishment in preparation for new management. Now we are happy to announce that we are back and well ensconced in the Bridge Inn for the foreseeable future.

The new management seems friendly and keen to make us feel at home. There are still heating issues in our room, which he clearly wants to fix, and in the meantime he provided temporary heating which was adequate for our needs. So we once again have a venue, and it seems somewhat improved already. There was some music audible from the next room, but it was turned down on request.

So, that's the venue sorted for now, and a bit of publicity seems to have done the trick. All the core regulars were back in the house, and they were joined by occasional visitors, Stuart, Steve C and Jane, as well as four (yes four!) first time visitors. Let's hope some of them will be able to join us again very soon.

Colin as MC kicked off this momentous evening, after announcing a rather last-minute St David's theme, with Hob y deri dando. In researching this report I've found that Joseph Haydn did two arrangements of this folk song - I never knew that.

Some people were able to follow Colin's lead even if tenuously, but I think we can be forgiven for sticking mostly to our core repertoires. Nevertheless, there were a decent number of songs new to the Dragon database, not least of course from our newcomers, and all marked here with an asterisk (*).

Denny's first song was Sydney Carter's Julian of Norwich, about the 14th/15th century anchoress and author of that name. Paul followed that with Hanging Johnny (roud 2625).

Bob gave us John Prine's Same thing happened to me and Sue gave a nod to Wales with Puff the magic dragon (Leonard Lipton, Peter Yarrow). I see that Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary) had died since we last met, so it was quite appropriate in that sense too.

Nicola and mark made their Dragon debut with Home James and don't spare the horses (*). This song, written by Fred Hillebrand in 1934 centres on an expression of pressing urgency that goes back to the mid-nineteenth century, but the statistics on its recorded use skyrocket around the time that Elsie Carlisle recorded the song with Ambrose and His Orchestra.

Simon sang Dave Sudbury's King of Rome and Rob sang his own Ballad of Reynardine (Rob Winder).

Nicola and Mark were joined by Beverley and David for Roll the old chariot (roud 3632).

Meanwhile we had been joined by Steve C whose first song was The rare ould times (Pete St John), Jane who told us a story she called "Star crossed lovers" (#), and Stuart whose opener was KC Moan (roud 4958).

The only performances of the evening not covered in the playlist linked from "a selection" below are Jane's stories, and I will mark them with a hash (#).

Denny sang The higgler (*), written by Tony Franklin, a "Cornwall Songwriter" and not the English rock musician of the same name. Cornwall Songwriters is "a unique collective writing in the traditional genre".

Nicola, on her own this time, gave us One morning in May (the bold grenadier) (* roud 140, laws P14) and mark, also alone, embarrassed his sister slightly by, for the first time in about fifty years, singing Barry Humphries' The chunder song (*).

Rob's next was also a newcomer to the database: The barley and the rye (* roud 23268). Jane gave us a short story about a shiny box in the attic which held a secret meaning (#).

Nicola, Mark, Beverley and David came together again to give us a rendition of Harbour (*) by Anna Tabbush. Stuart's next was also a database newcomer in the form of This city (*) by Steve Earle: a song about Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans in 2005.

Denny's second new song (to the database) of the evening was Glen Isla to bonny Glenshee (* roud 832).

Nicola impressed us with her charming Spanish lullaby, A la nanita nana (*).

Jane's last story of the evening was a collection of anecdotes about her son (#), to show that she should always listen to him because he's often right.

Stuart gave us the last song of the evening to add to the database, which was Handsome Molly (* roud 454), and the very last song came from Paul, sending us home with Roll Alabama roll (roud 4710).

It was an excellent evening, much warmer than in the recent past (even Bob commented on the warmth), and with a friendly and helpful pub manager. If it carries on like this we won't have much to complain about, and we hope it will help persuade you to join us.

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

(Number of people present - 14 of whom 14 performed)

We're Back!

It is now confirmed that after an enforced break of about two months the Dragon Folk Club will be back on Friday 28th February. We are back to our accustomed venue of The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG and our usual start time of 8:15pm.

As always you are welcome to join us whether to sing a song, play a tune, tell a story, recite a monologue, tell a joke, perform in any other way or indeed none but just be our audience, and as usual anything goes as long as it's acoustic. Yes, we have our feet firmly in the folk tradition "of these isles" as my old "friend" Mike Harding would say, but we are perfectly open to songs from other sources and even from your own pen.

The pub is under new management, so while I can guarantee the usual FREE ENTRY, warm welcome and excellent acoustics, we can only hope for the usual reasonably priced bar. There is a suggestion that a new boiler may result in a greater ambient temperature, but we shall see.

Please be there, for your own enjoyment certainly, but also to help us show the new management that we are a tradition worth hanging onto. The club has been in existence for almost fifty six years, and has been at The Bridge Inn for almost all of the last thirty!

With a bit of luck we will continue to be at The Bridge Inn every Friday (with very rare exceptions) for the foreseeable future.

Good news!!

The Dragon is beginning to breathe fire again. Our regular venue of The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG is open again with new permanent management and they are happy to see us return. They've still got some tidying up to do before the barn is ready to welcome us back, but we have pencilled in the 28th February as the reopening night for The Dragon Folk Club.

So, put it in your diary: 8:15pm on Friday 28th February at The Bridge Inn. Anything goes as long as it's acoustic: sing, play, recite, tell a joke, anything. There will be no theme and everyone is welcome whether to perform or as an audience. You will always find a warm welcome, FREE ENTRY, great acoustics. I assume there will be the usual reasonably priced bar, and there is a whisper that the heating might be working better, but I can't promise those two until I've seen how it goes on the night

Make it a date! See you there!

Dragon Awayday

The Dragon Folk Club is still, hopefully temporarily, without a lair, so the dragon and a small entourage had an outing this Friday to the Pucklechurch Open Mic, run by Chris Lambert who some of us know. It was a little out of the comfort zone for some of us, who rarely perform on a stage and have never before sung to a microphone, but it was nevertheless a pleasant and fun evening at the Pucklechurch Village Sports and Social Club.

Our regulars Bob and Sue were there, but apparently they are also regulars at the open mic. First timers there were Colin (who decided not to sing but regretted it later), Simon, Paul and Denny. Among the Pucklechurch regulars, apart from Chris, we knew Steve G and Alan K.

Paul, Denny and Simon introduced some of the locals to the concept of unaccompanied singing, to not a little appreciation, and Simon ventured to get his guitar out for one song. We each got three songs, and apparently if it hadn't been for a new sound man, still finding his feet, we would usually have got four.

I didn't formally note down the songs people sang, but here's a partial attempt:

•  Paul: Galway shawl; Wee pot stove; Love farewell
• Denny: She moves through the fair; I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls (the gypsy girl's dream); I can hew boys
• Sue and Bob's songs included: Something; Blackpool Belle; Rhubarb pie
• Simon: King of Rome; Tom Paine's bones; When all men sing

The Dragon is certainly looking for a new lair, or a swift return to its old one. In the meantime if you have any ideas of places that might have a suitable room for a sing-around, available on Fridays, preferably free or for a small fee, and in the area of BS15, BS16 or BS37 (Bristol UK), then please contact us to let us know about it.

We are already investigating some possibilities and still interested in returning to the Bridge Inn, Shortwood, when a new landlord or lady is appointed and if they will have us.

If we are still homeless on 28th February you may find us again at the Pucklechurch Open Mic.

Whatever happens... keep singing.

The Dragon is resting

Sorry to anyone who turned up to sing for the Dragon this evening (3rd Jan). The pub was closed. This wasn't entirely unexpected since we had heard whispers of a change of management.

At this stage I can't commit to when we will be on the road again, but it will be as soon as we possibly can. Either new management will be put in quickly and we will be accepted back, or we may move to another venue either temporarily or permanently. Watch this space.

If you are missing your dose of Dragon folk, then here is a taste of what we sang on 3rd January 2014.

Christmas 2024 (Part 2)

The bells of St Paul's Cathedral, London
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was our second Christmas-themed evening, though Simon took the suggested opportunity to base his songs rather on Saint Nicholas' varied patronages. It was great to welcome Stuart and Carrie back to the club with their eclectic mix of songs, which they dredged deep to keep it almost entirely on topic.

Remember that this Friday (27th December) is one of those rare times when we won't be meeting to sing. Despite whispers of possible instability in our venue we hope to be back on 3rd January to welcome in 2025 with a song or thirty. The theme will of course encompass New Year, Twelfth Night, Wassail and anything else that seems appropriate. Failing that the theme is as usual optional and anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Back to last week, there was a slew of songs new to the Dragon database, though as usual not necessarily new to the club, so I will concentrate on those, marked with an asterisk (*).

In Colin's absence, Simon took on the rôle of MC, asking Carrie and Stuart to start of the evening. They sang two songs together: Sweet bells (roud 936) being the version incorporating much of While shepherds watched recalled from childhood by Kate Rusby; and Kate's own song, Home (*).

Simon reprised Tom Paxton's The Marvelous toy (sic), which he also sang the previous week, but this time with chords which he considered more appropriate than those he had found with a spur-of-the-moment Google.

Paul started of a trend for his singing of the evening with The friendly beasts (*). While the English words were written by Robert Davis in the 1920s, the song seems to have originated in 12th-century France, set to the melody of the Latin song "Orientis Partibus".

While Mary's boy child (Jester Hairston), sung later by Stuart and Carrie, was already in the database, Denny's singing of the Boney M combination of Mary's boy child and O my Lord (* Jester Hairston, Frank Farian, Fred Jay, Hela Lorin) is a new entry. As fans and detractors of Boney M know, Frank Farian was not only the writer of most of the group's songs, and the producer who brought them together, but was the singer of most of the male parts with dancer Bobby Farrell lip-synching in the videos.

Carrie reminded us of Raymond Briggs' book The Snowman and the film of the same name by singing its song, Walking in the air (* Howard Blake).

Paul gave us March of the kings (*), a Christmas carol of provençal origin celebrating the Epiphany and the Wise Men. Recognition of the theme spread outside Provence when Georges Bizet used it in his incidental music for Arlésienne. The lyrics are regularly attributed to Joseph-François Domergue (1691–1728). In the 21st century, several American scholars have suggested that the March of the Kings has a medieval origin dating back to the 13th century. It could then be one of the oldest Christmas carols listed with Veni redemptor gentium and one of the first entirely composed in vernacular, and not in Latin.

Denny sang It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (* Meredith Willson) which Carrie followed with A spaceman came travelling (* Christopher Davison, which is Chris de Burgh's real name) and Stuart performed Blue Christmas (* Billy Hayes, Jay W Johnson).

Carrie sang Serving girl's holiday (*) which is a traditional song, performed by Maddy Prior and Tim Hart, and later by Kate Rusby, but I've drawn a blank on any more information about it.

Paul left his ancient French carol phase and went for Here comes Santa Claus (* Gene Autry, Harriet Melka, Oakley Haldeman) and his next song was Jingle bells (* roud 25804 - James Lord Pierpont).

Denny channelled her inner Ella Fitzgerald by singing Santa Claus got stuck (in my chimney) (William D Hardy, William "Billy" Moore Jr).

Stuart found the words of Calyspo carol (* Michael Perry) hidden among his music. He hadn't thought of the song much less sung it for years. It is often thought to be a traditional folk carol from the West Indies, but in fact the writer is an Englishman who wrote the song while he was a student at Oak Hill Theological College in 1964. Perry became one of the UK's leading contemporary hymn writers, but the Calypso Carol remained his most popular work. Perry originally wrote the song for a college carol concert, and it only became famous by accident. Cliff Richard was hastily assembling a selection for radio, and included the song to replace a missing recording. It gained popularity and was included in the 1969 songbook Youth Praise 2.

Denny sang John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Happy Xmas (war is over) (*) and it was also Denny who finished the session off with Ding dong merrily on high (* roud 46420 - George Ratcliffe Woodward)

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

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

Christmas 2024 (Part 1)

Vancouver (Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was the first of two we are having with a Christmas theme. It was an excellent evening not least because Keith G joined us for the first time in a while. To our surprise Keith has given up the guitar which he played so well in favour of the piano, and as such he brought along a keyboard with which to accompany his singing. We'll forgive his bending of our "rule" that anything goes as long as it's acoustic on the basis that a piano is acoustic, but difficult to haul in from the car park, never mind to fit in the car.

This Friday's session (20 December 2024) will be our second Christmas themed one, but in recognition that some of us may be running a bit low on strictly seasonal songs let's widen it out a bit. We have missed Saint Nicholas' Day which was on 6th December, but since he is so closely associated with Christmas, let's consider his patronages which include: children, coopers, travellers, sailors, fishermen, merchants, toymakers, broadcasters, the falsely accused, repentant thieves, brewers, pharmacists, archers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, Aberdeen, Galway, Albania, Russia, Greece, Liverpool, Moscow, Amsterdam, and Lorraine. That should give some scope. Also remember various Christmas traditions around the UK, Europe and the world such as Krampus (Austria) and Zwarte Piet (Netherlands).

Back to last Friday, there was a suggestion that we broke the record for songs sung in an evening at the Dragon Folk Club. This is a slightly controversial claim, mostly because it relies on double-counting a medley performed by Keith, but also because some other songs (if not performances) were arguably double counted. Nevertheless, the YouTube playlist below includes a full forty nine songs, omitting just one from the evening; that being The first hard sell sung by Colin and from the pen of Christopher Hershey.

Some people enjoy seeing which songs are new to the Dragon database, though as ever not necessarily new to the club, so they are marked below with an asterisk (*).

Colin started off the session with the version of Sweet bells (roud 936 - Nahum Tate) remembered from childhood by Kate Rusby who grew up in the Sheffield carol tradition. This is where the controversy starts since Colin's (and Kate's) version of Sweet bells is in fact a mash-up between Sweet Bells and While shepherds watched, and Denny's first song of the evening was Cranbrook (roud 936 - Nahum Tate, Thomas Clark). Sheffield carols are often known by their tune rather than their words, and in this case it is While shepherds watched to the tune better known these days as being used for Ilkley Moor bah't 'at. If this doesn't muddy the waters enough, Denny later sang Sweet chiming bells (roud 24506), which is another version of the Sheffield carol with which Colin started the evening.

Simon's first song of the evening was Gaudete, sung in Latin and from the manuscript From Piæ Cantiones, a collection of late medieval Latin songs first published in 1582, and compiled by Jacobus Finno, a clergyman and headmaster.

Paul started his evening off in a light-hearted mood with Dominick the donkey (* Ray Allen, Sam Saltzberg, Wandra Merrell). Since Keith was yet to arrive that finished off the first rotation.

Paul was next to add to the controversy, singing The holly and the ivy (roud 514) and later coming up with the Sans day carol (roud 514), which is considered to be a variant of the same song.

The real controversy though came with the arrival of Keith G and his combining of two songs: Is you is or is you ain't my baby (* Billy Austin, Louis Jordan) and Hit the road Jack (* Percy Mayfield). If we consider these as two performances, as Colin is inclined to do, then fifty songs and an all-time club record was scored; if we don't then the record was equalled at forty nine.

Keith's next song, this time from the singing of Bonnie Raitt, was Too long at the fair (* Joel Zoss) and he went on to give us an improvised version of Love is the sweetest thing (* Ray Noble).

With the main controversy over, let's just list a few more notable performances (not that others weren't also notable):

• Colin - The forest carol (* Leonard Clark, Johnny Coppin)
• Paul - Carol of the creatures (* Sydney Carter)
• Keith - Light your windows (* Gary Duncan and David Freiberg of Quicksilver Messenger Service)
• Paul - Herod and the cock (* roud 306, child 55)
• Keith - Drinking alone (* Graeme Douglas, Will Birch of the Kursaal Flyers)
• Denny - See amid the winter snow (* Edward Caswall)

That left it to Paul to finish off the evening with an unusual version of I saw three ships (* roud 700) known as the ‘Crawn’ version. It was collected in 1895 from a Humber estuary boatman, and ultimately published by Baring-Gould in his Garland of Country Songs in the same year. It finally makes sense out of the puzzle of why three ships appear in the Christmas narrative at all. Legend has it that the skulls (‘crawns’ = ‘craniums’ = ‘crowns’?) of the ‘Kings’ or ‘Wise Men’ were taken and lodged in the cathedral at Cologne.

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

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