Old, new, borrowed and blue

Denny wearing Bonnet and Shawl?
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session saw a very rare appearance from Alison: non-singing but nevertheless welcome. There was no theme and an eclectic bunch of songs was sung.

There will be no official theme again this week, but as usual feel free to bring your own or we can allow something to develop through the evening.

The reason for Alison's presence was Simon's birthday, and the session was started and finished with Happy birthday to you. Of course, this song is problematic for the scribe, because it is probably included in roud 36104, which appears to be a bucket for unloved songs, and it is controversially attributed to Patty and Mildred J. Hill who wrote Good Morning to All.

The session proper started with Colin singing Ben Backstay (roud 21256).

Deny's first song of the evening was Graeme Miles' Drift from the land (*) and Paul's was Generations of change (Matt Armour).

On the face of it Stan gave us a new song: AP Carter's I never will marry (*), but according to the Roud Folk Song Index it is a version of the oft-sung Forsaken mermaid (roud 466, laws K17). I assume there was an interim American version since Carter is well-known for having taken traditional songs and, under instruction from his publishers, making very minor changes before claiming copyright.

Simon completed the first rotation with Jez Lowe's The Bergen.

Colin had us singing along to Sail away ladies (roud 17635). I didn't take enough notes to be sure, but I think it was the Uncle Dave Macon version rather than the hit version from The Vipers Skiffle Group and Lonnie Donegan among others, Don`t You Rock Me Daddy-O (Bill Varley, Wally Whyton). I believe Colin has sung both in the past and I was singing too hard to take note of which it was.

Stan introduced us to another "new" song in Earth Angel (* Curtis Williams, Jesse Belvin, Gaynel Hodge), from the singing of The Penguins. I knew I recognised the song. It could well be because I used to be, and still am to some extent, a fan of 50s and early 60s music, but could it also be because it was used in Back to the Future - here.

Stan was full of new songs for the database, giving us My buddy (* Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn), first recorded in 1922 by Henry Burr and later by Mario Lanza among many others, and then Eileen (Sylvia Fine, Max Liebman). Fine, who was Danny Kaye's wife, is credited with the lyrics. It has been collected in Ireland and England and is listed as roud 23884, but it seems it may have been original to Fine since the collection dates all post-date Bing Crosby's recording of 1950.

Simon finished off the evening in traditional Dragon club style with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford), that is before the aforementioned post cantatum reprise of Happy birthday to you.

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 5 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*).

In the Summertime

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session got off to a simple start with Colin singing to himself for the first few songs, but he was soon joined by Steve who had been held up in traffic. The lack of people wasn't unexpected and we should be back to normal this Friday. Do come and join us from 8:15pm in the barn (just past the toilets) at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG.

For those who are interested, the new mega-batch of club beer mats have arrived and should be available on Friday for use or for marketing purposes.

This dragon wasn't present at the session, so please forgive any minor inaccuracies.

Colin started off with four straight songs before Steve arrived:

• Deportee - plane crash at Los Gatos (roud 26302 - Woody Guthrie)
• History lesson (Leon Rosselson)
• Here comes the sun (* George Harrison)
• I'll follow the sun (* John Lennon, Paul McCartney)

Although there was no official theme for the evening you may detect something of summer developing.

My guess is that Colin sang Summer in the city (* John Sebastian, Mark Sebastian, Steve Boone) to allow Steve time to settle down, but I may be wrong, which would throw the rest of the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below out of line slightly. Let's not worry about that too much.

Steve's first song of the evening was Streets of London (Ralph McTell).

Two further songs from the evening, both sung by Colin, which require a mention are Ageing old hippie (#) by our old friend Richard Gillion which doesn't appear on YouTube, and Come to the fair (* roud V21367 - Easthope Martin) which is new to the Dragon database.

The final rotation, in one or other order as explained above, involved Colin singing Cracklin' Rosie (Neil Diamond) and Steve singing Ranter's wharf (John Conolly).

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

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

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*).

Mixing it up

Friday's Dragon Folk Club session was rather enjoyable. Denny and Paul brought along their friend Helen. As I warned last week, this will be an abbreviated blog report with no YouTube playlist, written quickly before this dragon disappears in a puff of smoke for a few days.

As far as I am aware there will be no official theme next week (20th June), but we will be short of a few regular bodies, so I would be grateful if you can make an extra effort to turn up and help Colin to sing up a storm.

Back to the recent session, the ladies' toilet was out of action so we had an intermittent stream of them through our room, but all were quiet and respectful to the singing that was going on and caused no trouble at all.

Paul kicked off proceedings with Tom Lehrer's The Irish Ballad, to be followed by Denny with Samuel Laycock's A tribute to the drowned. The latter was about a disaster at sea where 27 volunteer lifeboatmen from St Annes and Southport died on 9 and 10 December 1886 while attempting to rescue the crew of the German barque Mexico, which ran aground in a gale on the Main Bank off Southport, Lancashire, while en route from Liverpool to Guayaquil in Ecuador.

Helen had only prepared one song to sing, but it was a good joiner-inner, being Sandi Thom's I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair) (* Tom Gilbert, Sandi Thom). While this was her only solo performance of the evening, Helen proved a strong support with her chorus singing. She promised to return with more songs another time. We can't wait!

Colin's first song of the evening was The old A1 (* Pete McGregor). Stan followed that with Plaisir d'amour (* Jean-Paul-Égide Martini, Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian).

Simon completed the first rotation with The Lambton worm (roud 2337 - Clarence M. Leumane).

Keeping it very brief, here are the remaining songs new to the Dragon database:

• Colin - Rainbow warrior (* Patricia Middleton, Douglas Dinn)
• Stan - That silver-haired Daddy of mine (* Gene Autry, Jimmy Long)
• Colin - Condoleezza's Cowboys (* Pete McGregor)
• Stan - The end of the world (* Arthur Kent, Sylvia Dee)
• Stan - I will always love you (* Dolly Parton)

Denny finished the evening with Pleasant and delightful (roud 660, laws O30).

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*).

Vistors welcome

Bob Watson who died on 31st May

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session saw us able to welcome two new first time visitors: Richard and Anne are from the Stroud area and they brought some excellent songs, singing and playing to our evening as well as their two very well behaved canine companions. We hope they return soon. We really have had some great visitors recently and long may it continue. Perhaps some of them will even become regular?

This Friday there will be no official theme once again though you are welcome to bring your own or make one up as you go along. A bit of an early warning - next week's report is likely to be brief, probably without a YouTube playlist. Normal service should be resumed the following week.

Back to last week's session, Colin, MC as usual, opened the account in memory of the recently deceased Bob Watson by singing Bob's Shantyman.

Richard and Anne opened their Dragon account with No telling (* Linda Thompson) and Harvest moon (* Neil Young).

Bob's first song was So much trouble (* Brownie McGhee) and Sue's was Beyond the sea (Charles Trenet, Albert Lasry, Jack Lawrence). The latter being an English language version of Charles Ternet's La Mer.

Simon marked the 81st anniversary of the Normandy landings and completed the first rotation with D-Day Dodgers (Lance-Sergeant Harry Pynn).

In the second rotation Anne sang Cold Missouri Waters (* James Keelaghan) and Richard gave us his own version (*# Richard Cox) of Carrickfergus (roud 17556). The popular version of the song is attributed to Dominic Behan who said he learned the third verse from Peter O'Toole. Richard's version tells of a man who would like to go abroad for his holiday, but his wife wants to stay in Ireland.

Colin debuted a song which he heard from the singing of friend of the club, Terry Cock, that being What happened to the ponies (Jim Moreland). This is the first time I've been able to find a recording of the song to add to the playlist linked from "a selection" below.

Continuing the tradition of mentioning all songs from newcomers to the club, Anne and Richard sang Stan Rogers' Lock-keeper, and Richard went solo on his own version (*# Richard Cox) of Spencer the Rover (roud 1115) in which Spencer is dissatisfied with the service being provided by the council in Stroud. He tries moving to Wales, but finally returns.

On the next rotation Richard and Anne gave us Graham Nash's Wasted on the way (*), and Richard sang The man who wrote the songs (*) which was written by our very own Derek Brinkley who had paid us a long awaited visit only the week before.

Returning to singing solo, Anne performed In search of angels (* Calum McDonald, Rory McDonald) from the band Runrig, of who she was clearly a fan having attended their last gig in Stirling in 2018.

Richard's last song of the evening was Chris Smither's Origin of species (*).

Sue sang her own song, Recycled teenager (#) and Bob evoked Lynyrd Skynyrd's version of J J Cale's Call me the breeze (*).

Simon finished the session off with Stan Rogers' Northwest passage.

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and songs not to be found in the playlist linked from "a selection" are marked with a hash (#).

A welcome return

Redcliffe Wharf, Bristol (Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last Friday's Dragon Folk Club session was special to those of us who have been around for a while. Not only did we have a highly respectable head count, being joined by regular irregulars Roger, Stuart and Steve, but were able to welcome back to the fold the long absent Derek and Maggie, complete with new canine companion Bertie.

Like last week's, this week's session will be without a theme so as usual anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Despite having memory issues and having not sung in public for three and a half years, Derek made a valiant attempt with four songs from his formerly vast repertoire. Both Derek and Maggie joined in with numerous choruses in fine voice and we hope to see them again soon.

Colin started us off with Last night I had the strangest dream (Ed McCurdy) and Roger followed him with This land is your land (Woody Guthrie).

Stuart had expected to be accompanied by Carrie, so when she turned out to be unavailable he had to quickly rework his set-list. His first was Bert Jansch's Soho (*).

Simon opened his account with Bonny ship the Diamond (roud 2172).

Paul sang Song for Ireland (Phil Colclough, June Colclough) and Denny stayed in the Irish Sea with The Ellan Vannin tragedy (Hughie Jones).

Derek offered us the first song he had sung at the beginning of his singing career, suggesting that this evening was the end of it (we hope not). The song was Roger Watson's Invalid miner (#).

Steve closed the first rotation with The rare ould times (Pete St John).

In the second rotation Stuart gave us a song new to the Dragon database which I believe was How long, how long blues (* Leroy Carr).

Derek's second song was one I think he calls The lobster (roud 149) though I wouldn't be surprised if he collected it from Cyril Barber who apparently called it Jimmy Johnson. His next song was Mary went to a tea party (# roud 24991) which he collected from Bertha Brown.

Colin sang Robb Johnson's More than enough (*).

The last "new" song of the evening came from Stuart and was Roger McGuinn's version of the traditional He was a friend of mine (*) which deals with the subject of John F Kennedy's assassination. Stuart's final performance was a repertoire first with Lady Franklin's lament (roud 487, laws K09).

Derek's final song was Jack Hall (roud 369, laws L5) and the final song of the evening, coming from Steve, was Leave her Johnny (roud 354).

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

(Number of people present - 9 of whom 8 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and songs not to be found in the playlist linked from "a selection" are marked with a hash (#).

Sea and land

Dungeness (Photo: Simon Meeds)

It was another great session at the Dragon Folk Club last week. Rob made one of his occasional appearances to give us some great unaccompanied singing and we enjoyed a first visit from Mark who provided more unaccompanied singing as well as the unusual but enjoyable experience of solo five string bass guitar.

There will be no set theme again this week though that doesn't preclude people arriving with their own or something developing over the course of the evening. Remember that even when we set a theme it is always just for fun and very much optional.

Colin, MC as usual, started us off with Steve Knightley's Cousin Jack. Rob followed on with a different version of Geordie (* roud 90), which I have found in the singing of June Tabor.

Simon sang The Handweaver and the factory maid (roud 17771) and Mark's first contribution was Cyril Tawney's Grey funnel line.

Denny sang another song which I found in June Tabor's repertoire: Lisbon (roud 551, laws N8) and Paul finished the first rotation with The ship in distress (roud 807).

As usual I will mention all of newcomer Mark's songs together with anything else that needs highlighting.

Mark announced his second song as O my love's gone, which is a version of The forsaken mermaid (roud 466, laws K17).

Colin's version of The soldier and the sailor (roud 350) included versions with relatively modern verses including one about a "radiation-proof room".

Rob sang two songs written by his late friend Adey Shaw. The first was Monkey in the hold (*). The other one, about Adey's cat called Bosun, which was killed by a dog is simply To Bosun (*#).

Mark sang two of his own songs: Back and forth (*# Mark Gunner) and When it ends (* Mark Gunner). His last two songs of the evening were The crafty ploughboy (* roud 2637, laws L1) and Stan Rogers' Mary Ellen Carter.

Denny closed the evening with Dave Dodds' I can hew boys.

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and songs not to be found in the playlist linked from "a selection" are marked with a hash (#).

Follow my leader or be miserable

The Jacobite about to leave Mallaig station
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

At last week's Dragon Folk Club session we were back to being quorate, and there was no official theme in sight. Two things emerged though. Simon tried to follow Colin thematically on each of his turns, and Paul tried to out-miserable our resident blues-man, Bob, while others joined in that pursuit from time to time.

Colin, back as MC after a short break, started us off with Pete Budd's Somerset born and proud (*). It was the only new song for the Dragon database this week - though definitely previously sung at the club in May 2014 if at no other time. Simon took us in a southerly direction to Dorset for The Yetties' version of Buttercup Joe (roud 1635).

Denny's first song of the evening was Linden Lea (William Barnes, Ralph Vaughan Williams) and Paul gave us Somewhere to begin (T R Ritchie).

Bob said he had wondered how Gram Parsons' Luxury liner could be made of just 40 tons of steel until he realised it referred to a railway (railroad) locomotive rather than to a great ship.

Sue completed the first rotation with The whistling gypsy (roud 1, child 200 - Leo Maguire).

When Colin sang If (David Gates) Simon responded with another love song albeit unrequited and slightly creepy: Elusive butterfly (Bob Lind). Simon pointed out that in the early 1980s Paul Gambaccini declared on BBC Radio that Telly Savalas' version of If was the UK number one hit with the shortest title and Simon thought the record probably stood. Wikipedia says that "In the U.S., Bread's tune was the shortest song title to become a top ten hit until 1993, when Prince hit No. 7 with 7, later matched by Britney Spears' No. 1 hit 3 in 2009." Given that 7 only reached #27 in the UK and 3 only reached #7 I would suggest that Gambaccini's statement probably still holds. In the same broadcast the song San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) written by John Phillips and recorded by Scott McKenzie was said to be the longest UK #1 title. It would be much more difficult to prove whether or not that still holds. I know, this story is the antithesis of folk, but I think it's interesting if trivial and very nerdy.

Paul's first attempt at out-miserabling Bob was with The last of the great whales (Louis/Louisa Killen) to which Bob's riposte was Leon Payne's Lost highway.

Colin lightened the mood with Just kidding (# Miles Wootton, Fred Wedlock) which unfortunately cannot be linked so you can't experience the joys of clingfilm over the loo. Simon's answer to that was bed bugs eating paper off the wall in Down our street.

When Bob sang Orange Blossom Special (roud 17742 - Ervin T Rouse) he suggested there were no songs about British trains. The list, like a head of steam, started building: Last train (Stanley Accrington), Children of the train by our own Mike Starkey (not his tune in the linked video), Railway station song by Steve Andisaw (definitely worth a listen), ... To prove the point Sue sang Blackpool Belle (Howard Broadbent, Jimmy Smith).

Colin took an eco and sligtly miserable turn with Leave them a flower (Wally Whyton) and Simon followed him down the path of (anti) environmental destruction with Brian Bedford's This is the way the world ends.

Denny's contribution to the miserable theme was Ron Angel's The chemical worker's song about life inside ICI's Billingham factory and Paul continued with the negative side of industry, remembering the Aberfan disaster with Close the coalhouse door (Alex Glasgow). Maybe Bob had had enough of the misery since he added Blues stay away from me (Alton Delmore, Rabon Delmore, Henry B Glover, Wayne Raney).

Colin sang of the trials of Wreck of the Ragamuffin (roud 10466 - John J. Stamford) so Simon followed that with the tragic end of The Bergen (Jez Lowe) which our own Derek Brinkley once claimed to be the only song written about Seaton Carew where the crewmen were buried.

Paul dredged the depths of misery with Hanging Johnny (roud 2625) and Bob made his last offering another railroad ditty: Golden Rocket (Hank Snow).

Sue finished off the session in good spirits and with High hopes (Jimmy Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn).

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

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and songs not to be found in the playlist linked from "a selection" are marked with a hash (#).