American Independence 2025

Photo: Simon Meeds

At last week's Dragon Folk Session Colin sprang a theme on us quite reasonably, but very last minute. Being 4th July we were invited to find songs with American (or should that be USAnian?) connections. This was done admirably by all. I believe American connections were found for every song sung, but don't look too closely at the playlist because some were very tenuous, maybe even treasonous, connections depending on which country you find yourself in.

There seemed to be something not quite right with the ladies' toilet, so there were occasional excursions made through our room during the evening. Almost without exception they weren't too disruptive, but even as I arrived one lady was sitting with Roger. On a later visit this same person, who Roger later assumed to be his groupie, approached him while he was singing and appeared to caress his head. Roger meanwhile impressively continued his performance without so much as a stutter until she left the room, at which point he could go on no more. He soon carried on from where he had left off.

Colin himself started us off with Yankee Doodle (* roud 4501). There are plenty of stories about the origin and meaning of this song.

The Macaroni wig ("called it macaroni") was an extreme fashion in the 1770s and became slang for being a fop. Dandies were men who placed particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisure hobbies. A self-made dandy was a British middle-class man who impersonated an aristocratic lifestyle. They notably wore silk strip cloth and stuck feathers in their hats. In British conversation, the term "Yankee doodle dandy" implied unsophisticated misappropriation of upper-class fashion, as though simply sticking a feather in one's cap would transform the wearer into a noble.

Roger stayed firmly on the appropriate side of the Atlantic with Banks of the Ohio (roud 157, laws F5).

Paul brought to mind the author of Innocent when you dream (Tom Waits) before Denny gave us Row on (roud 2084), the words of with were found in the logbook of the Nantucket Whaler "The Three Brothers" in 1846, written in memory of the crew members of the "Essex", sunk by a sperm whale in 1820. The crew of 20 were in rowing boats for 95 days. Eight survived.

Simon completed the first rotation with The night they drove old Dixie down (Robbie Robertson).

Roger introduced a number of new songs to the dragon database, the first being It never rains in Southern California (* Albert Hammond, Mike Hazlewood).

It's not a serious aim or competition, but we do maintain a record of the number of songs sung at a Dragon Folk Song session. On the face of it at 41 performances, this evening was doing well, but nothing remarkable. However, Roger put the cat among the pigeons by singing and playing two medleys. The first combined four songs and the second included six. This could be said, arguably, to bring the total for the evening to 49. There is however no need to bring out the umpires to make a special decision, because the current record stands at 50.

Roger's first medley incorporated: Blue moon of Kentucky (* Bill Monroe), Today's teardrops (* Gene Pitney, Aaron Schroeder), Oh boy (Sonny West, Bill Tilghman, Norman Petty), and Hello Mary Lou (* Gene Pitney, Cayet Mangiaracina).

On a roll, Roger's second medley combined Folsom prison blues (Johnny Cash), Freight train (Elizabeth Cotten), Last train to San Fernando (* Sylvester DeVere, Randolph Padmore, Mighty Dictator), Midnight special (roud 6364), Runaway train (roud 9859), and Six-five special (* Don Lang and His Frantic Five).

Colin finished the session with Keep your lamp trimmed and burning (roud 10433).

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

(Number of people present - 5 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 (*).

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 (#).