Tributes to Pete Seeger and some other stuff

Pete Seeger (Photo: Anthony Pepitone)

This week's session was the first for a while when we saw some new faces. Actually Kerry and Malcolm weren't exactly new faces since they had been to the Dragon Folk Club around twenty years ago. I think Kerry said it was the first folk club she had visited.

Mike started off the evening with Blood red roses.

Visitors Kerry and Malcolm, who had come from as far south as the Somerset / Devon border on a pretty nasty night, sang both separately and together. Kerry sang Once I had a sweetheart and Malcolm sang Ian Bruce's Too far from she. In the second half they got together for Lord Franklin (Roud 487, Laws K09) and Donovan's Catch the wind.

The big story that became a sub-theme for this week was the death of Pete Seeger. Steve kicked off the theme with Where have all the flowers gone, which I think would have been the offering of both Simon and Mike if it hadn't already "gone". Colin wasn't going to sing his only Pete Seeger song because he though it irreverent in the circumstances but was persuaded that if this wasn't an appropriate occasion, what was? It was Get up and go.

The main contributor to the Seeger theme was Derek, despite his protestations that the songs he could offer were too miserable. Bells of Rhymney is from a poem by Idris Davies. The strange death of John Doe was written by Millard Lampell and was first recorded on Songs for John Doe, the debut album by the Almanac Singers of which both Lampell and Seeger were members. Derek's final Pete Seeger song of the evening was Who killed Norman Jean? which is from Norman Rosten's poem about the death of Marilyn Monroe.

Terry's contribution included Bill Caddick's serene John of Dreams. Steve G's offerings included a lovely version of Sovay Sovay. Simon included among his songs Dave Sudbury's King of Rome.

The session was finished off by Mike singing Stan Rogers' Mary Ellen Carter.

Here's a selection of these songs plus some others sung during the session.