Yet another musical miscellany

The Mary Rose in a battle with seven Algerine corsairs
(an engraving by Wenceslas Hollar
who was on the ship at the time)

There was no theme for last week's session so we were free to come up with clusters of songs around various topics.

Colin was the MC and Mike kicked us off with the topical The Twenty Fourth of February (Roud 951) (sorry I couldn't find a recording in English), although he sang "twenty third". Apparently it describes a battle which took place on 29 December 1669 where Captain John Kempthorne on the fifth Mary Rose saved a convoy from attack by seven ships of Algerine pirates. He was knighted for this action.

Richard and Lesley expected it to be a St David's Day theme, which it will in fact be on 4 March. Richard managed to steer clear of any Welsh songs, but Lesley had obviously prepared an evening of Max Boyce with Rhondda Grey, Ode To Barry Island, Duw It's Hard and The Ballad Of Morgan The Moon.

Tom gave me two opportunities to show you videos of him singing with Maggie's favourite White Trash (Brian Cookman) and Allan Taylor's Standing At The Door. The latter video was filmed by Terry H who was also present and sang Keith Marsden's The Funeral Song - here seen in another of his own videos but not with him singing. Yet another of Terry's videos leads us to Mike's singing of another Keith Marsden song: The Drovers.

Richard educated us in prog rock with Keith Emerson and Greg Lake's The Sheriff. Phil recalled one of his favourite singers, Jimmie Rodgers with Waiting For A Train.

Colin's choices for the evening were pleasantly quirky, being Preab San Ól (Riocard Bairéad) which he sang in English, Leon Rosselson's Tim McGuire, John Conolly's Punch And Judy Man, and Incy Wincy (or Itsy Bitsy) Spider sung to the tune of The Mary Ellen Carter with added words by Tom Smit and Bob Blue.

Of course The Mary Ellen Carter was written by Stan Rogers, and Simon finished off the evening with the same writer's Northwest Passage.

This weeks session on 4 March 2016 will have a dual theme of St David's Day and Mothering Sunday.

Here's a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 10, of which 8 performed)