Colourful June

Statue of Jack Crawford in
Mowbray Park, Sunderland

It was great that Tony and Hillary, the previous week's newcomers, hadn't been frightened away and came back again. They even said they'd enjoyed it, which according to some is actually against the principles of a folk club, but let's not worry about that.

MC, Colin asked Derek to start the evening and he headed straight into a June theme with The Three O'Donnells.

Mike's first song of the evening was Let Union Be In All Our Hearts (Roud 17141).

The now familiar pattern of Hillary singing a song accompanied by Tony and Tony playing a tune accompanied by Hillary held fast for the evening with Hillary's first contribution being I Still Miss Someone (Johnny Cash, Roy Cash Jr) and Tony's a set made up of Lady In The Boat and Rakes Of Kildare.

Colin picked up where he'd left off last week, sticking up for workers' rights with Woody Guthrie's Union Maid. Simon stayed on familiar territory, singing Laird Of The Dainty Dounby and only nearly choked on the third verse.

Richard was trying to uphold the honour of his native Yorkshire through the evening but made a diversion across the Pennines for Old Sammy Shuttleworth while Lesley offered up The Soldier's Prayer (Roud 350).

Derek was inspired by Tony's Rakes of Kildare to sing this song, from the singing of an Irish builder called Mike Henry. His introduction however made Mike think he was about to sing a slip jig. That in turn caused Derek to bring out his only slip jog later in the evening and give us Follow Me Up To Carlow (Patrick Joseph McCall). By now Derek seemed to have left his June theme far behind.

Richard caused some comments from Mike for singing Johnny Handle's song, Jack Crawford. It's recurring phrase of "nailed his colours to the mast", which some may tell you is the origin of the naming of the "Union Jack, was the culprit. According to Mike only the army has colours - he offered an olive branch though by suggesting that maybe he had been a soldier and had only later become a sailor [it doesn't look like it].

Returning to his June theme, Derek closed the evening with The Jug Of Punch (Roud 1808).

No particular theme again this week (10 June 2016), so don't be shy, come along prepared to sing some of your favourite songs or to play some of your favourite tunes. And if you don't feel up to that, then just come along and listen - maybe we can persuade you to sing along to a chorus or two as you get in the mood?

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

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