Presidential Inauguration

The Mayor of Trumpton

A sadly low turn-out again for last week's session but at least we were five in the first half of the evening and there was some interesting back and forth of ad hoc themes. There was no official theme but this Wednesday is Burns' Night, so this Friday's theme (27 January) is all things Scottish or Burns - your presence is required.

The most popular mini-theme last week was the inauguration of President Trump. Some songs were thought appropriate and others were simply modified to fit. Colin was MC.

Steve C started the evening off with Old Shep (Red Foley). It was the song Elvis Presley sang at his first public performance, aged 10 on 3 October 1945 at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show.

Colin took us in the direction of the USA with Liverpool Lou (Dominic Behan) while Derek was the first to allude to Whitehouse shenanigans in Lindbergh (Woody Guthrie).

On a lighter note, Mike returned to Fred Wedlock, whose The Folker he sang the previous week, this time giving us a rendition of Robin Hood.

Simon suggested that there may be shades on DT in Laird O' The Dainty Doonby (Roud 864). Mike pulled an obscure supposed link out of the air to sing Blackleg Miners (Roud 3193) and I think Simon may have intended something with There But For Fortune (Phil Ochs). Sorry, I'm leaving you to guess what some of the links are this week because I wouldn't want to be attacked by the thin and orange-skinned one.

Colin sang The Kipper Family's We Did It Sideways, which led up down a side-theme of crabs and lobsters, which Derek took up with The Lobster (or more usually The Crabfish - Roud 149). Simon wanted to follow that nether nipping song with another in My Grandfather's Ferret (Derek Jolly) but he didn't have the words, so we had to make do with The D-Day Dodgers (Roud 10499 - Lance-Sergeant Harry Pynn). On his return from relieving the dog, Mike was invited to return to the crustacean theme but he instead took it off at a tangent to Blow The Man Down (Roud 2624), which he renamed "Blow A Trump Down" for the evening.

This got other people  thinking, headed by Derek with Trump Away (Roud 10338).

Colin had taken a song from the singing of Alan Kirkpatrick but didn't know who wrote it, or indeed whether it was one of Alan's own. In fact The Dancing turns out to be written by Andy Shanks and Jim Russell.

Colin made a last minute lyric change to sing Trump Said To His Man (Roud 473).

After many more rounds of the four remaining singers, Simon finished off the evening with When All Men Sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford)... and they did.

Don't forget to join us at The Bridge on Friday for our Burns' Night special.

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

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