We got the blues

Cliff Carlisle

While last week's session was theme-less, this week's on 10 February, will be our Valentine's special, so the theme will be Love and Lust. Come prepared with song, tunes and whatever other material you fancy along those lines.

Back to last week, Colin was MC and he had Geoff start us off. Geoff's contribution was the first of several blues that we had through the evening, being Winkle Picker Shoes Blues.

Our other bluesy numbers were John with the St James Infirmary Blues (attributed to Joe Primrose and after Roud 2 - The Unfortunate Rake), Phil with Railroad Bill (Roud 4181), John with Black Water Blues (Bessie Smith), Roger, accompanied by Henry, with Georgia On My Mind (Hoagy Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell) and Phil with My Rockin' Mama (Cliff Carlisle).

The Unfortunate Rake was a missing link song, since it provided a connection between John's St James Infirmary Blues which has already been mentioned and Geoff's Only The Hangman.

Derek was not feeling too well and had a terrible cough, so he said he would sing something that might at least make any coughing blend into the song. I guessed he would sing My Body Has Tuberculosis, but he said that wasn't it and no one had ever requested that before (did I say it was a request?). He said the affliction in question would be Pneumosilicosis, so I immediately thought of Woody Guthrie's Dust Pneumonia Blues but it was in fact Dust In The Air that Derek sang.

Perhaps it was all this talk of lung diseases that inspired Colin to sing the Ballad Of Springhill (Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl). I remember seeing Seeger and MacColl at a folk club in the 1980s, not long before Ewan's death. At that time it was quite normal for people to smoke in bars and at folk clubs, but on that occasion all smoking was banned with the threat that Peggy would not sing if there was smoking. It seems perfectly reasonable now, and to me as a non-smoker was even then, but it was potentially disruptive at the time though everyone complied.

Henry gave us several of his own songs. One of these I thought quite charming, Millie Smiled At Me, told of his then teenage son and his friends who were always dreaming over the fact that a girl they knew had paid them some attention but seemed unobtainable. Henry didn't know her but reassured them that there would be other, probably nicer girls. Then one day, maybe years later, Henry and his son were swimming when a young lady entered the pool. Henry's son pointed out Millie, and Henry thought wistfully, "Millie Smiled At Me".

The final song of the evening came from Chris and was Watching The Wheat (Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn by Wil Hopcyn).

Remember this Friday's session with a theme of Love and Lust for Valentine's Day. Be there whether to sing, play or listen.

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

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