…That’s what I wrote it for

Fred Wedlock (Photo by Weydonian)

When your Substitute Scribe asked Mike, who had just sung The Redland Green Bobby [British Bobby], to confirm his view that it was "One of Fred's", little did he realise that the question would develop into one of those half-hour ‘workshop’ discussions for which The Dragon is (in)famous – in this case on the question of Folk Music, Copyright and Attributing Songs to the Correct Writer. The conversation passed, anecdotally and polemically, through such writers as Mr Wedlock, Cyril Tawney, Roger Watson, Canadian guitarist Vera Johnson, Ed Pickford, Michael Starkey and Woody Guthrie, whose copyright notice is referenced in the title above viz. "This song is copyrighted in U.S. for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singing it without my permission, will be a mighty good friend of mine, 'cause that's what I wrote it for."

Another, much shorter, discussion was precipitated by Roger’s singing of There's a Hole in my Bucket. Subsequent research has shown that it was recorded by Harry Belafonte and Burl Ives, but as far as I can trace, not by Sidney Poitier*.

Roger also sang Kern/Hammerstein's The Folks Who Live on the Hill, dedicated  to Chris, since this week was their 61st wedding anniversary. Congratulations to them both! Chris reciprocated by singing a couple of her favourite folky love songs.

There was little by way of 'topical' this week, though Derek sang The Bold Forester (Roud 154) aka The Week Before Easter, and Mike was so admiring of the Irish rugby performance against England that he was moved to sing Fields of Athenry. Oh, alright then – Jim Jarratt’s Oh No NOT the Fields of Athenry. Also many of us might conclude that Colin’s Rigs of the Times (Roud 876) is topical every week!

We were able to welcome back our friends of about 4 or 5 years ago [February 2013, it would seem from the blog] – Jackie and Penny. They now have a bit more free time for folk music and we hope to see them regularly. On this occasion they were singing together (Mad Magdalene's Search for Her Tom of Bedlam Roud V16366) and separately:  Penny with a beautiful performance of the rarely sung Child 11 The Cruel Brother (Roud 26), Jackie with Still I Love Him (Roud 654) and an interesting  version of Roud 329 which attempts to integrate the two separate elements of Hares on the Mountain and Betsy My Love.

Last but by no means least, we were delighted to have Tom and Terry H back again to make it a thoroughly varied and musical evening, with songs including Frankie Armstrong and Ewan MacColl’s Lament for the Trawlers, Richard Leigh’s Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, made famous by the blue-eyed Crystal Gayle (both Terry), Ralph McTell’s Winnie’s Rag and Allan Taylor’s Standing at the Door (both Tom).

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

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

* The tenuous link between Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier: ... [Harry Belafonte] met Sidney Poitier, the financially struggling pair regularly purchased a single seat to local plays, trading places in between acts, after informing the other about the progression of the play