A mixed bag

Martin Said to his Man (print: Maxine Copeland)

Last week's session was a return to satisfying numbers with a surprise visit from Tom, and a first-time visit from Trevor. You'll notice that this report is back to normal this week. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad one but either way I am endebted to those who have filled in for me in my absence over the last few weeks.

We had learned rather belatedly from a comment on a previous blog post of the death of Joe Rushbrook, who attended our sessions on-and-off for quite some time with his carer Joscie. In fact it was Joscie who informed us that his funeral was on 6 July. If Joscie sees this, I am sorry I didn't get the message in time to invite our members but everyone present who knew him was pleased that you made the effort and I understand that Tom, who was particularly friendly with Joe, had already passed on our condolences.


Getting back to the business of the evening, Colin was MC and started off with Geordie Black (Roud 3507).

Trevor's first song at the club was one of Jez Lowe's - Cursed Be The Caller. Colin added London Danny, another of Jez's songs much later in the evening. As well as being the second Jez Lowe song, it was (at least) the second song from the repertoire of our late friend, Ray Croll, the first I noticed being The Ballad Of Seth Davy, coming from Trevor.

Tom was slightly frustrated with lapses of memory singing American Tune (Paul Simon) - well he'll just have to come along more often to practice with us, won't he?

Derek kicked off his contribution with We Were Christening the Baby

Simon, who had recently returned from holiday in Canada, committed to sing Canadian and Newfoundland songs all evening and opened his account with Lukey's Boat (Roud 1828).

Geoff challenged us to guess his theme for the evening. The songs were Wild Rover (Roud 1173), McAlpine's Fusiliers (Dominic Behan), Courtin' In The Kitchen (Roud 1007, Laws Q16) and The Patriot Game (Dominic Behan). Was it that they are all Irish? Well maybe, though Derek would argue that Wild Rover is from Suffolk. Was it because Geoff sang them all on his first visit to the club in September 2016? Perhaps, but that wasn't it. They were all songs sung by Noel Murphy who had been Geoff's introduction to folk music when he played Bristol's Troubadour in the 1960s and 70s. But the prompt for the theme wasn't that Geoff was a fan, though he has been, but rather it seems, his feeling of betrayal, having just found out about Murphy's conviction in May for indecent assault.

I have to admit that I've picked a slightly off-the-wall version of Mike's first song to link here. No, mike didn't sing Mobile Bay (Roud 4696) in Polish, but this is the only recording I can find that, like Mike's version, starts off from Bristol. There's also a reason for picking this version of Lord Randall (Roud 10, Child 12) to represent Derek's singing. It's not that it is particularly similar to Derek's rendition but that, like Derek's, it is sung in a mix of Welsh and English.

It's traditional that I should mention all songs sung by a newcomer, so those not already mentioned from Trevor are The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (Eric Bogle), Martin Said To His Man (Roud 473) and I Just Can't Wait (Ian Campbell, John Dunkerley).

Tom sang two songs from Allan Taylor. His first was Looking For You, and when asked to finish off the evening he gave us Roll On The Day.

There is no Dragon Folk Club session on 27 July 2018 because the pub has a "big do" on. We will however be back on 3 August, so please come and join us for a fun evening. Strains of our regulars saying "This is a folk club, you're not here to enjoy yourself" are echoing in my ears as I type this.

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

(Number of people present - 7, of whom 7 performed)