Christmas 2018

A very satisfactory number of singers were present at our Christmas session last week and not only did they enjoy the singing but also the nibbles at the break - more than just the expected mince pies though there were plenty of those too. Officially this Friday's session (21 December) has no theme but if you want to continue with Christmas, Yule, Bah Humbug or anything else seasonal then no one will stop you.

MC Colin made an earlier-than-usual start with Gather Round The Family (Bonny Sartin), so it was only during Tom's first song, You've Got A Friend (Carole King), that Mike and his canine companion, Indy arrived.

Terry H was trying some of the songs he plays less frequently and some entirely new material. The first of these was Lady Franklin's Lament (Roud 487, Laws K09).

Contemptible or unaccomplished?

We look forward to seeing hoards of you this Friday for our slightly early Christmas themed session. Come ready to perform songs, tunes, poems, monologues, stories or jokes on the subject of Christmas, Yule or Bah-Humbug, or anything really that takes your fancy. There should be mince pies for the interval.

Last week's session had no theme and the contributions were quite varied as you will see from the usual "selection" link at the bottom of this post. MC, Colin started us off on a theme of leather on willow with The Cricketers Of Hambledon (Bruce Blunt, Peter Warlock).

Geoff followed on with Nowhere Man (Lennon-McCartney) making life very easy for this scribe to find a video. Slightly more difficult to find is Derek's Three Wee Glasgow Molls (Roud 6960). Colin was the only one this time to sing a song I couldn't trace at all which should probably be an embarrassment since Mike clearly knew it and I think Derek may have known it too.

St Andrew's Day 2018

Saint Andrew the Apostle by Artus Wolffort

After last week's excellent St Andrew's Day session we return to a themeless evening this Friday where anything goes as long as it's acoustic and legal (although we have had songs in the past the singing of which might have got you locked up only a few years ago).

MC Colin kicked us off in appropriately Scottish mood with the poem St. Andrew's Day-A Toast by Jean Blewett which he put to a familiar tune which escapes me at the moment.

We were joined for the first time in several years by Chris S who didn't sing on previous occasions. This time he started off with his own part-finished work, Be The One To Turn To, and continued with borrowed words, singing Michael Row The Boat Ashore (Roud 11975), Drink Up Thy Zider (Adge Cutler) and Kumbaya.

It would be very easy for me to go through a variety of Scottish songs we heard through the evening, and there were plenty as you will see, but as I pointed out in the report two weeks ago, St Andrew is patron of a lot of places, professions and other things apart from Scotland, so let's go on a partial tour of those.