Back to Christmas II 2018 and the session was started off by MC, Colin with John Prine's Christmas In Prison.
It was very nice to see a return visit by our friends from Yorkshire, Janet and Malcolm. Malcolm read a poem in the first part of the evening about cooking the Christmas goose but he wasn't able to perform the second piece he had prepared because it was something along the lines of pass-the-parcel and needed more people than we had by the time his second spot came round.
Another poetry performance came from Richard, a second-time visitor to the club, with Dixie's Dog (Bernard Wrigley).
Derek started with a Christmas theme, singing As I Sat On A Sunny Bank (Roud 700), a version of I Saw Three Ships with an extra verse.
Simon suggested that his first song Boys Of Bedlam (Roud V16366, Dave Moran, Nic Jones) could be tenuously linked to Christmas "to cut mince pies from children's thighs" but he referred us to his saying "Mince pies are for life, not just for Christmas".
Mike gave us two wassails (Roud 209), the first being The Gloucestershire Wassail which it seems from a little unnecessary research is similar to The Gower Wassail and bizarrely The Kentucky Wassail! His second is usually called something simple like The Wassail Song but seems to come from Yorkshire, and no doubt other various places.
Colin gave us Mike Harding's Christmas Eve In 1914.
Richard opened up an interesting line of research for me. Lily The Pink (John Gorman, Mike McGear, Roger McGough - The Scaffold) which he sung was one of my childhood favourites. You know Mike McGear is Paul McCartney's brother don't you; yes, of course you do. No that wasn't the line of research. Who was Lily the Pink and what was her medicinal compound? Well it turns out to be very easily answered because the song is derived from an original called The Ballad Of Lydia Pinkham (Roud 8368). Lydia Pinkham marketed a patent medicine (vegetable compound) which is apparently still available in a modified form. Her marketing was particularly aggressive.
Derek continued his Christmas theme by singing The Seven Joys Of Mary (Roud 278) which, while not strictly a Christmas song, has become associated with the season.
Richard continued to surprise with Football Crazy (Roud 6858). Of course, like anyone of sufficient age, I associated this song with the 1960 recording (even though a little before my time) by Robin Hall and Jimmie Macgregor, though I certainly wouldn't have been able to name them. But it turns out to be much older, having been written by James Curran, "a popular songwriter and parodist in the late 19th century who came to Glasgow from Donegal as a boy, died in 1900".
Having exhausted Christmas, and since we wouldn't have a session on 28 December, Derek moved on to to St Stephen's Day, better known as Boxing Day, when there was a tradition in Ireland and the Isle of Man to hunt the wren. Derek started this thread with The Wren Song (Roud 19109), continued with The Boys Of Barr Na Sráide (based on a poem by Sigerson Clifford) and finished off with two versions of Roud 236, first one from the Isle of Man, and finally one something like this.
Simon took an anniversary from earlier in December and kept the connection with the Isle of Man by singing Hughie Jones' The Ellan Vannin Tragedy.
The final song of the evening came from Colin with We Wish You A Merry Christmas (Roud 230). The song originates in the West Country and was notably popularised by the Bristol-based composer, conductor and organist Arthur Warrell who arranged the tune for the University of Bristol Madrigal Singers, and performed it with them in concert on 6 December 1935.
Here's a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 7, of whom 6 performed)
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