Short but I hope sweet

Frontispiece depicting Juvenal and Persius,
from a volume translated
by John Dryden in 1711

It's a really short report of last week's session I'm afraid due to lack of time but first of all, please remember that this Friday's session will be our theme for St David's Day, so it's mainly Welsh but remember that he is also patron of poets and vegetarians, Pembrokshire and Naas in County Kildare, Ireland.

Colin started us off with The Bos'n The Gunner And Me (Francis Barron, Henry Trotere).

Simon spent the evening singing songs he had left over from Valentine's Day the week before, starting with No Sir No (Roud 146). Inspired by the line "If my hand should slip a little further" from the previous song, classicist Derek told the story of a young lady who had studied Juvenal's Satires  and had always wanted to know the meaning of an obscure Latin word used when one character's hand was slipped up the clothing of another character. She found the biggest and best Latin dictionary in the University library, and found that the word was translated... into its Greek equivalent. Now keen to get to the bottom of the mystery, she found the biggest and best Greek dictionary, where the Greek word was translated... back into the Latin! Derek sang Sullivan's John (Pecker Dunne).

Valentine's Day - 2019

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Valentine's Day session brought out many tales of love and lust as well as a couple of unrelated but timely anniversaries.

Before I get started with the report we have some parish announcements since we are coming to peak theme season. All of the following themes are optional; you are always welcome to come along and perform anything you wish, or indeed take your place as an audience member, but if you can match the theme with one or two songs, stories or any other type of acoustic performance then so much the better. Where no theme is given for a particular Friday night it doesn't mean we don't meet, we almost always do, it's just that there is no specific theme planned, so come along with your own theme or none as you wish.

Digging deep

William Keating being recorded in the Pottsville Public Library
(Photograph from the George Korson Collection,
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress)

After a Friday where snow stopped play for the players of the Dragon Folk Club, we were back at the folk face again last week though somewhat depleted in numbers.

Colin, the MC, started the session off with Midnight Special (Roud 6364), a song made famous by Lead Belly. There followed Simon's opener which was King Of Rome (Dave Sudbury).

Derek pointed out that I had incorrectly linked in a recent report to Ewan MacColl's Jamie Foyers rather than the traditional Jamie Foyers (Roud 1941). Apparently in an attempt to annoy me, this week Derek sang the MacColl version but I remain cool. The traditional song is set during the Peninsular War of 1807-1814, whereas MacColl's song, based on the original, is set during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.