May Day 2019

May Pole (Photo: klndonnelly)

Last Friday's session had the theme of May and we were just two days late for May Day itself. This week (10 May) there will be no theme but if you have any May left-overs I am sure no one will mind the scraps.

In fact last week's session was amazing or at least unexpectedly well peopled. Tom made his first appearance of the year, John and Chris O, usually only very occasional visitors, made their second within a month, and Steffan, who I've been working on, he says, for four years, finally made a welcome appearance.

Colin, MCing as usual, started off the evening not particular in the May theme but marking the occasion of Derek's team, Glamorgan beating Gloucestershire in the cricket. He did this with the first of several Kipper Family songs of the evening: The Cricket Match.

Mike wasn't feeling to well so his contribution before an early exit was just one song, but a fine May song it was, Hal An Tow (Roud 1520) which is from the Helston May Day celebrations. There will no doubt be a follow-up from Derek and from just down the road at this week's session.

Tom's first of the evening was Jim Croce's Bad Bad Leroy Brown, a writer he returned to last in the evening with These Dreams.

Simon initially avoided May, preferring instead to mark the passing of Alan Bell by singing his song Windmills.

John O sang Angels Of Lincoln (John Conolly) which tells of how a stonemason at Lincoln Cathedral used his children as the models for angels and how they therefore in a sense became immortal.

Chris O brought with her the second Kipper song of the evening, Not Sixteen Til Sunday, appropriately modified to speak of May instead of June. The third of their songs to be sung was All Things Are Quite Equal, which Colin gave us and which comes with May baked in.

As a first-time visitor, all of Steffan's songs get a mention. His first was his own Cardigan Bay (Steffan Lewis). Next was Saucy Sailor (Roud 531, Laws K38) followed by Robin Williamson's By Weary Well. The Rye Whiskey, rather than Jack O' Diamonds version of Roud 259 was his fourth contribution, and his last was The Oggie Song, something his father would sing, which was also known to Tom, who remembered a verse that Steffan had forgotten.

Derek's first contribution of the evening was Giles Collins (Roud 147, Child 85) who according to Derek "roved out on a May morning".

At one stage Tom said with tongue firmly in cheek that his next song was by an excellent singer songwriter although indeed it was, being by Tom himself, written with help from our old friend Ray Croll. He was then surprised to see that I had already taken a note of what it was going to be and had sat back to enjoy Lasso The Moon (Tom Mossman).

I have to mention another of John O's self-penned songs, A Pong For The Land. Its story is that of a trip around Scotland and England (Wales gets just a brief mention). Its form is spoken word verses with a chorus each of eight songs if I counted correctly. The six I managed to identify and note down were: I Belong To Glasgow (Will Fyffe - Roud V11958), Blaydon Races (Geordie Ridley - Roud 3511), The Grand Old Duke Of York (Roud 742), Yarmouth Town, London River (Rod Shearman) and Trelawny (Robert Stephen Hawker - Roud 3315).

In the previous paragraph I haven't included an origin for Yarmouth Town for good reason. There is much discussion on Mudcat Café and elsewhere about this. Peter Bellamy said he collected it, some say it was the first song he collected, from a Pete Bullen of Norwich, who in turn, like the song Fakenham Fair, seems to have acquired it from his grandfather. So did this second PB have a grandfather with a treasure trove of rare traditional songs? But these two have no obvious second source and seem a bit modern, so suspicions are raised. Did the grandfather write them? Was it Pete Bullen himself who wrote them? Or for the more cynical commenter, was Pete Bullen actually Peter Bellamy since no one seems to know who he was? Of course the ever-increasing spread of the web gives us power not available to previous researchers, even those discussing the matter just a few years ago... could this be the man?

The inclusion of The Grand Old Duke Of York in John O's song prompted Derek to sing A-mining We Will Go. And at the end of a fine evening it was Derek who was also called upon to finish the session which he did with Little Ball Of Yarn (Roud 1404).

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

(Number of people present - 8, of whom 8 performed)