Christmas and more

Christmas shopping (photo: Simon Meeds)

Our last session of 2021 was a great success, not least due to a transatlantic visitor, but more of that later. Christmas songs were in evidence of course as this was 17 December.

Colin was MC and started the evening off with Mary's Boy Child (Jester Hairston), which he was preparing for his church. The tempo he chose was somewhere between Harry Belafonte and Boney M in order to make it easier for the choir to sing.

Simon went straight for the Latin, singing Gaudete with his usual classical, rather than the authentic medieval pronunciation. It was published in Piae Cantiones, a collection of Finnish/Swedish sacred songs published in 1582. No music is given for the verses, but the standard tune comes from older liturgical books.

Mike's first contribution was lighter with The Christmas Goose (roud 3204).

Colin offered another carol with Twelve Days of Christmas (roud 68), whereas Simon went for a Marriott Edgar monologue, Sam Small's Christmas Pudding. It was during Mike's singing of The Gloucestershire Wassail (roud 209) that we were joined by Gabe. There were jokes about the arrival of Gabriel before Christmas - I'm sure he's never heard those before!

Gabe sportingly agreed to hit the ground running and continued the wassail theme with The Wassail Song (Here we come a-wassailing). He explained that this is one of the most commonly sung wassails in his native USA. Note that Roud categorises all wassails under his number 209.

This started a mini-theme with two further wassails being sung. The Gower Wassail was sung by Gabe. This Gower Wassail was collected from Phil Tanner in 1947 (see the linked recording). Mike tells us that it is the one traditionally sung there after New Year. The final wassail of the evening was Apple Tree Wassail sung by Mike.

Traditionally I mention in the report every song contributed by a newcomer to the club. Since Gabe was skilfully able to follow even the most obscure, non-folky contributions, this also requires me to mention those songs to which he linked. Here goes.

Somewhat stand-alone was Gabe's Longfellow's Christmas Bells. I may be wrong, but I think the tune in the link is the one he sang. If that is so then the tune was "Waltham" to which it was set by the English organist, John Baptiste Calkin. The song tells of the narrator hearing Christmas bells during the American Civil War, but despairing that "hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men". After much anguish and despondency the carol concludes with the bells ringing out with resolution that "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep" and that there will ultimately be "...peace on earth, good will to men".

Colin gave us the sequel to Snoopy vs the Red Baron, also recorded by The Royal Guardsmen and entitled Snoopy's Christmas (George David Weiss, Hugo & Luigi). This led Gabe to sing The Biplane Evermore, originally recorded by its writer, Marty Cooper, but later covered by The Royal Guardsmen.

Simon sang Mon Beau Sapin (Laurent Delcasso), a French version of the German carol O Tannenbaum (Ernst Anschütz), written in 1824 and based on a 16th-century Silesian folk song by Melchior Franck. Gabe followed with Sing We Noel, a translation of a 15th century French carol.

Gabe went out on his own with Pete Seeger's Snow, Snow.

Simon's rendition of Elizabeth Padgett's Plover Catcher inspired Gabe to follow the ornithological theme with The Mallard (roud 1517).

Colin harked back to Simon's Gaudete with The Kipper Family's nonsense pseudo-Latin Awayday. Gabe found Don McLean's equally nonsense On the Amazon.

Maybe it was the Latin slant that took Gabe to In Dulci Jubilo with it's mix of German and Latin.

Colin, who had earlier sung The Restroom Door Said Gentlemen by Bob Rivers, returned to that writer with Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire. Gabe followed with The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) written by Ross Bagdasarian under the pseudonym David Seville.

Gabe's penultimate contribution was from the North East of England, Robin Spraggon's Auld Grey Mare (roud 3063). He was called upon once more to finish the evening which he did with the Christmassy Silver Bells (Jay Livingston, Ray Evans).

We must thank Gabe for helping us to make it a great evening. He brought some excellent singing, even managing to get us to up our game with harmonies. He showed a varied repertoire, sportingly following us down many musical backwaters. We hope to see him again soon since we understand he is staying in the area for a while and he fitted right in with us.

Do as Gabe did; come and join us any Friday night at The Bridge Inn. We certainly don't expect everyone to be as versatile as Gabe, but everyone has something to contribute, whether it's a song, a story, or just some chat.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 performed)

...two men, one man and his dog

Mitchell performing in concert at
the Universal Amphitheatre in August 1974

Sorry there's no proper report of last Friday's session, but I haven't got access to my usual resources. There were three of us present, plus Indy the dog and a good evening was had by all.

Mike started singing Christmas songs with a more random selection coming from Colin and Simon. Some mini themes emerged as we went on, including Simon following Colin singing and Alan Bell song with another (accidentally) and later again following Colin's Joni Mitchell song with another (intentionally).

This Friday (17 December) will be our last session of 2021, so I would encourage you to join us: no entry fee, anything goes as long as it's acoustic, and there's well-priced beer and cider available at the bar.

(Number of people present - 3 of whom 3 performed)

Tea for two

Fisher lasses, Pittenweem, Scotland

Last Friday's session saw Colin and Simon have a good chat before alternating songs. There must have been something wrong with the evening because not only were we down to a pair but there was hardly anyone in the rest of the pub and it closed early at 10pm because we were the only customers left. In fact I believe there were only four others at 9pm. So whatever was the mystery problem we will forgive you for not being there as long as you turn up this week from 8:15pm on Friday.

The parish notices were that we will have two weeks break over Christmas since Fridays fall on significant dates this year. We will not be meeting on 24 December nor on 31 December, so 17 December will be our last session of 2021 and 7 January will be the first of 2022.

While Colin was MC he ceded his customary opening spot to Simon who sang Tracy Chapman's Behind the wall. Maybe it has some relevance to the Arthur Labinjo-Hughes case, though perhaps Suzanne Vega's Luka would have been more appropriate.

Colin said he would continue his partial Scottish theme of the week before, taking as his first song Come by the hills (W Gordon Smith).

I won't go through all of the songs we sang; you can hear them all in one form or another at the "a selection" link below, but maybe I will mention one or two.

Colin challenged me to find a recording of The Pittenweem fisher-wives song (roud 13136). Well, it took a bit of digging and I won't claim 100% success. California State University, Fresno gives us some hints, including that it is related to We'll Go To Sea No More [no not Go to sea no more (roud 644, laws D7)], but a song which appeared in a book The odd volume (page 267), by the Misses Corbett. Mudcat Café tells us that Grace Corbett (c. 1765-1843), when eleven years old, composed the melody to a new version of "The Siller Crown" and along with her sister produced several works of fiction, tales, legends, etc.

The Corbett song has very similar verses to Colin's, but a different chorus. Anyway, this is the only version of We'll go to sea no more that I can find on YouTube - not very traditional I'm afraid. If you want to track down a version of the Pittenweem fisher-wives song, then you probably need to track down a copy of the album The Sailor's Day by Mainbrace (Minstrel Records - JD-217).

Colin closed the evening with Dougie McLean's Caledonia.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 2 of whom 2 performed)

Somewhat Scottish

Flag of Scotland

It was a definitely themeless session last Friday but at least we were reasonably quorate. Colin made some Scottish contributions as an early St Andrew's Day tribute and Simon followed him along those lines while Derek concentrated on his song sources, particularly traditional singers, and Mike made up for the last couple of weeks that he had missed by singing mostly songs of remembrance. We had some very random visitors (all polite and complimentary), but more of them later.

Arriving just in time for the start of the session I was told that we had already had a visitor (let's call him Sean1) who had apparently shown a minimum of skill on Colin's guitar.

Of course it was Colin as MC who started the evening proper, singing The Eddystone Light (roud 22257). Since the Eddystone lighthouse is off Cornwall I assume this wasn't intended as a start of Colin's Scottish selection.

Mike turned us back to our unofficial theme of Remembrance from the start of the month with Homeward (Cecily Fox Smith).

Derek mourned that he was not in the right part of the country early enough to have collected songs from Jack Elliot of Birtley, but he did get them from his daughter. I believe his contribution from that source was a medley of Jowl jowl and listen (roud 3191) and Rap her to bank (roud 1786). I know the songs reasonably well, but he threw me slightly by slipping unannounced from one to the other.

Simon went straight for the Scottish songs with The shearing's no for you (roud 4845). At this point our second visitor (let's call him Sean2) arrived and, looking over Simon's shoulder, joined in.

After this Sean2 picked up Simon's guitar (sort of with permission) and gave us the classic opening riff of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water (Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, Ian Paice). Simon managed to fill in the first few lines of the lyric which tells of the band's time recording in a mobile studio at Montreux, cut short when an audience member at a Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention gig let off a flare gun causing a fire which destroyed Montreux Casino. That definitely sounds like a folk song to me!

Colin's first Scottish contribution was Adam MacNaughton's The jeely piece song (skyscraper wean).

Mike continued on the theme of remembrance with his own song, Away on the Western Front to the tune of Shenandoah (roud 324).

Although Derek had failed to meet Jack Elliot, he had collected from some traditional singers, including Bertha Brown from whom he acquired The doffing mistress (roud 2133), though it was he, definitely not she, who made Brown herself the mistress in the song.

Simon continued with the Scottish theme. Not that Wild mountain thyme (Francis McPeake - roud 541) is Scottish, for the McPeake family are Irish, but it is derived from The Braes of Balquhither (roud 541) by Scottish poet Robert Tannahill (1774–1810) and Scottish composer Robert Archibald Smith (1780–1829), which definitely is.

Derek was about to introduce a song about piles, allegedly written by a schoolteacher from Northumbria, and starting "The sparrow sitting on the tiles...", when Sean1 came back into the room and asked to borrow Colin's guitar again, which was offered. He continued with an eponymous improvisation. By the time it ended Derek seemed to have forgotten all about haemorrhoids and instead went for his own improvisation in the style of Sean1: My name is Derek.

When Colin had previously sung The war junk Tennessee (sorry no references or recordings), Derek had joked that it was good to see he had learnt Latin in a day. Simon at this point commented that he only usually sung two songs in Latin: his school song, which is too boring to sing and Gaudete for which it is still a month too early. He has Latin words for another song, but hasn't got round to working out the scansion, so he sang it in English instead: The hippopotamus song (Michael Flanders, Donald Swann).

This led us down a rabbit hole in that Derek felt compelled to sing his school song, Carmen Colcestriense, which includes a Latin chorus and a dodgy one at that because the author, Percy Shaw Jeffrey, invented the word "'tas" in order to get it to scan. Derek was sure that the song was based on that of another school and indeed it resembles that of The Skinners' School in Tunbridge Wells, since Shaw Jeffrey was headmaster of both schools and wrote the lyrics to both songs.

This was too much of a challenge for Simon, so he took his school song, Floreat Bostona (George Edwin Pattenden), but didn't sing verses 1, 2 and 3 as is usual, but rather 1, 4, 5 and 6. Verse 6 being recently rediscovered and it at least may not have been sung for 120 years. While you can hear the tune at the link above, there are ways of hearing the song on line (at least verses 1, 2 and 3), but I haven't inflicted them on listeners of the "a selection" link below. Here though for the keen is a conventional rendition, and here is a punk version from 1979 - you may even have seen the vocalist on television during the Iraq War and subsequent military activity.

It was Colin's turn when Sean2 made a second appearance, helping Colin with his rendition of Thousands or more (roud 1220).

Finally this eventful and enjoyable (yes, really) session was ended by Simon with No Sir no (roud 146).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 5 + 2 of whom 4 + 2 performed)

Keepy-uppy

Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix play keepy-uppy
(Photo posted to Flickr by Diego Sideburns)

Last Friday's session was a bit quiet once again. We hope everyone is OK and it's just a glitch. Please get over here to The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol, BS16 9NG this Friday at 8:15pm, we need your company... and your singing if you feel capable.

Heading straight in with not a theme in sight, our MC, Colin, started the evening with The Folksinger's Lament (David Diamond) and Simon followed with Strike the Bell (roud 4190).

Well that's it. That was the first round. I'm not going to go through the songs in detail. You can listen to the "a selection" link below which includes seventeen of the eighteen songs we sang. The odd one out is Colin's singing of The Labourers' Union (roud V48257). It was sung by Walter Pardon whose repertoire included this and other anthems of the nineteenth century National Agricultural Labourers' Union.

The last round of the evening saw Colin sing Shelley Posen's No more fish, no fisherman and Simon The Galway Shawl (roud 1737).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 2, of whom 2 performed)

Remembrance

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

As I keep saying, we are currently refraining from announcing official themes, but last Friday falling on 12 November meant that we were still thinking of remembrance, which therefore coloured many of the songs. Our usual room was in the middle of being decorated so we spent the evening in the small bar which was pleasant and we even got appreciation from some of the customers passing through to the toilets.

MC Colin started the ball rolling with Jez Lowe's Old Bones, which Maggie L noted was often sung by our late friend Ray Croll.

Derek hadn't been at our sessions for the previous two weeks, so he first took us back to Halloween with Sweet William's Ghost (roud 50, child 77) and The Unquiet Grave (roud 51, child 78), then to Guy Fawkes with Bonfire Night before bringing us back to the present with There's A Simple Little Cross Out At Mons.

Simon started with Elizabeth Padgett's tale of second world war wild-fowling in the fens, The Plover Catcher.

Colin took us to the First World War Balkans with Salonika (roud 10513), a song often sung by our late friend Pat Hyett.

Simon's singing of Where have all the flowers gone (Pete Seeger, Joe Hickerson) prompted Derek to burst into the German version, Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind (words by Max Colpet).

Colin contributed two songs from the singing of Roy Bailey: Ghost Story (Jim Woodland) and Maria Diaz (Lenny Galant). Simon gave us two from Mike Harding's pen: Bombers' Moon and Jimmy Spoons.

In the end it fell to Simon to finish off the night which he did, as the song says (metaphorically) "shaking plaster from the wall" with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 4, of whom 3 performed)

Guy Fawkes, bonfires and camp fires

With fireworks for Guy Fawkes' Night well under way, Gerty kept Derek and Maggie home, no doubt to watch the local display while cowering under a table. Meanwhile there was no such trouble for Indy who kept an eye out for stray bangs but didn't cause too much trouble for Mike.

As is usual at the moment we didn't have an official theme but there was a strong leaning to songs to sing around the campfire with a few contemporary to Guido himself.

Colin arrived first and as MC put himself on to sing The grand old Duke of York (Roud 742). He sang several verses and said he hadn't come across them before; Mike remembered them from his schooldays.

Simon, almost completely off topic, said he had a request (from Colin) the week before at Halloween, so he sang Monster Mash (Bobby Pickett).

Mike's first song was Spencer the rover (Roud 1115) which mentions the fifth of November.

We had twenty five songs, twenty six of which can be heard via the "a selection" link below. Oh, 26 of 25? Mike, noting that the others were singing children's songs, sang I've got sixpence (Roud 1116 - yes, consecutive to Spencer!) and later returned with a snippet of the shanty version, Mop her down (Roud 17004) on a turn when he really sang Martin said to his man (Roud 473). This latter song was one of two later versions we had of political nonsense songs which originated around the time of the gunpowder plot (1605); the other was Benjamin Bowmaneer (Roud 1514) which Simon sang. Mike told us that they were from the time of the Napoleonic Wars with the evidence being that the "flea" was Napoleon in both songs. 

Other songs of note from Mike included his own Children of the train (the recording doesn't use Mike's tune). He also sang the JCB Song (Seamus Moore), not to be confused with the equally wonderful but totally different JCB Song (Luke Concannon).

Colin reminded us of our friend Roger, who we haven't seen for a while by singing Upidee. Known with different words as an American Civil War song, the song used the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Exelsior and was a Harvard college song.

Simon finished off the evening with When I first came to this land (Roud 16813) which was translated by Oscar Brand in 1957 from a Pennsylvania Dutch song.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 3, of whom 3 performed)

Eerily quiet

Friendly zombies in Dublin (Photo: Simon Meeds)

We aren't setting themes for our sessions at the moment but last Friday presented an obvious opportunity to bring out something spooky for Halloween. Unfortunately only two of us rose to the challenge.

Colin MCing started the evening off with a song of his own writing entitled Great Uncle Frank which Simon followed up with the properly traditional Halloween Souling Song (Roud 304).

And so it all came round too quickly this time; back to Colin for Dancers of Stanton Drew (Jim Parker, Muriel Holland), a cautionary tale from Somerset warning not to dance on a Sunday. Simon drew on the songwriting of Russian / Ingush performer Daria Kulesh and her song Begone! (The Witch of Walkern) telling a story from her adopted Hertfordshire about a woman accused of witchcraft and saved by a judge from the city.

Colin took his next from the singing of Martin Carthy: The Devil and the Feathery Wife (Roud 12551) while Simon took us westward for Stan Jones' 1948 song Riders in the Sky. Yes, the word "Ghost" was not in the original title.

Back to Colin for The Wife of Usher's Well (Roud 196, Child 79). Colin often takes songs from the works of bands such as Steeleye Span, but in this case though they popularised it, he assures us his version is from the tradition. Simon's song this round was certainly not from "the tradition" being a 1971 hit single by Native American band Redbone, Witch Queen of New Orleans (Lolly Vegas, Pat Vegas).

Being such a small contingent we wove much conversation through the evening touching such subjects as guitar playing, the Roud index and Wikipedia.

Finally we came to the closing round where Colin sang Widecombe Fair (Roud 137) and Simon finished with Zombie Jamboree (possibly written by Conrad Eugene Mauge, Jr).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 2, of whom 2 performed)

A drop of Nelson's blood

HMS Victory (Photo: Simon Meeds)

I'm afraid this is going to be a short report again on last Friday's session though we were reasonably quorate in numbers. It's simply that I'm running out of time. Nevertheless you can follow the link below to hear most of the songs we sang, and even better come along to The Bridge this Friday to see in person what we do. Maybe you will be able to join in.

Colin, taking his usual role of MC, started with The Drummer and the Cook (Roud 3136). It's entirely coincidental that I have linked Harry Belafonte's recording and that Simon followed it with the bawdy mento song Big Bamboo, which as Derek pointed out is of course entirely about plant products (hmm!). Derek's own first song was Mill O' Tifty's Annie (Roud 98). Mike rounded of the first circuit with Roll the Old Chariot (Roud 3632 - "a drop of Nelson's blood...") to mark the previous day's celebration of Trafalgar.

Keeping on the Napoleonic Wars theme, Simon sang an unapologetically junior school version of Boney Was a Warrior (Roud 485). And so we went on singing until there were only two of us and Colin rounded off the evening with Pull for the Shore (Roud 17400 - it actually starts in the linked video at 2:26).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 5, of whom 4 performed)

For Singing

Harry Brown
(Based on a photograph by Hugh Llewelyn - Flickr)

Numbers were unfortunately back to being depleted last Friday but some worthwhile singing was done.

Colin arrived in time to take up his regular role as MC, but with Simon arriving first it was his job to start off the session, singing a Canadian song, Peggy Gordon (Roud 2280). This was followed by Colin with Old Johnny Bugger (Roud 19111). Those who are squeamish of the title of this Lancashire/ Yorkshire version may prefer the title used by Shirley Collins on her 2016 album Lodestar which was Old Johnny Buckle. The album notes say "Sung by Mrs Hewett, a ploughman's wife of Mapledurwell, Hants, recorded by Bob Copper in July 1955. It's an upside-down song, a daft little nonsense song of contradictions. A far nobler variant of this type of song is Nottamun Town." I have also seen the final name of the title as Booker, Bigger, Booger, Boker, and many more.

Mike's first song was Napoleon Bonaparte (Roud 1626) which is also called Napoleon's Farewell to Paris.

We visited a couple of the big folk rock bands. First Simon with Boys of Bedlam (V16366) the tune being by Dave Moran and Nic Jones of The Halliard, and which became associated with Steeleye Span. Second was Colin with Fairport Convention's Genesis Hall (Richard Thompson). "Genesis Hall" was an abandoned hotel in London's Drury Lane, originally the Bell Hotel. It had been occupied by hippie squatters. The London police had evicted the squatters, and eventually caused the building to be razed. Thompson's father was a member of the London police force at the time, and the lyrics refer to the incident.

Mike had been reminded about his next song by the singing of his Bristol Shantymen colleague, Jeff Blake. The song was Sailboat Malarkey about which A L Lloyd wrote "The tune and most of the words come from the Bahamas, from the singer Frederick McQueen. In the Bahamas it's mostly used for boat-launching, but it serves equally well for capstan work. ‘Malarkey’ here is a mispronunciation of ‘Malachi’."

Colin brought out If by David Gates of the band Bread. A bit of trivia is that this song reached number one in the UK singles chart in 1975, not for Bread but for Telly Savalas (his version), becoming the song with the shortest title to reach No. 1 in the UK.

Mike sang Harry Brown a written by Pete MacNab with a little help from Mike himself. The song, in the form of a shanty, tells of a well-loved Bristol-based dredger which eventually sank in a second life working in Bahrain.

After a lot more singing the evening was closed by Colin with a new song from Tom Lewis called A Shanty For Singing.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 3, of whom 3 performed)

Harvest, wars and other stuff

Photo: Simon Meeds

Sorry, I won't get round to writing a proper report of last Friday's session. Suffice to say that Colin was MC and he was joined by Mike, Derek, Maggie L and Simon. A good evening of singing was had and you can get an idea of most of the songs sung from the link below.

See you this Friday for more of the same and more of something different.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 5, of whom 4 performed)

That's more like it

The club's old door poster

Last Friday's session was much livelier and more satisfactory than recent efforts. We were pleased to see Derek return to the fold, and Tom make his second visit since we restarted. Even better, Derek brought with him Maggie L and Gerty who we hadn't seen for a very long time. Let's hope we can not only carry on this way but gradually add more names to the roll-call.

MC Colin invited Mike to start the singing but in the end had to kick us off himself with Don't you rock me Daddy-o (Bill Varley, Wally Whyton) which was originally recorded by The Vipers Skiffle Group for whom it  reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart in early 1957. The song is a variant of Sail Away Ladies (Roud 17635). Whyton was founder of the Vipers which became the resident band at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho and had its records produced by George Martin.

Mike did indeed sing the second song of the evening and it was one which Colin had requested the previous week, but which he wouldn't have dared sing had his wife, Maggie S been present. The extremely non-PC song in question was The Chinese Bum-boat Man (Roud 10465).

Tom treated us to an early Gerry Rafferty composition, Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway. The song was on Rafferty's first solo album, "Can I Have My Money Back?" (1971), and had previously been released by his band, The Humblebums. The band was founded in 1965 by Billy Connolly and Tam Harvey with Rafferty joining in 1969.

Simon sang The Smuggler's Song, which was published in Rudyard Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill. There is some discussion, not least from Tom who was present, about whether Kipling wrote the poem and who wrote the tune which Simon uses. Is it a variant of Peter Bellamy's tune, or of the one written by Christopher Le Fleming, or is it something else entirely? All Simon knows is that he got the tune from our late friend Ray Croll and that when he first heard Ray sing it the tune was already familiar to him from somewhere.

Derek said he doesn't usually sing a song he doesn't know although we know he sometimes pulls one out of a very dusty corner of his "bag" and sings it perfectly adequately. On this occasion though he started one knowing he would not get very far with it since he wanted to address Maggie L with the first verse of Come Write Me Down (Roud 381). With the first verse out of the way, Mike led us a little further down the path of the song he knows well.

And so the first circuit of the room was complete and there followed several more circuits until 31 songs and poems had been performed. This is not a record by any means (we think that would be about 47) but it is a good tally.

Worth a particular mention is that Tom read us two of his own poems. Grandad's Cracket concerns a stool that his grandfather made him for which young Tom seems to have found many uses. Tom gave a very emotional reading of The Driver, remembering the day when he saw a pit pony driver whose "eyes were full of tears" with a group of blind ponies that had finished their working lives. No one would tell him what lay in store for them and he only found out years later.

Derek was asked to finish the evening and clearing it with Maggie L that he would sing a bawdy song, he sent us home with Mary Went to a Tea Party (Roud 24991).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 6, of whom 5 performed)

Somewhat nautical

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We are still on low numbers but at least we now have a good idea of why our other core members are absent at the moment and hope to see them in the next few weeks. In the meantime newcomers and visitors would be very welcome to join us.

I'll keep the report short to reflect the reduced number of singers.

MC Colin started us off with That's What It's Like In The Navy written by Cyril Tawney, a songwriter he returned to later in the evening with Chicken on a Raft. Chicken on a raft is naval slang for a fried egg on toast.

Simon kept it nautical with Ian "Nobby" Dye's Welsh Back Quay as did Mike with Johnny Come Down to Hilo.

The second round started with Colin singing Coaly Tyne (Roud V21088) which prompted Simon to give us Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia ("Far away from the coaly Tyne"). Mike followed up with When Johnny Comes Marching Home (Roud 6673), which he said has been used as a shanty.

We continued, not always in a nautical vein until the evening was rounded off by Simon singing Suzanne Vega's Tom's Diner.

The following evening Simon and Colin (dubbed "The Wreckers") joined Mike and two of his fellow Bristol Shantymen as an ad hoc chorus for an enjoyable evening of shanty singing at Tormarton.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 3, of whom 3 performed)

Three wise monkeys

We were once again thin on the ground at last Friday's sing-around session. We started with three and later diminished to two, but we sang and chatted the evening out nevertheless, finishing only marginally earlier than our tradition in what one friend of mine calls "the before-times".

This report is being produced late and in order to avoid it being later still I will leave the YouTube playlist to do the talking because although it claims below to be "a selection" of the songs we sang, it is in fact on this occasion a complete record.

Let's hope we can muster greater numbers this week.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 3, of whom 3 performed)

The joy of chorus singing

Henry Joy McCracken

Five of us met last Friday to sing. While there was a charity event on in the bar and, shock horror, there was no hand-pumped ale, we proceeded with little disruption except when the barbecue was retrieved from the forecourt through the carriage doors in our room. Colin even received a complement for his performance at that stage!

Indeed Colin was back this week and returned to his customary role of MC, starting off the evening with Keith Scowcroft and Derek Gifford's When All Men Sing: a good way to get everyone singing.

Mike is trying to prepare us for being his chorus on 25 September at Tormarton (see the previous week's blog report), so he sang Outward And Homeward Bound (Roud 18905) which has a chorus made to fool the careless joiner-inner, changing several times through the song. Simon incorrectly thought he remembered Mike saying the song was not a shanty, though he had the right idea in that a shanty "should be" either an outward bounder or a homeward bounder and this song can't make its mind up. Nevertheless, it is apparently not the only only shanty to introduce such confusion. Note that the linked version is based in Liverpool whereas naturally, Mike's is based in Bristol.

Geoff's first song was The Limerick Rake (Roud 3018).

There had earlier been a comment that Colin, who had not found his usual table (we later worked out it had been taken outside), was sitting on a bar stool to better reach the pool table. Simon joked that he was "young and still growing", which Derek took as a request to sing The Trees They Do Grow High (Roud 31, Laws O35).

Simon's first song was Elizabeth Padgett's The Plover Catcher. It didn't go quite to plan because he found himself singing it closer to the way Elizabeth sings her own song than the way he usually does it. Having restarted in something approaching the usual vein it was only much later he worked out what had gone wrong... he doesn't usually use a capo on the third fret as she does.

Mike continued our chorus practice with Spanish Ladies (Roud 687). He asked us why this isn't a shanty. The answer is that the version he sings is from the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy did not allow the singing of shanties, and apart from the national anthem this was the only song allowed on board.

Derek wasn't put off by the fact that it was 3 September and in any case sang The Donibristle Mine Disaster (Roud 3509) which starts "On the twenty sixth of August the fatal moss gave way".

Mike's continuing chorus tutorial brought us Drunken Sailor (Roud 322). He seemed disappointed that most of us chose to attempt to sing harmonies.

It was Colin's singing of Linstead Market (Roud 16397) that impressed the lady who came to bring in the barbecue.

Derek started a trend with Henry Joy (Roud 10612) which Colin followed with Tom Paxton's Ramblin' Boy ("So here's to you my Rambling Boy, May all your rambling bring you joy."), and Simon concluded with Bob Dylan's The Mighty Quinn (But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here, Everybody's gonna jump for joy"). Geoff broke the pattern with Copper Kettle (Albert Frank Beddoe).

It was Geoff also who gave us the penultimate song of the evening. From the second single he ever bought, presumably sung by The Everly Brothers, it was Bird Dog, written by Boudleaux Bryant.

Our final song of the evening was the second part of a pair sung by Derek. The earlier component was The Volunteer Organist (William B Gray, George Spaulding) and the second part was a parody of it from Jack Elliott of Birtley, called The Volunteer Putter. In Northumberland, "putter" was the local term for the person who brought empty coal tubs up to the coal face and took loaded tubs to the pit bottom.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 5, of whom 5 performed)

The Dog Watch (without the dog)

Photo: Simon Meeds

Last Friday we were reduced to just three singers. Mike made an early appearance but was on his way home rather than intending to stay. In the absence of Colin, Simon took over as MC.

The main purpose of Mike's brief visit was to ask that we publicise his now confirmed shanty performance evening from 7pm on 25 September at the Major's Retreat, Tormarton (GL9 1HZ). The Bristol Shantymen were asked to perform but only Mike will be available. He is therefore looking for a crowd of willing chorus singers on the assumption that the pub regulars won't join in without prompting.

When we were finally (barely) quorate, Simon kicked off the singing with Rout of the Blues (Roud 21098).

Derek gave us McCafferty (Roud 1148) which originated as a street-ballad about Patrick McCaffrey, executed in 1862 for the killing of two of his officers. Prompted by Geoff, Derek told how a rumour had arisen among gypsies that singing this song or the more recently Kevin Barry (Roud 3014) could be considered a treasonable offence, leading to imprisonment or even death. He assumes that it was indeed a rumour and had no base in fact.

Geoff's first song, commemorating the recent death of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, was You Better Move On (Arthur Alexander) which was the band's fourth single release (January 1964).

Given the small number present, Derek had suggested at the start that we limit ourselves to three songs each. When Geoff entered the room he came with the message that we were required to finish by 10:30pm. In the end Derek and Simon decided that we would go on until Geoff had finished his drink. That lasted through 16 songs and until about 10pm with Derek finishing off the evening by singing Pump Away (Roud 10338).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 3, of whom 3 performed)

Back at it

Last Friday was the first Dragon Folk Club sing-around for seventeen months, so it was quite a big day even if we could only muster six singers to mark it. The reason for the hiatus was of course the COVID-19 pandemic and while none of us know what the future will hold, for the time being we are able to meet and sing in our usual room at The Bridge Inn. The changes are that we are requested not to park in Bridge Road, and closing time is a little earlier than before. That didn't however stop us having a good first night back.

Colin, as MC, started the proceedings with a local theme and Smith of Bristol which is traditional and is included in Dominic Behan's "Ireland sings: An anthology of modern and ancient Irish songs and ballads".

Mike considered this evening the resurrection of the club and so sang a resurrection song in Stan Rogers' The Mary Ellen Carter.

Geoff saw the end (for now at least) of lock-downs and restrictions as the end of a sentence and gave us Tie a Yellow Ribbon, a song which was recorded by Tony Orlando and Dawn. Irwin Levine and L Russell Brown may have been inspired to write the song by the 19th-century practice that some women allegedly had of wearing a yellow ribbon in their hair to signify their devotion to a husband or sweetheart serving in the US Cavalry.

Derek commented that he hadn't brought with him his bones (vegetarian version) when Simon sang Graham Moore's Tom Paine's Bones. Simon compounded the frustration with his second song, Poverty Knock (Tommy Daniel). Maybe Derek also hankered after his bones when Colin later sang Dance Ti Thy Daddy (Roud 2439).

Derek himself next sang Sweet Swansea (Roud 1612). He had noted a suggestion on the radio that the term "lock-down" had only come into use during the pandemic. I am not convinced that this is the case since there seem to be a number of earlier uses of the term; indeed former Royal Navy man Tom referred to its nautical use.

Maggie had sent Mike to the club with the message for all of us that Mike's canine companion Indy relaxes when Rock and Roll is played. Derek immediately suggested that Mike should sing "Rock and Roll me over", so indeed at the next opportunity he gave us One More Day (Roud 704).

Geoff is always ready to oblige when Rock 'n' Roll is required. Let's Think About Living, written by Boudleaux Bryant, was recorded by Bob Luman in 1960, but neither Geoff nor anyone else recognised his name in connection with any other song.

Geoff told us that in 1959 he heard Along Came Jones on the radio and liked it enough to buy it. The record was by The Coasters and he was initially disappointed with his purchase; it seemed that the version he had heard was not by The Coasters and he didn't like their version as much. Nevertheless his purchase was justified by the flip side, That is Rock 'n' Roll which was also written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and it was this song that he sang to us.

Derek told us that sometime during lock-down his sister had been ill. She seemed to be OK now but he wanted to sing something for her. There are plenty of "sister" songs in his repertoire but they all seem to involve murder or rape, and therefore aren't really appropriate. He then remembered the first folk song he sang at home when he was about 15 was Lord Randall (Roud 10, Child 12). His mother heard him singing and said it seemed to describe how he and his sister behaved when they were younger. The way he sings it now is not the same as he would have done then - one difference I suspect is that he now usually sings the first verse in Welsh.

Before singing the song, Tom regaled us with the meaning of the Cockney rhyming slang terms in Pop Goes the Weasel (Roud 5249).

When Colin started to sing Sydney Carter's Crown on the Cradle, Derek apparently thought he was about to start Bonny at Morn (Roud 3064), so he gave us that at the first opportunity. This song in turn inspired Tom to sing his own song, Lasso the Moon.

Because of uncertainty about when we would be required to stop singing, there was no proper interval although a brief break was taken for early last orders. Eventually the evening was brought to a close by Tom singing Allan Taylor's Standing at the Door.

With the principle proved, there will be a sing-around next week as long as someone takes up the mantle of MC in Colin's absence.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 6, of whom 6 performed)

We're Back

 

After a seventeen month break we are back at the usual place, the usual time and day from 20th August. Yes, after all this time, with restrictions eased, many of us double jabbed and other sessions starting to get back to something like normal, we will be carefully returning to our weekly folk-based sing-arounds.

From 20th August, unless otherwise notified, we will be at Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol, BS16 9NG from 8:15pm every Friday.

Everyone is welcome to come along whether you sing, play an instrument, tell a story or a joke, read a poem, recite a monologue, anything goes - or indeed if you just want to listen. While we are rooted in folk music and song "of these islands" (and other, mostly English speaking countries) there is no reason you can't bring us your party piece of any genre.

We're a pretty friendly bunch and after all this time we'll need all the support we can get.

We meet in our own room in the pub and there is a well-priced bar just a few steps outside.