A bit of everything

Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten

Well, last Friday's Dragon session was a breath of fresh air. Not only was it the second time in two weeks that we had a roll call of seven at The Bridge Inn, but this time they were all in the room at the same time and they all performed.

Unfortunately we are going to be down on numbers this week unless you come along, and it would be absolutely splendid if you could, whether you mainly sing, play, recite or listen. As usual anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Back to last week, Colin as MC started things off with his own song, Hergest Ridge, to a tune borrowed from Mike Oldfield's album of the same name. Hergest Ridge is a large elongated hill which traverses the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom, between the town of Kington in Herefordshire and the village of Gladestry in Powys. Its highest point, which is in England, is 426 metres high.

All of the songs sung during the session with the exception of the aforementioned Hergest Ridge are to be found on the "a selection" playlist linked below as is T S Eliot's poem Journey of the Magi, which was read by Jane.

What are missing are Jane's stories, which are worth a mention. They concerned:

• the stress of being Father Christmas
• The Brighton Story about a ghost ship seen near Shoreham
• a bird-friendly thatcher and his encounters with Death
• why does some idiot have to write a book about where I live?

I'll pick a handful of songs to mention because they may not be entirely obvious.

Freight Train, sung by Sue, was written by Elzabeth Cotten in her early teens. For a large part of her life she didn't play the guitar. When she was working for the Seeger family as a maid, they were out one day and on their return they heard music. The found it was the maid having picked up someone's guitar and playing it upside down as she continued to do. And so Libba Cotten was discovered and in her later years became a recording and performing artist.

Colin sang Sonny's Dream which was written by Ron Hynes, a folk singer-songwriter from Newfoundland and Labrador. The song was heard by Scottish artist Hamish Imlach while on a trip to Canada. He modified it somewhat and played it in folk-clubs in Britain. There it was heard by Christy Moore who recorded it and passed it on to other artists in Ireland. A version titled "Sonny" was recorded by Mary Black.

Bob gave us Lost Highway, made famous by Hank Williams, but written and first recorded by Leon Payne.

Simon's Lady Franklin's Lament (roud 487, laws K09) first appeared as a Broadside ballad around 1850 and has since been recorded with the melody of the Irish traditional air "Cailín Óg a Stór" by numerous artists. It has been found in Ireland, in Scotland, and in some regions of Canada.

Rob sometimes takes a traditional ballad, particularly one of those indexed by Francis James Child, and writes a new ballad to look at the story from a different perspective or to explain missing pieces of the tale. Young Horn and Lady Jean is just such a song, inspired by Hind Horn (roud 28, child 17).

Bob and Sue sang Jackson, which is usually associated with Johnny and June Carter Cash, but was written by Billy Edd Wheeler and Jerry Leiber.

We had some discussion about Sue's song Busy doing nothing. Written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke it came from the film of Mark Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court where it was sung by Bing Crosby, William Bendix and Cedric Hardwicke.

It was Rob who finished off the evening which cut a little short by landlady Helen informing us that we were the last customers and she would be shutting up. Rob sang The Dowie Dens O'Yarrow (roud 13, child 214).

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

(Number of people present - 7 of whom 7 performed)