New Year 2023

What a start to the New Year. After struggling to get people to come to Dragon Folk Club sessions towards the end of 2022, the first session of 2023 almost busy. True, not everyone performed, and true, not everyone was there at the same time, but nevertheless it was good to see new and old faces in the pool room at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol, BS16 9NG.

John and Kate were first time visitors in the first part of the session. They didn't perform, but a little bird tells me that John can wield a guitar, so maybe we will hear from him another time. Much later in the evening we were joined by old friend of the club and very good singer / guitarist, Keith G.

Colin, MCing as usual, started off the evening in New Year theme with The Shamrock and the Thistle. Hamish Henderson collected a fragment of a song on board an Irish ferry and added his own contributions.

Bob and Sue both admitted to not preparing songs of New Year and Twelfth Night, but it really wasn't necessary since our themes are always optional. Bob's first was Bear Creek Blues. AP Carter is widely credited for writing this song, which may be the case, but I am always sceptical at this credit since Carter is well known for having subtly changed music or lyrics, under instruction from his management, in order to claim copyright under US law and therefore benefit from royalties earned against traditional songs.

Sue gave us Banks of the Ohio (roud 157, laws F5) which was first recorded in 1927.

Simon returned to the theme with Dave Goulder's January Man which takes us through the year and emphasises the circular nature of the seasons.

The linked YouTube playlist includes all the songs sung at this session except for two of Sue's self-penned songs, both autobiographical. The first was "She was seventy-three", a version of Sam Cooke's Only Sixteen which examines love as experienced later in life. The second was Sue's take on House of the Rising Sun in which the house of the title is transferred to the pub of that name on Cleeve Hill near Cheltenham where she went with her future husband on a bicycle ride. The song tells of Sue's life with her husband and how she dealt with his death.

As already mentioned, it was great to see and hear Keith G. After swapping news of various people and music venues we persuaded him to sing and play three songs despite the fact that he hadn't recently played the guitar since he was concentrating on learning to play the piano. Keith played:

• New Coat of Paint (Tom Waits)
• Can't Stand Losing You (Sting)
• Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay (Steve Cropper, Otis Redding)

It fell to Simon to close the evening with Ian "Nobby" Dye's Welsh Back Quay.

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

(Number of people present - 7 of whom 5 performed)