Good show

Roy Wood performing with Wizzard
on TopPop, May 1974

There was a decent turnout for last week's Dragon Folk Club session. I have to admit that I wasn't there. What's more I'm running out of time to write this report, so I hope I have got all of the songs correct, and I will apologise for its brevity. I hope service will be back to normal next week.

Colin started out on his own, uncertain of who would join him. Only the walls were there to listen to him sing Roy Wood's Flowers in the Rain.

Gradually others appeared, first Paul and Denny, then Geoff and finally Steve and Jane.

The only song of the evening not in represented in the YouTube playlist is Steve Thomason's Tracks in the Snow sung by Paul.

Of course Jane provided a wealth of stories telling of:

• The silver (golden) fish or the vinegar jar
• King Solomon's song bird
• The nightmare story
• Poem - An Irish Airman Foresees His Death (W B Yeats)
• A short story about parenting

Colin finished the evening off with Air Fa La La Lo - a traditional gaelic song translated by Hugh S. Roberton.

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

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

St Patrick's Day 2023

Florrie Forde (1875-1940)

We had a great little session for St Patrick last Friday at The Bridge. The usual suspects were joined again by Paul W and Denny, the previous week's newcomers. The full complement was made up by Steve C.

I'll keep it short this week, but I can get away with that because, unusually, the YouTube playlist from the "a selection" link at the bottom includes every one of the 40 songs sung. And yes, while forty isn't a record for Dragon session it's really up there.

Colin as MC started us off with Whiskey in the Jar (roud 533, laws L13A). Many, although not all of the songs we sang were Irish or had some connection with Ireland. Next it was Simon singing Down Our Street.

Paul gave us All For Me Grog (roud 475) and Denny added Percy French's Mountains of Mourne. Steve C completed the first round with Galway Shawl (roud 2737)

I'll briefly mention a few of the other songs.

Steve asked whether he had sung Stan Rogers' Field Behind the Plow at the club before. I can confirm he has. One occasion, not necessarily the only one, was 13 September 2019.

Colin sang The City of Chicago which was made famous by Christy Moore, but was written in 1984 by his brother, Barry Moore, who is the singer Luka Bloom.

Paul sang a version of Fathom the Bowl (Roud 880) which he had adapted to refer to Ireland and Guinness. I've taken the liberty of linking a more conventional version.

Denny sang Oh! Oh! Antonio, which was written by CW Murphy and Dan Lipton in 1908. It's nice to be able to link to a recording of Florrie Forde who was the original artist to sing the song. I really wanted to use a photograph of Forde to head this article, but realised there was probably no Irish connection. Despite CW's surname, he was William Murphy, born in Manchester in 1870. It turns out however the songs he wrote include Irish As She's Spoken (1893), How Can They Tell That Oi'm Oirish? (1898), The Little Irish Postman (1904), The Singer Was Irish (1910). That's good enough for me.

Steve finished off the evening with The Ballad of Sammy's Bar (Cyril Tawney).

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

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

New faces

Medieval drawing of John Ball
giving hope to Wat Tyler's rebels

There was no theme at last week's Dragon Folk Club session. We were very pleased to be able to welcome two first-time visitors: Paul and Denny who offered us some fine songs and singing. They seemed to enjoy the evening and promised to come again, which is always good to hear.

In Colin's absence, Simon was MC for a change and started things off with Tom Paine's Bones (Graham Moore).

Thomas Paine (1736-1809) was one of the most significant figures of the 18th century. Took part in the American Revolution, writing a series of pamphlets, Crisis in America and Common Sense, which played a large part in that Revolution. He went on to write a forceful defence of the French Revolution, The Rights of Man, and was elected to the National Assembly. His Age of Reason caused outrage and he was widely ostracised.

Ten years after Paine's death, William Cobbett, a journalist, loyal Englishman and at one time Paine’s bitterest enemy, found his neglected grave and dug up the skeleton. Cobbett shipped the bones to England and they remained in his possession until his death. The bones were passed to a day labourer, then to Cobbett’s secretary, then to a furniture dealer, and no more is known of their fate.

Rob followed on with his own song, Ballad of Reynardine, which may or may not be related to the traditional ballad (roud 397, laws P15) of similar name; even Rob doesn't seem sure. In the traditional song Reynardine is a werefox who attracts beautiful women so that he can take them away to his castle. What fate meets them there is usually left ambiguous.

Paul wanted to warm himself (and maybe us) up with some chorus singing and therefore gave us Fathom the Bowl (roud 880).

Denny followed with a song with its roots in American minstrelsy, being written in 1879 by James Alan Bland - The Chickens in the Garden (roud 2552). Published in 1883, it quickly became popular and found its way into the tradition, mostly in the USA and Canada, and found its way across the Atlantic, eventually becoming a favourite of Norfolk singer Walter Pardon.

And so ended the first circuit of the room. As is traditional, I will go on to mention all the songs sung by our newcomers, Paul and Denny:

• Paul - Tracks in the Snow (Steve Thomason) - the only song from the evening not in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below.
• Denny - When Yellow's on the Broom (Adam McNaughton)
• Paul - Waking Dreams (roud 22620)
• Denny - Down in Your Mine (Colin Wilkie) - inspired by a mining accident in Lengede, Germany, in 1963.
• Paul and Denny - John Ball (Sydney Carter)
• Paul - Love Farewell (roud 1301)
• Denny - The Lion and Albert (Marriott Edgar)
• Paul - Thousands or More (roud 1220)
• Denny - Willy 'Ole Lad (Keith Marsden)

Simon finished the evening with everyone singing along to 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 4 performed)

St David's Day 2023

After a good run of well peopled sessions we were down to a core of two last week. With one of those due to be absent this Friday (10th March) it's really important that you make an effort to join us whether you are a regular, an occasional visitor or a first timer.

There will be no theme, we don't bite and anything goes as long as it's acoustic. So, whether you mostly sing, play, recite or just listen, you will be equally welcome to experience our free entry, warm welcome, great acoustics and the reasonably priced bar.

Join us this or (almost) any Friday from 8:15pm in the pool room of The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG.

Once at the pub, if you need help to find us, be sure to mention "Dragon Folk Club" at the bar and you should be pointed in the right direction.

And now back to last week. With the theme of St David's Day there was some effort made to sing things Welsh or about Wales or the Welsh, and then as usual that was stretched a bit: to wales, New South Wales, and a few songs which missed the mark, but never mind.

MC Colin started us off with Welsh history 101B (Heather Rose Jones) which Simon followed with Fiddler's Dram's Day Trip to Bangor (Debbie Cook).

Simon read a poem by recently deceased, adopted Welshman, Les Barker. The poem in question was The Ice Cream Bells of Porthcawl. This required the reader to pronounce that well-known Welsh village name which also gave one of Colin's songs its title; that title being Llanfairpwllgwyngyll...gogogoch!, a parody of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, written by Kristof Robertson.

Most of the other songs not included in the "a selection" playlist linked below were sung by Colin from the pen of Dawson Smith. He sang three of these: Rebecca, Rebecca about the Rebecca Riots, Children Born to the Valleys, and From Green to Black.

Simon finished the evening with the Bristol-based Welsh Back Quay written by local shanty singer Ian "Nobby" Dye.

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

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