Folk wherever it comes from

Bob Dylan at the Aust Ferry, just twelve miles from
our venue at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood

Last Friday's session saw the return of erstwhile regulars to the Dragon Folk Club: John B, Alan K and Steve G. It was great to see all of them. While we had seen John once before in 2023 I am pretty sure Alan and Steve hadn't joined us since well before the pandemic. It's great to see a good variety of singers at recent sessions. Everyone is welcome any Friday whether they have been to The Bridge recently, long ago or never before.

We're not all Americana by any means, but this session saw quite a lot of that genre come out for the evening. Whatever is your thing in acoustic music, wait a few weeks and you may well find it come up in a Dragon Folk Club session.

Colin was MC as usual and started off proceedings with Mick Softley's Goldwatch Blues. John B followed with Leon Payne's Lost Highway.

After some quick last-minute guitar tuning Simon gave us Tom Paine's Bones (Graham Moore).

Steve had a bit of a false start when a technical failure of a table caused his full beer glass to fall to the floor, but he eventually got into John Smith's Salty and Sweet. Alan followed that with One too many mornings, the first of several Bob Dylan songs heard in the course of the evening.

And so we had completed the first circuit of the room.

There are several things I want to draw out of the evening, so I hope I can do that accurately.

As already mentioned, there were several Bob Dylan songs. Apart from One too many mornings we had three more, all of which were new to the Dragon database, though not necessarily first outings at the Dragon Folk Club:

• Steve G - You're gonna make me lonesome when you go
• John B - It's all over now Baby Blue
• John B - Chimes of freedom

We had two songs from Leonard Cohen:

• Alan K - Suzanne
• John B - Tower of Song (another one new to the database)

Apart from the aforementioned Salty and Sweet, Steve G gave us another John Smith song, There is a Stone.

Other songs new to the Dragon database were:

• Alan K - I still miss someone (Johnny Cash, Roy Cash)
• Colin - Rolling Drunk (Chris Sugden) - one of two songs not in the "a selection" playlist linked below
• Steve G - Catch of the Day (Steve Goodfield) - i.e. his own song
• Steve G - Lawrence, KS (Josh Ritter)
• Alan K - A clear, still day (Alan Kirkpatrick) - another self-penned song and the second one not to feature in the YouTube playlist
• Steve G - Hold On (Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan)
• Colin - The Song goes on (Mick Ryan) - A posthumous tribute to Cyril Tawney

It finally came to John B to close in rousing chorus with Down by the Riverside (roud 11886), yet another one new to the database.

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

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