Visitors from across the pond

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

After two weeks without a report the Dragon Folk Club blog is back and this is going to be a good one though I say so myself. There were sessions in the intervening weeks and I will try to put something together to briefly cover the necessaries of those events. In the meantime though here is the latest news from the club.

Last Friday's session sounds like a smasher though I'm afraid I wasn't there. There were three visitors, two of whom were singers. Not only that, but they were from another continent, though I believe one of them is currently resident in the vicinity.

Colin, as usual in his MC's seat, started things off with Leave her Johnny (roud 354). Bob followed on with Matchbox (Carl Perkins) and Sue sang Beyond the sea (Charles Trenet, Albert Lasry, Jack Lawrence).

Kate, visiting from Philadelphia, clearly picking up on Colin's first song, gave us Archimedes (The Lever) written by Nat Case and parodying Leave her Johnny. This was also the first of several new songs to be added to the Dragon database this week. The remainder I will simply tag with an asterisk (*).

Kate's friend Sadie, who also hails from across the pond, sang Tom Lewis' The last shanty. Since Sadie's friend Tom wasn't singing this marked the end of the first rotation of the evening.

As is traditional I will list all of the remaining songs sung by newcomers Kate and Sadie.

Kate:

• Will the circle be unbroken (Ada R. Habershon, Charles H. Gabriel)
• Mingulay boat song (Sir Hugh S Roberton)
• Goodnight Irene (roud 11681)
• Preacher and the slave (roud 9612 - Joe Hill)
• Wild mountain thyme (roud 541 - Francis McPeake)
• Solidarity forever (* roud 15158 - Ralph Chaplin)

Sadie:

• Tonight you belong to me (* Billy Rose, Lee David)
• Little boxes (Malvina Reynolds)
• Swingin' on a star (Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke)
• Take me out to the ball game (* roud 36252 - Jack Norworth, Albert Von Tilzer)
• Ten thousand miles away (* roud 1778 - attributed to Joseph B. Geoghegan)
• The rattlin' bog (* roud 129)

The other songs new to the Dragon database, though not necessarily new to the club, were:

• Colin - Erin grá mo chroí (* roud 14056)
• Sue - Tickle my heart (* Joe Brown)
• Colin - Death of a clown (* Dave Davies, Ray Davies)

There was just one song in the evening which isn't in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below and that was Sue's own autobiographical version of House of the Rising Sun. There's nothing dodgy there, it tells of how she met her late husband on cycle tours of the Cotswolds and the course of her family life since.

It was also Sue who finished off the evening with George Harrison's Something.

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

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

Steady as she goes

Newport Transporter Bridge
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session can be described as solid. After a slightly slow start due to traffic issues we had a good evening of song, still managing a creditable 34 performances. It was notable for adding only one song (or rather different version of an existing song) to the database, but we still heard some that hadn't been sung at the club for quite a while and in some cases by different singers.

Colin, in the MC's chair, started us off with Roger Watson's The pick and the maltshovel. I pointed out that I knew Roger a little in the 1980s and that we are Facebook friends. Roger gave up performing for a long time due to ill health, but has recently been persuaded to pick up the melodeon again, which is great news. Colin expressed doubt as to the precise words of the last verse of the song, so I promised to link an early recording of Roger singing the song, and here it is.

Simon's first song of the evening was Mike Harding's Jimmy Spoons.

Denny gave us Percy French's Mountains of Mourne and Paul sang Jonathan Kelly's Ballad of the cursed Anna.

While researching this report I found that Nelson's death (roud 18837), sung by Paul, had been significantly rewritten by Richard Grainger and set to a tune of his composition.

The one new song, or rather new version, of the evening - and new to the Dragon database, definitely not new to the club - was Denny's singing of Good ale (roud 203).

Colin perhaps came up with two surprises  during the evening. The first was Wimoweh or The lion sleeps tonight. Did you know that the original song, before Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger and others had their way, was Mbube (meaning "lion" in Zulu), written and originally performed by Solomon Linda.

Colin's second surprise was delivered in the form of My last cigarette: surprising both for having been written by Sydney Carter and for having been performed by Sheila Hancock.

Denny sang Teeside bridges (Erik Gooding) which I am mentioning for two reason. The first is that the linked recording features Richard Grainger, already mentioned above in relation to Nelson's death, and the second is that it indirectly inspired this week's featured image. One of the bridges referred to in the song is the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge which "shuttles back and forth a hundred times a day." I didn't have a photograph of it to hand, but you will find here the similar Newport Transporter Bridge.

Simon finished off the evening with Graham Moore's rousing Tom Paine's Bones.

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

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