All bets off for one week

(AI image from Stable Diffusion)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was a bit in between - in between themes in this season of themes. Its predecessor was Remembrance and this Friday it will be St Andrew's Day. More of that in a moment. Without a theme it gave people absolute freedom. Simon had quite a few war-themed songs left over from Remembrance while Colin thought he would lift the previous week's mainly sombre mood with some more cheerful ditties. Paul and Denny brought us a variety of seasonal, unseasonable and sing-along offerings.

So, to this Friday's theme (29th November). St Andrew, whose saint's day is on 30th November, is of course best known as the patron saint of Scotland, so anything Scottish or about Scotland will do. Also bear in mind Andrews other patronages include: Barbados, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Amalfi, Manila and Prussia; fishermen, fishmongers, rope-makers, textile workers, singers, miners, pregnant women, butchers, and farm workers.

If that doesn't give you scope enough, on Denny's request there will be a secondary theme of Lancashire Day (27th November). Remember that the county of Lancashire traditionally includes Manchester, Salford and Liverpool, none of which are in the current county, but all are fair game for the session.

Then, of course, our themes are always optional, so anything goes as long as it's acoustic, though with all that themery to go on we can probably find a tenuous connection for almost any song.

Back to last week, Colin, MC as usual, started us off with The Seven Wonders (*), credited as Welsh traditional, arranged by Maddy Prior and June Tabor who acquired it from Mick Tems of Pontardawe. Tems wrote on mudcat.org:

"The Seven Wonders is a 19th century translation of the song Y Saith Rhyfeddod, which comes from the Bala region of North Wales, collected by the Welsh Folk Song Society early in the 20th century. It falls into the same class of song as Martin Said To His Man and The Derby Ram... wild boasts, impossible achievements etc.

"I heard it sung as The Seven Wonders by an old farmer at the Gwyn Arms in Glyntawe, at the upper end of the Swansea Valley in South Wales, around 1971. We used to go to the pub for sessions and some of the locals would join in. I wish I had been more interested in collecting at that time...

"The words I heard sung were very close to a printed version, translated by Ieuan Ddu (the bardic name of the 19th century writer John Thomas). June heard me sing it c. 1976 and asked if she could have it. Other singers who took it up included Roy Harris and Pete and Chris Coe. June and Maddy changed the words considerably for the Silly Sisters album (perhaps there was an outstanding copyright on the John Thomas translation)."

Paul's first song was Adieu Sweet lovely Nancy (roud 165) and Denny's was Icy Acres (Colin Wilkie). Simon gave us Elizabeth Padgett's The Plover Catcher which brought the first rotation to its end.

Other songs that I need to mention this week are:

• Paul - Tracks in the snow (Steve Thomason) - not in the YouTube playlist but click on the title here to listen
• Denny - Follow me 'ome (* Rudyard Kipling, Peter Bellamy)
• Colin - Sicknote: the reply (Stanley Accrington) - not in the YouTube playlist
• Colin - Green peace, really green (* Geoff Pearson)
• Colin - Five o'clock in the morning (* roud V652) - not in the YouTube playlist

Colin rounded off the evening with The blackbird (Pete Budd, Tommy Banner, Tony Baylis).

(An asterisk "*" by a song indicates that it is new to the Dragon database, and may or may not be new to the club)

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

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

Remembrance 2024

Remembrance Sunday parade, Bristol 2023
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

11th November is Remembrance Day or Armistice Day in the UK, so the Dragon Folk Club session on 15th was our annual Remembrance theme. Traditionally we include anything to do with war, anti-war sentiment and wartime songs. We stayed reasonably well on topic though there are a few songs where you might struggle to find the link.

This Friday we have a break from themes with an entirely themeless session, so anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

The following week (Friday 29th) will be our St Andrews Day theme, where anything relevant to Scotland or St Andrew will be ideal. It has been suggested that since Lancashire Day is on 27th we should have that as a second theme, and that's fine. Remember that the traditional county of Lancashire also includes Manchester, Salford and Liverpool, so that gives plenty of scope! Remember also that all our themes are optional, so ultimately anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Let's get back to last week's session. It was started by Colin, our MC, with Robert Garioch's Kriegie Ballad (*). I've marked it with an asterisk as being new to the Dragon database though it has previously been mentioned there. In 2019 our good friend Derek sang a song he called The Kriegie Ballad which somewhat resembled Garioch's song, but instead of starting "Yes this is the place we were took Sir", its first line was "We sailed on the good ship Rapallo". While Garioch's song is easier to find on the web than the one Derek sang I still haven't found it on YouTube and it is therefore not included in the playlist linked from "a selection" below.

Denny sang Cicely Fox Smith's Half past eleven square recalling the destruction of French towns in the First World War. Paul followed with the non-wartime destruction of Close the coalhouse door (Alex Glasgow).

Simon completed the first rotation with The Accrington Pals, the first of three Mike Harding songs which he sang together with one other which Harding recorded but didn't write:

• Bombers' moon (Mike Harding)
• Jimmy Spoons (Mike Harding)
• The band played Waltzing Matilda (Eric Bogle)

Colin added two more new entries to the Dragon database:

• Mademoiselle from Armentières (* roud 4703 -  a clean version of course)
• We haven't got a hope in the morning (A song from a book of songs used by 54th Wing of the RFC - not included in the YouTube playlist)

This last song started the final rotation of the evening which continued with Denny singing White cockade (roud 709) and Paul with Lowlands (roud 681). Simon finished off the evening with the junior school version of Boney was a warrior (roud 485).

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

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

Guy Fawkes Night 2024

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was our annual Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night theme. Anything about fireworks, fires, camping, or typical campfire songs was fair game and we did pretty well at sticking, albeit sometimes tenuously, to the theme.

This Friday the theme will be Remembrance, which you might also frame as armistice, war songs, anti-war songs, wartime songs... and in any case the theme is, as always, optional, so ultimately anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Colin as MC got the ball rolling with the first of several songs he sang that were actually about Guy Fawkes, a feat the rest of us didn't match. His first was Penny for the Guy (* Leon Rosselson). This was the first of eight songs from the evening which were new to the Dragon database, but not necessarily all new to the club. Such songs are marked here with an asterisk (*).

Paul had not been present at the previous week's Halloween themed session so he harked back to the spooks with Sweet William's ghost (roud 50, child 77).

Denny proposed singing by the campfire Ten green bottles (* roud 7603). It was hard to choose videos to link for some of the songs this week. In this case I chose the one which gave the option of clicking through to a version of the song in mandarin, which I thought was quite cool.

Simon got his mention of bonfires in early, the second line, with Brian Bedford's This is the way the world ends, and so ended the first rotation.

Colin's next song was Guy Fawkes, Prince of sinister (* roud 4974), a humorous take on Guy Fawkes which dates from about 1800.

Colin's song on the following round was one he had sung before, but I have found more information. The grand old duke of York (roud 742) is a traditional nursery rhyme, but the version he sang was an extended one from a children's book illustrated by Maureen Roffrey and written by Roffrey together with Bernard Lodge, a British graphic designer best known for his work on early series of BBC TV's Doctor Who.

Paul sang the first song of the night not to be found on YouTube and therefore not included in the playlist linked from "a selection" below. It was Jon Heslop's comedic mashup of two traditional songs entitled Dead knight behind the hedge, which you can hear by clicking on that link.

I was disappointed not to find a recording, or really any mention, of Richard Digance's Boy scout song, which Colin sang. It used to be there, but it seems almost all trace of it has been removed from the web, not just from YouTube.

Another song not in the playlist was sung by Simon: When the scouts come hiking in, predictably to the tune of When the saints go marching in.

Colin introduced us to Quick's new speech for the fifth of November on the downfall of Guy Fawkes (* roud V27114), a broadside ballad published by JV Quick in the second quarter of the 19th century. The writing, printing and selling of the ballads that usually included a Guy Fawkes speech began in October in preparation for the bonfire celebrations on 5th November. In order to boost sales publishers attempted to vary the speeches from year to year. In this example the publisher announces in the title of his broadside that this year he is publishing an entirely 'new speech for the 5th of November.'

I know for a fact that Denny's performance of Norwegian Wood (This bird has flown) (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) isn't a first for the club, but it is a new entry in the Dragon database. I remember Keith G playing it as an instrumental when he had forgotten something: his word sheet or his glasses, but I can't guarantee to remember which.

Colin's I love to go a-gorging, a parody of The Happy Wanderer (roud 25580), is another song not found on YouTube as was his song Devil and the washerwoman.

Paul sang Salty young sea dog (Graham Holland), which was yet another not found on YouTube, which is proving quite weak this week. He went on to score a database entry with One man went to mow (* roud 143).

The final new entry in the database this week came from Colin and was Porridge tragedy (*).

The final song of the evening came from Paul who, inspired by Colin's singing of the same song on another occasion, gave us The Scaffold's 2 day's Monday (Mike McGear, Roger McGough and John Gorman).

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

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

Halloween 2024

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

It'll be a very quick report for last week's Dragon Folk Club session I'm afraid. Perhaps back to normal service next week. Being in the full flow of themes season, we were going all spooky for Halloween and we seem to have met the theme pretty well most of the time. This Friday the theme is related to Bonfire Night, so anything about Guy Fawkes, fireworks, campfires, camping, scouts and guides or anything tenuously related would work just fine, and as always it's an optional theme so anything really goes as long as it's acoustic.

Colin started us off as usual, this time with Hallows eve (Chris Hoban). Simon offered his only real Halloween song with The souling song (roud 304). Bob went all ghoulish with Ghost trains (Famous Lashua) from the singing of Hank Snow and Sue finished the first rotation with Hotel California (Don Felder, Don Henley, Glenn Frey).

The one song of the evening not on YouTube and therefore not included in the playlist linked from "a selection" below was Sue's own composition A chilly song, written in the depths of winter with some reference to our venue.

There were four songs new to the Dragon database last week though not necessarily new to the club:

• Bob - See that my grave is kept clean (roud 7382, Blind Lemon Jefferson)
• Bob - Walking to New Orleans (Bobby Charles, Fats Domino, Dave Bartholomew)
• Colin - Father Frankenstein is behind your pillow (James Warren)
• Colin - Fifteen men on a dead man's chest (Robert Louis Stevenson, Young Ewing Allison)

It fell to Sue to close the session which she did with Make you feel my love (Bob Dylan).

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

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