Two by two

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We always knew that last week's Dragon Folk Club session was going to be an intimate affair and so it was, but we rattled through the songs, interspersed as usual with some chat, and even added a few "new" ones to the Dragon database.

We should be back on track this Friday, so please come along to further swell our numbers. There's no theme, and in any case our themes are always optional. If you need inspiration it may or may not help will be the birthdays of among others Jake Thackray and Steve Harley, and the anniversary of the deaths of Frankie Lymon and Ray Ellington. I realise that with the possible exception of Jake, these aren't folk musicians, but they represent the wide range of styles we have been known to cover on the fringes.

STOP PRESS: I have been reminded that this Friday is the nearest one to St David's Day, so there should be a theme (optional as always) of everything relating to St David, which of course includes Wales and anything Welsh.

Back to last week, Colin was in the chair and started the evening with the Ballad of real ale (# Kevin Pratt). Simon completed the very short first rotation with Sailing to Philadelphia (Mark Knopfler).

When the audience is small we tend to head towards the songs less sung, and therefore there were a surprising numbers of new entries in the Dragon database:

• Colin - Squarin'-up time (* Arthur Scammell)
• Colin - My brudda Sylvest (* roud 10682 - Jesse L Lasky, Fred Fisher)
• Colin - I know where I'm going (* roud 5701)
• Colin - Syracuse the elephant (* Jim "Crun" Walter, Andy Cresswell-Davis) - This song from the band Stackridge is about the life of a fictional elephant at Bristol Zoo which had elephants of various names in its collection between 1868 and 2002.
• Simon - Gimme hope Jo'anna (* Eddy Grant) - a song campaigning for the end of apartheid in South Africa
• Simon - Mona Lisa (* Ray Evans, Jay Livingston)
• Simon - The sound of silence (* Paul Simon)

Colin finished off a good evening with Cousin Jack (Steve Knightley). The only thing that would have made it better was if you had been there! See you this Friday or soon.

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

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

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and any songs not included in the "a selection" playlist are marked with a hash (#).