Mostly remembering

Mike Starkey and Tom Mossman
(Photos: Simon Meeds)

After last week's sad news of the recent deaths of two Dragon Folk Club singers the session was suggested as the first of several where songs sung or written by Tom Mossman and Mike Starkey might be featured, and the originally suggested title of "Songs about singing" understandably faded into the background.

It was great to welcome Paul M and his friend Jane for the first time. Out of the five performers, only Colin and Simon really knew Tom and Mike, but it didn't stop others from selecting songs from their repertoires. Overall it was a great evening and definitely not at all morbid.

We were joined briefly by Mike's cribbage-playing friend, asking whether we knew of  Mike's death, and he stayed to listen to one song, so he is included in the count of attendees.

This Friday the official theme will be St George's Day, but songs from Tom and Mike's repertoires are definitely still on the cards - there may even be some that hit both targets on the bullseye!

Colin, resuming his seat as MC after a spell away from it, started proceedings with Deportee (Plane Crash At Los Gatos) (roud 26302 - Woody Guthrie).

Newcomer Paul M's debut song was Fare thee well Cisco (*  Tom Paxton), written about Cisco Houston.

Denny gave us Linden Lea (T roud X4683 - William Barnes, Ralph Vaughan Williams) and Paul W sang The song goes on (Mick Ryan), which having been written as a posthumous tribute to singer Cyril Tawney was very appropriate on all fronts.

Simon finished the first rotation with Standing at the door (T Allan Taylor).

Unusually, because of the themes, I will mention every song (and poem) performed during the evening:

• Colin - Following the southern star (M Mike Starkey, Dave Marshall)
• Paul M -  The twenty fourth of February (M roud 951)
• Denny - Marching inland (M Tom Lewis)
• Paul W - Jones's ale (M roud 139)
• Simon - After the gold rush (M Neil Young)
• Colin - Autumn leaves (T  Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer)
• Paul M - D-Day dodgers (M  Lance-Sergeant Harry Pynn, Norbert Schultze)
• Denny - Holmfirth anthem (M roud 1046)
• Paul W - Blackbird (T John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
• Simon - Lasso the moon (T Tom Mossman in discussion with Ray Croll)
• Colin - Mary Ellen Carter (M Stan Rogers)
• Paul M - Song for the Bowdoin (* Larry Kaplan)
• Denny - Rolling home (M  roud 4766)
• Paul W - Bring us a barrel (M Keith Marsden)
• Simon - John Barleycorn (M  roud 164 - Tune "Wir Pflügen" by Johann Abraham Peter Schulz)
• Colin - Dirty old town (M? Ewan MacColl)
• Paul M - Pastures of plenty (* roud 16377 - Woody Guthrie)
• Denny - When yellow's on the broom (M Adam McNaughton)
• Paul W - Country gardens (roud 29760 - Thomas Walker, Robert M Jordan) - Paul wasn't to know that Mike Starkey actually used to sing Fred Wedlock's parody English Country Garden.
• Simon - Grand Dad's cracket (*T Tom Mossman)
• Colin - British bobby (M Fred Wedlock) - Fred was Mike's English teacher when he was at school. Mike said that Fred taught him Brizzle and claimed that he taught Fred Glott'r.
• Paul M - The Marla Hill ducks (* roud V39873 - Tommy Armstrong)
• Denny - I can hew boys (M Davey Dodds)
• Paul W - John Dead (M). I've given Paul the hit on Mike's repertoire because there are many versions of this song and he was very close, but the one Mike sang is more like this Grey goose.
• Simon - Claudy banks (M roud 266, laws N40)
• Colin -  The band played waltzing matilda (M Eric Bogle)
• Paul M - Nantucket (* Jonathan Michael Peter Darely, David Robinson, Robert James Alexander Sattin, Andrew Robert Yates)
• Denny - Row on (roud 2084)
• Paul W - Hanging Johnny (M roud 2625)
• Simon - Home lass home (T Tom Mossman,  Sarah Morgan)
• Colin - Parting glass (M roud 3004)
• Paul M - Bones in the ocean (* Dave Robinson)
• Denny - Rolling Home (M John Tams)
• Paul W - Farewell shanty (M) This was the song Mike would sing at the funeral of a another singer.
• Simon - The January man (M Dave Goulder) Mike would have had Simon's guts for garters for singing this outside January.
• Colin - I'm bound away (M?)
• Paul M - A great northern river (* Graeme Miles)
• Denny - Teeside bridges (Erik Gooding)
• Paul W - Roll Alabama roll (M roud 4710)

Simon finished the evening with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford) - although I don't think I heard Mike perform this song he would certainly sing along to the chorus with gusto, and this recording is particularly appropriate since I believe he knew and respected Johnny Collins.

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

(Number of people present - 7 of whom 5 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 (#).

Additionally this week "T" and "M" indicate songs from Tom Mossman's or Mike Starkey's repertoires and a question mark (?) indicates a song only possibly identified as such.

Moon, martyrs, Australia and hangings

Buzz Aldrin walks on the moon, July 20, 1969 (Photo: NASA)

What a contrast was last week's session to the previous one; we were down from 10 to three people but nevertheless we meandered in some interesting directions and despite a pragmatically early finish, before Derek dropped off from lack of sleep, we got through quite a lot of songs.

Colin, the MC, started us off on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission with Jonathan King's Everyone's Gone To The Moon. The others may have been caught off guard by the perfectly reasonable theme but improvised anyway, Simon singing It's Only A Paper Moon (Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg, Billy Rose) and Derek with Hey Diddle Diddle (Roud 19478) completed the very short first lap of a tight circuit.

Colin kept on storming with a lunar theme, singing Man In The Moon (Roud 21397). Up to the challenge, Simon offered Neil Young's After The Goldrush - "silver spaceships", etc. Maybe I misunderstood what seemed to be indications from Derek that his singing of The Kildare Rake (Roud 5681) was keeping to the theme but there seems to me no obvious link unless the girl in the fourth verse is a werewolf.

Anzacs, a story of two Bostons and space oddities

The dock at Boston, Lincolnshire

Last week's session was originally to have been the proxy St George's Day but it has been moved to this week, so get your George, dragon and England songs, tunes, poems and stories out this Friday and come along to the Bridge. If you need any more inspiration, apart from England, St George is patron saint of:

agricultural workers; Amersfoort, Netherlands; Aragon; archers; armourers; Bavaria, Germany; Beirut, Lebanon; Bulgaria; Bulgarian Army; Cáceres, Spain; Cappadocia; Castilla y León; Catalonia; cavalry; chivalry; Constantinople; Corinthians (Brazilian football team); Crusaders; equestrians; Ethiopia; farmers; Ferrara, Italy; field workers; Freiburg, Germany; Genoa; Georgia; Gozo; Greece; Haldern, Germany; Heide; horsemen; horses; knights; lepers and leprosy; Lithuania; Lod; London; Malta; Modica, Sicily; Montenegro; Moscow; Order of the Garter; Palestine; Palestinian Christians; Piran, Italy; Portugal; Portuguese Army; Portuguese Navy; Ptuj, Slovenia; Reggio Calabria; riders; Romani people; saddle makers; Serbia; Scouts; sheep; shepherds; skin diseases; Slovenia; soldiers; and Teutonic Knights.

Back to last week, Colin was MC and started of with Utah Phillips' All Used Up.