New friends

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was a real surprise. Simon, the stand-in MC, knew that new regular Paul M was likely to be there, but was quite prepared for that to be it. While he was at the bar he first saw another newish regular, Heather, which implied that her non-singing friend Hazel would also be there. Then, returning to the "barn" he passed Kay, who had made her single previous appearance "in the before-times" as one friend of the club says. Was she singing tonight? Apparently so, and interestingly, she was surrounded by others.

So when we were all settled there were nine of us. Kay's friends at that stage were Adele, Rich, Sue and Harry. The last two would be our audience though we are told that Harry plays the saxophone, which he didn't have with him. That's six singers out of nine present... so far.

We were later joined by another of Kay's friends, Paul O, who was definitely a singer, and for a significant part of the evening by one of the pub's customers, impressed by the music, so we will count him too. A further pub regular joined us for just one song, so I could have added her, but I won't be so rash.

Simon kicked off the session with In the good old colony times (roud 130).

Paul M sang The Manchester rambler (roud 26771 - Ewan MacColl). He said he had heard a different tune to this one since moving to Bristol and thought people may be tempted to sing that, but it seemed everyone was familiar only with the one he used.

Heather, presumably acknowledging the previous week's Eurovision Song Contest, sang the winning song from 1970: All kinds of everything (Derry Lindsay, Jackie Smith) sung for Ireland in the competition by Dana.

Rich unnecessarily excused himself for singing Country and Western songs (anything goes at the Dragon as long as it's acoustic) before giving us Mammas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys (Ed Bruce, Patsy Bruce).

 Kay and Adele, performing together were asked to do two songs and they obliged: See see Rider (Ma Rainey, Lena Arant) and Bang bang (my baby shot me down) (* Sonny Bono), which brought the first rotation to an end.

I always mention all songs sung by newcomers to the Dragon, and so I will do, but I will add Kay despite her one previous visit both to welcome her back and to make things a little simpler:

• Rich - I hung my head (* Sting)
• Kay and Adele - Light my fire (* Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek)
• Kay and Adele - Make you feel my love (Bob Dylan) - yes, noting the well-known cover by another Adele
• Paul O - Back home in Derry (Bobby Sands)
• Rich - Keep the wolves away (* Kevin Galloway) 
• Kay -  Here for a good time (* George Strait, Bubba Strait, Dean Dillon)
• Paul O - House of the rising sun (roud 6393) 
• Rich and Sue - Jackson (Billy Edd Wheeler, Jerry Leiber) - and so Sue, who Rich said sings barely once a year, joined the ranks of the evening's singers!
• Kay - I started a joke (*  Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb)
• Paul O - A pair of brown eyes (*  Shane MacGowan)
• Rich - Don't take your guns to town (* Johnny Cash)
• Kay - Till there was you (* Meredith Wilson)
• Paul O - Love in the desert (*# Paul O'Sullivan) - his own song
• Rich - Smalltown boy (* Steve Bronski, Jimmy Somerville, Larry Steinbachek). Instead of Jimmy's falsetto we heard this in Rich's deep, dark tones reminiscent of Johnny Cash, and so I had to find an appropriately different recording.
• Kay -  Raining in my heart (* Felice Bryant, Boudleaux Bryant)
• Paul O and Rich - Fisherman's blues (Mike Scott, Steve Wickham)

 As if the already-mentioned new entries in the Dragon database (indicated above by "*") weren't enough, there were also these:

•  Paul M - Highland Paddy (* Sean McCarthy)
•  Paul M - Farewell Johnny miner (* Ed Pickford)

One other song that needs a mention is the particularly unseasonable A winter's tale (Mike Batt, Tim Rice). One of the pub's regulars happened to be walking through our room as Heather finished singing and said it was her mother's favourite song. Heather was duly asked to sing it again and she obliged by reprising a single verse and chorus.

Heather even finished off the session with another song new to the Dragon database: Stand by your man (* Billy Sherrill, Tammy Wynette).

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

(Number of people present - 11 of whom 8 performed)

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though not 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 (#).

May there be more

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We had a fun Dragon Folk Club session last week. There was no official theme but a few emerged. This Friday again there will no theme, but bring you own if you like. Anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

I'm running out of time to get this report out when I like to do so it will be brief this week.

Colin as MC started us off with the Padstow May song (roud 305). Yes Colin adopted May as his theme for most of the evening.

For the first few rounds Simon had a personal theme of the Eurovision Song contest, singing some entries from the 60s and 70s and starting with Dana's winner for Ireland in 1970 All kinds of everything (Derry Lindsay, Jackie Smith).

Steve came in with Just as the tide was flowing (roud 1105).

There were two songs sung which aren't available on YouTube and therefore aren't in the playlist linked from "a selection" below:

• Colin - The maypole - Apparently a Norwegian song ("Gay is the maypole...")
• Steve - When Adam was first created (roud 728)

Simon finished the evening with The L&N don't stop here anymore (Jean Ritchie).

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

(Number of people present - 3 of whom 3 performed)

Down the drain?

A slight downturn in numbers for last Friday's session, but more problematically the session was cut short, more of which later.

Mike informed me of an error in last week's report, which I corrected immediately. The basis for his version of Hanging Johnny was collected by Robbie McGregor, not by Johnny Collins as originally stated.

Colin, being MC as usual, started the evening with The Bold Fisherman (roud 291, laws O24). Mike continued in a similarly traditional vein with Claudy Banks (roud 266, laws N40).

Geoff's first contribution was from the pens of Myles Rudge and Ted Dicks. All the while, like some other songs from the same stable including Right said Fred and Hole in the ground, was written for Bernard Cribbins.

Simon pointed out that we were in the midst of Eurovision season and sang tow previous songs from the contest: All kinds of everything (written by Derry Lindsay, Jackie Smith; performed by Dana for Ireland in 1970; placed 1st) and Are you sure? (written by John Allison, Bob Allison; performed by The Allisons for United Kingdom in 1961; placed 2nd).

We now know that in the 2022 contest Ukraine were victorious with the United Kingdom coming second. It is perhaps worth noting that several of the entries alluded to aspects of the countries' folk traditions, including Ukraine, France, and Moldova.

Colin had put a poem to music. He understood the poem, 50 shades of grey (a husband's view), to have been written by Pam Ayres. This belief seems to have evolved online, but Pam has denied it and the poem seems to have been written by John Summers.

Mike sang Sweet Nightingale (roud 371) and Geoff gave us Far away in Australia (roud 25792). While Mike was singing Mark, the landlord and birthday boy, came in, clearly wanting to tell us something. When the song finished he explained that the gents toilets were blocked and that he may have to raise the drain cover in our room though he was first trying other options.

Colin's next song, Les Barker's Van Gogh, turned out to be our last since we were then informed that both the ladies and gents toilets were now out of action and customers would be queuing through our room for the back-up toilets. At this sad news we finished up our drinks as the queue built. We suggested perhaps singing toilet-related songs, coming up with They're moving father's grave to build a sewer and Seven old ladies locked in the lavatory but quickly gave up. We also suggested counting the people in the queue and counting them towards this week's total, but that didn't seem quite fair. Once the drinks were drained we called it an early night. Let's hope the plumbing is fixed by this Friday.

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

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

The last buds of May?

Bessie Smith (Photo: Carl Van Vechten)

Last week's session again had no theme but again we managed to squeeze out some May themed songs between us. This week again will have no theme, so any sort of performance will be just fine as long as it's acoustic.

Colin, the MC, started us off by twisting May a little as a name, and singing a song of Sam May, which I have failed to trace. It however inspired Derek to think of using "May" as a name and did a version of Tom Paxton's brief The Ballad Of Spiro Agnew but re-titled The Ballad Of Theresa May.

Mike's first May contribution was Bonny Black Hare (Roud 1656) "On the fouteenth of May...".

Having failed at the first fence the previous week, Simon just about managed Claudy Banks (Roud 266, Laws N40) this week which served to deprive Mike of one of his candidates for the evening.

The importance of visitors

Constantine Parish Church, Cornwall (Photo: Tim Green)

Last week's session may have no theme but it certainly saw a decent turnout at the Dragon Folk Club. There's no theme again this week so I hope we can expect the same again.

We were treated to the second visit in a fortnight by the wanderers from Yorkshire, Malcolm and Janet (yes, I've now learned her name though I understand she liked being called "Malcolm's lady"). They brought along a West Midlands contingent in the form of  Dragon first-timers, Steve and Denise.

Colin, being MC as usual, started us off with Ben Backstay (Roud 21256).