Blue and Gold

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

What last week's Dragon Folk Club session lacked in number of singers it made up for in the eclectic selection of songs. Yes, we knew in advance that we would be a couple of regulars down and this time we didn't have any visitors, but that didn't affect the keenness with which we attacked our respective repertoires.

Colin, MC as usual, started the evening with The man in the moon (roud 21397), which Simon followed with Scarborough fair (roud 12, child 2).

Bob was straight into his genre of the blues, asking Blues stay away from me (Alton Delmore, Henry B Glover, Rabon Delmore, Wayne Raney). Sue cheered us up a bit and completed the first rotation with Sting's Fields of Gold. It was obviously this juxtaposition that gave us this week's report title.

There were only two songs this week that were new to the Dragon database:

• Colin - Everything glows (Les Barker)
• Sue - You've got a friend in me (Randy Newman)

And the only song not available for the playlist linked from "a selection" below was Sue's own Recycled teenager.

Other blue and gold songs (in some cases loosely) included:

• Colin - Midnight special (roud 6364)
• Bob - You got gold (John Prine, Keith Sykes)
• Simon - Blues run the game (Jackson C Frank)
• Bob - Matchbox (Carl Perkins)

Colin finished off the evening with George Papavgeris' Friends like these.

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

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 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 (#).

Tiny fish in a small pond

MV Rt. Hon. Paul J. Martin passing through Lock 7
of the Welland Canal between Lakes Ontario and Erie
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

The numbers at the end of this report are a bit misleading. On the one hand there were two singers who met for the Dragon Folk Club session last week. On the other, due to the gents toilets being out of action, there was a constant stream of people passing through. Most, but not all, were respectful. Some were complimentary. One performed. A drunken Irishman (apparently) was effusive in his praise. We were even joined briefly by our friend Allie who was very appreciative and gave a few brief snippets from her folk repertoire.

Things started off early as John, having visited the facilities borrowed Simon's guitar and played a few riffs including Wonderwall (Noel Gallagher) for which his unnamed friend joined in with vocals.

Once we got underway properly, Simon, the stand-in MC, started things off with Windmills (Alan Bell).

Remarkably, the two singers, that is disregarding John, who appeared again later with some more riffs, and Allie with her brief medley of songs, sang a total of 39 during the evening. It was almost 11pm by the time it all finished, but the main reason for stopping at 39 was that Steve said he'd run out of songs, and almost out of voice.

You can follow the link from "a selection" below to a playlist of all the songs we sang except one. That one came from Steve and was When Adam was first created (roud 728).

No new songs were added to the Dragon database this week, although it was the first recorded singing of Steve's version of roud 369, laws L5, that being Sam Hall rather than Jack Hall which was already there.

Steve sang a couple of other songs which hadn't previously been recorded in the database for him: Adieu sweet lovely Nancy (roud 165) and The leaving of Liverpool (roud 9435).

Of course we had a few Stan Rogers songs from Steve: White squall, Tiny fish for Japan, and The field behind the plow. I also see that Rogers recorded Cyril Tawney's Sammy's bar.

The evening was completed by Simon singing Jackson C Frank's Blues run the game.

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

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 3 performed)

A little bit folky, a little bit country

(Source: library of Congress)

At last Friday's Dragon Folk Club session Geoff got out his cowboy songs, so that became a bit of a theme together with the usual eclectic mix of folk and not-so-folk.

Colin as MC started off with Ewan MacColl's The Manchester Rambler (roud 26771). This prompted Simon to inform the gathered singers that our previous week's blog report had gained "likes" from both Peggy Seeger and Davey Arthur. A quick side-note to Colin: Davey Arthur is younger than you.

Rob gave us the first of two songs from the singing of The Pogues which was The Irish Rover (roud 4379) - are we surprised that one is traditional? The second was the definitely non-traditional Navigator (Phil Gaston). Gaston was manager of Shane McGowan's first band, The Nips.

Next was Simon singing Blues run the game by Jackson C Frank.

After Simon came Sue with the gospel song, This Train (roud 6702), followed by her partner Bob with California Cotton Fields (Dallas Frazier, Earl Montgomery).

And so we got round to Geoff and the first of his cowboy songs, Marty Robbins' Big Iron. Geoff told us how Robbins went into a gun store and found a Colt revolver that had been converted with a rifle barrel and was labelled "Big Iron". This is apparently just one of several origin stories.

Just for the sake of argument I will list the remaining songs that were sung and exist in the Roud Folk Song Index to prove that we do sing folk songs.

• Colin - The Battle of New Orleans (roud 17913, Jimmy Driftwood)
• Rob - Santianna (roud 207)
• Sue - The owl and the pussy cat (roud 30935, Edward Lear)
• Colin - The water is wide (roud 87, child 204)
• Rob - Sally Brown (roud 2628)
• Bob - Fireball mail (roud 28855, Fred Rose, Floyd Jenkins) - note that Floyd Jenkins is a pen name for Fred Rose.
• Colin - The bold fisherman (roud 291, laws O24)
• Rob - Rosemary Lane (roud 269, laws K43)
• Simon - The tailor's breeches (roud 1610)
• Geoff - Only the hangman (roud 2, laws B01, Wayne P Walker)
• Rob - The Winnipeg whore (roud 8348)

Simon finished the evening off with the non-roud song The Plover Catcher (Elizabeth Padgett).

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

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

St George's Day 2019

The later "England Winners" of
the UK 1966 4d World Cup Stamp

Last week we met to mark St George's Day, which is of course also believed to be William Shakespeare's birthday (as well as the day he died).

This Friday's session will mark the beginning of May, Beltane if you wish. In fact last Derek believed that our canine folky, Indy might have been practising his maypole dance as we wound his extendable lead around the chair and table at which Derek sat, so we are expecting some interesting performances this week. What can you add to the session? If you don't perform then please feel free to attend as an audience member.

Colin, our regular MC, started off last week's session with Richard Thompson's The New St George.

Derek joked that he was unsure of the origins of his first song and suggested that I might be able to research it. That "song" was the Engerland football chant. Mike suggested that it might be contemporary with Lonnie Donegan's World Cup Willie, released in 1965 for the 1966 world cup.

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

I was a good turnout with fourteen people and three dogs at last week's session. We had two Maggies for the first time in a while, and Paul was joined by former colleague, Jan and her husband. Canine presence was provided by regular Indy with Gertie and Freddie.

The official theme was St George (dragons, England, etc.) and that was complemented by William Shakespeare (400th death anniversary) and Derek even picked up on my suggestion of "disturbing songs", from a theme brought up by the BBC.

Tumbleweed blows over Westerleigh

Frank Harte

I admit I have had to stretch a point in this report to make things look reasonable. Yes, there were only four of us last Friday, although we were joined in the bar by a couple who while not entirely involved in what we were doing didn't seem to consider it objectionable, so I've included them in the count.

Colin was MC for the evening and he asked Derek to start us off. It later transpired that Derek was suffering from some nasty lurgy but he soldiered on with Johnny Doyle (as requested the linked recording is Frank Harte).

Mothering Sunday

Carnation
(poetically called the "gillyflower")

I have to admit I've not totally recovered from my lurgy, and my disruptive cough meant that I felt obliged to leave at the break of last week's session. Nevertheless I was there for most of a cracking first half.

A leak from the gents toilets meant that the carpet had been rolled up and a dehumidifier installed. That didn't stop the folk club though, which, undaunted, continued with normal proceedings in the remaining carpeted half of the room. It was cosier than usual, but no worse for that.

Although there wasn't officially a theme for the evening, various people picked up quickly that it was the closest Dragon session to Mothering Sunday, and that Friday was itself International Women's Day.