Mothering Sunday 2026

At Thornbury Carnival 2019
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session marked Mothering Sunday so any mention of mothers gained imaginary brownie points.

In our house we are sticklers for "Mothering Sunday" which is a church festival falling on the fourth Sunday in Lent (see % below).

As I am writing this we have just passed St Patrick's Day so this week's Friday theme will be just that. With Denny not available this week, we saw some Irish songs creeping in last week, often also mentioning mothers.

Speaking of last week, Colin was MC and started the ball rolling with Get a little table (roud 3201 - Harry Linn, William Sim) and Simon followed him with Buttercup Joe (roud 1635).

Denny sang I'll tell me ma (roud 2649).

Paul's first contribution was a version of The "fish" cheer /I-feel-like-I'm-fixin'-to-die rag (* Country Joe McDonald) where he replaced "Vietnam" with "little I-ran". This was both to mark the recent death of the author and to demonstrate that the lyrics, although almost 60 years old, are still somewhat applicable to current events.

It was great to welcome Helen back to the club after a longer absence than any of us realised. She completed the first rotation with Poor wayfaring stranger (roud 3339).

There were several "new" songs for the Dragon database:

• Colin - Mother (* roud 10293) - A parody of Mother (written by Howard Johnson and Theo Morse, and recorded in 1916 by Henry Burr). That was a hard one to track down because it turns out to have been recorded by Oscar Brand as half of a track called Correspondence on an album called Bawdy Songs Go To College. To add to the confusion my old friend Terry "Leadfingers" Silver was the only person to mention it (on mudcat) where he called it "Letters to and from a Young Man" after the lyric rather than using its advertised title.
• Simon - Mother and wife (*) from the singing of The Jolly Boys among others.
• Helen - Driving myself home (* Rose Betts)
• Colin - Don't swat your mother boys (* roud 15690 - Brian Hooker, Porter Steele)
• Simon - Mama don't allow (* roud 11793)
• Colin - Momma (* Bob Seger)
• Colin - Mother Machree (* roud 23523 - Rida Johnson Young, Chauncey Olcott, Ernest Ball)

It fell to Paul to finish the evening with Farewell shanty.

% Traditionally people returned to their mother church for Mothering Sunday and by extension mothers were honoured. This is different to Mother's Day, which is an annual holiday celebrated in the United States on the second Sunday in May that was was established by Anna Jarvis in 1908. I believe it is the British greetings card industry that blurred the difference between the two to the point that cards sold for the former are about 80 or 90 percent "Happy Mother's Day" and thus avoided by my wife and me.

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

(Number of people present - 5 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 (#).

Follow my leader or be miserable

The Jacobite about to leave Mallaig station
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

At last week's Dragon Folk Club session we were back to being quorate, and there was no official theme in sight. Two things emerged though. Simon tried to follow Colin thematically on each of his turns, and Paul tried to out-miserable our resident blues-man, Bob, while others joined in that pursuit from time to time.

Colin, back as MC after a short break, started us off with Pete Budd's Somerset born and proud (*). It was the only new song for the Dragon database this week - though definitely previously sung at the club in May 2014 if at no other time. Simon took us in a southerly direction to Dorset for The Yetties' version of Buttercup Joe (roud 1635).

Denny's first song of the evening was Linden Lea (William Barnes, Ralph Vaughan Williams) and Paul gave us Somewhere to begin (T R Ritchie).

Bob said he had wondered how Gram Parsons' Luxury liner could be made of just 40 tons of steel until he realised it referred to a railway (railroad) locomotive rather than to a great ship.

Sue completed the first rotation with The whistling gypsy (roud 1, child 200 - Leo Maguire).

When Colin sang If (David Gates) Simon responded with another love song albeit unrequited and slightly creepy: Elusive butterfly (Bob Lind). Simon pointed out that in the early 1980s Paul Gambaccini declared on BBC Radio that Telly Savalas' version of If was the UK number one hit with the shortest title and Simon thought the record probably stood. Wikipedia says that "In the U.S., Bread's tune was the shortest song title to become a top ten hit until 1993, when Prince hit No. 7 with 7, later matched by Britney Spears' No. 1 hit 3 in 2009." Given that 7 only reached #27 in the UK and 3 only reached #7 I would suggest that Gambaccini's statement probably still holds. In the same broadcast the song San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair) written by John Phillips and recorded by Scott McKenzie was said to be the longest UK #1 title. It would be much more difficult to prove whether or not that still holds. I know, this story is the antithesis of folk, but I think it's interesting if trivial and very nerdy.

Paul's first attempt at out-miserabling Bob was with The last of the great whales (Louis/Louisa Killen) to which Bob's riposte was Leon Payne's Lost highway.

Colin lightened the mood with Just kidding (# Miles Wootton, Fred Wedlock) which unfortunately cannot be linked so you can't experience the joys of clingfilm over the loo. Simon's answer to that was bed bugs eating paper off the wall in Down our street.

When Bob sang Orange Blossom Special (roud 17742 - Ervin T Rouse) he suggested there were no songs about British trains. The list, like a head of steam, started building: Last train (Stanley Accrington), Children of the train by our own Mike Starkey (not his tune in the linked video), Railway station song by Steve Andisaw (definitely worth a listen), ... To prove the point Sue sang Blackpool Belle (Howard Broadbent, Jimmy Smith).

Colin took an eco and sligtly miserable turn with Leave them a flower (Wally Whyton) and Simon followed him down the path of (anti) environmental destruction with Brian Bedford's This is the way the world ends.

Denny's contribution to the miserable theme was Ron Angel's The chemical worker's song about life inside ICI's Billingham factory and Paul continued with the negative side of industry, remembering the Aberfan disaster with Close the coalhouse door (Alex Glasgow). Maybe Bob had had enough of the misery since he added Blues stay away from me (Alton Delmore, Rabon Delmore, Henry B Glover, Wayne Raney).

Colin sang of the trials of Wreck of the Ragamuffin (roud 10466 - John J. Stamford) so Simon followed that with the tragic end of The Bergen (Jez Lowe) which our own Derek Brinkley once claimed to be the only song written about Seaton Carew where the crewmen were buried.

Paul dredged the depths of misery with Hanging Johnny (roud 2625) and Bob made his last offering another railroad ditty: Golden Rocket (Hank Snow).

Sue finished off the session in good spirits and with High hopes (Jimmy Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn).

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

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

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

Stories and links

19th-century lithograph of William Price

It was a quieter session for the Dragon Folk Club last Friday for a number of reasons, but not least because the flow of people through our room had been alleviated by the reinstatement of the proper gents toilet. There were again only two singers and this time no extras. Fewer songs were sung (a total of just 20) because we had some good chat on a wide variety of topics, among them: old friends, post-Roman Britain, BBC's Repair Shop, and even on the subject of folk songs.

Rather than a theme or even themes emerging through the evening we tended to have pairs or small groups of songs with mutual connections, some of which I will refer to here.

Talking of themes, this Friday's session will have the theme of St George's Day. The patron saint of England has among his other patronages: agricultural workers, farmers, field workers; soldiers; archers; armourers; equestrians, cavalry, saddle makers; chivalry; peacekeeping missions; skin diseases, lepers and leprosy, syphilis; sheep, shepherds, and scouting (oh and let's not forget he's said to have slain a dragon). That should give plenty of scope for songs to sing, tunes to play and stories to tell for all those types of performance and more are welcome as long as they are acoustic. Also, don't worry if you can't stick to the theme, it's intended as a fun guideline, not as a straitjacket.

Colin as MC started things off with Doctor Price (Meic Stephens) about William Price a Welsh physician and political activist best known for his support of Welsh nationalism, Chartism and involvement with the Neo-Druidic religious movement. After cremating his dead son in 1884, Price was arrested and put on trial by those who believed cremation was illegal under English law; however, he successfully argued that there was no legislation that specifically outlawed it, which paved the way for the Cremation Act 1902. Upon his death, he was cremated in a ceremony watched by 20,000 onlookers.

Simon started something with Jez Lowe's song The Bergen because Colin replied immediately with The wrong bus from the same writer, and later with his Tether's end.

Colin said he had experienced some difficulty finding the story behind The London steamer (roud 17760). The song is about the SS London which sank on 11 January 1866 in the Bay of Biscay on its way from Gravesend, England to Melbourne, Australia. A story later highly publicised after the loss states that when the ship was en route down the Thames, a seaman seeing her pass Purfleet said: "It'll be her last voyage…she is too low down in the water, she'll never rise to a stiff sea." Indeed she was overloaded and the words were prophetic.

Colin's Jim, the carter lad (roud 1080) is a surprising new addition to the Dragon database. It must surely have been sung at the club before, but probably not recently. It was also Colin who came up with the next database addition: Canny miner lad (Ian Campbell).

Colin brought out Coaly Tyne (roud V21088) which led Simon to sing Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia which quotes the same description of the river in its chorus.

Colin sang the only song of the evening not included in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below, and that was his own song In the country. This led Simon to respond with that "country chap" Buttercup Joe (roud 1635).

The third and final addition of the night to the Dragon database was Colin's singing of the theme tune of BBC sitcom Last of the summer wine by Ronnie Hazelhurst with lyrics added by Roy Clarke (series scriptwriter), Bill Owen (the actor who played Compo), Alan Bell (series producer/director).

Simon finished off the evening with a song which, when he originally tried to learn it, confused him by its tune's similarity in part to that of Last of the summer wine. The song in question was When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

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

A mixed bag - some controversial?

Kitty Cheatham

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session saw a good turnout of six regulars sing a wide variety of songs, some from their regular repertoires, some not and seven not previously recorded in "the database".

Colin as MC asked Bob to start the evening. He gave us Jes' like John (roud 12109), a traditional African-American spiritual hymn which was first recorded by Kitty Cheatham in 1916.

Sue's first was Ukulele, written by Guy Snape as a parody of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah.

Colin followed Bob down the spiritual route with Jordan is a hard road to travel (roud 12153 - Dan Emmet) although it was written for an 1853 blackface minstrel show. Emmet founded the first troupe in the blackface minstrel tradition, the Virginia Minstrels. Blackface minstrels are one of those things which many people may recoil from these days, but they are a historical fact and in any case many of the songs have since moved on from that environment. In this case the song was recorded in 1927 by Uncle Dave Macon, an early Grand Ole Opry star. The song was later included on the Smithsonian Institution's Folkways collection, Classic Country Music: A Smithsonian Collection. Peter, Paul and Mary sing this song on their Moving album in 1963 as "Old Coat".

Denny sang of Good English ale (roud 1512), mentioning "fatty bacon" among other foods. This later led Simon to sing Buttercup Joe (roud 1635): "Those nobby swells they laugh and chaff to see I eat fat bacon".

Paul's contribution to the first round was Cicely Fox-Smith's First World War poem Homeward to the familiar tune by Sarah Morgan. Simon suggested Paul might like to listen to our friend Tom's parody of the song, Home lass home.

With the first round out of the way Colin's next contribution was Don't let me be misunderstood. Although written by Bennie Benjamin, Horace Ott and Sol Marcus for Nina Simone, I suspect that Colin was thinking of The Animals' hit version from 1965. In any case this was a new song for the Dragon database.

It was also Colin who introduced another new song to the database with something by one of his favourite bands, and a fairly local one as well: Stackridge. The song on this occasion was Marzo Plod (James Warren).

As usual there were a few minor themes that developed during the evening. Sue gave us Sting's Fields of gold, and it was her partner Bob who brought out You've got gold (John Prine, Keith Sykes), another song new to the database.

Paul helpfully provides the roud numbers for some of the songs he or Denny sings. This led Simon to sing The handweaver and the factory maid (roud 17771) simply because it's the only one whose roud number he knows off the top of his head. Paul noticed that Simon's next song, Nancy Whisky (roud 883) was also about a weaver. Denny was interested that the character in the song had some potential similarities to her sister who is a weaver, appreciates whisky and lives in Carleton, Lancashire (not Calton, Glasgow as in the song). I hope though that she doesn't emulate the song in drunkenness.

Paul was a little premature singing Dave Webber's The parting song in that it was not yet the end of the evening. This again was a new song to the Dragon database.

The final song new to the database this week was Donovan's Mellow yellow sung on this occasion by Colin. There are apparently two theories about the background to this song: it could relate to a later debunked idea that smoking banana skins could have hallucinogenic effects, or far more likely, as apparently stated by the Donovan, it could allude to a sex toy which he had seen advertised.

There were two songs sung in the evening which do not appear in the usual YouTube playlist linked below. Both were written and sung by Sue: her autobiographical version of The house of the Rising Sun, and Recycled teenager which is about people of a certain age at ukulele jams.

Simon finished off the evening with Claudy banks (roud 266, laws N40).

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

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

Harvest 2022

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session had our annual Harvest theme. The theme is no longer compulsory as it once was and wasn't this year accompanied by a feast and a vegetable auction, but harvest and autumn songs were in evidence from at least two of our singers.

Colin, MC as usual, started us off with All of a row (roud 1474). Geoff declared himself off-topic and sang Keith's hit song, 98.6 (George Fischoff, Tony Powers). Simon followed that with Alan Bell's Windmills.

We had at least three songs from the singing of The Yetties: Colin sang Dorset is Beautiful (Bob Gale) and All the good things (Bonny Sartin), and Simon sang Buttercup Joe (roud 1635).

Simon pointed out that the closest Geoff came to a harvest song may have been Golden Brown (Hugh Cornwell, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Dave Greenfield, Jet Black), which is about heroin (not cocaine as suggested on the night).

By that time Simon himself had moved temporarily into the "harvest of the sea" with The Candlelight fisherman (roud 1852) and The Bergen (Jez Lowe).

Colin sang two versions of John Barleycorn: Steeleye Span's version of (roud 164) and later roud 2141.

It seemed that Simon had peaked too early, singing his usual finishing-off song When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford), but he kept one in the bag for the end of the evening: Wild mountain thyme (Francis McPeake - roud 541).

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

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

Harvest 2018

(Photo: Herry Lawford)

It was a disappointment that we could only muster six people for our annual charity Harvest session; six is enough to make a lively musical evening but not to make a fortune in money raised for the BBC Radio Bristol Alive Appeal. It was however to good to see a brace of Terries (C and H).

MC Colin sang the first song, All Of A Row (Roud 1474). Derek asked whether this was in fact the Suffolk Harvest Home but it seems not, because that is apparently a version of Roud 310 ("Here's a health unto our master... drink, boys, drink").

St George's Day 2017

Raphael - Saint George and the Dragon, 1506

It was good to see Maggie S at last week's session, and we were joined by two very welcome visitors from Yorkshire who didn't want to sing but did want to publicise the Cleckheaton Folk Festival which takes place in June/July, so there we are, I've done it. It will also appear on our links page.

It was two days before St George's day so the theme was George, England, dragons and anything else that seemed appropriate.

Colin as MC asked Steve C to start us off which he did with Jock Stewart (Roud 975) which wasn't exactly to theme but we don't mind that.

Derek had other plans for the evening's theme but started off with a token song from Norfolk: The Bailiff's Daughter Of Islington (Roud 483, Child 105).

Colin was first to really hit the theme will full force, singing Billy Bragg's Hard Times Of Old England Retold.

April Fools and Irish Rebels

Comedian, Ronnie Corbett
who died on 31 March 2016

Last week's session included some new blood which is always very pleasing. The advertised theme of April Fools turned out to be only half the story with several of our number turning to the centenary of the Easter Rising.

First a couple of announcements. There will be no session on Friday 22 April since "our" bar is being used for a private party. This gives us a dilemma since the 22nd would be the obvious day to have a St George's Day theme, so that particular event is moved to 29 April.

Martin and Christine were the first newcomers to arrive. Christine ably provided an audience for us, which Martin regaled us with some stories, more of which later. We were joined at the interval by another couple who I would guess weren't regular folk club attendees - nothing at all wrong with that. They didn't appear to respond during the evening apart from the young lady finding hilarity in some innuendo in one of Derek's songs. However, at the end of the evening she thanked us for the music which was nice of her and I expressed a hope that they would visit us again. Everyone is welcome at the Dragon Folk Club, whether to perform or just to listen.

May Day 2015

Our latest session was actually on May Day, so songs of May, summer and red flags were well in evidence. Colin was MC for the evening and asked Mike to start off, which he did with Hal An Tow (Roud 1520); a song from the Helston Flora Day tradition.

Derek continued with Giles Collins (Roud 147, Child 85 - "Giles Collins walked out on a may morning..."). In fact most singers this week managed to follow the theme to some extent.

Twelfth Night, the Deep South and Fred Jordan's boots

Fred Jordan's boots

We weren't quite as much of a throng as the previous week but almost everyone was singing or otherwise performing. We were joined in the bar by two people not directly involved in the session. There's nothing at all wrong with that, and I saw them responding to some of the performances, which has to be a good thing.

This was the nearest Dragon session to twelfth night, so there were some appropriate songs for that, and continuing the theme of New Year. We also had a mini-theme of Fred Jordan.

Maggie being unwell, Mike was to leave at half time again, so Richard did the duties of MC.

Derek kicked off proceedings with Lavender's blue (Roud 3483) which is connected with the celebration of Twelfth Night and the choosing of the king and queen during the festival. Robert Herrick's poem Twelfe-Night, or King and Queene (published 1648) describes the election of king and queen by bean and pea in a plum cake, and the homage done to them by the draining of wassail bowls of "lamb's-wool", a drink of sugar, nutmeg, ginger and ale. Note that Derek uses "fiddle faddle" rather than "dilly dilly" in the song.

Harvest 2014

Pete Shutler of The Yetties

This week was our harvest session with sandwiches provided by Maggie and most present having brought produce for the raffle whose proceeds will go to St Peter's Hospice.

Speaking of the hospice, I will get an early plug in for next week's session (3 October) which will be in memory of Pat (Eades) Hyett who died there recently. Pat, together with her husband Keith, was familiar on the local folk scene and a regular visitor to the Dragon Folk Club. Please come along and bring your friends and family so that we can celebrate the life of our friend Pat in the best way possible. Any money collected will once again be donated to St Peter's Hospice.

Aussie rules

John Williamson, Australian
country music singer-songwriter

A new feature this week in the blog report: by special request I have recorded the number of people present at the session. I have also back-dated this feature by two weeks, so you can see that we had a bumper week on 25 April, when there were 20 people present, of which 17 performed.

The other piece of news this week is that the club has had some problems with one of the pub's regulars: problems which have been mentioned on this blog in the past. This week Maggie received an apology from that person. We hope that will now be the end of the matter and if it is there will be no further mention of it here.

There was much jollity and wide ranging discussion again this week, often relating to the relative merits of various Yorkshire and Lancashire towns. Being from Lincolnshire myself, I should have had the sense to stay out of it but I am afraid I didn't.

Harvest

Bonnie Koloc

This week's session was that annual festival of food, produce and giving - Harvest. Not only was the theme "harvest" but this time, unlike all our other sessions, there was the potential of being fined if you didn't follow the theme. There was a raffle for the produce people had bought and a collection pot in case any remaining money was burning a hole in your pocket. The money raised will be donated to BUST.

The fund was given a flying start by a donation last week from Steve, who knew he wouldn't be able to attend. Despite the small number of people (Maggie said it was her quietest harvest ever) the money soon started rolling in.

Occasional visitor Jan asked for advice on fixing a problem with her garden water feature. Both Steve G and Mike were quick to oblige. You don't have to come to the Dragon Folk Club just for folk music, you know.