Putting the clocks forward

St Mary Redcliffe church, Bristol
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

At the Dragon Folk Club last week the clocks changing to British Summer Time was a slim excuse for a Spring into Summer theme, but that was what was set. Our themes are of course always optional and no one is humiliated or gets a forfeit for not following them.

It was great to see and hear Dragon first-timer Mick and the return of Terry H after an absence of  what appears to be six years. Many of us see Terry elsewhere, but it was great to get him back on our home patch.

Thanks to everyone who joined in the singing, playing and chat. There will be a session this Friday (3rd April) despite it being Good Friday - we have confirmed with the pub that we can have use of "the barn" function room as usual. Let's make the optional theme Easter, whether that's death, resurrection, eggs, rabbits, Eostre or anything else more or less related to the season. Optional as the theme always is, anything goes as long as it's acoustic. See you there.

In the absence of our usual MC last week, Simon took the reins, inviting Stuart and Carrie to sing first. They gave us Ride on (Jimmy McCarthy). As is usual for a duo, they were asked to sing again immediately and they obliged with Crazy man Michael (Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick).

Next up was newcomer Mick. He says he has had a break from playing and is very nervous, trying to play out as much as possible to overcome the nerves, but it barely showed with his excellent guitar playing and characterful voice, singing The banks of green willow (* roud 172, child 24).

Rob sang the first of two songs not to be found on YouTube and therefore not included in the playlist linked below. It was his own The kestrel (*# Rob Winder), apparently about a girlfriend from long ago.

Simon's first of the evening, making mention of Spring, was Memories of East Texas (Michelle Shocked). 

Denny was next, contributing When yellow's on the broom (Adam McNaughton), and Paul sang Seven virgins (roud 127).

Terry H brought the first rotation to a close with his own song, Matron (*# Terry Helyar) - the second and last song of the evening not included in the linked playlist. You can listen to all of the other songs (though not by our singers) by clicking on "a selection" at the end of this report.

As is traditional, I will mention all remaining performances from our first-time dragon, Mick:

• The scarecrow (* Lal Waterson, Mike Waterson)
•  Blind Blake's rag (* Ralph McTell)

The only song from the evening neither already mentioned nor previously in the Dragon database came from Stuart and Carrie; it was Watch me (* Labi Siffre).

The bar closed a little early so we also came to a close after only three rotations, and with a relatively small total of 24 songs and tunes having been sung and played, but the evening was very enjoyable thanks to a great group of singers and some pleasant chat between the songs. It fell to Terry H to complete the evening by singing Sally Wheatley (Joe Wilson).

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

(Number of people present - 8 of whom 8 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 (#).

Three into 50 doesn't go

Upton station, Co.Cork (Photo: Ralph Rawlinson)

Oh dear! We're still celebrating the club's 50th anniversary (two more weeks to go) but last week's turn-out was very meagre, not strictly quorate, but we carried on regardless, at least up to a slightly early finish.

Colin, MCing as usual, sang the first of three Woody Guthrie songs of the evening, This Land Is Your Land (Roud 16378). His second Guthrie was Hard Travelin' (Roud 13926). Derek made up the hat-trick with a song that Woody apparently wrote when challenged to sing about the Ladies' Auxiliary. This linked recording appears to be an extended version since printed lyrics usually agree with Derek's rendition that it consists only of a sort of chorus of four lines. Guthrie had in fact earlier sung about the same subject in his song Union Maid (and Pete Seeger finishes this recording off with the original short version).

No discernible thread

Martin Niemöller (Photo: J.D. Noske / Anefo)

It was a pleasant surprise last week to see two people who hadn't joined us for quite a while. Paul was a regular Dragon attendee before he moved some distance away. Robin was also once a regular but hasn't been since 2014, at least partly due to his extreme folk festival attending ways - then I saw him twice in as many days, but that's another story.

Colin was MC and started off the session with Crazy Man Michael (Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick) and Geoff followed him singing Dandy Vernon (Michael Snow).

Paul, as is his usual way gave us a collection of self-penned songs. The first of these was Moondance Again, inspired jointly by Van Morrison's famous hit and a beach holiday Paul once had with his wife. For his second song Paul had planned to sing part of his song Then 'Til Now, a nine-verse epic inspired initially by the death of an American blues-man he admired. Each verse details an atrocity experienced by black people in the USA in a different decade of the blues-man's life, starting in the 1920s. Colin suggested he sing all nine verses, and after some discussion Paul decided the sing it in two sections, which he did over his next two turns. His last song of the evening before taking the long and winding road back home was That's All I Know.