Some songs less sung

Morris dancers at the
Royal County of Berkshire Show
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We were a bit thin on the ground at last week's Dragon Folk Club session pretty much as expected, and we had a fair amount of chat, some music-related, as well as singing, so we hit the end after "just" 24 songs. Not bad really. The small group allowed us to bring out some of our less sung songs. There was even a fair group of new songs to the Dragon database, though not necessarily new to the club. As usual these are marked in this report with an asterisk (*).

All songs sung are available to listen to in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below.

Despite this Friday being Good Friday we will be meeting - 8:15pm in the barn (just past the toilets) at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG. The obvious (optional) theme is all things more or less to do with Easter, related and equivalent seasonal festivals.

At last week's session Colin started off with Sweet Jenny Jones (* roud 13857). Colin pointed out that this is a song set to a morris dance tune, a mini theme which he kept up in his second song of the evening: Little Johnny England (*).

Simon's first song was one he expected to be new to the database, Bristol Girls (roud 486 - adapted by Dean Calin). It was written for the Bristol Renaissance Faire which takes place near Kenosha, Wisconsin (there is a small town called Bristol in the county). After referring to the Dragon database it can be seen that Simon was preceded by several years and it has been sung before by Colin!

Colin added a number of other songs to the database through the evening:

• First we take Manhattan (* Leonard Cohen)
• The road to Venezuela (* Andy Davis, Andrei Smegmakovitch - the latter being a pseudonym for all members of the band Stackridge)
• Mull of Kintyre (* Paul McCartney, Denny Laine)
• Born free (* John Barry, Don Black)
  

Another "new" song which sang was The collier's rant (* roud V48016 - adapted by Michael Raven). It took a while to track this down because it isn't the well-known song from the North East of England The collier's rant (roud 1366), but is is derived from another song and another area.

This song is an adaptation by Michael Raven of the song The town in danger of a siege which appeared on a Shrewsbury broadside. It is thought that the song was first published in 1832 at a time when local colliers were causing civil disturbances and that it is a description of earlier riots which occurred in 1821 when the town of Chirk was besieged by rebellious miners.

The final song of the evening came from Simon and was Galway shawl (roud 2737).

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

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

Bonfire Night 2023

NOBODY LOVES ME

'Nobody loves me.

I'm going into the garden to eat worms.

Yesterday I ate two smooth ones and one woolly one.'

Once again I have limited time to complete the blog report for the Dragon Folk Club last week, so pardon me if it is slightly shorter and more terse than usual. Since we are in theme season last week's was Bonfire Night including campfire songs, community songs and anything else vaguely connected. This week's session (10 November 2023) also has a theme which is Remembrance. That could be songs, tunes, poems, stories or whatever on war, anti-war, remembrance, songs used in wartime by soldiers, sailors or airmen, or to keep the spirits up of the civilians back at home. Pretty much anything goes with the usual proviso that it must be acoustic.

Back to last week, I won't single out which songs were or were not on theme. I'll leave that to you to decide. That may be easier if you watch and listen to the videos in the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" at the end of the report.

Colin was MC, but he deferred to Neil for the first song which turned out to be Galway shawl (roud 2737) after which it was back to Colin for Oh, how the money rolls in (* roud 10143). The latter was the first song of the evening which was new to the Dragon database. Subsequent such songs are marked with an asterisk (*). They may or may not be new to the club, but most songs sung here since August 2018 are in there - the club has been going since 1969.

Next was Denny with Land of the silver birch (* roud 4550), which is new to the database but definitely not to the club. Paul continued with Here we sit like birds in the wilderness (* roud 19557) - more of that later.

Simon subtly joined the theme with John Denver's Rocky mountain high.

From Bob we got See see rider (* Ma Rainey, Lena Arant) and from Sue Riders in the sky (Stan Jones).

After a light aberration of ordering Rob actually sang between Bob and Sue, but we can bring our record of the first rotation to an end with his own song, Magic on the wind, which in his own words "is distantly related to child 39", which is Tam Lin.

I'll continue with a list of the remaining songs new to the Dragon database:

• Neil - Twa Corbies (* roud 5, child 26), a Scottish version of The three ravens which was in the database, so this is only a half score
• Rob - You will burn (* Peter Knight)
• Neil - Sunday after the war (* Daniel Kahn)
• Denny - Kookaburra (* roud 36114 - Marion Sinclair)
• Rob - Martinmas time (* roud 54, child 84)
• Denny - Nobody likes me (* roud 12764), new to the database but last sung at the club for Bonfire Night 2016
• Neil - Cable Street (* Michael Hughes, Sean Cooney, David Eagle)
• Paul - gave us another version of Here we sit like birds in the wilderness (* roud 19557) where the waiting is specifically to be fed

Rob saw us off with his own pet version of The herring song (roud 128), which I think we can categorise as a mash-up of the version sung by Mikeen McCarthy and a chorus based on the version sung by John Roberts and Tony Barrand.

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

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

Transport of delight

Sometimes the trials and tribulations of our singers are almost as newsworthy as the songs we sing and that was the case at last week's Dragon Folk Club session. I had just started my journey to the club when I received a message to say that Denny's car had suffered a puncture on the motorway, and that Paul and Denny were waiting for the AA.

When I arrived at The Bridge I found five others already there and informed them of the predicament.

Colin as MC started the session with David Diamond's Folksinger's lament.

At this stage I received another message from Paul to say that they had been sorted by the AA and were on their way home. We were pleased for them, but also slightly sad that they wouldn't be joining us.

Steve continued with the Galway Shawl (roud 2737) and John was next with Leon Payne's Lost highway.

Simon sang of the Lambton worm (roud 2337) and Bob gave us Junior Parker's Mystery train, made famous by Elvis Presley.

Sue rounded off the first rotation with Messing about on the river written by Tony Hatch and most famously recorded by Josh McRae. Hatch wrote the song under the pseudonym Mark Anthony.

Soon after the start of the third rotation Paul and Denny made their entrance, having taken Denny's car home and set out again in Paul's. We were very pleased to see them and they took up their place at the end of the line with Denny's first song being Down in your mine by Colin Wilkie, and Paul's was Bold Riley (roud 18160).

There were a few songs new to the Dragon database, though not necessarily all new to the club:

• Colin - Joy to the world (Hoyt Axton)
• John - Belfast Child (Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Mick MacNeil)
• Bob and Sue - I love to boogie (Marc Bolan)
• Colin - The gnome (Miles Wootton)
• John - Blind Willie McTell (Bob Dylan)
• Sue - Smile (Charlie Chaplin)

John's singing of Simple Minds' Belfast Child was prompted by Sinéad O'Connor's recent death. The song's tune is based on that of She moves through the fair and in the linked recording O'Connor provided a break with that traditional song. She also sang the song for itself and therefore Simon followed up by singing She moves through the fair (roud 861).

This week's heading photo is chosen for Steve's singing of Cyril Tawney's Ballad of Sammy's Bar. Sammy's Bar was in Valletta, Malta and was apparently a favourite of British sailors. The second refrain "Call away the dgħajsa" refers to a local water taxi (pronounced "di-so" by British sailors). Dgħajsa is in fact simply "boat" in Maltese, and the full name of the taxi is "dgħajsa tal-pass". The photograph, which shows several dgħajjes tal-pass in Grand Harbour Valletta with naval ships in the background comes from my father's photo album created while he was in the Royal Navy. He may have had a drink at Sammy's Bar or he may have moved other sailors on from there in his occasional role as a Naval Provost.

Paul fittingly finished the session with Dave Webber's Parting song.

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

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

May the force be with you

Stokes Croft, Bristol
Not too far from Gloucester Road
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We had another cracking session at the Dragon Folk Club last week. Despite five of the previous week's eight singers being absent we still met as six and managed to sing a whopping forty two songs. It's not quite a record, but it was a very good effort.

We were a little late getting round to our annual "May" theme this year because of some little royal event or other. We sang a reasonable number of songs about the month of May before we started to move to songs about people called May and songs including the word "may". I won't try to work out which were which because I would no doubt fail somewhere.

In the absence of Colin, Simon was MC and started the evening with Claudy Banks (roud 266, laws N40).

In his absence Denny took as her own one of the songs Paul usually sings with Rosabella (roud 21134). Geoff borrowed Galway Shawl (roud 2737) from Simon. No, we don't really own songs, but he did make an unnecessary apology. Steve C gave us Just as the tide was a-flowing (roud 1105).

Steve and Sue opened their account with Maggie May (roud 1757), closely followed by Nobody knows you when you're down and out (roud 18521 - Jimmy Cox). And so ended the first of seven tours of the room during the evening.

I'll mention the songs new to the Dragon database although that doesn't necessarily mean they haven't been sung here before. Unsurprisingly, most of them come from relative newcomers to the club, Steve and Sue whose repertoire is not yet a matter of record.

• Steve and Sue - Run for home (Alan Hull)
• Steve and Sue - Roll me up and smoke me when I die (Willie Nelson, Buddy Cannon, Rich Alves, John Colgin, Mike McQuerry)
• Steve and Sue - Gloucester Road (Andrew McGillan - "inspired by John Denver")
• Steve and Sue - Walking back to Blueberry Hill (Billy Mitchell - about Fats Domino)
• Steve and Sue - Killing the Blues (Rowland Salley)
• Steve and Sue - My walking shoes (don't fit me anymore) (Paul Williams, Jimmy Martin)
• Steve and Sue - You ain't goin' nowhere (Bob Dylan)
• Steve and Sue - Corinne, Corrina (roud 10030 - first recorded by Bo Carter)
• Geoff - I did what I did for Maria (Mitch Murray, Peter Callander - recorded by Tony Christie)
• Steve and Sue - Further on up the road (Bruce Springsteen)

The only song of the evening not on the YouTube playlist linked from "a selection" below was Steve C's When Adam was first created (roud 728).

The session was completed by Steve and Sue performing Bob Dylan's I'll be your baby tonight.

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

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

St Patrick's Day 2023

Florrie Forde (1875-1940)

We had a great little session for St Patrick last Friday at The Bridge. The usual suspects were joined again by Paul W and Denny, the previous week's newcomers. The full complement was made up by Steve C.

I'll keep it short this week, but I can get away with that because, unusually, the YouTube playlist from the "a selection" link at the bottom includes every one of the 40 songs sung. And yes, while forty isn't a record for Dragon session it's really up there.

Colin as MC started us off with Whiskey in the Jar (roud 533, laws L13A). Many, although not all of the songs we sang were Irish or had some connection with Ireland. Next it was Simon singing Down Our Street.

Paul gave us All For Me Grog (roud 475) and Denny added Percy French's Mountains of Mourne. Steve C completed the first round with Galway Shawl (roud 2737)

I'll briefly mention a few of the other songs.

Steve asked whether he had sung Stan Rogers' Field Behind the Plow at the club before. I can confirm he has. One occasion, not necessarily the only one, was 13 September 2019.

Colin sang The City of Chicago which was made famous by Christy Moore, but was written in 1984 by his brother, Barry Moore, who is the singer Luka Bloom.

Paul sang a version of Fathom the Bowl (Roud 880) which he had adapted to refer to Ireland and Guinness. I've taken the liberty of linking a more conventional version.

Denny sang Oh! Oh! Antonio, which was written by CW Murphy and Dan Lipton in 1908. It's nice to be able to link to a recording of Florrie Forde who was the original artist to sing the song. I really wanted to use a photograph of Forde to head this article, but realised there was probably no Irish connection. Despite CW's surname, he was William Murphy, born in Manchester in 1870. It turns out however the songs he wrote include Irish As She's Spoken (1893), How Can They Tell That Oi'm Oirish? (1898), The Little Irish Postman (1904), The Singer Was Irish (1910). That's good enough for me.

Steve finished off the evening with The Ballad of Sammy's Bar (Cyril Tawney).

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

(Number of people present - 5 of whom 5 performed)

I Can See for Miles and Miles...

Aletsch Glacier (Photo:Simon Meeds)

The Substitute Scribe was on duty again and declared he could see no more obvious topic for the 31st Jan 2020 than to celebrate Dick Miles' 69th birthday, performing our favourite songs learnt from Dick. Derek therefore sang Bogie's Bonny Belle (Roud 2155), Farewell to the Monty (Johnny Handle), Tommy's Lot (Dominic Williams) and Lord Bateman (Roud 40 Child 53), as well as his own Flatlands, the first verse of which was inspired by Dick's Sugartown (a Suffolk nickname for Bury St Edmunds). No-one else chose to contribute a song to this, but Mike told a number of amusing anecdotes attesting to Dick's maladroitness with technology.

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.

St Patrick's Day (and Mothering Sunday) - 2015

Spinning and carding

With a couple of regulars missing from the throng this week we were slightly thin on the ground but in good voice to celebrate a slightly premature St Patrick's Day. I was also the nearest session to Mothering Sunday, something which didn't escape the attention of Derek, though his maternal contributions weren't necessarily as loving as one might expect.

Richard once again performed the duties of MC asn asked Mike to start us off, which he did with Red Haired Mary.

June continues with slightly risqué songs

We haven't had any themes recently but as usual this week people found their own minor themes, and that's what I will focus on here.

Mike kicked off the evening, remembering that 2013 marks 26 years since the Northern Ireland peace process was started following the Remembrance Day bombing in Enniskillen. He sang The Enniskillen Dragoons.