European Folk Day affiliation take 2

Centre Pompidou, Paris, under scaffolding in 2026
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

As I mentioned on last week's Dragon Folk Club blog, we had affiliated with European Folk Day. Since the actual day fell on 23rd September, between two of our sessions, we had also affiliated last weeks' session with it and so some of us continued to echo aspects of Europe in song.

Colin started off the session from the MC's chair in a Dutch tone by singing Skipper Jan Rebeck. Simon was initially concerned that many of his "European" songs were about war (later to be refuted) so he started tentatively with a song which at least on the surface could be said at a pinch to paint Italy in a positive light: D-Day dodgers (roud 10499 - Lance-Sergeant Harry Pynn, Norbert Schultze).

Paul and Denny, absent from the previous week's Harvest-themed session, straddled the two themes. Paul sang The farmer's toast (roud 1603) and Denny followed that with Half past eleven square (Cicely Fox Smith).

Ray finished off the first rotation with No man's land (* Eric Bogle) though Ray called it by one of its other names: The green fields of France.

Colin started the second rotation with a song which deserves a mention since it is older than anyone present expected. Football Crazy, popularized by Robin Hall and Jimmie Macgregor in 1960 (that's already older than we discussed) was written as The Dooley Fitba' Club by James Curran in the 1880s. Ewan MacColl included a version of "Fitba' Crazy" in a collection of songs called Scotland sings published in 1953. The original 1880s song is understood to be the first mention in song of association football.

Apart from the one already mentioned (No man's land) there were just two more songs sung that were new to the Dragon database:

• Ray - Edelweiss (*  Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II)
• Simon - Amsterdam (* Jacques Brel)

There was one song not found on YouTube and therefore not included in this week's playlist. It was Denny's singing of Winchester geese (#) by Ann Reader. The song is about prostitutes who worked in the Liberty of the Clink area of Southwark, across the Thames from the City of London, an area owned by the Bishop of Winchester who licensed them to ply their trade. When they died, often of sexually transmitted diseases, they were not buried on sacred ground but in the Cross Bones burial ground.

It was also Denny who sang the last song of the evening which was Good English Ale (roud 1512).

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 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 (#).

Harvest 2023

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

There was a great turn-out for our 2023 Harvest themed session at the Dragon Folk Club. Our traditional spread of food was supplied with great thanks to Sara, our late friend Geoff's daughter, who arranged to leave the left-overs from his wake for us. Four of our number had attended the funeral and wake earlier in the day.

We welcomed occasional visitors Carrie and Stuart as well as a good complement of eight of our regulars.

This week's session will once again have a theme. This time it is Halloween.

Colin was MC, but it was Carrie and Stuart who stared off the evening with Come all you fair and tender ladies (* roud 451). I'll mark songs new to the Dragon database with an asterisk (*) and songs on the theme with an at sign (@).

Carrie and Stuart being a duo were, as usual, required to contribute two songs per rotation and their second was Yellow (* Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman, Will Champion).

Colin was first on theme with All of a row (@ roud 1474). Sue hit the target with Fields of gold (@ Sting).

Bob, self-declaring as "miserable as usual", gave us Livin' with the blues (Brownie McGhee).

Paul referred us to the upcoming 218th anniversary of Admiral Lord Nelson's demise by singing The death of Nelson (roud 18837).

We'll give Denny credit for her Good English ale (@ roud 1512) on the basis it mentions various types of produce.

Chris gave us a very sweetly sung rendition of The Eriskay love lilt and Roger seemed to be Doin' what comes natur'lly (* Irving Berlin).

Simon returned to the theme, taking a leaf out of our friend Mike's songbook with John Barleycorn (roud 164) to the tune Wir pflügen (We plough the fields and scatter).

And so the first marathon rotation came to an end.

I will list the further songs which hit the theme (sorry for any I miss) together with a few others which didn't:

• Carrie and Stuart - Ghost (* Kate Rusby)
• Colin - Man in green (@ Steve Knightley)
• Bob and Sue - Tina Louise (* Kevin "Blackie" Farrell)
• Paul - Country life (@ roud 1752)
• Denny - Hey John Barleycorn (@ roud 2141)
• Simon - Buttercup Joe (@ roud 1635)
• Carrie - Autumn Leaves (@ Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer)
• Colin - All the good things are dead and gone (* Bonny Sartin) - The only song of the evening not in the linked "a selection" playlist
• Paul - The farmer's toast (@ roud 1603)
• Denny - I can hew boys (@ Dave Dodds) - Denny claimed it was about a "mineral harvest".
• Simon - Windmills (@ Alan Bell)

Colin finished the evening with Flying high, flying free (@ Leon Rosselson)

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

(Number of people present - 10 of whom 10 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)

Sumer is icumen in

Catacombs of Paris
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Things are getting warmer at The Bridge at last and some of us are "casting clouts". Five slightly less heavily clothed singers turned up to make some noise on a Friday evening.

Colin was MC as usual ans started the session off with Bobby Sands' Back home in Derry.

Paul took us on our first antipodean journey of the evening with The Green Man from the pen of John Thompson who is a member of the Australian band Cloudstreet.

Denny brought us a serving of Good English ale (roud 1512), after which Simon tried to put us to sleep with John o' dreams (Bill Caddick, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky).

Geoff completed the first round with Dinny the piper (roud 8147).

I'll randomly mention a few more of the songs we sang.

Paul sang Generations of change by Matt Armour, which was new to the Dragon database. It was alsoPaul who sang another song new to the database, though not necessarily new to the Dragon, which was Close the coalhourse door by Alex Glasgow, clearly about the hard life of a miner, but with an extra verse dealing with the Aberfan Disaster.

Denny was suffering from the after-effects of a dental appointment which didn't stop her singing, but we later learned that while Paul was waiting for her session in the chair to finish he had rewritten Close the coalhouse door "Close the dentist's door, there's blood inside... there's bones inside... there's screams inside... there's gold inside." We heard the world premier.

There was some discussion after Geoff had sung the challenging Rocky road to Dublin (roud 1676 - DK Gavan) in slip-jig time (9/8).

Colin sang his own song, John Chiddy about a local (Hanham) man who was killed while averting a rail disaster in 1876, and for whose widow and children a house was built with donations.

Simon closed the evening singing Stan Rogers' Northwest Passage.

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

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

Song and chat

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was better populated than the previous one, but still just three singers turned up. It might have been more if it weren't for a COVID-19 infection... all sorted now.

Colin started the evening with the reply to Pat Cooksey's The Sick Note. I'm afraid I haven't managed to find the reply.

There weren't many songs sung through the evening, instead there was plenty of chat on various subjects including health problems, moving house and house surveys.

The singing continued with:

• Mike - Good English Ale (roud 1512)
• Geoff - Good Hearted Woman (Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson)
• Colin - Song of the leaders (Brian Pearson)
• Mike - Twanky-dillo (roud 2409)
• Geoff - The tinkerman's daughter (Michael MacConnell)
• Colin - Kick the cat (Pat McIntyre)

Geoff finished off the evening with The Comical Genious.

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

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