Burns Night 2023

What a great session we had last Friday, and a total contrast to the week before. There were six of us, including two newcomers who both sang. This is definitely a result. The newcomers were Alan and Paula. Alan is a member of the Barnacle Buoys shanty group.

The theme was Robert Burns since we were meeting just a couple of days after Burns Night. Though there were quite a few Scottish songs there weren't many actual Burns songs in evidence. In fact I only counted two, but I may have missed others.

Colin, in his usual role as MC started us off in pseudo-Scottish mode with Haggis Season (Jeremy Lloyd, Jim Parker).

Simon's single Burns offering was Ye Jacobites By Name (roud 31021). Bob and Sue wisely stayed off topic, Bob singing John Prine's You Got Gold (writing credits shared with Keith Sykes), and sue bringing out Homeward Bound (Paul Simon).

Talking of Paul Simon, we probably all know about the historical tension between Simon and Martin Carthy over Scarborough Fair (roud 12, child 2). That's all well known, but just this week we found out that Martin's daughter, Eliza Carthy only heard Paul Simon's version of the song for the first time a few weeks ago.

Alan's first song is perhaps called Why Did They Take Them All. I can't find anything about it, so I suspect it may be his own work. Paula skipped the first round, but she will be mentioned since it is traditional to mention all songs sung by newcomers.

Alan gave us two more songs which were definitely at least partly his own work: When The Shanty Men Come Steaming In and Queen And Country. He also sang some more familiar fare: Johnny Come Down To Hilo (roud 650), Wave Over Wave (Jim Payne), The Mermaid and I Wish They'd Do It Now (roud 1401).

Paula started off a little later than the rest but in fine form with The Fisherman's Lassie going on to sing The Yellow Handkerchief (roud 954), Pleasant And Delightful (roud 660, laws O30) and Rosabella. That last linked video is of the Barncale Buoys singing Rosabella and Alan can be seen bottom centre, so there's a bonus for this blog report.

There were a few points that need to be cleared up on other songs sung during the evening where discussion on the night was inconclusive or misleading:

• For House Of The Rising Sun (roud 6393) which Sue sang, I have linked a video of Dave Van Ronk's version because he seems to have coined the popular tune made famous by The Animals. While the song has its origins in England, the current song crossed the ocean and was known by American miners in 1905. The oldest published version of the lyrics is that printed by Robert Winslow Gordon in 1925 and started "There is a house in New Orleans, it's called the Rising Sum, It's been the ruin of many poor girl" (rather than boy).
• Bob's Empty Bed Blues is a rather raunchy, maybe even bawdy song written by J C Johnson and first recorded by Bessy Smith.
• Colin's Campbeltown Loch wasseems to have been written by Alan Cameron. The tune is The Glendaruel Highlanders.
• Sue's Something was of course written by George Harrison.
• Colin had what I believe was the second and final Burns song of the evening with Parcel Of Rogues (roud V31022).

It was indeed Colin who finished the evening with Air Fa La La Lo, which is a traditional Gaelic song translated into English by Hugh S Roberton.

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

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

Pleasantly satisfied

Mince pies are for life, not just for Christmas

It could have been so lonely with some regulars not available last week, but happily we were joined once again by Bob and Sue despite their uncertainty the previous week, which at least meant that Simon wasn't singing to himself all evening. There was no set theme and the usual eclectic mix of songs came out.

Simon kicked off the session with Graham Moore's Tom Paine's Bones about Thomas Paine, English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary who wrote Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783), two of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and helped inspire the Patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. After his death, Paine's body was brought to New Rochelle, but the Quakers would not allow it to be buried in their graveyard as requested by his will, so his remains were buried under a walnut tree on his farm. In 1819, English agrarian radical journalist William Cobbett dug up his bones and transported them back to England with the intention to give Paine a heroic reburial on his native soil, but this never happened. The bones were still among Cobbett's effects when he died over fifteen years later, but were later lost. There is no confirmed report of what happened to them after that although various people have claimed to own parts of Paine's remains, such as his skull and right hand.

Sue's first song of the evening was Paul Simon's Homeward Bound, and Bob completed the first rotation with Leon Payne's Lost Highway, written in 1948 and made famous by Hank Williams who recorded it in 1949.

Possibly new songs to the Dragon included:

• Raindrops keep fallin' on my head sung by Sue (Burt Bacharach, Hal David)
• Hawaii blues sung by Bob (Andy Stein, Billy C Farlow, Ernie Hagar, Michael Richards)
• I'll see you in my dreams sung by Sue (Isham Jones, Gus Kahn)
• Something sung by Sue (George Harrison)
• Somethin' stupid sung by Sue (C Carson Parks)

Bob and Sue stayed to hear Simon sing Jake Thackray's Isabel Makes Love Upon National Monuments. After this Simon continued singing to himself until the pub staff called a slightly early end to the evening since he was the only remaining customer, everyone else having gone home in disgust at the England football team's earlier 0-0 draw against the USA.

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

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

No mince pies were harmed in the making of this session.

Swansea and further west

Swansea Docks and railway bridge (c1850)

We were a little thin on the ground again last Friday but with Colin back from his travels and Geoff back at the song-face, we carried on regardless.

Colin returned to his MC's chair and started the evening off with Mary Ann (Roud 4438). Derek suggested that Colin's song was somehow related to Swansea Town (Roud 165). Hold that thought while I delve a little deeper.

Mary Ann seems to be descended from Fare Thee Well / Turtle Dove / Ten Thousand Miles (Roud 422) and MainlyNorfolk suggests that it is Canadian although Roud's references include USA, Canada and Gloucestershire, UK.