Mostly remembering

Mike Starkey and Tom Mossman
(Photos: Simon Meeds)

After last week's sad news of the recent deaths of two Dragon Folk Club singers the session was suggested as the first of several where songs sung or written by Tom Mossman and Mike Starkey might be featured, and the originally suggested title of "Songs about singing" understandably faded into the background.

It was great to welcome Paul M and his friend Jane for the first time. Out of the five performers, only Colin and Simon really knew Tom and Mike, but it didn't stop others from selecting songs from their repertoires. Overall it was a great evening and definitely not at all morbid.

We were joined briefly by Mike's cribbage-playing friend, asking whether we knew of  Mike's death, and he stayed to listen to one song, so he is included in the count of attendees.

This Friday the official theme will be St George's Day, but songs from Tom and Mike's repertoires are definitely still on the cards - there may even be some that hit both targets on the bullseye!

Colin, resuming his seat as MC after a spell away from it, started proceedings with Deportee (Plane Crash At Los Gatos) (roud 26302 - Woody Guthrie).

Newcomer Paul M's debut song was Fare thee well Cisco (*  Tom Paxton), written about Cisco Houston.

Denny gave us Linden Lea (T roud X4683 - William Barnes, Ralph Vaughan Williams) and Paul W sang The song goes on (Mick Ryan), which having been written as a posthumous tribute to singer Cyril Tawney was very appropriate on all fronts.

Simon finished the first rotation with Standing at the door (T Allan Taylor).

Unusually, because of the themes, I will mention every song (and poem) performed during the evening:

• Colin - Following the southern star (M Mike Starkey, Dave Marshall)
• Paul M -  The twenty fourth of February (M roud 951)
• Denny - Marching inland (M Tom Lewis)
• Paul W - Jones's ale (M roud 139)
• Simon - After the gold rush (M Neil Young)
• Colin - Autumn leaves (T  Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer)
• Paul M - D-Day dodgers (M  Lance-Sergeant Harry Pynn, Norbert Schultze)
• Denny - Holmfirth anthem (M roud 1046)
• Paul W - Blackbird (T John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
• Simon - Lasso the moon (T Tom Mossman in discussion with Ray Croll)
• Colin - Mary Ellen Carter (M Stan Rogers)
• Paul M - Song for the Bowdoin (* Larry Kaplan)
• Denny - Rolling home (M  roud 4766)
• Paul W - Bring us a barrel (M Keith Marsden)
• Simon - John Barleycorn (M  roud 164 - Tune "Wir Pflügen" by Johann Abraham Peter Schulz)
• Colin - Dirty old town (M? Ewan MacColl)
• Paul M - Pastures of plenty (* roud 16377 - Woody Guthrie)
• Denny - When yellow's on the broom (M Adam McNaughton)
• Paul W - Country gardens (roud 29760 - Thomas Walker, Robert M Jordan) - Paul wasn't to know that Mike Starkey actually used to sing Fred Wedlock's parody English Country Garden.
• Simon - Grand Dad's cracket (*T Tom Mossman)
• Colin - British bobby (M Fred Wedlock) - Fred was Mike's English teacher when he was at school. Mike said that Fred taught him Brizzle and claimed that he taught Fred Glott'r.
• Paul M - The Marla Hill ducks (* roud V39873 - Tommy Armstrong)
• Denny - I can hew boys (M Davey Dodds)
• Paul W - John Dead (M). I've given Paul the hit on Mike's repertoire because there are many versions of this song and he was very close, but the one Mike sang is more like this Grey goose.
• Simon - Claudy banks (M roud 266, laws N40)
• Colin -  The band played waltzing matilda (M Eric Bogle)
• Paul M - Nantucket (* Jonathan Michael Peter Darely, David Robinson, Robert James Alexander Sattin, Andrew Robert Yates)
• Denny - Row on (roud 2084)
• Paul W - Hanging Johnny (M roud 2625)
• Simon - Home lass home (T Tom Mossman,  Sarah Morgan)
• Colin - Parting glass (M roud 3004)
• Paul M - Bones in the ocean (* Dave Robinson)
• Denny - Rolling Home (M John Tams)
• Paul W - Farewell shanty (M) This was the song Mike would sing at the funeral of a another singer.
• Simon - The January man (M Dave Goulder) Mike would have had Simon's guts for garters for singing this outside January.
• Colin - I'm bound away (M?)
• Paul M - A great northern river (* Graeme Miles)
• Denny - Teeside bridges (Erik Gooding)
• Paul W - Roll Alabama roll (M roud 4710)

Simon finished the evening with When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford) - although I don't think I heard Mike perform this song he would certainly sing along to the chorus with gusto, and this recording is particularly appropriate since I believe he knew and respected Johnny Collins.

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

(Number of people present - 7 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 (#).

Additionally this week "T" and "M" indicate songs from Tom Mossman's or Mike Starkey's repertoires and a question mark (?) indicates a song only possibly identified as such.

A bigger session

(Photo: Karl-Axel Lagerholm)

Well, last Friday was a surprise and not just because of the arrival since the week before of a pool table and it's associated accoutrements in "our" room. No, despite the absence of our regular MC, Colin, we had a surprisingly large throng, a wealth of performers, and it was mainly thanks to Rose, her decision to come from her distant home to see us, and her power to draw in the crowds. Thanks Rose! We managed to work around the elephant, or rather table, in the room and cued up an impressive array of songs.

Simon took the baton as MC for the evening and reminded us that in two weeks (now a little over one week as I write), on the 31 August, we will have our annual harvest session. Everyone is encouraged to attend, bringing if they so choose performances related more or less to the harvest, also produce from their gardens, allotments or supermarkets, and cash to spend and donate to the chosen charity, which isn't yet finalised - watch this space. It's always a fun evening and even more so if we can gather a good crowd.

Yet another musical miscellany

The Mary Rose in a battle with seven Algerine corsairs
(an engraving by Wenceslas Hollar
who was on the ship at the time)

There was no theme for last week's session so we were free to come up with clusters of songs around various topics.

Colin was the MC and Mike kicked us off with the topical The Twenty Fourth of February (Roud 951) (sorry I couldn't find a recording in English), although he sang "twenty third". Apparently it describes a battle which took place on 29 December 1669 where Captain John Kempthorne on the fifth Mary Rose saved a convoy from attack by seven ships of Algerine pirates. He was knighted for this action.