Make way for Fred

Fred Jordan

That's more like it... we were definitely quorate last week with the return of Geoff from a chessing sojourn, and a visit from Tom. Unfortunately, Rose, the reason for Tom's visit, wasn't with us, concerned as she was about the promised extreme weather. It wasn't really that bad on Friday night in the end. Anyway, we hope to see her sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Colin, taking his usual seat as MC, started us off with The Son Of A Gambolier (Charles Ives). As predicted, Mike walked in with Indy the dog while he was singing.

Tom gave us Across The Great Divide from one of his favourite singer-songwriters, Kate Wolf. Kate died in 1986 at the age of 44, Tom says, towards the end of what had seemed a successful course of treatment for leukaemia.

Hunting for pet hates

Headstone of John Peel in the churchyard of
St Kentigern's Church,
Caldbeck, Wigton, Cumbria, UK
(Photo: Mark W Barker)

Last week's session had no official theme. Fewer songs were sung than usual as for a change, and quite unplanned, the whole of the second half was given over to chat, mainly about driving tests and riding motorbikes. Normal service will no doubt be restored this week.

Nevertheless, a good range of material was aired in the first half. Colin was MC and started us off with Gentlemen Of High Renown (Roud 190), singing the Copper Family's words to Martin Carthy's tune. Mike's attempt at following the hunting theme had to be delayed when he initially forgot the tune to The Hounds Are Out (Roud 24901).

While Mike was struggling, Derek offered to help, suggesting at one stage that he might be thinking of John Peel. Mike told us how his class at school had to sing that song and while he was in the choir others were not so proficient and the awful sound they made put him off singing for ten years until he joined a rock and roll band. Derek therefore dug deep to give us a rendition of The Old John Peel, just to annoy Mike. Derek carried on the theme with The Horn Of The Hunter (Roud 1859, Jackson Gillbanks) from the singing of Fred Jordan but he was foiled because it turned out that Mike likes that song.

Tinkers, Bosses and Black Cloth

The Koh-i-Noor diamond before it was re-cut in 1852

It was another great session last week with visitors and irregulars joining us for the evening. Before I go any further I must remember to say, there will be no Dragon Folk Club this Friday (26 August 2016) but we will be back on the following Friday (2 September 2016), so I hope you can come and join in the fun.

Our recent stream of visitors or hopefully first-timers continued with Rod who sang some fine traditional songs. Steve G made his first appearance for a little while, and was later joined by Jo and her husband, Mel. Mel told me they only planned to stay for an hour but enjoyed it so much they stayed for the rest of the evening. We were also joined by Henry, who hasn't been to a Dragon session for quite some time, and he was joined by first-timer Mary.