Nose to tail

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Thanks to serious traffic disruption we didn't attain our full strength until well after half way through the evening, nevertheless a total of forty two songs were sung. Second-timer Heather ran out of songs she had prepared but valiantly sang with the help of words found on her mobile phone for the rest of the evening without missing a beat.

Don't forget that this Friday (31st October) is our Halloween-themed session. As always, themes are optional, but it's nice to come up with something appropriate, however tenuously. Watch out for more upcoming themes.

MC Colin was first up with The nutting girl (roud 509).

Heather introduced the club to Scarlet ribbons (for her hair) (* roud 45048 - Jack Segal, Evelyn Danzig), and Simon completed the first rotation with John Conolly's The Punch and Judy man using Tony Capstick's version of the chorus.

Here are some more performances which need to be mentioned.

Heather sang Blanket on the ground (* Roger Bowling) which was first recorded by Billie Jo Spears and Grandfather's clock (* roud 4326 - Henry Clay Work). Heather's friend Hazel was not there to sing, but it was noted that she joined in enthusiastically with the "tick-tocks".

The Oxford English Dictionary says that the song Grandfather's clock, written in 1876, was the origin of the term "grandfather clock" for a long-case clock. It is said that the clock in the George Hotel, Piercebridge near Darlington inspired Work to write the song. The tradition was that the clock had been owned by two brothers named Jenkins. When one brother died, the clock began losing time, and it stopped for ever upon the death of the other.

Colin found what must have been a low hanging fruit to add to the Dragon database in Foggy foggy dew (* roud 558, laws O03).

Heather contributed Crazy (* Willie Nelson), made famous by Patsy Cline and that was soon followed by Colin with Reynard the fox (* roud 1868, 358).

After a couple more songs Paul and Denny made their entrance. While they are our most distant regulars, it doesn't usually take them anywhere near the two and a half hours to reach The Bridge for a session that it did last week due it seems to two road closures: one maybe for an accident and one for the planned replacement of a bridge. Anyway, arrive they did and Paul was immediately invited to sing. His first song was Bold Riley (roud 18160) and Denny followed that with The forsaken mermaid (roud 466, laws K17). And with that our complement was complete for the rest of the evening.

Helen channelled her inner Louis Armstrong for What a wonderful world (* Bob Thield (as George Douglas), George David Weiss).

Colin sang The Liverpool barrow boy (*), a song written, we are told, by Mollie Armstrong whose job it was to collect money at the door of The Spinners' Folk Club.

Heather had us singing along to Time after time (* Cyndi Lauper, Rob Hyman).

We were also able to sing along with Paul although I don't think any of us had previously heard Keith Donnelly's shanty parody Lever Johnny lever (*).

It fell to Simon to close the session with Nancy whisky (roud 883).

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

(Number of people present - 6 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 (#).

Sea and land

Dungeness (Photo: Simon Meeds)

It was another great session at the Dragon Folk Club last week. Rob made one of his occasional appearances to give us some great unaccompanied singing and we enjoyed a first visit from Mark who provided more unaccompanied singing as well as the unusual but enjoyable experience of solo five string bass guitar.

There will be no set theme again this week though that doesn't preclude people arriving with their own or something developing over the course of the evening. Remember that even when we set a theme it is always just for fun and very much optional.

Colin, MC as usual, started us off with Steve Knightley's Cousin Jack. Rob followed on with a different version of Geordie (* roud 90), which I have found in the singing of June Tabor.

Simon sang The Handweaver and the factory maid (roud 17771) and Mark's first contribution was Cyril Tawney's Grey funnel line.

Denny sang another song which I found in June Tabor's repertoire: Lisbon (roud 551, laws N8) and Paul finished the first rotation with The ship in distress (roud 807).

As usual I will mention all of newcomer Mark's songs together with anything else that needs highlighting.

Mark announced his second song as O my love's gone, which is a version of The forsaken mermaid (roud 466, laws K17).

Colin's version of The soldier and the sailor (roud 350) included versions with relatively modern verses including one about a "radiation-proof room".

Rob sang two songs written by his late friend Adey Shaw. The first was Monkey in the hold (*). The other one, about Adey's cat called Bosun, which was killed by a dog is simply To Bosun (*#).

Mark sang two of his own songs: Back and forth (*# Mark Gunner) and When it ends (* Mark Gunner). His last two songs of the evening were The crafty ploughboy (* roud 2637, laws L1) and Stan Rogers' Mary Ellen Carter.

Denny closed the evening with Dave Dodds' I can hew boys.

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

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

In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and songs not to be found in the playlist linked from "a selection" are marked with a hash (#).