Easter 2022

Last Friday's session had an optional Easter theme. My time for writing this report is very restricted so I won't be mentioning the theme much if at all because there's something more important to cover. We had our first, long anticipated, visit from Rob. Tradition has it that I should mention all of the songs a newcomer sang and so I will do.

First though I should mention that this Friday's (22 April 2022) optional theme is St George.

Colin kicked off the session with Sydney Carter's Lord of the dance.

Rob's songs were as follows:

• Welcome joyful spring (Sharron Kraus)
• Brough Hill fair (words: Dorothy Una Radcliffe; music: Brian Bedford)
• Thaney (Karine Polwart)
• Come down Jehovah (Chris Wood)
• Hand me down my walking cane (roud 11733)
• Sailing homeward (Rob Winder)
• I'll tell me ma (roud 2649)

It's always great to be able to find videos by the very people who sang at our session and a couple of those linked above are indeed of Rob singing.

It fell to Geoff to finish us off with Seven drunken nights (roud 114; child 274). He usually sings only five verses to spare our blushes, but he had found an alternative sixth which he dared to sing.

We hope to see Rob many more times in the future. Why not follow his example and join us one Friday at The Bridge Inn, Shortwood, Bristol (UK), BS16 9NG? The welcome is warm, entry is free, the acoustics are great and there's a well-priced bar just a few steps away.

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

(Number of people present - 4 of whom 4 performed)

Pot luck

Fred Wedlock

Another very brief, even briefer report this week because of other commitments. The three of us had an excellently eclectic theme-less session, reflected in the playlist linked below.

The only song I didn't manage to find on YouTube was Fred Wedlock's Just Kidding which he appears to have co-written with Miles Wooton.

Remember the next two Friday sessions at the Dragon Folk Club have optional themes:

• 15th April - Easter
• 22nd April - St George

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

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

All Fools Day 2022

Album cover of Save the last gherkin for me
by Mike Absalom

Like the previous one, this will be a very brief report. We were very thin on the ground last Friday but in honour of All Fools Day we had a good amount of jollity and mirth.

The first two songs are not available on YouTube, but most of the rest are and can be found on the "a selection" link below. Colin kicked us off with our friend Richard Gillion's song Superstition's Game and was followed by Simon with Richard Stilgoe's The Transplant Squad.

The first song I managed to find on YouTube was The Leprechaun. The strange thing about this is Roud seems to list it as both 5264 and 5274 - both with the same first line "In a shady nook one moonlit night", so I can't differentiate between them. One of the collected instances of roud 5274 records a writer - PW Joyce.

I promised Colin I would find out a little more about his song Laura the Leg. While I didn't find a recording, it was written and recorded by Mike Absalom, and featured on his 1969 album Save the last gherkin for me (this recording from John Peel's extensive record collection is missing the last two tracks, one of which is sadly Laura the Leg). I didn't exactly find the lyrics, but if you're quick you may find an obscured copy here.

Simon closed the evening with Bare Necessities (Terry Gilkyson).

Upcoming optional themes will be:

• 15th April 2022 - Easter
• 22nd April 2022 - St George

All other Friday sessions will be unthemed until further notice.

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

(Number of people present - 2 of whom 2 performed)

St Patrick's Day 2022

Astronaut Chris Hadfield wearing green in the
International Space Station on Saint Patrick's Day, 2013

Sorry, this report won't be to the usual standard, but the "a selection" link below includes all the songs we sang last Friday to honour St Patrick, though not necessarily always the exact versions. I have however tried to get a good variety of different performers to cover our efforts.

While not all of the songs were quite 100% Irish (I would probably usually go through which they were and why), every song we sang was done with an Irish intent, which I think is pretty amazing.

Please remember there is no Dragon Folk Club session this Friday (25 March) but we will be back on 1 April for an All Fools Day session of mirth, jollity and nonsense. Remember that our themes are always optional, but I'm sure we can all manage something to this theme, even if it's just a joke or a funny story.

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

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

Cowboys and war

"The Cow Boy", taken near Sturgis,
Dakota Territory (now South Dakota)

This Friday (18th March 2022) we will have a theme for our session closest to St Patrick's Day, so any songs from Ireland, of Ireland, about Ireland, or about any of the other patronages of Patrick, will be very welcome. Failing that, remember our themes are always optional. Also bear in mind that there will be no session on the following Friday (25th March 2022), so don't go to The Bridge Inn, Shortwood that evening expecting folk in the pool room, but do go if you would like a drink. There may even be other types of music in the bar. but I haven't got the pub calendar to hand.

We were back down to three singers for last Friday's session, but it was worthwhile nevertheless. There was maybe less "folk music of these islands" in evidence than usual, but variety is no bad thing and anything goes at the Dragon.

Colin, in his usual post as MC, started off with Graham Nash's Teach your children. Simon followed with Graham Moore's Tom Paine's Bones.

One of the mainstays of Geoff's repertoire consists of Irish songs, so when he heard about the following week's theme, he needed to be careful about what he sang. He therefore focused mainly on another of his genres: cowboy songs, and particularly on this occasion the songs of Marty Robbins, from whose pen he sang: El Paso, Five brothers and Big Iron.

Not to be outdone, Simon went a little bit country with The Gambler (Don Schlitz) and The son of Hickory Holler's tramp (Dallas Frazier).

The link between cowboys and war might be found in children's games, but the reason for war and anti-war songs is obvious today with conflict going on in Ukraine, and so it was that we had songs of this genre.

Colin sang PF Sloan's Eve of destruction and Lenny Galant's Maria Diaz - Garth Hewitt's I didn't speak up could also fit here. Simon came in with Mike Harding's Jimmy Spoons and Eric Bogle's The band played Waltzing Matilda. Geoff contributed Buffy Sainte-Marie's Universal Soldier.

It was Geoff who closed the evening on a lighter note with Bird Dog (Boudleaux Bryant).

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

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

St David's Day 2022

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We're cooking on gas now. Five people two weeks in a row. This is what I'm talking about! Keep them coming and we'll be back to a sustainable, post-COVID sing-around club before you know it.

The optional theme last Friday was Wales and St David. Some stuck to it, others found tenuous links: very tenuous in some cases. It was great to see Gary pay us a visit after a long absence.

Colin, playing MC, started us off with Welsh History 101B (Heather Rose Jones). This was followed by Gary with his self-penned The Cobblestones of Carter Street. It was a sad tale of his childhood in Salford, where his mother tried to persuade him that it was the taunting by Gary and his friends which led to the suicide of the local rag and bone man.

Simon went topical rather than Welsh with The Marsh Family's version of the John Tams / traditional Over the Hills and Far Away (roud 3098). The family's version addresses the current crisis in Ukraine.

Mike went back to Wales with Max Boyce's Duw it's Hard. Geoff came through the door just as it was his turn to sing, and he brought out Roger Miller's King of the Road, to which we were all able to sing along.

I'll leave you to listen to most of the songs that were sung on the "a selection" link, and skip straight to the last round of four, Mike having left earlier in the evening. It started with Colin, still soldiering on with the Welsh theme and singing Men of Harlech (roud 24790, English words by Thomas Oliphant). Gary sang his own song The Loam and the Clay. Simon gave us Elizabeth Padgett's song The Plover Catcher about Lincolnshire in wartime.

Finally, it fell to Geoff to close the evening, which he did with The Kerry Recruit (roud 520, laws J8).

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

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

Back to life

Grey seal pup (photo: Simon Meeds)

It's not a normal Dragon Folk Club report this week I'm afraid, since I have been a bit distracted, and indeed I wasn't at last Friday's session in person, however my remote eyes and ears have been doing their job.

It was great to hear that there were five people present. A very welcome return for Geoff, who has been on a sick note for a while. Colin had also brought in first-timer Clive and his officially non-performing wife Jane, who I am told did a fine job of accompanying her husband.

I won't try to go through the songs that were sung in any details, but please listen to the playlist behind the "a selection" link below. I may not have managed to find quite as many appropriate videos as usual, and I may even have misidentified some songs, but a count of 28 identified out of 31 sung isn't too bad.

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

(Number of people present - 5 of whom 4 performed)