22nd March 2016

Great night on Tuesday. Voices, mandolin, guitars, pipes (Spanish gaita in D, Swedish sackpipa, Anglo-French small pipes), accordion, recorder. Plus three welcome audience members; Isobel, Susan and friend.
Tunes were: Angus on mandolin led polkas: 'Egan's', 'Ryan's'; David on small pipes offered 'Mr Preston's Hornpipe' and on sackpipa 'Brudmarch' (Wedding March) and 'Efter Nedegards Lars'; Kevin on gaita, a Catalonian tune and Tom Bigby's Waltz and later 'Believe me if all Those Endearing Young Charms,' 'I'm awa Young to Marry Yet' and 'Frisky,' then another Catalonian tune plus 'Pass Calles,' (Asturian) and 'Highland Laddie (Northumbrian); Dave on guitar gave us some rocking Irish jigs; 'To the Wedding,' 'Hogmanay' and 'Lemonville'; James on accordion two airs and a reel, 'Lonesome Eyes,' 'Sally Gardens,' 'Miss Monahan,' and, later, 'Sunset on Conachair' plus he led some lively tunes to play us out and Carole, a choice selection on recorder, 'Ivan Drever, 'Banks of the Ness,' 'The Ross Memorial Hospital,' 'Out on the Ocean' and 'The Merry Blacksmith.'
Songs were: Dave H. 'Me name is Delaney,' 'Farewell to the Haven' by Davy Steele (Battlefield Band) and Jez Lowe's 'Black Diamonds'; Katy sang, 'The Auld Hoose' by Caroline Lady Nairne (1766-1845) whose family were ardent Jacobites and a surprising number of well-known Jacobite songs such as 'Charlie is my darling' were written by her - note from Katy), 'The Miraculous Fish' (the text of 'this was first printed in 1636 when a whale beached itself on the Wirral though the tune is modern - Note from Katy) and Strath Erli; Miriam gave us Nick Jones' 'The Warlike Lads of Russia,' Bruce Mainland's 'The Penny Whistle,' and 'False Love'; Phil sang Archie Fisher's 'The Final Trawl,' Martin Wyndham Reeves', 'The Old Man of the Sea,' that old favourite, 'The Shelves of Herring' and 'The Parting Glass'; Carole was reminded by Angus of Archie Fisher's, 'Waltz into Winter' and also sang a Les Barker's wicked 'Me Husband's got no Porridge in Him' and Tom Paxton's 'Outward Bound'; Eliza did 'The Hern...' which Miriam suggested might be a Ricardian period Arthurian-romance-type tale in song - interesting - 'Twa Corbies' and 'The Ladies Go Dancing at Whitsun'; Angus rang the changes with a bluegrass style song, 'Up This Hill and Down,' 'The Summer Before the War,' and Claire Lynch's 'Be Ready to Sail'; Robbie, who once trained soldiers gave renderings of Harry Andrews' 'The Soldier,'  'One-Eyed Jack' from the Bellowhead songbook and 'Over the Hills and Far Away'; David threw in 'The Plains of Waterloo' Beth gave us 'Put Your Hand in Mine' by Emily Smith and 'The Recruited Collier.'
Thanks for contributions, all of which led, I hope, to a generally good time being had by all. Our next night is 26th April. Hope to see you there.