July 2016

What a great night. Good to see friends Carol and David from the Tyne, Charlie all the way from  Lochmaben, Jasmine and Elaine from around these parts and Ed and Eileen staying on the caravan site from Fife. Norman and Dave brought their great repertoires as did Miriam up from Leicester. Regulars Katie, Phil and Angus have a knack of contributing a song in tune with the theme or mood of the moment. Tunes alternated with the songs with lots of joining in which made for a generally convivial night. Instruments were accordion, guitars, mandolin, dulcimer, smallpipes, banjo (Angus came particularly well equipped) fiddle, mouth organ and whistle. There were two Davids and a Dave  present, distinguishable as each plays a different instrument.
Ed, a fine exponent of the accordion playing from a variety of traditions, began with an Irish Waltz, 'Slieve na Mon' and followed with, 'The Blue Tango.' Staying with tunes, Charlie contributed 'The Trumpet Hornpipe' and 'Harvest Home' on fiddle, David, 'The Battle of the Somme' on smallpipes and another David, 'The Fair and Charming Eileen O'Carroll' on dulcimer.
Songs during the first round (or, perhaps,'bout') were Eliza with 'Lowlands of Holland,' Phil, 'Dublin in the Rare Old Times,' Miriam, the broadside ballad, 'Courting too Slow,' giving the male perspective on courtship from a different angle, with tune by Peter Bellamy, Carol, the haunting 'The Outside Track' a setting of Henry Lawson, the Australian writer's poem, recorded by Garnet Rogers to Gerry Hallom's tune with guitar and dulcimer accompaniment. Norman gave us a great Bothy Ballad from Aberdeenshire, the name of which I have not noted and Dave, 'The Banks of the Bann,' Accompanied by guitar.
Back to Ed again who began this section with 'Whistling Rufus' about a popular American negro minstrel, as they termed him at the time, composed by Kerry Mills in 1899. This was a tune that Bruce a founder member of the club who, sadly, is no longer with us, used to play on guitar, so it was good to hear it. Other tunes in this round were, Angus' polkas (Egans and John Ryan's), Charlie's 'Da Slockit Light,' David on dulcimer, 'Eagle's Whistle' with practically all of the musicians, and Norman's 'McLeod of Mull' in pibroch style on guitar and mouth harp.
Songs were Jasmine's 'Falling' by Kate Rusby, Eliza's 'Lads o' the Fair' by Brian McNeill, Phil's 'Donnybristle Mining Disaster' about the shaft flooded by the moss water written by the barber of Cowdenbeath in honour of our guests from Fife. Miriam gave us Sydney Carter's, 'The Crow on the Cradle,' Katy, a grand rendering in dialect of 'The Lumb Hat,' David (piper), the whaling song, 'Rolling Down to Old Maui,' Carol, Leon Rosselson's, 'Don't Get Married Girls,' in comic style with much affectionate joshing of her spouse and, after this (guitar) Dave gave us the lyrical, 'Orion,' a lovely song.
Going great guns, we were now ready for a third round, with Ed kicking off once more, this time with, 'By Yon Bonny Border Burn,' a tribute to the late Tommy Lamb of Copshaw Holm from whom he learnt it twenty years ago a short time before Tommy died. He followed this with a set of three tunes, 'Miss Mary Printy' each individual tune titled with a different female name: 'Miss C. M. Barber,' 'Miss Kay Rose' and 'Miss Mary Printy.' There was some speculation about the background to these, especially as there seems to be some mystery surrounding who had written them as a set of three. Charlie then played 'Ashokan Farewell by Jay Ungar who ran/runs a music camp on the banks of the Ashokan river where an indigenous American village was flooded to create a reservoir. Everyone joined in.
Songs in this final round were, Karine Polwart's, 'I'm gonna Do it All' sung by Jasmine with guitar accompaniment, a bluegrass song 'Up this Hill and Down,' sung by Angus with banjo, 'The Twa Magician' sung by Eliza. Phil's offering this time was 'Lord Huntley,' while Miriam gave us Heather Dale's, 'Changeling Child.' Sydney Carter featured again in Katy's choice of 'Tell Me Where Did Helen Go?' and David (piper) followed with Kipling's 'The Dutch in the Medway' with tune by Peter Bellamy and Carol with Heather Wood's, 'Foolish, Incredibly Foolish' accompanied as before. Norman did another of his excellent pieces this time to an Irish tune, the name of which I have simply scribbled as, 'When I was in...' Apologies Norman - I must have been too busy listening both times. Dave sang Jez Lowe's 'Black Diamonds' and Jasmine Little Big Town's 'I've Got a Girl Crush,' an Angus, Phil Coulter's, 'Steal Away.'
Charlie finished the night with 'Soldier's Joy' and 'Mason's Apron' on fiddle with all joining in, once again.
A good night in my estimation. Thank you all for coming. Next month's date is the 23rd of August.

June 2016

This was a good break-you-in-gently pre-festival session. Sadly, I was then overwhelmed by preparations for said festival and whacked afterwards and did not find time to do the blog. So, albeit a month late, here is a quick resume.
David and I were joined by other members of the Festival Team, Carole, Beth and James and regulars Katy, Ruth, Phil and Angus. Rob was visiting and gave us some cracking songs and a recitation.
Tunes were on accordion, pipes, recorder, guitar, mandolin, whistle and bodhran  as follows: 'Lincum Doddie,' 'The Unfortunate Cup of Tea, 'Egan's Polka,' 'Ryan's Polka,' 'Humours of Glendart,' 'Salmon Tails,' 'Winster Gallop,' 'Jaimie Allen,' 'Machair,' 'Leg of the Duck,' 'Wee Todd.' 'Leaving Friday Harbour,' 'Snow on the Hills,' 'Xesus and Feliera,' 'Margaret's Waltz,' 'Sack of Wheat,' 'Off to California' and 'Walz for Pol.'
Songs were 'The Roving Journeyman,' 'The Dutch in the Medway,' 'Gan to the Kye,' 'Coming Home,' 'The Jolly Waggoner,' 'Peppers and Tomatoes,' 'The Rolling Hills of the Border,' 'The Carter,' 'The Well Below the Valley-O,' 'A Place Called England,' 'Champion,' 'Lady Nairn,' 'Lazybones,' 'Hedger and Ditcher,' 'John Barleycorn,' 'Ca the Yows' 'The Socialist Alphabet,' 'By the Light of the Peat Fire,' 'The Oak and the Ash,' 'Three Pennine Rangers,' 'There were Roses,' 'Both Sides of Tweed.'
Recitations were, 'Get out of My Life,' and 'The Curriculum for Excellence.'
Thank you all. Normal service will be resumed imminently.'