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.'

May 23rd 2016

Pipes, mandolins (small and large), guitars and a whistle graced the gathering this month. In particular, it was a night of piping, in that there were three pipers, Kevin, James and David, proponents of a variety of traditions originating from/in the style of various locations (Northumbrian, Scottish small pipes, English small pipes, Swedish and French as well as Kevin’s Swedish/Spanish hybrid set). David kicked off with ‘Piper’s Maggot’ and ‘Cuckold come out of the Amry’ and later, ‘Morfydd’s Pipes’ and both old and new 'Drops of Brandy.' James followed in his fast-developing danceable style with ‘Over the Border’ and ‘Nae Good Luck Aboot the Hoose.’ He later added 'Ian Green of Green Trax’ by Gordon Duncan and ‘After the Green Monster,' also 'Jack Latin' and 'I'll Aye Ca' in by Your Toon to See My Bonnie Jean Again' (tune to the Burns song?).' Later still he played a Gavotte and 'Shew us the Way to Wallington.' Kevin, on his self-designed hybrid Swedish/ Spanish pipes gave us a Mallorcan Bolero and an Asturian tune followed by a Welsh tune and an Andro from Brittany and later, 'I'm awa Young to Marry Yet,' 'Highland Laddie,' with a Belgian tune to up the European quota for good measure. To finish with he contributed 'Ibeus(?),' an Asturian tune and 'Frisky,' a Northumbrian tune. Angus on mandolin gave us some Northumbrian tunes 'Salmon Tails,' 'Winster Gallop' and 'Jimmy Allen' and guitars joined in as well as the odd whistle.
Singers were in fine voice with good guitar and mandolin accompaniments as well as unaccompanied performance. Songs ranged from the Scots to the Australian, taking in Hamish Henderson and Dave Sudbury and probably crossing three or more centuries if Katy had anything to do with it. There were a couple of whaling songs, not to mention a bit of a bird theme springing up and winging it through the night. Phil sang 'The Cocky,' 'The Diamond,' 'Freedom Come All Ye' (Henderson) and 'John O'Dreams' as when as 'Farewell to Tarwathie.' Ruth 'The Swallow,' a reminder of the bird many still note the first appearance of to confirm summer is on its way, also 'Gossip Joan,' and 'Glad That I live Am I.' Katy rose to the challenge of this emerging theme with, 'A Wee Bird's Come to my Window,' and later followed it with 'As I was Going to Banbury,' and something I have down as 'Duma.' My hunch is that this last is subject to an error in my scribble; I do know that her final song was not about the legislative body in the ruling assembly of Russia. Angus, gave us the oddly haunting 'When Winter Comes Howling In' (Lindisfarne), the moving, 'Charlie's Pigeons' by Dave Sudbury, and another one I have omitted to note down as is my wont from time to time (sorry about that). Dave, building back from strength to strength gave us the 'Old Blind Dogs' version of 'Pills of White Mercury', 'The Trysting Fair at Falkirk' and 'The Rolling Hills of the Border' with the tune, 'Calliope House' as well as Andy M. Stewart's,'Ramblin' Rover.' David sang 'Old Maui' and Robbie 'When Cannons are roaring. Eliza did Halan Tow (meaning 1st of May garland, according to 'Mainly Norfolk') 'Let no man Steal Your Thyme' and 'The Gallowgate Lad.'
Thanks for coming, all. Hope to see you on the 28th June.

April 26th 2016

It was great to welcome new and new-to-the-session friends from Bewcastle, Simonburn and Larrison this month. Rob (guitar), Philip (concertina, bodhran and whistle), Val, Adele and James (in seating order clockwise!) regaled us with music and songs and provided a muster of new audience. Norman brought Highland singing and playing on guitar and mouth organ and Jasmine guitar and more contemporary songs, generally entering into the spirit of things, too.
As well as the above, other instruments were recorder, mouth organ and small pipes.

So to begin with tunes. David began with regulars on these pages, 'Mount your Baggage' and 'Pawky Adam Glen' and later followed with 'Nobel Squire Dacre' and 'The Apprentice Lads of Alnwick,' a personal favourite as a former (childhood) denizen of the town, variously inhabiting no fewer than three gaffs there. Rob and Philip gave us 'The Press are in the Van' (!) and 'The Lambs are Eating the Rushes.' Later these two played 'Da Slockit Light' by Tom Anderson of Shetland, a meditation on the depopulation of his birthplace  (the old word 'slockit' meaning a light that has gone out) on guitar and bodhran. They later contributed, 'Dougherty's' and 'The Woman I never Forgot.' Carol gave a lovely rendering of 'For Ireland I dare not speak Her Name' on recorder following this with 'Mrs MacClelland.' Norman's 'Barra to Balloch' and the grand, 'Farewell to the Creeks' were played in pibroch style on mouth organ with guitar accompaniment. Dave (guitarist) led the finishing reels including 'The Merry Blacksmith' and 'The New Road to Alston,' and Carole threw in 'Jimmy Allen,' also a reel on recorder. 

Robbie began the singing  with 'When Canons are Roaring,' from Strawhead's songbook and, later, 'The Rochester Recruiting Sergeant.' Old ballads had been mentioned so Eliza sang 'Renardine' and, later, 'Thomas the Rhymer,' (also the song 'John Anderson my Joe') and Katy later contributed the plaintive ballad, 'Queen Jane' which many believe is about Jane Seymour, as well as 'Roseberry Lane'.  Phil launched a brief mining theme with 'The Donnybristle Mining Disaster.' Katy picked up the baton and ran with 'Pit Boy' which reminded David of Ted Edwards' fine song, 'The Coal and Albert Berry.' David later sang 'Tarry Wool' in honour of our local shepherd who was present. Phil sang 'Jock McGraw of the Forty Twa' and, in waltz time, his own 'Prancing with Ewes' based on 'My Uncle Walter goes Dancing with Bears.' Carole contributed 'The Lock Keeper' and, later, 'The Morning Lies Heavy' by Allan Taylor and Jasmine gave us, Richard Thompson's, 'A Heart Needs a Home' sung by Richard and Linda Thompson and Karine Polwart's, 'I'm gonna do it' as well as, 'If you Were a Sailboat' by Katy Melua.
A Highland song from Norman from the singing of Sheila Stewart, was the evocative, 'The Corncrake among the Whinny Knowes.' Dave played and sang, 'The Rolling Hills of the Border' with Philip on bodhran and Philip, accompanying himself on concertina, sang, 'My Virgina Bride.' Dave on guitar later sang 'All the Answers' by Ilse Delange and later 'Orion' (sorry haven't noted name of writer legibly) and Phillip and Rob commemorated the peasants revolt with 'John Ball' by Sydney Carter.
I for one enjoyed the evening with its wide range of songs and music. We seemed to manage to fit a lot in. (Angus, we missed you.) Thanks everyone. See you next time, on the 24th May.

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.

February 23rd 2016

Greetings. A slight technical hitch on the blog has delayed me a bit - not being the greatest at ironing them out. I put a few 'labels' on this month's blog settings in the hope of tempting a few more of you along to our once monthly gathering (fourth Tuesday). We are a sing around-cum-session, that is, we try our best to include both song and instrumental and encourage joining in with tunes wherever it works. The village has a caravan site and RockUK outdoor centre and we welcome any who bring their  voice/ instrument on holiday. Right; ad. over.
Small and select again this month. Much enjoyed the craic all the same. Kevin came down from Carlisle with his Swedish-cum-Galician pipes adapted by his own good self. David brought sackpipa and smallpipes and Phil and Angus accompanied some of their pipe tunes on guitar in addition to bringing a fine selection of songs with accompaniment. Robbie joined us, though without his Strawhead song book (or strictly speaking, without the one borrowed from Carole) on this occasion.
Kevin started off proceedings with 'Morfa Rhuddlan' and later gave us an Asturian melody, 'Batri Bam' as well as Northumbrian tunes from the Peacock manuscript which were suitable for playing on this instrument (see above), 'Highland Laddie,' 'Frisky,' 'I'm Awa Young to Marry Yet' and 'Paddy Whack' as well as 'Bolero de Santa Maria' from Majorca. David's tunes were one on sackpipa (title not recorded by me) and on small pipes,  'Herd on the Hill,' 'Holmes' Fancy, 'The Lowland Dance,' 'Up wi' Eli Early,' 'Never Love Thee More' and 'Fourpence-halfpenny-farthing.'
Phil sang 'Peggy Gordon', 'John o' Dreams,' 'The Dawning of the Day,' 'The Road to Drumleman' by Willie Mitchell, the butcher of Campbeltown, and Tony Cuffe collected by Hamish Henderson and the excellent, 'The Bluest Little River Between the Tyne and Tees' by Alan Clarke. Angus sang the evocative, 'The Summer Before the War' by Connie Dover, 'Song for Ireland' by Phil and June Colclough, Alex Glasgow's 'When God Created Englishmen,' Eric Boswell's 'Take me up the Tyne in a Little Boat' and Tom Paxton's 'I Will Love You.' A grand selection.
Interspersed with tunes David sang 'The Horn of the Hunter' and 'The Rambling Soldier' in honour of Robbie. Eliza sang a version of 'The Bunch of Thyme,' 'Lads o' the Fair' by Bryan McNeill, the ballad 'Mill o' Tifty's Annie,' Robin Williamson's 'The Road the Gypsies Go' and 'Mallie-O.'
Generally a good night. Hope to see you next month.

26th January 2016

Rain didn't quite stop play. Flooding on the Kielder road and possible flooding between Carlisle, Brampton or Hawick and Newcastleton made some journeys dicey.  The intrepid duo, Phil and Angus, from just south of The Wall navigated the back way from Greenhead. Robbie joined us for a couple of soldiering songs and there followed an evening of congenial company (for us anyway), grand songs and tunes and snippets of folksong lore and biology (otters, rampaging dragon flies, caddis fly larvae) washed down with Peter's finest ale.
David was armed with three sets of pipes; English small, French and Swedish, almost equalling the number of the company present, and with a couple of guitars and a silent bodhran we were ready for anything.
Angus produced a fine variety songs from Tyneside and further afield, ranging from Johnny Handle's Danny's (about a famous club) and Alex Glasgow's 'When I was a Little Lad,' to, 'I'm Glad i'm Working Down Below' by John M. Garrett who wrote a book on British Music Hall songs. Angus also sang, 'Flowers,' as sung by Iain Mackintosh and a medley of 'The Waters of Tyne' and 'Weel May the Keel Row' and 'Roses from the Wrong Man' by Christine Lavin' and also, Harvey Andrews' 'First you lose the Rhyming.' Good songs sung in fine voice and accompanied on guitar.
Phil, reminded by Angus, gave us another Alex Glasgow, 'Hard Times at the Mill.' He was prompted by Robbie's interest in soldiering songs to sing, 'Jock McGraw o' the Forty-Twa' from the singing of Robin Hall and Jimmy McGregor of the 'White Heather Club,' on the BBC, fondly remembered from childhood and 'The Galliards.' He also gave us 'Lord Huntley' as sung Bob Axford and Rosemary Hardman and finished with Ewan McVicar's 'All the Tunes in the World' - a fitting last song. All smashin', as they say over the border.
Robbie's were both collected by his current favourite, Strawhead, 'The Recruiting Officer' or 'The Merry Volunteers' (depending on your point of view), the Queen Anne version and 'The cannons are roaring,' an English Civil War song.
In between tunes David sang 'The Fellows that Follow the Plough' and Eliza tried out 'Get up and Bar the Door' to the tune of 'The Quaker's Wife' with Ewan McColl's refrain and offered a Tyneside, 'Dol-li-a,' a round, 'Rose, Rose, Rose Rose' and in honour of Burn's Night just past, 'Dainty Davie,' the bawdy version which the lads didn't think particularly ribald at all. I have seen the odd other verse, not necessarily Burns' which might have raised an eyebrow.
David's tunes were on French G pipes, 'Mundess,' on English small pipes, 'Last Night I Lay wi' Jacky in me Arms' and 'Apprentice Lads of Alnwick' - not the same ones as those who used to frequent the 'Birdcage' of former fame and glory. On sackpipa, 'Liten Lek' and 'Pols Fr Roros' and, finally, on French pipes an Andro which is a 'turn' dance or circle dance where the joined hands also circle one way then reverse or turn.
Though we were few David and I certainly enjoyed the night. I hope our friends did, too.    Eliza