Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club

Several of us were a little jaded after Tuesday's fun evening at The Old Ship. This applied especially applied to Alan, who had hurt his thumb at football earlier on Wednesday evening and felt unable to play guitar or mandolin. It turned out that his thumb is broken, so he won't be playing football or instruments for a while.

Dick seemed not to be affected by the general lack of energy and kicked off with Drink Old England Dry and later challenged the rest of us to reach the low notes on Fathom the Bowl.

John Macrae eventually arrived for his promised visit, having spent much of the evening stationary on the M40. His songs and humour are always very welcome. This time he also brought his video camera to film some of the session for his planned documentary on folk clubs. We're looking forward to seeing his interview with Karen, providing she stopped laughing for long enough to answer any questions.

It was great to have Martin back from university. He sang us one of the songs that formed part of his composition assignment, plus a hilarious song in a funk style by the Flight of the Conchords and something from Muse. Vicky was relieved to have an accompanist back. She and Martin sang Fairy Tale of New York (compulsory at this time of year) and It Doesn't Matter.

Roger too had a problem with his thumb, but still managed to accompany Karen for a few songs. They've chosen a great set of material, which is coming together very nicely now.

John injected some seasonal notes with several parodies of Xmas songs and carols, notably Walking 'round in Women's Underwear to the tune of Walking in a Winter Wonderland.

Without an accompanist, Rosie played the Shetland tune Da Trowie Burn on the concertina and adopted aLancashireaccent for Chips & Fish.

We're not meeting on Boxing Day. Seasons Greetings from Marlow Bottom to all our attendees and blog readers. May your tunes be rousing and your choruses well sung.

24 of us had a fantastic evening on Tuesday.  We had superb food, provided by Ron and Sarah at The Old Ship, Cadmore End - all fresh ingredients and moist turkey, pheasant etc.  Everyone participated in the entertainment with some seasonal and a variety of songs and tunes.  A very jovial evening of splendid company, and we are all agreed that it should be a repeated event.  So we might not wait till next Xmas but might actually do something around Easter time.  It was especially good to welcome Martin and Simon back from university as we do miss them over the term time, and lovely to see some of less regular visitors like Tim & Lesley, Roger, Stuart, Helen, Judith and Alison.

A Very Happy Christmas and New Year to everyone who came along and made it such a special evening.

It was good to see Bob again, complete with new knee. And especially good to hear The Jukebox as She Turned, written by Jeff Deitchman and mostly known from the Nic Jones version. Bob's new words for Silent Night told of a modern family Christmas – obviously not the family of anyone present… His take on Lal Waterson's Fine Horseman was as good as always.

Simon brought his voice along as well as his melodeon and sang Tom Robinson's "Martin" and the hilarious An Australian Christmas, both accompanied by Dave. Roles were reversed for I am Ready for the Storm and Dave's fine song, Islands. The same pairing gave us several sets of tunes.

Karen had two accompanists. She sang Dimming of the Day and Kate Wolf's Medicine Wheel with Roger, and Oh Cumberland with Steve. Steve himself resurrected This Old Town, best known by Nanci Griffith, and had no shortage of help with the choruses.

Dick's sang Limehouse Reach at Bob's request. We had some joining-in songs too – John C led the shanty Blood Red Roses (previously usually heard from "Towersey" John), and Dick led Let Union Be.

Rosie's songs were Fishing Blues and, to add a seasonal touch, Jim Croce's It Doesn't Have To Be That Way. Between them she and Alan played several sets of tunes, including a couple of by Turlough O'Carolan.

Vicky brought along the guitar that she now proudly owns, and got it re-strung courtesy of Bob. However, she didn't bring her songbook or her voice. She was clearly saving the voice for next Tuesday's Xmas meal and music evening at The Old Ship. Alan's hoping for a better-performing set of fingers for the occasion.

If you'd hoped to come and have not booked, we're sorry that we've filled all the tables already. Here's hoping for another great evening.

 A select few this evening enabled lots of songs and tunes interspersed with comedy - jokes and anecdotes - and chats - some about food and health brought on by Xmas meal discussions of which choices were gluten & nut free, and a reminisce about Morcombe and Wise sketches. In fact the evening started bizarrely with a customer-occasional worker trying to lever open windows with a large kitchen knife as the fire could not be turned down - because it has become a real fire! 

David went into seasonal mode with some wonderful songs - A Winter's Tale (sung by David Essex), Snow Falls by John Tams.  Karen also managed a winter song too.  Plenty of love songs this evening - Give Yourself to Love & Where Are You Tonight (Karen & Roger), Love is a Rose (Rosie), Steve Knightly's The Undertow (David), John's Les Barker more serious being in love song, and Dick's Lovely Nancy to name just some.  Some comedy e.g. Dick's Fatal Glass of Beer.  Some sentimental - John did Eldorado (Dick Miles) requested by Karen and Saying Goodbye to the Sea.

Lots of great tunes e.g. a French musette (Alan & Rosie), a Polish dance tune and Canal in October (Roger), O'Carolan's Draughts (Alan's mandolin) and man more.

All in all a lovely evening but we did miss Steve and Bob, so looking forward to seeing them next week or at the Xmas dinner!