Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club

After some furniture removing, which successfully located enough chairs without arms for the musicians, we settled in the side bar which has a nice new wooden floor but no permanent tables or chairs yet.

Despite several regulars being away, we had a full house and were glad to welcome Trevor and Patrick, with their own songs in their very different and individual styles. Good luck to Patrick for his next trip - to Bhutan.

Also good to see one-time regular 'Scottish' John McCrae again with his distinctive musical style and humour. His adaptation of 'Oh Susannah' into a commentary on the Iraq war left us in little doubt about his views on the subject.

Simon paid us his last visit this summer before he goes back to his course at Newcastle. We look forward to hearing what another term of studying traditional music can deliver!

Bob's fine version of All Along the Watchtower was further enhanced by some spontaneous fiddle fills and a solo from Simon.

After her Towersey triumph, Vicky sang two Kate Rusby songs. She hasn't yet started talking like Kate, but that might come soon.

Karen flew solo for three numbers, including Steve Earle's I Ain't Ever Satisfied, complete with mass singing of the do do do's.

Neither the hare nor the stoat featured in Dick's contributions. Those paying close attention may have spotted a variation in his performance of Limehouse Reach.

Rosie couldn't resist the Kippers' 'Overstrand', having passed several of the places mentioned when on the recent family holiday in Norfolk. No members of the family were disembowelled in this visit.

Martin played two requested songs: Rchard Thompson's Turning of the Tide and Bill Bailey's Dog/Cat/Tramp song.

Nice to see Dave S again after a while away. We look forward to our two other newcomers returning with sax and bass respectively.

Well done to Vicky who sang in the Barn at Towersey Festival on Saturday evening, in front of loads of people she didn't know.  And many thanks to Pearl for her encouragement of young Vicky.  Vicky has a gorgeous voice and her singing was highly appreciated by everyone there.  Dick, Steve and Karen also had a great time singing there.  The Barn is a fantastic place to sing - wonderful acoustics - so if you're local, do go along and support Tony and Pearl who do a fantastic job running the singaround there every year, both lunchtimes and evenings.

Some of us had a great time at White Horse Festival, and really enjoyed Pint & Dale and the singarounds etc.  Thanks to Dave Guest for all his hard work.  Some of us had an excellent evening at Tudor FC on Monday where Dick's guest spot was most appreciated. Tuesday saw the 2nd Henley folk club which benefited enormously from visitors Brian and Marion Rodgers from Kent, and Plum and Steve from Northampton. 

Wednesday saw a select group of us at TJ O'Reilly's in the restaurant area with the newly laid oak floor - originally from an old mill.  Alan went solo on a night off from his holiday in order to collect son's GCSE results and treated us to some great mandolin.  And Bob's new instrument was most effective (i.e. loud) against the slight intrusion of the England match in the other bar. 

Some of us are off to Towersey this weekend, so maybe see friends in the Barn.

 

The oak floor is now stained and ready for use in the restaurant area which we should be using next week, but the door / opening alterations were not yet finished so we were in the bar again. 

It was lovely to see (& hear!) Richard and Andy and especially good to welcome visitor Stuart who sang 2 folk songs and played "Those Who Wait" from Tommy Emmanuel's CD "Only".  Tommy Emmanuel can be heard on YouTube and "Those Who Wait" can be heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdt4Y2fNXOI 

All the usual clan (Dick, Alan, Rosie, Steve, John, Karen, Martin, Vicky) did their tunes and songs and we had a few good choruses at the end of the evening.  Martin played & sang Bill Bailey's Cockney Medley - a risky little humorous number parodying various things including Old Kent Road.

Some of us will be at John Wilson's leaving do at Le De Spenser's Arms in Downley tonight and at the White Horse Festival at Grove this weekend.

Good luck to martin who gets his A Level results today!  Enjoy your celebrations!

P.S. Karen is very much enjoying a novel that Dick lent her - "Skinny Dip" by Carl Hiaasen.

P.P.S.  No one has yet solved the quiz set by Alan last week, which he has now given a clue for - see the comment on last week's blog.

Because of the building work going on at TJ's, we got to play in the bar this week. This meant some moving around of furniture, but we managed to create a convivial space that was perfect for the 15 or so of us there. Even better - the lights worked! The staff behind the bar didn't mind having the TV in silent mode. It did seem strange not to have a pillar in the middle of proceedings. So, with light, space and refreshment, we had no excuse not to make good music - and we (mostly) did that.

It was good that Sara Daniels was able to come along (after a hard day at Wisley). Her lovely voice and distinctive concertina playing are always very welcome.

Richard was not accompanied by Andy this time, and gave us "50 Years Ago". This had words of local extraction with his own tune, the setting of the words made especially difficult by the verses having differing numbers of lines. Excellent.

John's contributions included Les Barker's poignant 'History Man' - seldom more relevant than now. Flanders' and Swan's 'Hippopotamus Song' was an interesting contrast that had everyone singing, even if they couldn't reach the low notes.

Steve's fingers worked overtime on his own blues number that we haven't heard for ages. He also dug out Mary Chapin Carpenter's 'Family Hands'. We look forward to hearing both again soon.

Dick's Innocent Stoat made a return with even more words - its death is now toasted in vodka and lager.

Near the beginning, we had an Irish sequence, with some original tunes from Richard, sets of polkas and jigs from Rosie and Alan, Dave's 'Connemara Horse Trade Fair' song and more jigs from Sara.

Rosie sang 'Bang Bang'. Bonus points are available for anyone spotting the connection with "Love is a Red Dress" - the song she sang two weeks ago. Family members are ineligible for this competition.

By request, Bob sang his distinctive version of Cole Porter's 'Miss Otis Regrets', which was timely, given that Martin wasn't with us because of the dress rehearsal for Kiss Me Kate, this year's Wycombe Swan Youth Theatre Project.

Karen reminded us about 'Towersey' John Wilson's get-together to mark his imminent move to Winchester. Dick "wouldn't miss it for Thatcher's funeral".

Here's to next week, when the building work might find us in yet another part of the pub.

Another good turn-out and a great evening, with candles adding to the atmosphere, and thanks to Dave for managing to produce a little more light so we could actually see drinks, words etc as required.

It was lovely to see Geraldine, accompanying John now tap classes are in abeyance during the summer holidays, and to see Judith back again. Also, Bob, Simon, Dave, Norma, Patrick, Steve, Jennifer, Alan, Rosie, Martin, Vicky, Dick and Karen.

Dick's CDs have now produced a small surplus fund which has paid for him to have a subscription for the Living Tradition magazine.

The highlights of the evening have to be Martin's "dangerous" turn being superceded by Alan's even more dangerous placing of his mandolin on one of the candles! A little waxy but no damage and soon forgotten as Martin's "dangerous" turn soon had us all laughing as he emulated Demetri Martin - playing guitar with running commentry / jokes e.g "sort of" after various phrases including ..."it's a boy!"

Patrick also added to the humour with the 2nd donkey song he wrote to compensate for his 1st donkey song which people told him was too cruel to sing. In t he 2nd one the donkey wins the day with a by-pass and vets etc. And of course Judith gave us a recent Les Barker monologue using birds names throughout the story - very clever!

Steve treated us to some unaccompanied singing, both on his own and with Karen. Simon did some great fiddle tunes, and we loved Alan's mandolin solo, Bob's Black is the Colour, Dave's self-penned story songs, Martin's singing with abandon, Dick's marvellous traditional singing, John's varied choice of material, Rosie's singing - especially the Kipper maiden not satisfied song in her Norfolk brogue - and her melodeon & concertina work.

Another excellent evening......see you all next Wednesday....though probably in a different part of the pub as the floor is being lifted...watch this space for updates.....