Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club

It was a pleasure to welcome Stuart and Deirdre (with their mini-disc recorder) for their first visit to the club. After an evening's listening and recording, Stuart sang the excellent Tavistock Goosey Fair for us, complete with Devonshire accent. He conjured up an image of a trail of lamps across Dartmoor as the farmers travelled overnight to get a good spot at the fair.

Karen came without her singing voice, having acquired another throat infection (or maybe she had been practicing too much with Roger and Steve). She brought her bodhran and full set of shakers. Alan brought a camera, so you can see photos of the evening here.

We had a run of songs of lost love, started by Dick with Limehouse Lass. It was continued by Steve with The Eagles' Tequila Sunrise, God Bless The Broken Road (written by Marcus Hummon and recorded by The NGDB and a country hit for Rascal Flatts) and Dylan's Tomorrow Wasn't Such a Long Time. Rosie and Alan added Stevie Wonder's Blame It On The Sun to this theme, but balanced it with a tale of found love – Looking in the Eyes of Love.

Without his vocalist, Roger and his guitar took us on a European tour with Josephine's Waltz (Norway), Le Canale en Octobre (France), the Boys of Bluehill (Ireland) and Seven Stars (back to England).

Dick had started the evening with Let Union Be, and also contributed Bring Us A Barrel (which has been notable for its absence recently), Twas On One April Morning and the Irish ballad, The Castle of Dromore (AKA October Winds).

The field behind Dave and Norma's is being ploughed for the first time for many years, no doubt reflecting the high price of wheat. This made Dave's song Plough and Sow very topical. We also heard his new song about the American Civil War, and Northern Geordie England.

Some residents of a local retirement home will have the pleasure of being entertained by John and some friends this weekend. We were pleased to hear one of their planned songs - the music hall favourite If It Wasn't For The Houses In Between.

We had a couple of bluegrass songs - Good Times Are Past and Gone from John and In the Jailhouse Now from Rosie and Alan. Other songs were River Days (Steve) and John Ball (John).

The other tunes in the evening were the 3 around 3 set (led by Dave), Sportsmans' Hornpipe (Alan), Sonny Brogan's & Charlie Lennon's Mazurkas and The White Petticoat & Out On The Ocean (Rosie and Alan).

We'll be at The Old Ship at Cadmore End next week and hope you can join us to sing, play or just listen.

Firstly it was great to see Dave and Norma, Ryan (Vicky's guitar playing friend) and Annette who is no longer doing something else on Wednesdays so might be able to get along more often.  However, we hope Bob will continue to do his own songs as well as accompnay Annette's lovely singing.

Dick surprised us all by singing the Wild Rover, and then delighted us all with She loved a Portuguese.

Vicky and Ryan performed Baby Now That I've Found You (originally performed by the Foundations &  later by Alison Crauss, A Ghost in my House (Alison Crauss) and Vicky sang Dog and Gun unaccompanied.

Rosie played the 3 Around 3 set, the Kerry Polkas and sang the lovely Grandma's Hands by Bill Withers.  Alan was away but Rosie has got used to lack of accompaniment due to Alan's broken thumb and sprained wrist!  She was also spied joining in with various tunes and songs.

Shaky things were also used throughout the evening at appropriate points to add percussion.

Bob accompanied beautifully for Annette who sang Behind Blue Eyes (The Who), the bluesy Need Your Love (Little Willie John - which spawned a variety of jokes/puns!), Time in a Bottle (Jim Croce), The Blacksmith, and the more upbeat Buddy Holly's, It Don't Matter Anymore. 

Bob treated us to his wonderful version of Burn's Black is The Colour and rounded off the evening with Will the Circle be Unbroken.

Dave joined in various tunes with his melodeon and sang us his new Christian Knihts song (only it's 2nd outing, so very well done with remembering the words), another we hadn't heard before - Smuggler's Moon - very evocative, and Cliper Ships which had everyone joining in the chorus.

Steve sang Santa Claus (did he write it?) - pity Martin wasn't there as he loves it, and Speed of Loneliness (Nanci Griffiths).  He also accompanied John on Can't Help but Wonder Where I'm Bound.

Karen and Steve sang Cornish Lads and Bonnie Bessie Logan.  The Scottish theme creeping in because of the proximity of Burns' Night.

Karne and Roger did Where Are You Tonight and Follow The Heron.

Simon, excellently accompanied by Roger, played My Love is a Lassie Still (?), a version of Ten Penny Piece with a different time signature and in Em, The Manchester Gallop, Cunuanulla Stocktons Jig, Down The Road and The Gaspe Reel.

John contributed Burns Westling Winds and the highly amusing parody Nolans Away.

Altogether a lovely evening.  See you all next week!

After a highly successful evening at The Prince Albert, Frieth, and some very positive comments about the beer, we are hoping to meet once a month there - probably the 3rd Wednesday of each month.

The evening began quietly in the absence of Simon and Rosie who turned up with their squeezy instruments later.  The room seated a dozen of us comfortably but we might have to try to move a table out if more people turn up. 

Highlights

One highlight of the evening was Vicky's parody entitled "Play some Folky Music" after the Funky Music of Wild Cherry, cleverly accompanied by Martin on guitar - which was indeed Funky, as was his playing of Stevie Wonder's Superstition.  Martin provided another highlight - the very funny If You Open Your Mind Your Brain Will Fall Out by Tim Minchin.  Martin is back at Uni now and will be missed until the Easter hols when we look forward to seeing him again.  However, the good news is that Vicky has a guitar man who we hope to see accompanying her in the near future. 

Dick spent the night under a fireplace mantel below 2 rather lovely carved mallards.  One mini-highlight of the evening was the first really successful pun Roger has made at the club, when he announced that the ducks were "only here for the quack".   Another highlight was Dick's singing of "She Loved a Portuguese" which apparently first appeared on That Was The Week That Was.  We look forward to hearing it again.   Yet another highlight was Steve's Night Rider's Lament which we all love joining in the yodelling on.

Other Songs & Tunes were as follows:

Dick: Bring Us a Barrel, and If all these Young Ladies

Alan: some percussion accompaniment and a rather politically incorrect but funny tale of a man becoming head of the Women's Rights Movement: see

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/man_finally_put_in_charge_of

Steve: Green Hills of Antrim, Miners' Lifeguard (+ lots of enthusiastic chorus singing), and Black Velvet Band which was ably accompanied by the entire room with accordian, melodeon, guitars, Dick's walking stick, Alan on egg (still unable to play strings due to injuries), and voices.

Karen: Blacksmith and Dimming of the Day with Steve, and Silver Dagger with Roger.

Bob: Maria Elaine (by John Betmead), Needle of Death, Twisted Fairground and Down Where the Drunkards Roll accompanied by guitar (Steve & Martin), harmonica (Roger) melodeon (Simon) and voice (the rest of us)

Martin: Midnight Musings (a sensitive self-penned love-song - is there no end to his talents?), & Jokes by Dimitri Martin.

Simon: (with some excellent guitar accompaniment from Roger) All the Way to Galway, List for a Sailor (with brilliant accompaniemnt from Roger & Bob on guitar and Alan & Karen on egg), Scan Tester's No 2, Red Wing Polka (as heard by Roger on John Wayne's Chishum film, and ably accompanied by Martin on egg), Speed the Plough and Jenny Lind which had everyone joining in with guitar, melodeon, and percussion of various sorts.

Vicky: Our Town, Chip Shop -Vicky's tribute to Martin's Tribute to Bill Bailey's Tribute to Billy Bragg!

Rosie: Tahan's Favourite & Maggie in the Woods (AKA Easy Polkas - says Alan), Everybody's Crying Mercy with Martin on guitar who added a rather smart little guitar solo, Off to California & Tom Gruney Castle.  I expect my spellings to be corrected later!

Roger: some splendid guitar accompaniment to tunes, harmonica, and accompanying Karen.  And of course the usual word-play!

John: Albert & the Lion and Robbers Retreat which spawned some lively loud chorus singing.

A GREAT EVENING

We had our biggest attendance since moving to the current room at TJOs, and it was a bit of a squeeze, but a fine evening nonetheless.

Rosie's melodeon was first to be squeezed for Seven Stars. She later played a set of Irish jigs and sang You've Got Her In Your Pocket, with Martin standing in on guitar for the still-incapacitated Alan. Martin started with his own song, Betray. Later on he gave us the Manic's Everything Must Go and Tim Minchin's hilarious JLA Song, duly adapted for the venue by including a snippet of Bring Us a Barrel.

Dick seemed to enjoy that tribute. He'd started the evening with Let Union Be and followed with The Miller and His Lass and Man in the Moon.

Next to squeeze was Simon accompanied by Dave, with Steamboats/Rambling Sailor, the Huntsman's Chorus and a couple of Flemish tunes. The usual role reversal had Dave singing Barrack Street, Little Pot Stove and (solo) the lovely Walked 1000 Years Today, which I can't find on the web.

Dave S joined us for the first time in a while, and we were very pleased to welcome his wife Alison! Congratulations to the happy couple. Dave was in good form on Liverpool Judies and Fiddlers' Green.

Interesting incidents seem to await Patrick in all of the far-flung locations he finds himself. One of tonight's songs gives something of a clue: a baby being born on a bus he took in Ecuador. Another, American Killer Heroine, concerns a Vietnamese girl who'd lived in the Cu Chi tunnels. On his recent trip to the West Indies, an attack of diarrhoea caused him to start his walk around some cliffs later than he planned. He therefore avoided being on the cliffs when they were later destroyed by an earthquake caused by a volcanic eruption. He's not written a song about this yet, but could perhaps use the name of a social disease as a rhyme when he does.

After she'd started a fit of coughing around the room, it was suggested that Karen might perform The Coughing Policeman or The Coughing Monologue. Instead, she headed across the Atlantic and sang The Great Divide with Roger and then a well-rehearsed Oh Cumberland, with an excellent arrangement of twin guitars from Steve and Roger. The stateside theme was continued by Steve with West Coast Highway and Dylan's Make Me Lonesome When You Go. Roger made more than the usual number of terrible puns and played an unnamed jig for us on the guitar.  

We had a brief visit from Vicky, who was double-booked for the evening. She accompanied herself on guitar for The Duke and the Tinker. The need for barre chords demonstrated why folk music is not often played in F (unless you want to discourage the melodeon players from joining in).

As usual, John joined us later on and started with When All Men Sing and finished the evening for us with the ever-funny If You Had a Brain.  

Here's hoping for a good turn-out next week, when we'll be at The Prince Albert at Frieth. The address is Fingest Road, Frieth, RG9 6PY.

I have just written the blog and accidently clicked on cancel!  How very annoying is that!

A really lovely night despite the absence of our younger members (on pub crawls etc apparently) and Alan being unable to play - broken right thumb and broken left wrist. (X-Ray of wrist available of Alan's Facebook site!) That left Rosie to lead lots of tunes ably accompanied by Bob, Roger and Steve.

Dick began the year with Bring Us A Barrel, then went into comic mode with Walking Your Bulldog and Fatal Glass of Beer, then sang the beautiful Twas On One April Morning.

It was lovely to see Alison & David, Alison unfortunately only being able to come along in holidays because of her teaching commitments.  Her beautiful voice was likened to Shirley Collins and she sang some lovely songs - Going Over Jordan, My Love (by Mannering which Dick asked for the words to), Cottage Door and Angels Hovering Round - all these with choruses enabling some lovely harmonies.  David also, singing Tams's version of Amelia, then Ready for the Storm and Rose of Allendale. 

Bob was on great guitar form with his own "No Words" composed after having his tonsils out, and vintage Donovan Magpie and Black is the Colour - the latter being one of the most tasteful and sensitive rendition I have ever heard.

John arrived after his Orpheus practise and sang Dirty Old Town to Roger's guitar and mouth organ accompaniment then later sang the highly appropriate turning of the Year song We'll Sing Allelujah. 

Steve sang South Bound Train, Talk to Me, and Country Life, and accompanied Karen on Sun Coming Over the Hill and Crazy Man Michael, the latter also played by Roger - more collaboration to come in the future we suspect.

Karen & Roger did Maid of Culmore, Follow the Heron and Silver Dagger.

Finally Rosie managed to get a song as Bob, Roger and Steve joined together for a Your Cheating Heart.  Rosie would be very glad of guitar accompaniment over the next 6 weeks!

A lovely evening thanks to all those who turned up to play, sing, listen and support.  We look forward to more over the coming year.