Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club

25 March was a fabulous evening with old and new faces filling ever corner of the bar. And the whole thing was recorded by Andy Fowler from Marlowfm Radio and his colleague Paul Mansell.

From furthest afield was Sheila Hamil from Newcastle who sang some lovely songs, Fields of Gold, Over Jordan and Make Time For Love. We were also very pleased to welcome Alan from nearer home – Thame area – who joined France’s band with whistle and played a tune with a bodhran player (sorry – didn’t catch your name) and later sang The Devil in the Dark.

30+ year regular Dick entertained us with The Fatal Glass of Beer, The Man in The Moon, and Twas On One April Morning, which was accompanied by some wonderful harmonies as people joined in.

We were treated to France (harp), Tarsem (tabla) and Phillipa (cello) also accompanied by Alan (whistle) and Roger (guitar), whose tunes included Planxty Irwin and Lover’s Moon. Later Tarsem fascinated us with a demo of tabla rhythms and Phillipa played and sang a lovely song she’s written, inspired by stories of the Welsh Goddess, Arianrod.

Terry was in good form and sang Ali Cox’s The Bold Fisherman, xxxx Blues (sorry – can’t read my writing) with words by Terry Dougherty, and Kris Kristopherson’s classic Casey. About an hour into the evening a young man called James turned up with an electric guitar. Terry graciously lent him an acoustic and he played us a great blues in G tune which everyone joined in with – to his surprise I think – he then disappeared as quickly as he’s arrived!

Un-noted during the evening was a notable event – Kerraleigh sang her own composition – The Old Rocking Chair – which was a great song (I thought it was called Hey Honey as that line came up a few times). So I look forward to hearing more. Kerraleigh and Martin also performed Take it Back by Alena Diane.

One of our recent singers Dave sang another train song, this time Last Train by Stanley Accrington, also recorded by Dave Goulder and Strawhead. Our other Dave (Heath) and Norma duo-sang Dave’s catchy Tolpuddle song and Dave led some tunes at the break and to finish off the evening. Gerry had us all singing along to The Boxer (causing Terry to reminisce about Noel Murphy’s sound effects, which Karen has witnessed too) & Harry Chapin's Cat’s in the Cradle.

Fred livened up the evening with the Hotel Room, Double Bed song, and gave us some more of his great whistle tunes including Ratgarven? (That Damned Rat) and also the lovely Irish song She Moved Through The Fair.

Karen and Roger entertained everyone with a small dispute about the starting note of Where Are You Tonight which they hadn’t performed for a while but clearly need to practise(!) but Phil Och’s When I’m Gone went with out a hitch. Later they did Ride On – requested by Andy from MarlowFM - which was accompanied by Rosie on melodeon, France on harp and various others joining in on other instruments.

Rosie and Alan stuck to non-Irish songs after the surfeit for St Patrick’s events, and sang Looking in the Eyes of Love and Fishing Blues. Later they led some tunes with Dave Heath to finish off what had been a great evening.

I’m sure I may have left out some songs or tunes, but reading this will have kept you busy for a while!

Next week we’re at The Belle Vue in High Wycombe, and then at The Prince Albert on 8th April for our Bring A Richard Thompson Song (if you can) evening. See you there.

Karen, Rosie, Steve. Roger, Dave and I were flattered at the number of people who attended our St Patrick’s Day gig at The Pegasus. This was a long evening, but five of the band for that evening made it to The Old Ship the next day. This wasn’t unrelated to our need to run through some non-Irish material for our gig on the Friday. This included:

Karen and Roger: Take Me Home Country Roads, Shenandoah
Karen and Steve: Mr Tambourine Man
Steve and Roger: Tequila Sunrise
Rosie and Alan: The Ole Devil Called Love, My Funny Valentine, Dream a Little Dream
Rosie, Steve and Karen: Old Maui

It was a pleasure to have Dave Artus from Ruislip join is for the evening. We enjoyed hearing him sing Stan Graham’s Whitby Harbour (about Captain Cook), Michael Chapman’s That Time Of Night and Clive Gregson’s Fred Astaire. Dave hopes to be able to join us on 8th April for our celebration of Richard Thompson’s 60th birthday and has already nominated his songs.

Dick Frost had started the evening off in typical style with Dido Bendigo and continued later with Daddy Fox and Brian Boru. However, he sprung a surprise by singing a song in Friesian. I think the title translates as Now Is The Snow Falling.

Tony H arrived without concertina or dog, but with some new facial hair. This was obviously in preparation for him to sing Roger Whittaker’s The Last Farewell. We look forward to some Whittaker-style whistling on his next visit. His also sang Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl.

It fell to Simon to provide the tunes for the evening. They were Jenny Lind/Grandfather’s and The Dorset Four Hand Reel coupled with an original named The Old Ship for the evening. He almost broke my embargo on Irish material (after Tuesday’s overdose) with Steve Earle’s Galway Girl. Karen and Steve responded with another Steve Earle number - I Ain’t Ever Satisfied

Other material for the evening was:

Rosie: Dido Fido
Karen and Roger: This Love Will Carry Me; Follow The Heron Home
Steve: Rascal Flatt’s Broken Road

We’re back at The Pegasus in Marlow Bottom on 25th. Andy from Marlow FM will be there and recording. We’re also expecting a visit from France’s Harp/cello/tabla trio so it should be a special evening. Why not join us?

There were a lot of us, but somehow we all managed to get into the bar at The Prince Albert. As some of us have been rather busy preparing for St Patrick’s Night performances at The Horseshoes, Stokenchurch and The Pegasus, and for entertainment for a local club dinner, the blog is a bit late! However, it has had the advantage of getting some of us to do some new songs – well new to us, but familiar to a lot of people.

Other new features of the evening were: Stuart F’s concertina solo – he has recently bought one and is learning to play – and doing incredibly well, and Kerraleigh accompanying herself on guitar, and Martin’s first time with us singing (he has previously played guitar for Kerraleigh) – well done to both.

We also had a historical new – the idea that The Chilterns had retained it’s original Celtic inhabitants surrounded by various incomers including Saxons in the Thames river valley and Angles in Fingest. This prompted Stuart F to sing a Devon song – Carion Crow.

Other singers & musicians were: Dick, Rosie, Alan, Roger, Steve, Karen, Delia, Fred, Gerry, Dave, Simon,Dave F.

Songs ranged from traditional to 60s to contemporary. Classifications below are somewhat arbitrary as many songs fit into more than one category:

Traditional / Traditional feel / Folk Kind of Songs
Dido Bendigo, When the Snows of Winter Fall, Carion Crow, Excise man, Frobisher Bay, Dicey Riley, No John No, Lusty Young Smith, The Jolly Beggar, The Excise Man, Leaving of Liverpool

American:
The Cootamundra Wattle (John Williamson), I’ll Fly Away, Keep on the Sunnyside, Down By The River To Pray, In The Jailhouse Now

Tunes:
Ashokan Farewell, Broom’s Reel, Sian Chun Carraigan Eide, Hunters something, The Stray Away Schild (played at double speed), Faroe Rum, Farewell to Edinburgh

20th Century & Modern:
Rob Em All (WW2), Easy Down the Road (Bonnie Prince Billie), 4 Seasons in One day (Crowded House), Jenny Lewis’s Acid Tongue, Twilight (Dawn Landis), Late Night (Nina Nastasia), Knocking On Heaven’s Door (Dylan), Those Were The Days (check out the gypsy melodeon version in the woods on you-tube), Help Me Make It Through The Night, The Year Turn’s Round (John Tams), Fisherman’s Blues (Waterboys), Northern Geordie England (Dave Heath)

I’ve lost my notepad, so this week’s blog entry is like my recent mandolin solos - without any accurate notes.... Corrections welcome!

John, a regular attendee at our Belle Vue Wednesdays, brought his melodeon and David, a concertina player. They played several tunes together, starting with Portsmouth and including a Swedish and, unusually, a Welsh tune.

It was good to see Terry again, this time equipped with guitar and mandolin rather than his usual banjo/mandolin hybrid. He played a couple of songs, one of which was blues based and, I think, by Steve Hunt.

Gerry had started with James Taylor’s Steamroller Blues, omitting the last few lines from the live version. I don’t recall his second song. However, he was persuaded back to the mic and sang a Scottish take on One Man Went to Mow ‘Three Men from Cartyne’, made famous by Billy Connolly.

As usual, Dick gave us a selection of English songs, including Bring Us a Barrel and Twas On One April Morning.

The rest of us (Rosie, Karen, Roger, Dave and I) have a gig on St Patrick’s Day and unashamedly used this evening to run through a dozen or so of the Irish songs and tunes on the set list for that evening.

In the break, Dave dug out his melodeon and, along with John, David, Terry and Roger, played a selection of English morris and country dance tunes.

We’re at the Prince Albert in Frieth next week. Arrive early for a good seat.

In attendance: Dick, Gerry, Dave H, Norma, Jennifer, Rosie, Alan, Roger, Karen, Bob T, Delia, Stuart F, Simon, Vicky, John,

Instruments: guitars, melodeons, concertina, shaky things, bodhran.

Noteable events of the evening: Vicky's first visit of the year - good to see you Vicky, a role reversal of Karen playing (bodhran) while Roger sang, John's revamped Credit Crunch song, Bob's beautiful guitar work, Rosie's excellent rendition of the computer song - which was requested, and in general everyone's singing & playing.

Songs: Let Union Be, Broomfield Hill, Daddy Fox, April Come She Will, Won’t You Listen to my Heart, Cats in the Cradle, Snowdrops Crocuses Bluebells, Will He Make It, Let Smiling be Your Banner, Spanish Ladies, The Blooming Computer’s Down, Cunhla, Shenandoah, Fine Fine Sparrow, Black is The Colour, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, The Little Vagabond, Bonnie Glen She, Danny Boy, The Sands O’ The Shore, Matty Groves, Jacob’s Dream, Credit Crunch

Tunes included: the mandolin solo Alan tried last week and gave up on again this week!, Am Jigs, Pigeon on the Gate, Step Back, Herbert Smith, Dark Girl dressed in Blue.

Apologies for anything I’ve missed out as I don’t think I ‘ve got them all written down here.

Vicky’s Johnny Cash Tribute Band is playing at The Red Lion, Wooburn on 7th March.

Gerry recommended the “Amazing Slowdowner” which you can download from the internet and use it to slow down MP3s.

Next week we’re at The Belle Vue, and then 11th March we’re back at The Prince Albert. See you there.