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.