Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club

The Pegasus was a fine place to be this Wednesday if you wanted to drink cider or lager and hear a wide range of music. However, if you wanted to drink draft ale, Guinness or white wine, you were out of luck because they didn’t have any. As John, the owner will be back from holiday soon, we confidently predict that things will be better for our next visit, and for a certain upcoming celebration.

We were pleased to welcome Paddy and Clive for their first visit. They sang three original songs (Paddy’s lyrics, Clive’s music): Afghanistan, Box Full of Kisses and Cedar Tree and finished off with Chris Rea’s Road To Hell. We hope to see them again soon.

Dave (from Chesham?) also popped along. However, because we were slow starting and had a good turnout, he was only able to fit in Al Stewart’s Admiral Lord Fisher before his early departure. More next time I hope.

It seems that David and Alison took my comment about their ability to do a new song every week to heart. This week, it was a WW1 song by Reg Meuross - And Jesus Wept - that had been suggested by Simon. A great choice, sung and played with David’s usual sensitivity, that caused at least one hanky to be required. His second song is a particular favourite with me: Show of Hands' Exiles. Alison sang Nantucket Whaler and Row On. I’m not sure whether we’ve heard those before. They both joined Simon for Galway Girl, presumably chosen because Magner’s Cider was the only drink available on draft. Simon's first contribution had been Mother's Lament (My Baby Has Gone Down The Plughole). This was presumably a music hall song, but found its way on Cream's Disraeli Gears album.

For his first turn, Fred played a couple of tunes on the willow flute (AKA long plastic pipe, holes only at the ends) that were (if I read my notes correctly) Too Lang Days and In The Grove. He played the short plastic pipe with more holes (AKA whistle) for his second turn and, in true Jimmy Saville style, he offered us 5 points for identifying the first and third of the tunes and 10 points for the second. I scored 5 for the Keel Row and none for the second (the name of which I can’t read from my notes) or Some Say The Devil’s Dead. I should clearly stick to chart hits of the 1970’s.

By popular request (i.e. by me), Martin played the Steely Dan medley that he’d spent the afternoon putting together. For the record, there were seven components: King Of The World, Rose Darling, Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, Josie, Daddy Don’t Live In New York City No More, Deacon Blues and Kid Charlemagne. He later made a nod to the folk world with Richard Thompson’s Razor Dance and finished the evening with Tim Minchin’s Rock and Roll Nerd.

Other numbers were:

• Dick: Drew My Ship In To A Harbour, Bring Us A Barrel, Daddy Fox
• Rosie and me: Teehan’s Favourite/Maggie In The Woods (polkas), Everybody’s Crying Mercy (Mose Allison), You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket (White Stripes)
  
• Gerry: Kootamundra Wattle, Julia (John Lennon)
  
• John C: Mcaffrey, Flushers
  
• Delia: NAAFI Girls (Rob ‘em All), Faraway Tom
  
• Stuart: Pleasant and Delightful, Grey Funnel Line

The Jackson/Brake family will be on holiday in on the Norfolk coast next week, so the session on September 2nd at The Belle Vue will be ‘unplugged’. After a week in her home county, Rosie’s Norfolk accent will probably be well honed for a Kipper family number to make an appearance the following week.

It was the end of an era at the Old Ship and a small group of the usual suspects turned up to bid a fond farewell. A few of the crew performed nautically flavoured pieces to mark the occasion. Dave gave us Ship of Fools by the Grateful Dead before Alan played Ships in Full Sail on his mandolin, accompanied by Richard on the low whistle. Roger followed with one of his excellent guitar solos, The Full Rigged Ship, and Richard sang I Drew My Ship Into a Harbour. Alison sang Health To The Company followed by Delia with They Built The Ship Titanic, a choice forced upon her after Richard had usurped her original “ship” song.

Other performances for the evening were:

Dick – General Taylor, Daddy Fox

Richard played My Lady Cullen’s Delight and Lusty Gallant on the low whistle and Wilsons Wild and Dick’s Maggott on the recorder.

Alison sang My Love and Angels on Sunday, the latter by Dave Walter

Dave gave us another gem from his eclectic repertoire, The Consul at Sunset by Jack Bruce

Delia and Stuart displayed their ever-developing concertina skills with Astley’s Ride and The Greenwood Tree. Stuart performed Ashokan Farewell by Jay Ungar while Delia proved her multitasking skills by reading, singing and hitting her frog through Marie’s Wedding.

Gerry – Down Too Deep (Dougie Maclean), Outdoor Type (The Lemonheads) and Fire and Rain (James Taylor)

Alan played The Cronin’s Hornpipe and Alexander’s Hornpipe after which Rosie sang Almaz by Randy Crawford. Later she gazed at Alan throughout I Only Have Eyes For You (Dublin/Warren). There’s no accounting for taste.

John – Entertained us with Anathea (Neil Roth /Lydia Wood) and a song about his namesake, Big Bad John

Karen performed This Love Will Carry by Dougie Maclean and Heart Like a Wheel by Kate and Anna McGarrigle, accompanied by Roger on guitar.

Roger - Three Around Three (Accompanied by Rosie and Richard)

Till next week at the Pegasus.

You can hear a few songs from Dick Frost any Wednesday for the price of a £1 raffle ticket. However, if you'd like to hear more, our friends at Maidenhead Folk Club have booked Dick for Thursday 20th August.

They're at The Seven Stars, Knowl Hill, RG10 9UR, and the session starts at 8:30. There is an admission charge.

Dick's evenings at Maidenhead are deservedly popular. Arrive early for a good seat.

This week Dick gave us two not-so-often heard songs – the wonderful Rosabella and later on Six Jolly Miners. Karen and Roger graced us with their crowd-pleasers Oh Cumberland and Country Roads, with Roger also giving us a solo tune on his guitar.

David and Alison performed the traditional songs One More Day and Ready For The Storm, plus a bluesy arrangement of the Gerry Lee Lewis track You Win Again, with additional accompaniment from Roger and Martin due to the availability for soloistic passages.

After playing his rendition of The Princess Royal tune, Simon joined Dave and Alison for an excellent performance of The Year Turns Round Again by John Tams which was widely appreciated.

Comedy was provided by Martin’s cover of Bill Bailey’s Cockney Medley of well-known popular songs, and he also performed an original song called Memories he had been working on with his Derby band Lighthouse.

We had a couple of regular tunes (Mazurkas and The Pernod Waltz) from Alan and Rosie, as well as the bitter Willie Nelson’s Time of the Preacher and the soulful Walking on a Wire by Richard Thompson.

Gerry gave us a couple of songwriter classics – Bob Dylan’s Love Minus Zero No Limit and Paul Simon’s Cathy’s Song, whilst Richard performed the humorous Paul Kaplan parody Henry The Accountant and the traditional song Ramble Away.

Delia and Stuart gave us a few traditional pieces such as Lavender’s Bloom and Astley’s Ride, while John’s acapella contributions included the amusing My Husband’s Got No Porridge In Him by Les Barker and Casey’s Last Ride by Kris Kristofferson.

All in all, a very enjoyable evening with a great variety of music and personalities! Next week is our final session at The Old Ship (on Wednesday 17th August).

Very quick blog this week!
Rosie led tunes and Dick started us off with Bring Us A Barrell.

Martin is performing better than ever and gave us: The Dynamo of Volition by Jason Mras (lots of words - oh for the memory of the young!) and later Rikki Don't Lose that Number (Steely Dan), and Seven Nation Army (White Sripes).

At the end of the evening we had a mother and son duet from Martin and Rosie - Steely dan's Peg.

It was lovely to see Brin & wife, and Richard and Andy again. Brin did 3 Drunken Maidens and Les Barker's "Have You Got Any News of the Ice Berg". Richard & Andy - Paddy's Song, Put Out The Flame, The Tinker's Daughter, and Please Don;t Take My Moonshine Away (Richard's excellent self-penned parody).

It was also great to hear Cuckoo's Nest from Norman, a customer in the bar - excellent singing.

The regulars gave us:
Flower on The Water, a John Williamson song, Dougie McClean's Down Too Deep - Gerry
Fishing Song (Taj Mahal), Easy Polkas, Tehan's Favourite, Maggie in the Woods, Killing The Blues, - Rosie & Alan & Steve
Keep on the Sunny Side - Rosie, Alan, Karen & Steve
Sonny's Dream, Dimming of the Day, Machine Gun Kelly. Crazy Man Michael - Karen & Steve
Willing - Steve with Karen & Rosie on chorus
Limehouse Lass, Brian Boru - Dick
Babylon, Old Man At The Mill, Ladies of Pleasure, The Sun it Goes Down & Cuckoo's Nest (tune) - Simon and David.

Next week - Wed 12th August we are at The Prince Albert.

Wed 19th August will be our last meeting at The Old Ship as the pub has changed hands and Sara and Rob are having to leave. We wish them well wherever they go (unknown as yet) and many thanks to them for all their hospitality over the last couple of years, and the great Xmas dinners they've done for us.

Watch the blog for news of where we will be on the 3rd Wednesday of September!

FOR SALE: Martin Guitar with hard case, £850.
Martin MC16 GTE with Fishman Stereo Blender.

Bought new in 2005.
Has had the bridge lowered professionally to give better action.
Little used & in good condition with just a few dings in soundboard.
Lovely tone.
It has excellent reviews on the internet.
Photos to follow.
Details can be seen at http://www.thriftmusic.co.uk/mc16gte.htm where it's for sale at £1299.

Anyone interested can contact Karen at karenhemmingham@hotmail.co.uk

We can bring the Martin along to Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club if anyone wants to see / hear them there.

Andy Fowler of Marlow FM recorded our session on 22nd July. Half an hour was broadcast uninterupted on 25th, and another hour on 1st August. He's kindly given me a copy of the recording. I'm steadily uploading tracks here.

When the workload on the web publishing that I'm paid to do dies down a little, I'll set these up in a streaming jukebox.