Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club

Wednesday 24 Feb saw a fair crowd, some regulars & some new faces, gathered together in the Prince Albert for a bit of musical sport.

Many "Old Faces", a couple of new ones,and some good supporters, especially Jean, enjoyed an eclectic mix of songs and tunes from the likes of our Doyen, Dick, who treated us to the splendidly anti-Gallic "Drink Old England Dry" (they'd better not try!) and the humourous "Fatal Glass of Beer", whilst Rosie & Alan were to the fore in the tune department (with an eye on the future & St Patrick's Day) with two mazurkas, Sonny Brogan's and Charlie Lennon's, and "Bold Donnelly", which I (blush) accompanied.

On only her second visit to us, Debbie sang the "Seven Drunken Nights" -style humouresque "The Good Man" ( aren't we all ??). Mike Weston, who accompanied himself on a good-looking & bright-sounding Martin 12-string, pleased with his "The Smiling Lady", and, later, a family piece about his parents: "Mum & Dad's Wedding". Ian reminded us of the perils of both piracy (as a career), with "The Flying Cloud", and grubbing about underground in "The Durham Miners' Song", to a tune not unlike "Paddy West".

Highwaymen, especially those active in Nottinghamshire, came to the fore in "Sailing Too Close To The Wind", surprisingly not about the sea, performed by Dave Fenner and Simon Diegan, who later, by way of contrast, let us into the secrets of "The Dark Side Of The Moon". The further addition, to this accomplished duo, of Alison Fenner, resulted in "Jacob's Dream" and "Octopussy's Garden". Whalers, and both their sufferings and pleasures, were the subject of the long "a capella" "Rolling Down To Old Maui" led by John of Tring (as opposed to Gaunt).

Karen & I played "Here in California" (with Dave F), and Mr Thompson's "King of Bohemia" and also Phil Ochs's "When I'm Gone" (which he is), and I played "Upton Stick Dance". Late arrival John made us laugh with "The Flusher's Song" (about sewers), Dave & Alison essayed "Let Me Fall", Steve The Hat sang "Unison in Harmony" and Richard ventured "The Parson And The Sucking Pig".

Lastly, but of course not leastly, Rosie & Alan pleased with "I Only Have Eyes For You" (about each other).

Roger, Dodger, Over & Out.

We hadn’t seen Fred for a while. His first number this week was the round-up song Get Along Little Doogies. He decided that the rest of us should make mooing and yee-haw noises as he sang. This worked much better than I expected, despite the laughter. I guess he was singing in E moo-nor.

Delia had a similar idea, and had come well prepared with copies of the (few) words and dots for ‘Laugh Kookabura Laugh’ which we sang as a round. I remember this song from the ‘Singing Together’ radio show that we listened to at my primary school. Delia and Stuart’s concertina duet this week was Maxwell’s Adieu’. Later on, Stuart played the lovely Shetland tune, Da Slockit Light, with tasteful spontaneous accompaniment (at Stuart’s speed!) from Roger.

It’s also been a while since we’ve seen Dave and Norma, not least because Dave had broken a finger and was unable to play. The finger’s still not in perfect shape, but Dave was able to play guitar on Judgement Day, a environmentally-focused song he’d written during his enforced absence. Norma added backing vocals. Second time around, Dave got out the melodeon and played Morgan’s Run and Blue Eyed Stranger.

It’s quite common for some of us to forget which key to play songs in. Terry had one of those moments when starting Jez Lowe’s Drink to the Wheels of Industry and declared ‘I'm in the wrong key’. Quick as a flash, Dick retorted ‘you’re in the wrong pub, mate’. It’s just as well they’ve know each other a long time. Dick had started the evening in a saucy fashion with My Boy Billy, and later contrasted with a fine rendition of the lovely Fair Rosamund.

Ian followed Dick’s saucy lead with Cruising Around Yarmouth, which does seem to refer to Great Yarnouth rather than the Isle of Wight. His other song was Factory Girl.

We heard more of Martin and Kerraleigh’s expanding and eclectic repertoire. I was particularly pleased to hear Personal Jesus, by my favourite 80’s electro-pop band, Depeche Mode, and covered by Johnny Cash on his penultimate album. We also heard Low Anthem’s The God Damn House and Nick Drake’s Pink Moon.

We also heard:

• Rosie and me: two sets of jigs, Jake Thackray’s Grandad and Randy Crawford’s Almaz
• Tring John: Whiskey for My Johnny (with optional –O), Colum Sands’ Rest for a While
• Steve: Garth Brooks’ every Now and Then (for which he possesses, but did not wear, the cowboy hat), Tom Paxton’s Can’t Help But Wonder
• Karen: Road to Aberdeen
• Karen & Roger: Rare Old Times (it’s almost March!), Bells of Nowich
• Martin B: Hamish Imlach’s Candyman’s in Town, Don William’s I'm Just a Country Boy
• Fred: Brafferton Village, a Northumberland bagpipe tune, on the Low E plumbing pipe
• John C: Les Barker’s Nolans and Elton John
• Glen: Brian Bedford’s What’s the Use of Wings

We were also pleased to welcome Debbie for her first visit and look forward to seeing her again.

We’re at the Prince Albert in Frieth next Wednesday, where space will be at a premium but atmosphere will be abundant.

It’s only fair that Dick gets first mention this week. Not only does he start each Wednesday evening, he also seems to end up being mentioned last when I write the blog. We don’t hear him sing the excellent Banks of the Sweet Primroses often, so it was good to hear it tonight. His other songs were Let Union Be and Bring Us a Barrel (that he used to be accused of singing every week).

As usual, Martin & Kerraleigh (AKA The August List) brought along a set of songs that are unfamiliar to the rest of us. This week’s selection included With Arms Outstretched by Rylo Kiley, Try My Best to Love You by Jenny Lewis and (I think) How Will You Love Me by Nina Nastasia. However, my favourite was their very impressive original song, The Ticking of the Clock. You can hear this on their MySpace page.

Terry’s first song was Little Tourists, a parody of Little Boxes, apparently written on a rainy Bank Holiday in a café in Weston-Super-Mare in 1964 and commenting on the tourists trying to enjoy themselves on the beach (i.e. mud), regardless of the weather. On that beach, there might have been a Bristolian boy whose 50-something self you’d recognise. He also sang Tom Paxton’s Jesus Christ SRO, dating from the debut of Jesus Christ Superstar.

The rest of the songs were:

• Ian: Little Chance (over the wall is out) and I Courted a Wee Girl
• Stuart and Delia: The Royal Oak, written by Julia Thomas of Salcombe, on concertinas
• Delia: When The Snows of Winter Fall
• Stuart: Stanley the Rat, a Cyril Tawney song
• Rosie and me: the polkas Captain Bing / Peg Ryan / Maids of Ardagh (melodeon / mandolin), My Funny Valentine (in its annual outing, this being the closest Wednesday to Valentines Day)
• Me: Pernod Waltz (mandolin)
• Rosie: Chips and Fish
• Martin: David Francey’s Flowers of Saskatchewan, about the Canadians involved in the D Day landings and Paul Simon’s Song for the Asking
• Richard and Andy (AKA The Expanding Wastrels): Lizzie Lindsay, Telstar on low whistle & guitar (yes – this was the 60s hit for The Tornadoes and written by Joe Meek), Teenage Cremation (usually sung by Dick) and another song I didn’t catch (any clues?)
• Simon & David: Man of Constant Sorrow, the timely Fair Maids of February (Robin Dransfield’s lovely song about snowdrops), Rod Stewart’s Mandolin Wind and Blur’s Tender
• John: Jake Thackray’s Sister Josephine

Apart from our Wednesday evening at The Dog & Badger, dates for next week’s diary are:

• The Expanding Wastrels at The Belle View on Tuesday 16th
• The Whiskey River Boys at The Plough in Marlow on Friday 19th. These guys describe themselves as Cajun, zydeco, folks, roots and blues, which sounds good to me. They managed to get this gig as a stop-over between their base on the Welsh border and a festival gig in Kent. Listen here.
  

We had a smaller turnout than usual at The Belle Vue this week. However, it did enable us to get three turns each, which is getting unusual these days. We didn’t even have a raffle.

The evening coincided with the Radio 2 Folk Awards, on which Nanci Griffith was presented with a lifetime achievement award. If she’d turned up at The Belle Vue, we could have presented her with a special award for her contribution to Steve’s repertoire - he sings at least six songs he learned from her playing. His first contribution this evening was Nanci’s own Talk To Me While I’m Listening, to which Rosie added some fine harmonies. I think this might find its way into a certain band’s set list soon. His other songs were Sleepless Sailor and Unison in Harmony.

We’re seeing Martin pretty regularly now, and getting used to his guitar being tuned a semi-tone down. This apparently isn’t to fend off the melodeonists (understandable though that might be), but to suit his voice. I particularly enjoyed his version of Robert Johnson’s Malted Milk. We’re used to hearing his other two songs sung by others – Fire and Rain by Gerry and Killing the Blues by Rosie.

David left his guitar at home and brought along the heavy artillery – the bouzouki. This was specifically to accompany Simon on Steve Knightley’s The Galway Farmer, but also worked for Games People Play and the tunes Steamboat/Staffordshire. We also heard more of David’s apparently bottomless repertoire: Dick Gaughan’s Flourish on Both Side the Tweed, Nic Jones’ Candee-i-o (lots of words here!) and the lovely slip jig, The Butterfly.

The Guardian recently published a contribution from Rosie recently – they’d had a list of the 50 best TV dramas and omitted fantastic The Edge of Darkness from the 80’s. Rosie pointed out the error of their ways. In case you didn’t see it, it was a 6 hour long tense and brooding thriller about the nuclear industry starring Bob Peck and Joanne Whalley. It’s now been made into a movie starring Mel Gibson, which was never going to work. The Sunday Independent described it as having no edge and little darkness. As well as having a theme by Eric Clapton, the original featured Willie Nelson’s Time of the Preacher as part of the plot so we thought that this would a good song to do this week. Other songs were Dream a Little Dream of Me and Richard Thompson’s Walking On a Wire. Our tunes were O’Carolan’s Welcome, Musical Priest / Star of Munster and Teahan’s Favourite / Maggie in the Woods.

Dick Gaughan has also recorded Ewan McColl’s (AKA Jimmy Miller) Sweet Thames Flow Softly, which was Terry’s first number. He followed that with Jez Lowe’s Nearer to Nettles and The Songs They are A Changing. You can read Terry’s mudcat post about this here.

Richard was Andy-less and gave us Captain O’Kane / Plantxy Kelly on the recorder, the slow airs Johnny Armstrong / Northern Lass on the low whistle and then sang Ramble Away.

The current guest beer at The Belle Vue is Theakston’s Old Peculier. John C ordered a pint, and then felt obliged to sing Keith Marsden’s song dedicated to the said beer. He was obviously in a drinking mood, because his other number was the boozing parody of Men of Harlech.

Dick (who always starts the evening, but seems to end up near the bottom of my posts) was on good form, with Hares on a Mountain, Limehouse Lass, She Loved a Portuguese and Fathom the Bowl.

We’re at the Prince Albert in Frieth next week, where the turnout is often in inverse proportion to the space available. Get there early for a good seat.

Thanks to everyone who helped move the tables. As usual a packed evening and a breathtaking mix of song and tune. 29 songs (9 unaccompanied), about 10 tunes. 20 people, 18 performing.

Unaccompanied:
Drink Old England Dry (Dick)
I’ve been a Mild Rover (Parody – Sid Kipper, sung by Tring John)
Machester Angel (Trad, sung by Ian)
Ae Fond Kiss (Robbie Burns, sung by Karen)
I’ve Been A Ploughboy (written and performed by Ifor Randall from Todmoredden- very funny, the title not giving the game away about management consultancy)
Gentle Annie (Dick)
The Worst Girl in the School (from the singing of Fred Jordan who learnt it from his mother, sung by Tring John
Ratcliffe Highway(sung by Ian)
Watercress Girl (performed by Rosie)

Tunes
Alan & Rosie’s tunes (melodeon and guitar)
Skye Boat Song - Concertina Duet (Stuart and Delia)
Drowsy Maggie (Richard & Andy)
Blow The Winds Southerly (concertina duet by Stuart and Delia)
Various Tunes by all in the break

Accompanied Songs
Looking in The Eyes of Love (Rosie, vocals, Alan on guitar)
If I had a Boat (Lyle Lovett, sung and played by Steve)
That’s All There is (Nina Nastasis, sung and played by Kerraliegh)
Vice Rag (A A Bondy, sung and played by Martin)
My Brother Martin (played and sung by Simon and Dave)
In The Ghetto (originally sung by Elvis, sung and played by Alison and Dave – a tear-jerker)
Labelled with Love (Squeeze, sung and played by Dave Fenner – another most miserable song, which spawned discussion about having an evening where everyone sings their most miserable songs!)
Where Are You Tonight (Andy Stewart, sung and played by Karen & Roger)
Someday Soon (A crystal gale song sung and played by Andy & Richard)
Dicey Riley + a bit of Drowsy Maggie (sung & played by Richard & Andy)
Knocking on Heaven’s Door (Dylan, performed by Karen, Steve on guitar and Roger on harmonica)
Tequilla Sunrise (Eagles, performed by Steve, vocals and guitar and Roger on guitar)
Barking at The Moon (Jenny Lewis, performed by Kerraleigh)
Tell Me Why (Neil Young, performed by Martin on guitar and Kerraleigh, vocals)
Between The Lines (written , sung and played by Ifor, excellent song about men needing to be told straight-forwardly rather than being expected to infer!)
Whiskey Lullaby (From Alison Crauss, sung and played by Dave F)
Angles Go Dancing on Sunday (Alison, duet concertina & vocals and Dave on guitar)
Time To Ring Some Changes (Simon leading vocals and melodeon, with Dave and Alison)
Once I Had A sweetheart (Andy and Richard 0 guitar, vocals etc)
My Fiery Moonshine (Richard’s own excellent parody of You are My Sunshine, performed by Richard and Andy)

And we may have finished off with something else but I can’t remember – it was nearly a week ago and a lot of singing and playing has been done since then.

Next week we’re at The Belle Vue in High Wycombe.