Marlow Bottom Acoustic Club

Just 8 of us till John joined us making 9.

Lovely evening, and lots of laughter – well done to Martin for sparking some of it off! Especially the "Post-Coital Concertinas" episode which made us laugh such a lot!

We went in the following order, apart from the odd occasion!

Dick: Claudy Banks, All Things Are Quite Silent, Evils of Tobacco, and another

Fred: Streets of Laredo (on flute), Over the Hills and Far Away (acapella), Romanza (guitar), Lament for the death of Rev Archie Beaton (F Whistle)

Karen: Circle Game and Follow The Heron, both with Steve on guitar, Snowing on Raton accompanying herself on guitar, and The Black Crow, unaccompanied

Steve: You’re Gonna Make me Lonesome When You Go, Paradise (John Prine), Desperado, City of New Orleans

Martin: Lucky Man, Little Pot Stove, For Emily Wherever she May Be, You’ve Got a Friend

John: Shanghai Brown, Casey’s Last Ride

Delia: Grandfather’s Dance / Astley’s Ride

Suart & Delia: Nancy Davison / Bonnets o’ Blue

Stuart: Margaret’s Waltz / Midnight on the Water, truro Agricultural Show, Sammy’s Bar

Next week we're at The Dog and Badger, Medmenham, see you there!

There was no confusion this week, so we were able to spend the whole evening at The Chequers.

The absence of some of some of our regulars was balanced by a visiting party from Northern climes, whose names I forget. They contributed a selection of songs. I particularly enjoyed the duet version of Donovan's Donna Donna.

This week's Name That (willow flute) Tune challenge from Fred went unanswered. Not only did not recognise it, we also didn't know the song once we knew that it was Kitty From Coleraine. Of course, that prompted Fred to sing it next time around. Fred also explained the willow flute to our visitors, including how he learned it by following a bugle tune book. There followed the performance of a bugle tune.

• Highlight of the evening for me was David, Alison and Simons' best performance yet of the unaccompanied 'Lisbon'.
• Simon had returned from Sidmouth with a new and interesting tune - The Four Seasons - that turned out to be  a three part jig.
• Alison led us in singing a round - Shalom Shalom May Peace Be With You.
• Mike sang his second Sandy Denny song in a row - Fotheringay this time

We returned to The Dog & Badger safe in the knowledge that the cricket club has no more Wednesday home matches this season.... The pub looks different and somehow more comfortable since Nick and Suzanne have taken over, and is certainly busier on a Wednesday.

We didn't have a large turn-out, but we did have variety:

• Gilbert and Sullivan's Tit Willow - John's marking of the 100th anniversary of W.S. Gilbert's death
• Harry Champion's What a Mouth from Martin - this happened to have been featured in Danny Baker's Desert Island Discs this week
• Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time from Matt (what's good enough for Richard Thompson....)
• Billy Holiday's You Go To My Head from Rosie and me
• Robert Johnson's Malted Milk from Martin
• Several stunning latin-influenced classical guitar pieces from Adam
• Plenty of singer-songwriter stuff, including Neil Young's Don't Let It Bring You Down especially for Suzanne, who's something of a fan.   
• And even some folk songs and tunes