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)