Sale Folk Club

Newsletter No 18 - 24 February 2009

After being warned that the cheers of the football crowd may disturb, Pepper Street presided over a triumphant evening with not a whimper coming from the United supporters next door. Setting the tone, Don & Heather took us Down Where The Drunkards Roll with one of Richard's new songs, Who's The Fool Now, carrying on the theme. Later on Old Brown's Daughter was chosen from his rapidly extending repertoire. It was nice to see Kath & Stan back and in even better form with favourite Ring Ring The Banjo followed by New York Girls and Sleepy Desert. Similarly, Jan & Mark were early birds and reminding us that St David's Day is on Sunday 1 March she sang a couple of Welsh songs, The Ash Grove (translation) and Goch! Goch! Goch! and Mark celebrated Dai The Motorbike Man before they teamed for a Jug Of Punch. Robin then gave us an elocution lesson explaining about his clipped vowels, nothing to do with his masculinity, before singing Delta Dawn (not Don) then a cheeky Lay You Down, as in I would like to, and as the evening was coming to a close, Where Peaceful Waters Flow.

Ed was also an early starter with a serious Welcome Paddy Home but as usual with him humour is always close at hand and there was plenty of craic going on. In full headgear Sue joined him in a comical look at Morris Dancers and then on the bohdran in That Bloody Song Again, a parody of Fields of Athenry. Derrick then got the sniff and gave us the brilliant Les Barker, Harold The Ventriloquist (On His Hawk With His Hand Up His Horse) followed by an expose on the vagaries of computer language. Then newcomer Wendy, after claiming she wasn't ready and would maybe perform in a few weeks, couldn't contain herself any longer with A Letter From God. We look forward to her next visit with friends of course. Accordion John joined the fray with Tit Willow and Under The Bridges of Bury which he claimed was written many years ago by his dad and stolen by some French girls and converted into, you guessed it, Bridges of Paris. We believed him?!? Sandra & Phil then chipped in with Ulysses a Jake Thackray special and obviously challenged and pushing the boulder away from the door, Eric stirred himself into action and absolutely blew us away with Grandes Jacques (Less Too Easy), The Ramparts of Dundee, about a lady putting herself about a bit, and Thin Man Blues of which the highlight was the expression on people's faces when he demonstrated the point by taking his shirt off. Come on girls top that!!

Back on the straight and narrow, Carl a

Newsletter No 16 - 10 February 2009

Well it was party time again and the Von Trapps, aka Ed, Sue and son Kristian, were excellent and they ran one of the best ever Tuesday nights seen at the United Services Club. Urging a flying start Don & Heather hit the road with A Song for the Life and then challenged newcomer John Higham to recognise the line in Dances for Dollars that they borrowed from the book Accordion Crimes. Michael kept the ball rolling with a definitely non-racist but funny Pakistani Pat before Carl took another Jez Lowe song from his repertoire Two Up Two Down. Richard then apologised for last week's mis-information by clearly spelling out The German Musicianer before singing this often true song followed later by Yarmouth Town.

Then John Higham took the floor and on his debut regailed us with Uncle Joe's Mint Balls complete with samples and Prompt Board for the chorus. Then he delivered a complete Accordion Player's Workshop on the accordion with diagrammmed handouts before rolling seemlessly into his second piece - Dorothy. The audience were enthralled and delighted when at the end he contributed his tin of Uncle Joe's Mint Balls to the raffle.

Mark then had us all singing The Nutting Song later playing Sonny's Mazurka and The Cricket's March Over The Salt Box. Jan was more ethereal with Clouds and then The Blacksmith. Since spice was the order of the day and new band Salt Street, Robin, Don & Heather, sang the beautiful Corries' version of Rose of Allandale. Ann then took to the floor and, without anyone losing any vital part of their anatomy, had us all singing along with the Drummer Girl and Dabbling in The Dew.

Mick restored the creative balance with his own This Old Dog which, since there were a few in the room, could have been misunderstood. He returned to Dylan for a great version of Mr Tambourine Man. At this point we realised that Pepper Street had gone solo with the departure of Bernice to the sun. Later John took off with Tangled Up In Blue, another Dylan, and then was in fine form with Johnny Cash's City Of New Orleans. Then it was time for the Von Trapps and Ed & Sue sang Joan Baez's Be Not Too Hard complete with a stirring guitar solo from son Kristian.

This led us to humour. Eric again had us rolling in the aisles with another Jacques Brel song - Comment tuer l'amant de sa femme quand on a ete eleve dans la tradition? Or How can one kill one's wife's lover when one has been well brought up? He also reminded us of the sillinesses of the Millenium before Derrick joined in with lots of items of Common Sense followed by many very funny Idiosyncrasies and Carl chipped in with a Jake Thackray song - The Blacksmith and the Toffee Maker. Finally Ed went solo with his love song for Valentines's Day in which he tells his loved on what he would do If My Nose Was Running Money but it's not.

Somewhere in the middle Alan treated us to a supper complete with chocolate birthday cake to celebrate his 60th and recent retardment, he reckons he's already losing his memory cos he couldn't remember when he had retired. We also had another treat in store when our old friend Jed walked through the door. He had been extremely busy since Christmas but had managed to make his first ever purchase on e-Bay, a new National-copy steel guitar to play slide on. When his wife found out he bought another she was incandescent. He quickly reminded what we had missed with Trouble in Mind and Peg and Awl by Bruce Molski.

Rob reminisced about our old friend Trevor Morton who wrote so many original and sometimes very funny poems/monologues and performed All's Well to great acclaim. He then had us Fathoming the Bowl with Michael joining in with the Red Rose Cafe before Salt Street raised the roof with Johnny Cope a famous Scottish Ballad.

The end came all too soon and Don & Heather led the throng in a lusty version of Reconciliation which attracted some commendable harmony singing again leaving people reluctant to leave their seats.

Newsletter No 15 - 3 February 2009

No snow and not even that cold brought another bunch of cheery choristers to The United Services Club for a good sing and some friendly craic. The evening ground to a start with a
tuning session. This was a new departure of only moderate success since it left the beautiful Fylde guitar just as Rob brought it, completely out of tune and John put his out later when he dashed it to the ground before accompanying Eric on Handshake Blues, for which some thought it sounded more funky.

Don & Heather kicked off with Steam Boat Road, a Rafferty special, and Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way, one of their own which prompted them to contemplate suing Elton John for pinching the title, before Carl launched the evening's battle between happy and sad songs by singing The Old England In You about his cousin Janet who returned to visit him in Manchester after 20 years. Robin kept the happy theme with Mister Dreamseller as did Michael with Paidin's Party but Pepper Street reminded us of the perils of the sea with Donegal Danny led by Mick. Eric took the theme even further with The Sailor's Wife inspired by Jacques Brel's Woman From Ostend in which she waits faithfully for her drunken, lecherous swain (correct spelling) who she hears has finally drowned but only after in desperation she has found another man because her husband never gave her any sign of affection. Then his letter declaring undying love arrives?!? It's always the way. Who would be a woman? Dave Pugh paying us another visit turned the tables with Dylan's Don't Think Twice from the man's point of view ably supported by Richard's The Saint a favourite of Brendan Behan who always saw his women taking a lower profile. Ann backed this up with The Bedmaking a variation of "the servant girl abused and discarded theme" in which the master was flung down the stairs by his wife and the maid was slung out on her ear at which point Ed put the other point of view with the story of the man who was thwarted by his greed when he would not marry the woman he wanted unless her father gave him The Grey Mare as well. O how she did gloat when she married another. Michael's Nancy Myles also led the men a merry dance.

Rob tried to redress the balance with his latest internet dating exploits before delivering The Process Man and Flower of Scotland but thank goodness for Derrick who provided a complete diversion with a tale of when Liverpool Street Station was the first and only railway station introducing the idea of boarding and alighting in the same place and therefore effectively travelling in time?*!*? Another Les Barker notion quickly followed by the story of what could happen if you got pulled into The Cash Machine along with your credit card.

Soon the mood slumped again with Robin's Long Black Veil quickly followed Ed's song of Disaster which easily won the prize for the greatest death and destruction. No wonder Pepper Street's Love Hurts and Big River gained fewer marks on the sad scale as did Michael's Thirty Foot Trailer and Carl's Nearer to Nettles. Dave did hit a note of poignancy with Sally Wheatley and Martyn Wyndham Read's Swagman as did Ann with Across The Well Moor before Richard's cheerfully round Plough Boy.

The biggest surprise of the night came from our friendly sponsor Jim who expressed his delight with Harvey Andrew's upcoming Special Concert on Saturday 21 February by telling of when he was a Para in Northern Ireland and he heard his Soldier, I Thank You which related the true story of how a soldier threw himself on a bomb about to go off and saved many lives but lost his own. This made him feel that perhaps it was all worthwhile and forever introduced him to folk music for which Sale Folk Club is eternally grateful. As you would expect, after a somewhat cathartic evening everyone went Rolling Home with Don & Heather in a happy frame of mind.