Four Chesnuts

After a busy couple of days helping my daughter move had lovely evening of music at the Four Chesnuts. No guest tonight, so a good old singaround, chalky was M.C. and we had afew newcomers...a melodeon player, Lester, a lovely unaccompanied singer Jan fro petersfield and Nigel, new to the area, but will certainly come again bringing his instruments next time.
I sang The Grey Cockerel and the Unquiet Grave and they both went down well.
Another good night in good company.

Royal Oak Langstone

I spent a relaxing evening on Sunday in the company of the local folk club. There weren't many of us, so we went round the group several times and shared our music.
I sang: King Jame's Version
The Ploughboy
The Farmer's Boy
Bay of Biscay
Stow Brow
Springhill Mining Disaster

Hampshire Song Day Titchfield

Well, I went to this gathering with mixed feelings, because I wasn't really sure how it was going to work out. There had been a lot of changes to the programme and I ended up with a slot in the evening. however I was there for nearly the whole day and helped out on the door, which was fine. It also enabled me to take in the Titchfield talk by Paul Hawkins and Bob Askew's really interesting profile of George Gardiner, the not so well known folk song collector.
There were also good performances from Jeff Henry, Gwillam Jones, Tangle, Pete Watkinson, Steve Jordan and the Askew Sisters. We'd all taken on the task of learning new songs from the Gardiner collection, and all of us had found it a very difficult, but rewarding process. Some interspersed their sets with other material and everyone enjoyed the day.
I had a particularly enjoyable set comprising of songs collected by Gardiner, but some with a different twist to them.
I sang: the Drowned Lover
Bushes and Briars
The Cruel Ship's Carpenter
Sheepcrook and Blackdog
The Blacksmith
The Unquiet Grave
Blackberry Fold
Wow! what a buzz that was...to do so many songs to a very appreciative audience. I so enjoyed myself. I received a lot of positive feedback: Steve Jordan has invited me to do a spot at his club in the New Year, the organisers of St. Dennys club invited me down, as did Trevor and Jane from the Fo'c's'le and the Gosport King's Head club. Bob Askew and the Askew sisters all said how much they enjoyed the set, so I came away feeling on top of the world.
I've decided to bite the bullet and go to the recording studio...watch this space!!!

Ashurst Chorus and Harmony night

Last Wednesday, I joined Ken and Mave from Chichester for a trip to the Ashurst club. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but we had a really great evening of harmonies and choruses. I think it's a different idea, which went down well. I have never really learned any chorus songs, so that was a challenge for a start, but I managed The Ploughboy and that was well received. Then I surprised myself and joined in with many of the other songs that were offered. It certainly won't be my last visit there. I'll have to look out some new material and practise harmonising, but all good experience!

the four chesnuts

Another lovely evening at the Chichester folk club. Sue and Malcolm had to try to get round the large circle with the theme Moments in History. Most of us took this to mean war stories, or related items, but the poignancy of the evening was the actual date 9/11: an event that no-one took up for their rendition. There were poems, readings and songs on a variety of aspects in history and Malcolm related some interesting historical facts.
I sang the Springhill Mining Disaster and Brave Wolfe, so managed to keep with the theme without being totally war dominated.
I'm going to try a "new to me" club tomorrow evening, so I'll keep you posted.

Burnham folk fest

headed down to catch some different folk music...not so traditional as I normally listen to....met up with friends and we all took in the Friday night concert.Black friday...a really enjoyable evening of drinking and dancing!!
The rest of the weekend we moved from pub to pub taking in the varieties of music that were on offer. Two notable bands were Fallen Apples and Armitage Skanks, not my usual listening material, but great bands both. I did an opn mic spot, singing Bay of Biscay, Diego's Bold Shore and 10,000 miles and really enjoyed it. On Sunday we heard various groups playing in the park: Bag of Rats, Dragonsfly and then Jackie Oates and Ron Trueman Border. They were all very entertaining and the rain held off right till the end. A thoroughly enjoyable weekend all round.
Tuesday evening and back to the Four Chesnuts with the fantastic Askew Sisters guesting. They performed 2 great sets and everyone really enjoyed them. Only the chance of one song each from the audience tonight, so I did The Ploughboy, one I had learned from the singing of the Watersons.
Thursday evening saw a departure from the norm, when I went to the Half Brick pub in Worthing to see Hamish Currie doing a gig. We all had a good night and I cheekily snuck in a couple of old favourites: The Bay of Biscay and Diego's Bold Shore.
Just returned from a lovely evening at the Regnum Club in Chichester where we had a very easy singaround. A great time was had by all. I sang Lord Gregory and The Grey Cockerel.