FOLK SESSION – Howard Arms, Brampton
Ingenuity and variety were the order of the day when we met on 16th June to sing, recite and make music to the theme of ‘Boundaries’. It was a pleasure to welcome Steve back again.
Situated as we are, in northern Cumbria, it’s not surprising that Hadrian’s Wall popped up a few times: in poetry - Hadrian’s Ridge, recited by Chris; Auden’s Roman Wall Blues and Norman Nicholson’s The Wall, both recited by Geoff P; and in song - Phil’s song in honour of the prehistoric Black Dyke, which brought in not only Hadrian’s Wall, but also Offa’s Dyke and the Great Wall of China. Charles ‘thought big’ with a wall built in Hell (Why We Build the Wall). We had emotional, moral and psychological walls in Richard’s love song Four Walls and in Ron’s Walls, Fences, Borders, Gates. On a more tangible level, John G played us The Walls of Liscarrol on mouth organ; while Phil was grateful to go Stottin’ Doon the Waal after a night at the pub; and praised The Tailor of the Dales whose drystone walls criss-cross the Yorkshire landscape.
Other physical boundaries included Swinging on a Gate, played by John G; the ‘hedges and ditches’ crossed by the Leaboy’s Lassie (Gerda); revolutionary barricades (Where Are the Barricades? – Geoff P); and the door between the shy lover and his sweetheart (I Followed Her Into the West – Richard). Kath, getting creative, interpreted the crags and mountains Where Ravens Feed as boundaries, and Chris gloried in ‘spring hitting the Great Divide’ (The Night Rider’s Lament). Rivers are clear physical boundaries, sometimes because they separate lovers, as when Gerda demanded Bring Me a Boat, or when Charles lamented that The Water Is Wide; sometimes because they form a national border, such as the Solway in Steve’s own song White Mare of Solway Firth; and the Sark and Tweed in Parcel of Rogues (Katy); sometimes just because they cause us to pause On the River Bank (John G on mouth organ).
Borders, whether international or internal, proved a popular variation. John L’s Girl From the North Country refers to the weather ‘on the Border line’; and the father in Anne’s Sleep, My Babe is ‘riding the Borderside’; Ron praised The Rolling Hills of the Borders, whereas Jane grieved over the order that sent The Flowers of the Forest over the Border to be slaughtered at Flodden. John G’s narrator in the northern United States is homesick for the Dixie Line; American border control was the unlikely subject of the excellent Isle of Hope (Steve); and Kath and Geoff B argued that This Land Is Your Land implied ‘a boundary all around the country’! Geoff B also stretched the idea with The Man That I Am, which takes the protagonist across borders and over the Equator.
We heard about unspecified and metaphorical boundaries: Gerda’s looked forward to When I Get to the Border; Richard was sad to be Standing At the Border; Jane sang Maria’s Gone because ‘Maria probably went across a border’ (of some kind); John complained of ‘the line that divides me somewhere in my mind’ as he walked the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
Finally, Anne sang us out with the boundary that we all have to face when Crossing the Bar.
We next meet on 21st July at 8pm in the Howard Arms, Brampton, Our theme will be ‘Weather’. ALL WELCOME!