FOLK SESSION – Howard Arms, Brampton
We were given a quirky theme for September’s session, (‘Means of Communication’), and tackled it in some original and ingenious ways. Welcome to Sandy from Kinross, joining us while visiting north Cumbria.
Written communication was well-represented, for example the newspaper announcement of the marriage of The Calico Printer’s Clerk (Chris). Charles, reciting Auden’s Night Mail, and Adrian, singing Postman’s Knock, both praised the work of the Post Office; while the steamer Ellan Vannin (Geoff and Kath) was transporting the mail when it sank in 1909 with total loss of life. Boots of Spanish Leather (Jane and John L) included a letter from an inconstant lover; Adrian’s The Sick Note described the misfortunes of a building site labourer; the sailor sweetheart writes a letter to Pretty Nancy from Yarmouth (John L); and the distraught parents, discovering their daughter’s note, lament that She’s Leaving Home (Geoff and Kath).
Most of us communicate primarily through speech, such as the ‘young girl calling’ in The Fields of Athenry (Linda) and Ron’s soldier inviting his sweetheart, Will Ye Go to Flanders? Sandy gave us a conversation about The Road and the Miles to Dundee, while Sally’s recruiting sergeant persuaded young men to enlist as he went Marching Through Rochester. Orders can be given verbally, so the soldier in Steve’s Blue Cockade is instructed by his captain to march away, while the travellers in Sally’s Moving-On Song are told to ‘get along, move along’ by the police, the farmer and the local people. Anne sang the tall tale of The Talking Dog, while Gerda warned us of the consequences If Walls Could Talk. Steve’s ‘dead love’ spoke to him in a dream (She Moved Through the Fair). Also supernatural, but without the eerie atmosphere, was Chris’s story of How Butterflies Taught Children to Walk, which involved a discussion between Nanabush and the Great Spirit.
Phil brought us into the 21st Century with a mobile phone in The Rime of the Modern Frequent Flyer and the whole gamut of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram etc in the late Sam Millington’s iLove. Landline telephones featured in John G’s tune on harmonica, The Telephonist; and the father trying to contact his daughter in Memphis, Tennessee (Charles).
Some ingenious takes on the theme included an array of signs and signals. Katy Cruel (Gerda) ‘dyed her petticoats red’; John G’s Thousands Are Sailing communicated by handkerchief as they waved goodbye to Ireland; Ron and Linda’s pirates instructed their fellows to Hoist the Colours; the Horn of the Hunter (Anne) rallied huntsmen and hounds; and the Laird of Ochiltree (Katy) announced his escape with two pistol shots.
And finally, to wrap up some original approaches…Jane lamented that music was offered For Free but did not move the passers-by; Gerda communed with nature (Lay My Heart) and Phil with the coalface (Jowl, Jowl and Listen); the Bells of Tipperary and Shandon Bells (John G on harmonica) send messages as bells do – warnings, celebrations and calls to prayer.
We next meet on 20th October at 8pm in The Howard Arms, Brampton. The theme will be ‘Food’ (but not drink). ALL WELCOME!