Folk Session -- Howard Arms Brampton
As to be expected, with a theme of “Travel and Transport”, there were the expected trains, boats, planes and automobiles, but also rowers, cyclists, and pedestrians. A warm welcome to Peter, who travelled up the M6 to be with us for the first (and hopefully not the last) time.
On the water: Gerda gave a memorable rendering of the gaeltacht “Fhir a Bhata“, (The Boatman); Alan took the original lyrics of John Masefield’s “Ships” put them against a haunting melody, and then added his own verses to bring it up to date. Steve reluctantly took a trip on “The Grey Funnel Line”, while Chris regaled the story of George Harbo & Frank Samuelsen, the first to row across the Atlantic Ocean from New York, to Le Havre in their boat “The Fox”. Stan Graham’s “Whitby Harbour” was Sally Jones’ contribution to the watery aspect of the theme. Our other Sally (Hardaker) took us “Over the Sea to Skye”.
In the air: Gary left us “On a Jet Plane”, while Phil took us on an eventful flight to Lanzarotte in “The Rime of the Modern Frequent Flier” (apologies to John Walsh and also Coleridge). Presumably Sally Hardaker flew when she took “The Trip to Pakistan”.
On horseback: Charles entertained us with “Widdicombe Fair”, and Les accompanied by his uke, sang “Night Riders for Life”. Jane even rode her pony on a boat “If I Had a Boat”.
By Bicycle: Richard put bike clips on to journey from John O’ Groats to Land’s End, stopping off on the way to see his new born grandchild.
On the rails: Adrian told of “The Runaway Train”, and the story of “Cosher Bailey’s Engine”, and on a similar theme Richard recounted the idiosyncrasies of the Ennis to Kilkee railway in “Are you Right Michael”. Phil sang about the “Settle to Carlisle” line.
On the tarmac: Sally Jones’ had us singing along to “King of the Road”; Gerda “The Open Road”; and Sally Hardaker, “The Road to the North”. Pedestrians figured in Peter’s “The Boot and Shoe”, while the road of life featured in “The Lifestyle You Ordered”. Alan took Sally (not one of the ones here!) on a ride in/on a Mustang (was that the car or a horse?). Richard certainly ended up on the bus when his bothy ballad told of the story about his stay at the Gelder Shiel bothy, and the sequestration of his car by the security forces.
A large selection of transport modes "..walked, thumbed, rode buses, rode trains, ridden a time or two in a silver plane.." were detailed in John’s “Bound for the Mountains and the Sea”.
As a tribute to the men who built our railways, Gerda rounded off the evening “shifting a few tons of earthly delight” with the song “Navigator”.
The theme next month was agreed to be “Birds and other Animals”
IMPORTANT!! Next month there is no room at the inn at The Howard. So we will meet instead at The Black Lion in Hethersgill village. 8:00pm as usual Tuesday 15th October. There will be details how to locate The Black Lion on the web site and also attached to the invitation e-mail.