FOLK SESSION – Howard Arms, Brampton

We missed some regular faces (voices?) on 20^th May when we met in the Howard Arms, but were very pleased to welcome Martin joining us again from London, and two visitors who came to listen.

Our theme was ‘Furniture/Household Plenishing’. Charles and Martin both went for the big picture, so to speak, with Not Without a Fight (Charles), about a family resisting their home being bulldozed in Gaza, and The Auction Song (Martin), about poverty leading to a family’s household possessions being auctioned and dispersed.

The most frequently mentioned item of furniture, (this is, after all, folk music!), was the bed. Charles presented it as the most basic necessity threatened by flood waters in River, Stay Away from My Door. In mood, we ranged from romps in Grandma’s Feather Bed (Kath), through sleeping children visited by John o’ Dreams (Phil) and the giver of Scarlet Ribbons (Jane), to the inevitable seduction at The Bedmaking (John). ‘Bed’ was also the scene of ultimate revenge by a battered wife (involving needle, thread, frying pan, rolling pin etc) in Gary’s Stitch in Time.

 

Next came chairs of all sorts. Les announced You Ain’t Going Nowhere in an easy chair (not surprising, really). Phil inherited a fortune hidden in Granny’s Old Arm Chair. Anne’s parody of Side by Side included a chair as well as a bed. We had a kitchen chair in Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (John); a chair of bamboo in Sand and Foam (Gary); a pub chair in the Red Rose Café (Les) and a sofa in Sam’s Self-Assembly Blues and Yellows (sung by Alan). Tables and chairs go together, and were mentioned accordingly in Les’s own song People to People, while John on mandolin played us William Taylor’s Tabletop Hornpipe.

 

Clocks were unexpectedly popular, whether as the main theme in My Grandfather’s Clock (Geoff and Kath); a metaphor in Charles’ The Windmills of Your Mind; or a passing reference in Jane’s If You Wait.

 

Tools and household equipment cropped up as baskets and creels in Martin’s Thirty-Foot Trailer; in Anne’s exhortation to Dance Around the Spinning Wheel and Geoff’s plea to Buy Broom Besoms; in Jane’s Bogie’s Bonny Belle (pots, pans, paraffin lamps); in Martin’s Oak and Ash and Thorn (bowl and cups), and as a metaphorical Potter’s Wheel (Kath). Household linen sneaked in, taking the form of sheets offered to The Jolly Beggar (Phil); a pillow supporting the heroine’s head in That’s No Way to Say Goodbye (Jane) and Katy’s query O, Can Ye Sew Cushions?

 

And who would have thought that so many obscure and unexpected household items could work their way into song? Bookshelves? Anne’s Joyce the Librarian! Litter trays? Alan’s Our Cat! A fuse-box and a gas-tap? Geoff’s The Gas-Man Cometh! A phonograph? Alan’s Don’t Blame the Motorman! A mantlepiece? Anne’s The Keyhole in the Door! Not to mention Gary’s Little Pot Stove.

We next meet on Tuesday 17^th June at 8pm in The Howard Arms, Brampton. The theme will be ‘Wildlife’ – forests, wildflowers, wild animals etc.  ALL WELCOME!