Current Review (Large Text Version)

FOLK SESSION – Black Lion, Hethersgill

Many thanks to the Black Lion for taking us in on 15th October, when our regular venue was temporarily unavailable. A warm welcome to newcomers Liz, David, Tim and Alison, joining us for the theme of ‘birds and other animals’.

To start with generic ‘birds’: the ‘small, free birds’ that fly above The Fields of Athenry (Phil); a ‘bird on the wing’ in the Skye Boat Song (Kath); the ‘small brown bird’ in Les’s own song Agree to Disagree; and the hymn I’ll Fly Away because Alison, showing the proper creative approach, pointed out that birds also fly!

Hens were well-represented, from The Crested Hen (Sally Hardaker on recorder); the ‘modest, sober, bone-dry hen’ (A Sober Thought – Sally Jones) to The Chickens in the Garden, sung by Geoff. Adrian promised to ‘crow like a cock’ as well as ‘carol like a lark’ (John Ball). Larks, along with ‘blackbirds and thrushes’ formed a Pleasant and Delightful chorus (Kath and Geoff); while Phil’s poignant The Lark Across the Vapour Trail reminded us of the fragile balance of nature. The Corvid family featured as sombre warning (Crow on the Cradle – Liz); as funny anecdote in Les’s introduction to his own song Busker’s Paradise; and as an emblem of the remote countryside in Where Ravens Feed (Kath).

David’s poem Mother’s Nest compares four children respectively to a robin, a blackbird, a swallow and a dove while Liz, in Dona Dona, drew our attention to the difference between the fate of the swallow and that of the calf. More unusual birds included the Mockingbird (Sally Jones); the Peacock’s March (Sally Hardaker on recorder); golden plovers and kestrels (Cloudberry Day – Phil); and an eagle (The Sweet Streams of Nancy – Katy).

And so to animals: horses were popular. Tim urged his horse to Ride On, while Les crossed the desert on A Horse With No Name and Martin won a race The Skewbald. Adrian took us through the enjoyable rigamarole of The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly until he reached ‘the horse – she died of course’. Richard’s epic performance of The Ballad of Hobie Noble included the lure of ‘a horse worth a hundred pounds’ to draw the outlaw over the border. Dogs can be working animals, whether lawful (With My Dog and Gun – Richard) or unlawful (While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping – Martin) or they can be pets, as in David’s poem The Puppy Called ‘It’. 

Wild – or at any rate, definitely not domesticated – animals ranged from the lion in Wimoweh (Alison); Britain’s Last Wolf (David); through Daddy Fox (Geoff and Kath), to The Ant and the Grasshopper (Martin). Aquatic animals included oysters (Oyster Girl – Sally Hardaker on recorder); fish (Summertime – Liz); a porpoise (The Eddystone Light – Adrian) and what might be called a partial fish (Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me – Tim).

We next meet on 19th November at 8pm, back in The Howard Arms, Brampton. The theme (a challenge!) will be ‘Truth, Lies and the Use of Words’.  ALL WELCOME!