FOLK SESSION – Howard Arms, Brampton

We met on 16^th September in the Howard Arms, Brampton, to make music and tell stories on the theme of ‘Celestial Bodies’. It was a pleasure to welcome newcomers Geoff P, Ron and Linda.

Of all potential celestial bodies, the moon proved the most song-worthy. The moon definitely has romantic connotations: Steve praised his beloved for drawing him as ‘the moon pulls on the tide’ (Dimming of the Day) and, in his own song, stated You Shine on Me (Like the Moon). Alan’s song invited his sweetheart to dance at the time of a Harvest Moon; Ron and Linda lamented lost love under the Blue Moon of Kentucky; and Geoff P described a brief encounter with a woman who asked him to ‘show her the moon’ (Of Course I Will). The improbable events of Chris’s The Grey Goose and the Gander take place by the ‘light of the moon; John L sang to us about the lonely existence of The Man in the Moon, and, (still in the realm of tall tales), Jennifer’s Rabbit (Sally) builds a castle of moonbeams. Tallest of all tales, however, was Phil’s circumstantial account of how The First Man on the Moon Was a Cumbrian! The Voyage of the Moon (Gary) foretells a journey towards joy, whereas Bad Moon Rising (Ron and Linda) predicts disaster and death. Equally sinister and dramatic is Jane’s Mother’s Savage Daughter, who ‘howls at the moon’.

Stars came next.  Kath mourned for Vincent and his ‘starry, starry night’. Gerda sang of the ‘pull of the Pole Star’ at the First Frost; Charles was So In Love as ‘stars fill the sky’; Jane asked her lover to Dream a Little Dream of Me while stars were shining above and Les hoped to Make You Feel My Love as ‘stars appear’. Sally commented on the impossibility of ‘lighting a penny candle from a star’ (Galway Bay), while Geoff P compares his ship to an ‘upward shooting star’ as he is Off to Outer Space Tomorrow Morning. Geoff B didn’t travel quite so far, but still told us that he was Born Under a Wandering Star. John G on harmonica found several star-themed tunes: The Star of Munster; The Star of the County Down; and Seven Stars. Chris told the story of Nanabush and How the Bear Lost His Tail, and worked round cunningly to a reference to the constellation of Ursa Major!

‘The sun was going down’ over the Sand and Foam in Mexico (Gary) but ‘rising bright in France’, watched by a Jacobite exile (My Ain Countrie – Katy). Under his classical name of ‘bright Phoebus’, the sun arises in John L’s Thousands or More. Adrian’s baby ‘cries for the sun’ (Crow on the Cradle), while Alan sang for My Friend the Sun. Phil managed to work in every imaginable heavenly body (red sunrise; silvery moon; shooting stars; Northern Lights) as witnessed by The Old Man of the Sea.

 

Gerda likewise watched ‘the borealis’ (This Is Where I Lay My Heart), which brings us to the less obvious Celestial Bodies.  Charles most ingeniously sang Tom Lehrer’s The Elements because it mentions Mercury! Anne thought big and found a reference to ‘galaxies’ (okay, ‘of cotton mills’, but the principle holds good!) in Elsie Bell.

 

And finally, we move on to metaphysical Celestial Bodies: Les told us the story of the Angel of Mons; Anne’s angels took us back to the Civil War (To Althea, From Prison).  Kath and Geoff looked forward to the life that is to come (Going Home). So did Adrian - sort of - with his parodic anticipation of paradise for Morris dancers, When Your Bells Have Turned Green.

 

We next meet at 8pm on 21^st October in The Howard Arms with the theme ‘Trains and Railways’. ALL WELCOME!

P.S. If anyone wishes to dispute whether the Aurora Borealis is a Celestial Body, we will stand our ground! – Katy and Anne 😊