(Sleeve notes for a prospective extended play recording)
In another life I had experience in public speaking,
on many occasions to crowds of thousands of people. But nothing prepared me for
being dragged by my daughter to a folk club and being asked to sing a Welsh
ballad at a rather venerable age. My confidence disappeared at the first croak.
If only the floor could open up allowing the singer to disappear before
lurching into verse three.
But I got through it. We visited more folk clubs and
my daughter’s career as a singer-songwriter took off. I got to singing with her
on certain songs, and decided that I should have done all this decades before,
rather than just being a couch potato listening to folk sounds on shellac,
vinyl, cassette and CD – let alone the more recent trusty iPod. It is good to
sing. It makes you feel good. How it makes the audience feel is – er –
variable, but having heard and seen all the others on the folk scene there
seemed room for a wide variety of people to enjoy themselves this way.
Make a CD my daughter said. Well, I’ll give it a go.
I will pick some of my favourite songs, those actually completed in a folk club
environment. So here they are.
And remember that if you dislike the sounds, CDs can
make good table mats and when strung together have been known to frighten birds
away from the fruit and veg.
As an ancient writer once noted (Ecclesiastes 1:2)
vanity, all is vanity.
Coyotee
I heard Pete Seeger sing this many decades ago.It’s
a song by Native American activist Pete Lefarge about the attacks on the animal
and its environment. Not one to attempt “live” if you know what’s good for you.
Go to work on
Monday
I heard Roy Bailey do this song at the Wickham Folk
festival. Roy’s age when he sang it (even older than ME) and the fact that the
song is only two chords made it most appealing. It is one of those songs where
the audience never fails to join in. Try it.
Bright Star
Shining
For several years running we were able to visit the
Perthshire Amber folk festival run by Dougie Maclean. One of his regular guests
was Buddy McDonald, a seasoned singer-songwriter from Nova Scotia. We also
attended a song-writing workshop by him. This is one of his songs. The track
also features Hannah Fisher on fiddle who we met at the same festival; with the
wonders of modern technology she put down her part at home on the Isle of Mull.
We never did hear Buddy sing it, but he kindly emailed the chords. It’s a really
nice song, the long and winding road, that sort of thing.
Merrie Old
England
A modern take on what sounds like an old song and an
old theme. Roy Bailey nailed it. It’s a song of disallusionment, as the
idealistic younger generation get their hair cut, take out mortgages and join
mainstream, and the problems sort of remain the same for a section of society.
Alas, there are no real solutions offered.
I Wanna be Elvis
I heard this almost throwaway song by John Stewart
on a bootleg live performance tape. I emailed John about him recording it and
actually got an email back. It was coming out on a forthcoming release, which
of course I obtained. I love singing it live at folk clubs because it’s only
three chords and the audience immediately pick up the chorus “Uh-huh, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah.” Move over Shakespeare…
Dreamers on the
Rise
This has been my favourite John Stewart song since
first hearing it in the early 1980s. The best version I heard was the one
recorded on the Last Campaign album with Chuck McDermott singing harmony. I am
very pleased to have Chuck on this recording, thanks to the wonders of the
internet. My daughter, Amy, also sings on this version. We have recorded it
before, just the two of us, as well as singing it numerous times at gigs. It’s
a song about the ups and downs of a lasting love affair.
Eyes of Sweet
Virginia
This is a John Stewart song about loneliness “on the
road.” Amy and I sang this together perhaps more than any other song, but she
had the opportunity to sing it with John Stewart’s old singing partner, Chuck
McDermott when she recorded it professionally. Who can blame her? But here we
are, the two of us, live at a folk club, “hang on dreams, you ‘aint seen it
all, but I don’t want much, I just want it all…”
Wimoweh
Pete Seeger first heard the recording of Mbube by
Solomon Linda and his Evening Birds in the 1940s. Mishearing the title as
Wimoweh, he did it with the Weavers. I then heard it on Radio Luxembourg by the
Weavers with a Valve Portable Radio the size of large brick clamped to my ear.
I can’t exactly say the rest is history, but I love attempting this song with a
well-contented audience. I think it was the Oysterband who said, the more you
drink, the better I sound… Just start
off in the right key, otherwise it becomes Wimo-screech, and for once –
blissfully – don’t agonize over remembering the words…
