State of the Harper: The Week in Folk Music

(For those of you on my regular friends list, this is a public post, which is why some information you already know will be repeated or consolidated.)

Work proceeds happily. I like working at the English Folk Dance and Song Society. And no, it's not just because I can go to the library whenever I want (OK, whenever I get a free few minutes to piece together!), promise. Really. Stop looking at me like that!

Tuesday night, I went to Sharps Folk Club at the Cecil Sharp House, and it was a nice singaround night. I delivered messages, found a nice place to sit, and somehow, once BJ got there to open the bar, had to force myself to drink a whole pint of cider without filceolaire there to help me-- he'd been sent home from work but insisted that I go ahead to Sharps. I sang "Black Jack Davey" and "Little Sparrow" and sold no CDs. Highlights of the night included the usual really fine singing at Sharps by the usual really friendly people. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Sharps is lovely, in that most of the singers (with some very notable exceptions) are men, mostly baritones, although there are a couple of fine tenors there as well. There were two new people, one who swore he'd met me in the library and knew my name and was really chatty and personable, which struck me as just a little odd, since he was English and all; the other was Justin from Long Island, who strikes me as a pro, but a nice pro (hey, I'm a pro but a nice pro: takes one to know one, yes?). I would have to say that the other highlight of the night was for me the singing of a fellow whose name I don't know yet, a song that must have been called "Lady Chatterley's Lover." I did a search on Mudcat for the lyrics, and they're just as funnier the second time around. Nobody seems to know who wrote the song, though it's suspected he was local to Nottingham's FC in the sixties.

( Lyrics to Lady Chatterley's Lover )

I know, I know. But bawdy isn't beneath me, especially when it's, um, literary! ;-)

So Wednesday, filceolaire was feeling quite a bit better and went back to work, although he left early because he got plenty of stuff done. We did the usual meet-on-the-train-platform thing before heading off to the Tudor Barn in Eltham for the Wednesday night Eltham Folkmob. This Wednesday, the Folkmob had a PA/open mic night, which was fun but which got kind of loud. The Folkmob aren't exactly traditional, see.... they don't mind traditional folk music, but they allow and encourage all kinds of other things as well. There's a fellow there who does a lot of blues, several frustrated middle-aged rockers, a guy who covers a lot of Hank Williams tunes, and some singer-songwriter fare that you just won't hear at a place like Sharps, which is not a roomful of humourless folk-nazis, but fairly traditional. A band called Elusive Teeth opened and did a three-song set (they closed as well, with a different three-song set), and they were OK but they didn't make me want to scream. The lead singer had a nice voice and the bass player was really good, but the one who really wanted to rawk was the lead guitarist. I understand the band is mostly about the singer; the personnel changes as he feels like changing it. There were some good songs there. The one cover (that I knew of) that they did was of 10CC's hideous "I'm Not In Love." I couldn't believe anybody liked that song enough to cover it, but hey. They actually did a better job than 10CC did, although that may be damning with faint praise. We saw a duo, whose names I can't remember, of fellows who said that was their first time playing out, and they were working from sheet music, but boy were they good. They had made fantastic choices with their material. There were blues players and a capella singers and the MC made jokes about my knitting, saying he wasn't going to put me on until I was done with my sock. It was a fun night, our third time there. People hugged us when we left and chatted with us about local schools and stuff. We're beginning to feel comfortable with the crowd, and their eclecticism only makes them more appealing, to me at least. I did a three-song set of "Little Sparrow" "Little Boy Blue" and "Like Scheherezade." I didn't notice until the next day that all these songs begin with the same letter.... I gave one CD to the raffle and sold another after the night was over, which was a good thing.

The rest of the week, we relaxed and let filceolaire recover from his nastycold, and on Friday I picked up the Appalachian dulcimer and started really working with it. What a sweet instrument. I know, I know, I've had this thing in my possession since February and I'm only now getting around to doing something with it? Hey, we've been busy, OK? I experimented with five or six different tunings, broke two strings, made an order for one set of strings over the net and took an emergency trip to Lewisham for some other strings, just in case-- and by eleven o'clock Saturday night, I had a passable dulcimer accompaniment for a song called "Bachelor Hall," which I remember from some song workshop or other, but which appears in Jean Ritchie's Appalachian Dulcimer Book. Now, this probably means that everybody and their brother who's learning to play the dulcimer learns this song, but I don't mind it too much. I may even feel brave and take the dulcimer to Sharps next Tuesday, assuming I can commit it to memory in time to do that. I've gotten to where, despite my filky leanings, I really don't like to play from printed music or even lead sheets: it distracts me from what I want to be doing, which is singing like I mean it.

And a news flash, for those of you in the London area: The Mrs. Ackroyd Band will be at Croydon FC on Monday night. Anybody want to come out with us? We've never been to Croydon before, and it intimidates the heck out of me because all their literature brags about how often Martin Carthy visits there, so I won't be taking an instrument-- they don't know me from adam, after all. Maybe once we've sussed the crowd out, we'll try doing a singer's night there, just to see what it's like. Please leave a comment if you'd like to meet up in Croydon on Monday night!

And now with my achy fingers I'll take myself to bed. Tomorrow looks to be full of bread baking and more dulcimer work, so it's not like I'll be bored, even though filceolaire has a rehearsal in the afternoon. Bonus prize for tomorrow night: we get pola_bear! And a side dish of aunty_marion, at least for a few hours. Life is good-- and that's the week in folk music.

Iron Bard, anyone?

Edit: this round is now CLOSED.

Well, OK. It may be jumping on a bandwagon, since cadhla started this and vixyish (and I'm really sorry I got this name wrong originally) has done it with her special talent as well, and just recently peteralway did it too-- but you know what? I haven't written a song in over a year now, and I'm starting to feel a little bit uncreative.

So, in the spirit of those three luminaries named above, and with help from khaosworks who helped me choose a name for this silliness-with-a-purpose, and folkmew who vetted the rules and gave me moral support-- I invite you to challenge me to...

Iron Bard

What's the Objective?

For each person who comments before the round is closed, I will write a complete song, which may or may not be award- or record- worthy, but which will be a song with a melody and words and which I will have the ability to sing at least once. I reserve the right to choose which songs I sing more than once. ;)

Rules:

1. You must leave a comment to participate.
   
2. In your comment, you may give me any or all of the following things:
   
   1. Subject matter, as little as an idea and as much as a complete story-- the single word 'love' probably won't give me much to go on;
      
   2. Should it be a story song (like Song of Fey Cross or Barbara Allen) or a more abstract song (like Love Song For a Friend or Imagine)?
      
   3. Metre-- 2/4, 4/4, 3/4, 6/8 (only these regular metres, please; I think songs work best in simple metres, and you aren't going to change my mind by submitting a more complex one);
      
   4. A format to follow, like verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, verse-- if you're interested in that sort of thing. You can also tell me if it's important to you that the song have a singable refrain or chorus here. Note that I really think songs end up as long as they need to be, but if you have a strong opinion about length, you can note it here. I'm not planning on writing any 26-verse ballads here, but you never know....
      
   5. Would you like the song to have a major feel, a minor feel, or a modal feel, and if modal, which one? (dorian and mixolydian are the two modes most frequently employed in folk music, although you'll see others-- I'm discounting ionian and aeolian modes here because most people think of those as 'major' and 'minor'. lydian and phyrigian are quite rare, and I'd rather not work in lochrian, because it's difficult to handle melodies that don't resolve the way my ears want to resolve them.)
      
   6. Specific words, settings, names, places, or other things that you would like me to include in 'your' song.
      
   7. When and if this song is completed to performance standard, would you like it to be performed: a) a capella; b) with the harp; or c) with the lap dulcimer?
   
   
3. I appreciate the process of collaboration, but this experiment is intended to force me to write songs and d individual songwriting work. While some of the entries may inspire you, please don't helpfully answer challenges. I get to be the bard in my journal.
   
4. No anonymous (unsigned) submissions will be taken, although people not on my friends list (whose replies will at first be screened) will be considered. If you do not have a LJ account, it is fine for you to post an anonymous reply (which will be screened) with your request, but you must sign your submission with a name that can be verified and tell me where you heard about Iron Bard from. An email address (so I can get your song back to you) would also be helpful. :)
   
5. I will decide when the round closes, or if indeed there will be another round.
   
6. And a late amendment, which will be added in to the rules more gracefully at a later time: despite being part of the filk community, I almost never write about books, tv shows, or films, although I do write about myths, fairytales, and ballads. I'm not sure why that is, but remember that I'm not much for TV and unless the characters are real live archetypes, I tend to make them up as I go along. ;)
   
7. Late amendment the second-- for those of you who don't know, I tend not to set other people's words to music (though the one poem that's been suggested already is one I really like, so I'm considering it anyway).

I do not promise results, but I sure hope I get some. I'll do my best, and that is a promise. I'll tear another leaf from cadhla's book and post responses as comments here, then post reminders to people on the journal as to where completed songs can be found. I do not promise that mp3s will be posted, but I will do my best to get that capability eventually, and if I see you in person, I'll do my best to play 'your' song for you. I do not promise that 'your' song will be about you, but it will of course be inspired by the suggestions you gave me in this happy game of Iron Bard. Obviously, in the end this'll be my work and my song and blah-ti-blah author blah-ti-blah copyright, blah-ti-blah carniverous millipedes, etc.

Let the games begin.