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kniteracy(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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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.
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Oh I am a gamekeeper and I come from Nottinghamshire,
My master treated me decent but my mistress she was queer
I met her in the woods one day, she asked me for some game,
I messed up by best tweed suit but I enjoyed it just the same
With me deerstalker hat and me tooraloora-lie
I was the lover of Lady Chatterley.
Well we had a game of blind man's buff, she landed in the grass,
She looked so pretty lying there, and so I made a pass.
Her husband didn't seem to mind it, in fact it went to her head,
She pulled me into the covers and she pushed me into bed.
She said the aristocracy should mix with working folk,
She mixed alright with me that night, it got beyond a joke.
He husband couldn't please her, she said it was the war,
I said to myself he's gone on strike because he knows what he's in for.
And after we had finished what has since been called a bout
This pretty young maid jumped out of bed and then began to shout,
'There's that dirty D.H.Lawrence a-peeping round the door',
He was gone before that I could get my gun, and he wrote down all he saw.
Well they wouldn't let him publish it because it was pornographic,
But travellers brought it from abroad and did a roaring traffic.
Then Penguin took the case to court and had a bit of luck,
And they made a bloomin' fortune printing words like 'love a duck'
Well now I still think of her, although her sins were scarlet,
She befriended a working chap like me and now she's called a harlot.
And as for old Sir Clifford, he has given to me the sack,
Because he read what happened in bed that night in a Penguin paperback.
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 letfilceolaire 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 thoughfilceolaire 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.
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.Lady Chatterley's Lover
Oh I am a gamekeeper and I come from Nottinghamshire,
My master treated me decent but my mistress she was queer
I met her in the woods one day, she asked me for some game,
I messed up by best tweed suit but I enjoyed it just the same
With me deerstalker hat and me tooraloora-lie
I was the lover of Lady Chatterley.
Well we had a game of blind man's buff, she landed in the grass,
She looked so pretty lying there, and so I made a pass.
Her husband didn't seem to mind it, in fact it went to her head,
She pulled me into the covers and she pushed me into bed.
She said the aristocracy should mix with working folk,
She mixed alright with me that night, it got beyond a joke.
He husband couldn't please her, she said it was the war,
I said to myself he's gone on strike because he knows what he's in for.
And after we had finished what has since been called a bout
This pretty young maid jumped out of bed and then began to shout,
'There's that dirty D.H.Lawrence a-peeping round the door',
He was gone before that I could get my gun, and he wrote down all he saw.
Well they wouldn't let him publish it because it was pornographic,
But travellers brought it from abroad and did a roaring traffic.
Then Penguin took the case to court and had a bit of luck,
And they made a bloomin' fortune printing words like 'love a duck'
Well now I still think of her, although her sins were scarlet,
She befriended a working chap like me and now she's called a harlot.
And as for old Sir Clifford, he has given to me the sack,
Because he read what happened in bed that night in a Penguin paperback.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-15 11:44 pm (UTC)Les got on very well with Bill and Brenda at Conchord a couple of months back.
Oh, and mention my name to him of course :-)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-16 11:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-15 11:59 pm (UTC)Don't be intimidated by the mention of Martin Carthy. Because one of these days you'll meet him (he comes to the library reasonably often), and you'll realise that you shouldn't be intimidated by the man in person, let alone by mention of him. He's *lovely*. I've met him several times and think he's wonderful. He isn't big or scary - he loves the music, just the same as you do, and on that basis, you'll get on just *fine*.
I don't think I've ever met such a humble man with such a big talent :-)
And I can pretty much guarantee that if you do find yourself at a singaround with him, he'll be genuinely interested in your US/UK material and how the two link up.
BTW: one of his younger daughters (not Liza) is an SF fan and kind of a peripheral filker apparently. I don't know her, but she certainly knows of the scene!
no subject
Date: 2005-10-16 11:26 am (UTC)It doesn't sound like name-dropping; you'd mentioned that Carthy stopped by the library on occasion. I believe you said your take on "Lowlands of Holland" would never be the same. ;-)
Most people when you get to know them are just regular people. I guess I'm intimidated because if Croydon advertises itself that way, there's a certain standard they want to keep to. And while I know I'm probably well above it, it doesn't stop me worrying, because I am a worrywart.
Cool on the daughter! On that note, I think quite a lot of filk would go over very well at Eltham.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-16 12:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-16 11:27 am (UTC)Even though it won't make you feel any better, you've quite the jump on me: I didn't get my first harp or start playing until I was thirty, and lookie what I can do. :)
Best,
G
no subject
Date: 2005-10-16 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-16 12:27 am (UTC)From what I can tell from my forays into the wider Mountain Dulcimer community, as long as you avoid "Bile Dem Cabbage" you'll stay out of trouble in that regard.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-16 11:29 am (UTC)I probably should have added you to my friens list awhile ago; I'll do that today, mostly so your comments won't be screened at first. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-16 06:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-16 10:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-16 11:30 am (UTC)