From Ayla:

Here are February’s tunes of the month – by special request of Alan the piper – two polka-type tunes.

1st tune March of the Men of Devon AKA Ymdaith Gŵyr Dyfnaint

Actually a Welsh tune – one source I’ve seen claims it is from South Wales as the limestone trade by boat over the Bristol channel used to bring many Devonians to the south coast of Wales.

Music: [from Folktunefinder] or an easier version possibly (with fewer semi-quavers!) [from The Session]

Videos: [Flute] [Melodeon and concertina] (2nd tune 1.38 minutes in)

2nd tune Foul Weather Call

This is a traditional Sussex tune from the 19th century manuscripts of the Welch family from Bosham.

Music: [from Folktunefinder]
Video: Not many out there – [Melodeon]

As usual, the sound clips and printed music links aim to give a feeling for how these tunes are currently played in sessions, but they don’t of course represent one ‘correct’ way of playing these tunes.

From Ayla:

After a bit of discussion at the December session we’ve decided that we won’t specify one tune or the other as the ‘easy’ tune for the beginners’ hour … mainly because one person’s ‘easy’ is another person’s ‘hard’!

So here are the two tunes for the 10 January 2012 session – we are going for a Northumbrian theme:

1st tune – Because He Was A Bonny Lad

Video: [melodeon] (second tune)
Music: [abc] [png]

Traditional Northumbrian tune, allegedly in the repertoire of 18th century Northumbrian piper Jamie Allen – but possibly originally of Scottish origin.

2nd tune – Redesdale Hornpipe

Video: [melodeon]

Music: [abc] [png]

Written by James Hill, a Scottish fiddler who lived in Gateshead and Newcastle.

Both tunes are also very nicely played in this clip on cittern – but to note, they’re played in the key of A, whereas we’ll be playing them in G.

As usual, the sound clips and printed music links aim to give a feeling for how these tunes are currently played in sessions, but they don’t of course represent one ‘correct’ way of playing these tunes.

From Ayla:

Here are the tunes for the 13 December 2011 session, both jigs.

Beginner’s hour tune – Month of May

Found in Dave Townsend’s English country dance collection as Month of May and recorded by the Old Swan Band as Michael Turner’s Jig.

Video: [ceilidh band]
Music: [abc] [png]

Anything goes tune – Seven Stars

A perennial session favourite, this is a traditional jig also known as The Moon and Seven Stars. Found in loads of manuscript sources notably the Yorkshire c. 1798 Joshua Jackson collection and the Hardy family manuscripts.
Video [melodeon] [ceilidh band]
Music: [abc] [png]

As usual, the sound clips and printed music links aim to give a feeling for how these tunes are currently played in sessions, but they don’t of course represent one ‘correct’ way of playing these tunes.

Here’s my usual intro with clips to our guests for November, some of which need no introduction.

Jody Kruskal

We were really lucky to get a spare day in Jody’s tour. A quick look at his music online leads me to beleive we’re in for a treat tomorrow. Jody is an Anglo concertina player and plays traditional American songs and tunes.

Website: http://www.jodykruskal.com/

Chris Foster

It’s a great pleasure to welcome Chris back to the club as he doesn’t tour in the UK that often. His last visit was fabulous. This is not a gig to miss.

Website: http://www.myspace.com/chrisfosterfolk

Brian Peters

Brian Peters is one of my favourite players. Not only is he a very proficient and fluent tunes man but he’s also capable of putting the most poignant and/or raucous songs over. I introduced him a few years ago as a musician’s musician. I think that this may be misinterpreted; you don’t need to know how clever what he’s doing is to enjoy it as the music speaks for itself.

He latest project has been working with the Child Ballads and he’s come up with some interesting new  interpretations of classic material which I’m sure he’ll share with us.

Website: http://www.brian-peters.co.uk/

Dick Gaughan

It’s great to have Dick back at the club, not only as it’s always a good night when he plays but to catch up with the man himself. Come and and join us for a night of political, polemic and passion. The video clip was filmed at one of Dick’s previous visits to the club at our previous venue, The Plough.

Website: http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/

Claire

Here are some video clips and written music for our first two Tunes of the Month, which we’ll play at the November 8th session.

Beginner’s hour tune – Lemmie Brazil’s No 2
A great tune collected from Lementina (Lemmie) Brazil, Gypsy melodeon player from Gloucestershire. Most printed versions of this are ‘undotted’ but most musicians play it ‘dotted’ – listen to how it’s played in the video clips.
video: [melodeon] [ceilidh band]
music: [abc] [png]

Anything goes tune – Radstock Jig
This isn’t a jig but it was collected near Radstock. It’s a more challenging tune and has the odd note that won’t be on some instruments. It starts cEF:please learn this rather than the other main version, which starts with dF#G.
video: [piano accordion] [concertina]
music: [abc] [png]

We hope the clips and written music links will give a feeling for how these tunes are currently played in sessions, but they don’t of course represent one ‘correct’ way of playing these tunes.

Ayla has kindly volunteered to run Tunes of the Month to encourage both the beginners to pick up new tunes and the more experienced players to polish their repertoire. This is what she has to say

“Some of us regulars at the session thought it would be a nice idea to formally start a ‘Tunes of the month’ thing. Almost every month there are tunes we have a go at but nobody can really play very well. We talk about learning them for next month, but of course we forget all about it as soon as we’ve left the pub.

So … each month I’ll pick a couple of tunes (feel free to suggest candidates) – one for the beginners hour, and one for the ‘anything goes’ part of the evening. Then those that want to can have a go at learning in time for the next session.

We’ll get the names of the tunes put on the blog and on the session pages, and give links to online video clips and/or printed music.

We’d really like it if people had a good go at learning the tune so that they can play it without the printed music – either by ear, or by using the music initially and then trying to play it without. That way we can aim to increase our session repertoire and, for those a little less confident about playing without the dots, gradually start to play more tunes by ear/from memory. But don’t worry if you don’t feel comfortable doing that yet.

We’ll aim to play both tunes at a slow to moderate pace several times through (and maybe later at a faster pace if we’re feeling confident!).”

Russ, Kevin, Sandra and I went to the Whitby festival last week and I took this shot of Russ and Kevin during the singaround in Robin Hood’s Bay. The suggestion for a caption competition was enthusiastically supported so here it is:

Add your contribution as a comment. The winner will be announced as part of our birthday celebrations on 11th September and will receive a free entry voucher.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with and, be warned, they will be moderated so nothing too rude…

The new autumn line up for Walthamstow Folk is now up. I know that if you’ve got to the blog via the site then you will have seen the new line up, but the blog links to many feeds so for them: the new season line up has been announced!

We start on 4th September with Anonyma, who are Anne Lister and Mary McLaughlin. I saw them last summer, indeed they did a summer special last August at the Plough, and they were great I’m really looking forward to this. There isn’t a great deal of footage of Anonyma or Anne or Mary so nothing much to post to wet your appetite but, there is another Anne Lister with lots of listings on You Tube who sounds extremely interesting. I leave you to do your own research.

Her best known songs include Moth and Icarus, both covered by Martin Simpson, who will be with us on 3rd October.

Find more Anne Lister songs at Myspace Music

Claire
www.clairechandler.com

…some of us will be going to the Nag’s Head on the second Tuesday with our instruments anyways. And of course we’ll be back in September with our usual format.

Our day in the park at the William Morris Folk Fete turned out to be a great success.

Helped by the seriously hot weather we had loads of people come to see us throughout the day and a great time was had by all.

A big thank you to all our fantastic performers – James O Hara-Knight, Anna Skodbo, Owen Woods and David Shevelew and all our floorspots and friends.

Its been a bit of a ride since we moved back to the Rose & Crown back in January and this was a wonderful way to top it off!