July Club Night

It was one of those nights where we had to keep getting out extra chairs to fit everyone in! There were 4 piano accordions, at least 10 guitars, 2 cellos, about 6 violins and a viola, not to mention the recorders, tin whistles, ukuleles, banjo and percussion instruments. Michael even banged out a few tunes on the piano up the back, but that wasn't until much later...

Alan got things started with I'll Fly Away which everyone promptly joined in. Nola's group from Altona gave us a couple of good old songs including their own unique version of Oh Susanna that got the audience going. It was really a night for joining in...I think everyone in the hall was either singing or playing along to The Water Is Wide.

It was great to have our Canadian friend Jill there for one last session before she goes back home, and a bracket of fiddle tunes - Canadian and other - was enjoyed by all.

Another familiar - and very welcome- face was Frank, who was a regular a few years ago. He brought his mate Russell along this time on piano accordion, and gave us a couple of his original songs. Welcome back Frank, hope to see you again!

There were a few new faces too. Jordan played the Beatles classic Blackbird - he invited anyone to sing along but he was so fast I couldn't get in! Another newcomer (didn't get his name) also took me back to my musical youth with Neil Young's Needle and the Damage Done.

Of course there were plenty of Bush Orchestra people there and Kathryn got them going with a few classic dance tunes. Dave departed from his usual Australian bush verse and gave us a few excerpts from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

During the tea break we admired a large collection of photos from the Folk Festival shown as a slideshow on a couple of laptops. More Festival photos coming soon to this blog.

After the break the string players got together for an interlude of classical music, including The Queen of Sheba. With violins, recorder, viola, cellos and double bass it was a big sound! Danny wowed us all with his superb tenor voice as he sang The Minstrel Boy with string accompaniment and lyrics hurriedly sourced from the Internet.

It didn't even seem late when Alan wound things up at about 11:15 with the traditional Parting Glass and even then a determined group gathered around the piano for a few swing tunes before finally clearing out at about midnight.

It seems the Festival has created a new surge of interest in live music in Newport, and we hope to see everyone back next month for another big night!

June Club Night

It was great to see a few new faces in the circle as we sat down to get things rolling for the evening. Alan started things off with Minnie the Moocher, complete with "hi-de-hi"s from the crowd of course. Ted as always entertained us with some masterful finger-picking, on this occasion a Scott Joplin number called Meditation Rag. Even though only two of the Voice Male vocal quartet were there, they still got up and sang Wild Mountain Thyme and John Barleycorn.

Soon it was time for the Newport Community Choir to get up and do a bracket. They sang an old 'shape-note' hymn called Canaan's Land, a quodlibet (four songs all sung at once...strange and wonderful), a song from the Balkans called Dimna Juda Mamo and a beautiful Israeli chant called Aliyah. The choir always welcomes new members, have a look at the Activities page on the website for more details.

Moira showed the fiddle flag with a couple of American tunes, forming an impromptu orchestra clustered around a single music-stand. Not bad considering most of them had never seen the music before! The Newport Bush Orchestra kept the fiddling going with a few old favourite dance tunes that saw just about everyone joining in. Dave kept the old-time bush theme going with a dramatic recitation of Banjo Paterson's Mulga Bill's Bicycle.

There seemed to be a bit of a soulful, meditative theme to the songs, with Leonard Cohen's Dance Me to the End Of Love from Leonie and Christine, and Sisters of Mercy from Rick, followed up a little later with Neil Young's Comes a Time from John and Helpless from another band put together on the spot by Rob, Robyn, Karen and a few others. Robyn and Karen started off shyly in the corner but by the end of the night were leading us all in new tunes - great to see!

Bruce really got things humming with Clinch Mountain Backstep and Rob followed up with The Battle of New Orleans, a song from the war between the US and Great Britain that was fought between 1812 and 1815.
Many more songs were learned and shared, more than I could possible remember, before we wound up as usual with The Parting Glass at about eleven, with a few parting plugs also for the Folk Festival next weekend. See you there!

May Club Night

This was a really outstanding night of entertainment, with many of our regulars plus a local barbershop quartet doing their first performance, storytelling, comedy, poetry, new people, new instruments, the famous 9-member 'barbershop chorus' and much more!

See more photos on Picasa.

Alan kicked off the night with The Water is Wide (everyone else seemed to know it too!). Then there was Greg H with his original song based on a Dorothy Hewett poem (there was a bit of a Dorothy Hewett theme as Dave later gave us a dramatic recitation of her poem Clancy and Dooley and Don McLeod.
Gail sang a lovely version of the Beatles song And I Love Her and then it was time for Kathryn to lead the Bush Orchestra in a set of dance tunes including Brown Jug Polka and Rita Baker's Polka.

Rob seems to have a great ear for songs that really work, no matter what the era or genre the song comes from, and tonight was no exception with a spine-tingling version of Dire Strait's Romeo and Juliet.

Then we heard from a new group - a barbershop quartet from Williamstown who have been rehearsing for a few months and chose us for their first public performance. They were great, hope they come back for another go!

Mira had brought her piano accordion this time and once again invited Greg O to join her in a medley of songs - what a wonderful sound!

The barbershop theme continued as we heard from the Barbershop Chorus (they can't really call it a quartet because there are nine of them). A big sound with some great harmonies and lots of good humour.

Speaking of humour, then it was time for the comedy writers who had attended Gary Adams' Comedy Writing workshop the night before to get up and do their stuff. They did not disappoint, with some wicked satirical references to recent news stories that filled the hall with laughter. Great to see our workshop program and the regular club nights come together like this.

Then there was Suzette with a medley of famous American songs, John with Summertime, Jackie with The Drover's Boy (a beautiful and poignant song by Ted Egan) and then a wonderful collaboration between Jackie and Greg J - Jackie told a story of the land-based whalers in NSW who for many years caught and killed Humpback Whales with the help of a pod of Killer Whales, then Greg followed up with a song of the NSW whalers.

At about 11pm we finished off as usual with everyone joining Alan in The Parting Glass. Its a great song to end the night, and this time we sang it in memory of Maurice Frawley (1959 - 2009), from Elmore, who was well known to those of us who have had a couple of trips up to Colbinabbin. Vale Maurice. http://www.messandnoise.com/news/3615654

It was an exceptional evening of jamming, joining in, playing, listening and laughing - and remembering. May there be many more such nights ahead.

April Folk Club Night

At 7:45 it seemed to be a quiet night but people drifted in over the next half-hour or so to make up the usual numbers. Alan kicked things off with an old favourite King of the Road, followed up by Danny with Pretty Woman. Songs that everyone knows and can join in... a great way to start the night.
Michael brought a bit of class to the evening with Gary Adams' song Kylie's Arse (Gary is running a comedy writing workshop for us soon, see the Noticeboard).
Ted's finger-pickin' just keeps getting better as he demonstrated with Memphis Blues. Then the fiddlers had a go with West Clare Jig and a bracket of other dance tunes. Kathryn led the way with the fiddle and did a great job. Then Kim, Bill and Adelaide launched into Paul Kelly's classic From Little Things Big Things Grow. They've been practising! Leonie and Christine have too, and showed us their stuff with Leonard Cohen's Dance Me to the End of Love.
Greg J gave us all some food for thought (pun) with his original song Appetite Control and later Woody Guthrie's Pie in the Sky.
We're a multi-talented bunch here in Newport - while the music was going on, Nancy was sketching and you can see one of her wonderful sketches here.
In Dave's absence Alan kept the poetry flag flying with A Spring Song, from C.J. Dennis' Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.
Simon got us all singing along with Dock of the Bay and John also with Georgia on my Mind.
Chris K has been coming along for quite a while now, strumming his 12-string and trying to look unconspicuous but his confidence is growing and this night he launched into a solo - Tom Paxton's The Marvellous Toy. Kim gave us a song I haven't heard at Folk Club before - Bob Seger's Turn the Page. Then Michael, Greg and Moira got together for a beautiful rendition of Autumn Leaves - seasonally appropriate too! After a cuppa there was a lot more music including another bracket of dance tunes from the Bush Orchestra, a lovely Canadian tune called Waiting For Emilie and another song very appropriate to this time of year - Alan gave us Eric Bogle's And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda. Nobody wanted to go home - Donna Donna was supposed to be our final song but then there was a call for the traditional Parting Glass and when I left at 11:45 people were still hanging around chatting and playing tunes.

March Folk CLub NIght

About 35 music lovers came to play at the Community Hall this month. An eclectic selection of entertainment as always - poetry by Dave, original (Gravity) by Simon, a Lament for the Drowned Sailor (Jackie), Swedish Tunes (Simon and Bruce), the Newport Girls (Rob) and old favourite (Witchita Linesman - Greg) and well known songs(10 pound Hammer, Hard Times, Fever), lots of Bush Orchestra tunes where everyone joined in, and as always most stayed and enjoyed the fellowship of the Folk Club until after 11. It was a lovely night - even for those who were tired after the working week!

Two highlights of the night: Firstly Moira's voilin turned up! The significance of this can only be appreciated when you know that last week Moira's house was broken in to, and the violin was stolen. After trips to the police, Cash Converters and other places, it eventually turned up in a violin shop on the other side of town. So when Moira came in with the violin, it was no wonder that she had such a broad smile. We are all very pleased for her. The other highlight? It has been rumored that a Barshop Quartet was being developed in Newport. Well after the break Danny assembled his merry men (all six - Bruce, Danny, Rob, Rob, Alisdair and Greg, pictured right) who launched into 'Sweet Adeline'. It was a moment where everyone was both stunned and delighted at the beauty of the music - quite a moment indeed. Bravo! Watch out when they get fitted with waistcoats, boaters and bow ties. So a lovely uplifting night of community music - sign of a healthy Folk Club that is going from stregth to strength. See you next month - Friday the 24th of April.

The March Session - Newport and the Sound of Music!

People came in dribs and drabs after a very hot Friday afternoon. However it was soon evident that there was life in the Folk Club again for 2009. By 8.30 there was a good 30 or so folk with guitars, whistles, accordions, a bass and lots of feet for toe tapping. Alan led off with Coconut Woman, Dave recited The Intro from CJ Dennis' The Sentimental Bloke, Jackie sang of High Hopes , Ted picked some neat tunes on the guitar, Rob got everyone singing along with his banjo to This Land is Your Land and then played a lovely Dylan song that this writer had never heard before, Leonie and Christine paired up for a duet on Look what they've done to my song (or thong?) and Greg O sang The Man WHo Struck O'Hara, an Irish melody often sung by Simon McDonald from Creswick. Midway during the evening Steve and Mike came in from doing a Bush Dance down at Footscray PS, and joined in with an old favourites - Stephen Foster's Hard Times, and a local song Footscray written by Newport Local Gary Adams. At that point Dave interjected and asked how come there is no Newport song, to which Rob on uke quietly introduced Newport Girls, a take on what is commonly (though erroneously known as Buffalo Girls. (it is a minstrel song for which the name of the town was changed depending on where the minstrels were playing - Buffalo was just one of those many towns). After that, Jules hit her straps with her own composition Falling for You - this augurs well for a year where the sounds of Newport will be new as well as the tried and true. Bruce finished off the session with the Joseph Spence hymn Great Dream from Heaven which was a lovely way to bear witness to the people who have lost their lives in the recent fires.

It was lovely to see some new faces from as far away as St Kilda, Northcote and Caulfied and everyone used the break to socialise and make connections with fellow music lovers. We sang Happy Birthday for Isaac, listened to Mira play show tunes on the accordion with Greg, and then got back to the business of making music. The session finished early (10.45) as members of the Bush Orchestra were heading up to Echuca early the next day for the festival (the very first Echuca Moama Celtic Festival ) and so they needed to maintain some energy. Finished off the night with The Parting Glass, and Steve gave us the cello solo on his bass which was a delight (I suppose more accurately a bass solo). It was a great night - nothing stronger than a cup of tea or coffee was needed to provide fuel for the singers and players - just a lot of good clean fun. Let there be more of it this year!