The Brewer Laddie

We were pleased to welcome Bill and Jenny back in our company last Friday.

Bill gave me a CD that he has recorded.

Click the graphic to hear track 1: The Brewer Laddie.

Here I must apologise to Berry for suggesting that he doesn’t know any long words.

Actually he described Bill’s performance style as idiosyncratic.
That’s SIX syllables!

Bill received that comment as a compliment.

Being The 27th of January, 2012 ...

Berry was MC.

(Ignore Ken in the background of this image. Ken was elsewhere in pantomime.)

Berry was charming, (as always,) and he deserves to be congratulated for handling such a busy evening particularly well.

Berry did not use the word 'mellifluous', but he skillfully directed us using words of not more than two syllables.

Going the risky way around the tables, here's what we heard ...

Musn't Grumble: Berry

Bar-room Girl: Max & Sylvia

Ten Thousand Miles: Jane W.

A Man's a Man for all that: Nigel

When the Green Man Walks the Forest: Mave

The Angels have taken my Racehorse Away: Bill

Changes: Mike

In My Life: Roger

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms: Jane R. & Roger

The Drovers: Colin

Song of the Chanter: Lorna

Never Grow Old: Richard

Mole in the Ground: Angela

King of the Fishes: Roland

(?) 2-Step Mystery: Dave

Louisiana Way: Les

Lucy Cartwright: Jimmy

Whatever Happened to Saturday Night: Lynda

What Goes on in Your Mind: Lynda & Paul

Those Memories: Lucy, Max & Sylvia

Almost Persuaded: Max, Sylvia, Paul and others

(Something Scottish - not Burns!): Jane W.

Now Westlin' Winds: Nigel

The Barley Mow: Bill

I Told You: Mike

When I was on Horseback: Jane R. & Roger

Leave Her Johnny: Colin, Angela & Roland

Star of Kintra: Lorna

Canaan's Land: Angela, Roland & Richard

Big Tree: Dave

Blue Night: Les

What am I to You?: Jimmy

Died for Love: Lynda

You are my Sunshine: Paul & full cast

Your Cheatin' Heart: Berry & full cast

Some of us lost the plot in Bill's rendition of 'The Barley Mow'.

For future reference, the final refrain might accumulate the following in some sort of order:

Here's good luck to the company, good luck to the Barley Mow ...

• Company
• Slavey
• Daughter
• Landlady
• Landlord
• Barrel
• Half-barrel
• Gallon
• Half-gallon
• Quart-pot
• Pint-pot
• Half a pint
• Gill-pot
• Half a gill
• Quarter gill
• Nipperkin
• ... and the round bowl

So ... remember all that for next time.

Celebrating the birth of Rabbie Burns ...

Take:

• 1 sheep's stomach or ox caecum, cleaned and thoroughly, scalded, turned inside out and soaked overnight in cold salted water
• Heart and lungs of one lamb
• 450g/1lb beef or lamb trimmings, fat and lean
• 2 onions finely chopped
• 225g/8oz oatmeal
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground dried coriander
• 1 tsp mace
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• water, enough to cook the haggis
• stock from lungs and trimmings

Then listen to the following instructions ...

Enjoy ...
Great chieftain o' the puddin' race.

No, thank you; I never eat anything I can't identify!

Rolling Down to Old Maui ...

Here's a suggestion for the next community-singing project:



Here's the chorus:

Rolling down to old Maui, my boys,
Rolling down to old Maui.
We're homeward bound from the arctic ground
Rolling down to old Maui.

Regard this as 'work in progress'!

From a different recording/sleeve notes Nigel adds the following intelligence:

... from Songs The Whalemen Sang by New Englander, Gale Huntington. Many young men working on the American whaling ships kept personal journals in which they recorded the voyage, made sketches, notes and copied their favourite songs. The words of this song were taken from such a journal made aboard the Atkins Adams in 1858. The noble tune is from Chanteying Aboard American Ships by F.P. Harlow. Maui is one of the Hawaiian islands and was a meeting place for whalers . . . . something to look forward to between trips. A‘homeward bound’ feeling prevails after the arctic hunting season but it was likely that they were merely calling at Maui for ‘fittingout’ for a further half year in the southern oceans.