The Port Mahon

What better way to start off the blog with a report of one of my favourite folk sessions; Friday night at the Port Mahon. This place was the first experience of the Oxford scene when I first moved here not all that long ago, and I had reservations at first in case it was one of those dubious institutions who claim to be a 'folk club' but instead end up being a 'Best of Simon&Garfunkel night' or something. There is, I am sure, a time and a place for That Sort of Thing, but not for Trad.Arr semi-purists like me. Anyhoo, my worries were over when I first ascended the stairs to the little room at the top of the pub and heard Caroline singing 'The Banks of the Sweet Primroses'. Since then I've met some lovely people and heard some beautiful songs.

Tonight was the first time I'd been to the PH in almost a month, what with having a few weekends away, so I had been having some withdrawal symptoms. It was quiet to start off with, but by the end of the night we had a lovely little crowd, with some people I hadn't seen before as well as the regulars. Caroline very kindly wrote the words down to a beautifully sad song I had heard her sing a while back called 'The Bonny Light Horseman':

'When Boney commanded his armies to stand
He levelled his cannon right over the land
He levelled his cannon his victory to gain
And he slew my light horseman o the way coming home

Broken-hearted I'll wander
Broken-hearted I'll remain
Since my bonny light horseman
In the wars has been slain

Ph, were I a small dove and had wings for to fly
I would fly o'er the salt sea to where my darling do lie
And with my fond wings I'd beat over his grave
And I'd kiss the pale lips that lie cold as the clay

Oh, the dove she laments for her make as she flies
Oh, where, tell me where is my darling, she cries
And where in this wide world is there one to compare
With my bonny light horseman who was slain in the war.

The tune is beautiful too, I just hope I can remember it. I often find that's the trouble when you hear a song you really want to hear - you can generally get the words quite easily on the Internet, but the tune has often totally disappeared from your head by that point!

There were some lovely carols sung tonight too, inkeeping with the approaching Christmas spirit...I'm very hard to please when it comes to carols, but if it can't be Latin then medieval will do very nicely too, and we had three carols from around this date tonight; 'Coventry Carol' from Pam (ie 'Lulley, lullay, thou little tiny child, Lulley lulley lullay' etc), and a beautiful song from Isabel which I have seen called a variant of the quite well-known 'Corpus Christi Carol'. The lyrics are something like this:

Down in yon forest there stands a hall
Bells of paradise I hear them ring
It's gilded all over with purple and pall
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
Down in that hall there lay a bed
The bells of paradise I hear them ring
All scarlet the cover that over it spread
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
Down under that bed there runs a flood
Bells of paradise I hear them ring
Half run in water, Half run in blood
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
By the side of the bed there standeth a stone
The bells of paradise I hear them ring
The sweet Virgin Mary kneeling thereon
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
Down at the bed feet there grows a thorn
The bells of paradise I hear them ring
It blooms its white blossoms the day he was born
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.

I think it may well be a variant of the 'Corpus Christi Carol' because of the 'and on the bed there lieth a knight / His wound it bleedeth day and night' lines in that which fit with this song too.
Isabel also sang a lovely version of a Robert Southey poem about a vision of the baby Jesus surrounded by flames, which I shall have to find the name of. It will involve trawling through the 70 or so of his poems on the ever-handy PoemHunter website, but now is not the time methinks.

I sang three songs, the heartbreaking Gaelic 'Mo Run Geal Og', written by a woman who has lost her husband in the battle of Culloden , 'Waly Waly' and 'Bonny May'. I really need to learn some new songs this weekend...