Worthing Local Group Report - Thursday February 2nd 2023

After enjoying the fun of the Tarring Village Wassail for our January sing, a goodly crowd of 31 singers gathered again at the Goring Barn for our first group session of the new year and we welcomed two new faces joining us this month.  After meets and greets, and some shared discussion about possible options for the public events our Events Organiser John is exploring for our 2023 programme, we launched into song.  

Shaped by singers' requests we chose to move away from our 'winter' songs and began with "Country Life" which gave us a rousing start, followed by the gentleness of "Rosebuds in June".  Still looking ahead to the seasons changing, "When Sprnig Comes In" followed, before the quiet optimism of "I Heard a Bird Sing"*, enjoying this as a lovely two part round.  Suggestions from the floor then took us into new territory - and after hearing a couple of brief samples sung to us by Emily, we chose to try "Oak of Old", a song from a collection written by a local song writer in honour of our native trees.  The song has three parts - and with Emily's guidance we managed as much as time allowed - the chorus melody with the high harmony.  We hope to revisit this lovely song to try the verses and the low harmony at future sessions.  (It will be on our 'Songs to Try' Page of our Blog in due course - for our other groups to consider and enjoy if they would like to.)  

A break for refreshments and more chat included discussion about an event we may be contributing to in celebration of Beltane at the end of April. (If confirmed, this will appear on the Blog 'Diary Dates' Page and more details will be sent to all our singers.)  Singing resumed with more requests - starting with the "Smugglers Song".  "Lark in the Morning" was suggested but the lyrics we had were at odds,  i.e. the ones we first learnt vs the Coppers songbook version that has been tried since.  (The 'official' version we choose to use at events is still unclear and needs to be confirmed between all our local groups - a work in progress!)  So instead we moved on to "Magpie", "Oldland Mill" and "One For the Rook".  The evening closed as well it might with "The Parting Song".

Hope to see you all again at the Barn in March - when, as the song* says, we will be even "closer to Spring than we were in September"!