Lewes Local Group Report - Tuesday January 16th 2024

Prior to the session, apologies had arrived from regular singers detained by illness, travel abroad, a funeral, the imminent birth of a baby, an invasion of mice and points failure on the railways! Those of us who managed to get there made up a medium sized group which was balanced in voice and stalwart in spirit. We admired the plush new seating and welcomed a new singer Ken from Uckfield. 

As we hadn’t been able to sing any of them in December, we sang all six wassailing songs tonight, along with a range of other cold season numbers and some general favourites.

In the first part of the evening we Sing” (On Sussex Hills”, “Apple Tree Wassail”, “Here We Come A-Wassailing”, “I Heard A Bird Sing”(as a round), “Wassail the Silver Apple” (not a South Downs Song but one of our agreed guest songs for performances, from the West Country), “My Downland Remembered” (Alan’s setting of a poem, including his new verse), “The Oak Tree Song” and “Poor Froze-Out Gardeners” which suited the cold evening very well.

In the interval we discussed the invitation to sing at Oldland Mill on Sunday May 5^th (5 are potentially available so we will say a tentative yes). We also talked about ideas for performers and CDs to suggest to Ted, our US visitor from last month’s cancelled session.  

 

We continued with “The Woodcutter’s Song,” “Seasons Turn”, “Sugar (Sussex) Wassail”, “Wassail all your Apple Trees” (as a round), “Wassail Wassail all over the Town”, “Where Stormy Winds do Blow”, “Hard Times of Old England”, and “A Smuggler’s Song” before ending with “Thousands or More”.

 

Tina