17 singers attended the Chichester Inn for a warm August SDFS get together.
Alan acknowledged that there was an event coming up for the SDFS (Amberley Chalk Pits) but that he would still like to introduce a few potential new songs for the group to try and assess.
As an Autumn season opener, the group launched into "All Among the Barley" – a popular choice, some clarification about the singing of the first line was helpful. To follow, Gordon hadn’t been able to resist composing and reciting a new version of Turnip Hoer – The Turnup Hoer was much enjoyed by all. It was apparently inspired by the spelling in Alan’s latest email song list! "Jim the Carter Lad" was sung with gusto and hopefully clarified that first and second note in first and third lines are the same and the word in the last verse is “right” glad. Alan then re-introduced a potentially new song by local composer Dave Toye "England for Me". It was agreed as a lovely song with very good words. This was followed by a trial of "Buttercup Joe", a suitable country song which Alan led line by line in singing practice. A group decision was made to omit the third verse to make it more concise and Steve W agreed to include this on the SDFS Blog for future reference. "Come Stranger Come Friend" was the next possible new inclusion to the SDFS set list, although it had been listed as potential song on the Blog for some time and tried in the past. It was felt it needed revisiting and rehearsing (including maybe, some very good low harmonies, again, these are on the Blog). The first half finished with a good rousing version of "Oak and Ash and Thorn", on the planned set list for the forthcoming Amberley performance.
Henny made a few pertinent announcements about some of the future SDFS bookings to start the second half of the evening. Following this, Alan asked for suggestions and reverted to a selection of songs that were perhaps needing a little rehearsal for the Amberley event. "Come Write Me Down" was much enjoyed by all in two parts (men and women). "Green Grow the Laurels" (ladies only) followed by "Lammas Carol" were tried next. Lammas Carol tune pitch was altered from a start note of B to A following discussion with the harmony group, who felt it was too high for them. "Bee Boys" (also planned for Amberley) was tried and sadly dropped a whole tone by the last verse. There was some discussion about lowering the key to avoid this and a plea by Alan to really concentrate on keeping in the start key throughout the song. Dave G noted that the last line could easily drop which then led to a lower start on the next verse. Things stayed pretty well in tune for the next renditions of "The Brisk Young Ploughboy" and "Hal and Tow" with a “silent clapping” in the latter so as not to wake the visiting SDFS dog! The whole evening was brought to a rousing finish with a lusty rendition of "Sussex By the Sea" and looking forward to a successful afternoon at the upcoming Amberley Chalk Pits event.
Anne Sartain
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