Local Group Report – Lewes Tuesday 19th May 2015

The John Harvey Tavern gets even better as the weather gets warmer and perhaps next month we will sing outside across the River Ouse.

At our May meeting, Tina introduced us to two new songs that we will start to learn for 2016 performances. Then we ran through those from our repertoire that we will sing at Alfriston. We are really looking forward to an event at this end of the county.

Margo

Workshop Solo CD Tracks

Recently Alan W passed a CD to me containing solo singing tracks that were recorded at the end of the original HLF workshops, with a suggestion that I make them available to everybody here. I had not heard any of these recordings previously and most probably some of you haven't either. You can download these tracks as mp3 files using the links below. Unfortunately there is no information regarding the song titles or the names of the singers, so if you can help with any of these please either leave a comment or email southdownsfolksingers@gmail.com.

Track No01.mp3
Track No02.mp3

Track No03.mp3

'Fare Thee Well my Dearest Dear', collected by Vaughan Williams from Mrs Verrall, then of Horsham, 1903. Sung here by Alan and Anne. (Thanks to Alan for identifying this one.)

Track No04.mp3
Track No05.mp3
Track No06.mp3
Track No07.mp3
Track No08.mp3
Track No09.mp3
Track No10.mp3

If you would like to download all the tracks together in a single zip file, go to this page. In the upper-right corner you will see a blue 'Download' button. Click this and then select 'Download as .zip'. You will then be asked if you want to create a Dropbox account, but you don't need to do this, just click on 'No thanks, continue to download' at the bottom.

Keith D

The 'Food & Folk Festival' at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum

On Sunday 3rd May a goodly number of South Downs Folk Singers attended the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum to entertain the good people at the Food and Folk Festival. Led by Emily we moved away from the refreshment tent entrance across the grass towards the outside tables and seating and when we were all gathered we launched into song. We sang two separate sets of songs lasting just over half an hour each with no chat in between songs but with lots of good humour in our presentation. Amazingly people stayed in their seats to listen and applauded us after many numbers (louder applause for the jolly songs than for the sad ones, but I suppose this is only natural). People even came forward and showed their appreciation by putting money into our collecting bucket. The highlight of the afternoon was when we were singing “Thousands or More” and the clouds started to break up so that just as we got to Bright Phoebe awakes so high up in the sky the sun came out and made us all smile.

Thanks to Peter B for the photos below.