Cotillion performing in Lewes on Sunday 8th May

You may be interested to know that Anne and Alan's group Cotillion will be performing their folk show ‘The Last Trip Home’ in Westgate Chapel, Lewes. This is about the change from using horses and oxen to internal combustion engines in song, tune and verse with a narrator.

Sunday 8th May at 2.30pm
£5

Westgate Chapel
92a High Street
Lewes BN7 1XH

Local Group Report – Lewes Tuesday 19th April 2016

Twelve singers joined Tina at The John Harvey Tavern (that is 13 really!).  We have been elevated to the room upstairs because the snug was being used as a repository for furniture.  The meeting room allowed us to all sit around one big table with more ease and, with carpet on the floor, the sound of our practice session was less audible downstairs in the main bar! Because we will we going back to Bateman’s in August there are some more songs penned by Kipling that we hope to learn.  Tina introduced us to “Follow Me Home” and “Oak and Ash and Thorn” which we worked through thoroughly before revisiting “The Farmer’s Toast”, “Jim The Carter Lad”, “Seasons Turn”, “Poor Froze Out Gardeners”, “The Magpie” etc.

Local Group Report – Easebourne Thursday 21st April 2016

Twelve of us were all hale and hearty at last night’s Selham session. We welcomed Janet from the Worthing group and Geoff from the Lewes group, both of whom had not been to Selham before. Alan led us as we worked our way through the song list for the Food and Folk Festival starting off with ‘Country Life’. We followed them with ‘Oak, Ash and Thorn’ and ended up with a rousing version of ‘Rolling Home’. Those of us who can make it, will look forward to the extra session on 27th April in Worthing. We hope there will be room for us!

Julie T

Kipling Songs

Here are four more songs that we think SDFS singers might like to perform at events like the Rudyard Kipling Day at Bateman's on Sunday 7th August. We don't necessarily have to learn them all at once, but have a listen and let us know what you think.

The words for these (pdf file) can be downloaded using this link.

You can download recordings of these songs using the links given below. NB If you have to pay to download data on a mobile device you should not play the songs directly from this web page, but instead download the mp3 files and play these.

Oak, Ash and Thorn:
You can download the mp3 file here.


Follow me 'Ome:
You can download the mp3 file here.


A Smuggler's Song:
You can download the mp3 file here.


The Run of the Downs:
You can download the mp3 file here.

Local Group Report – Beechwood, Wednesday 6th April 2016

The Beechwood session was again nearly full to the brim with regular attenders plus some new faces, welcome all!  With notices and reminders about future events, our singing, and some nattering, it was a lively and sociable evening. We began with a hearty rendition of “Country Life” before continuing work on some of the newer additions to our repertoire: “Pleasant and Delightful”, “The Woodcutters Song”, “The Turnip Hoers”, “The Magpie” and “The Poor Froze-Out Gardeners”.  Thank you to Emily for her skilful leadership and teaching, including her guidance on possible harmony options for “The Magpie”. (Work on these and on our other songs for the new event season will continue at our Extra performance preparation session at the Beechwood on 27th April, 7.30pm – all SDFS performers welcome.)

Henny

‘Food & Folk’ At The Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, Sunday 1st May 2016

Update 18th April: The song list has been added at the end of this post.

The dawn chorus is in full swing, the weather is getting warmer, it must be time for our first Spring event.

As usual the Museum have provided us with a limited number of wristband passes for those Singers volunteering to sing at the event. First come first served.

I will be at the Worthing session on the 6th April to hand out these as well as on the 27th April beginning-of-season practice session at the same venue. If you can't make either of these and only Lewes on the 19th or Selham on the 21st, please let me know ASAP by email so that I can arrange to give them to a singer from these meetings to pass on to you.

There will be 2 sets, at 12.00 - 12.30hrs & 14.00 - 14.30hrs in the central exhibition area as last year.

The song list appears below.

The Museum is in the throes of the HLF + funded 'Gateway Project' (see WDOAM website) of new construction and re-positioning of existing buildings, so it will be interesting to view their progress, as well as all the event's activities.

Many thanks,

John C.


The organiser's website is here.

Here are the songs we will be singing (download this list here):

First Set:

1. Country Life
2. Twanky Dillo
3. On Sussex Hills
4. Ale, Glorious Ale
5. Life Of A Man
6. The Nightingale Song
7. Hard Times Of Old England
8. Green Grow The Laurel
9. Rolling In The Dew
10. Rosebuds In June
11. Fathom The Bowl

Second Set:

1. West Sussex Drinking Song
2. Old Adam
3. Pleasant And Delightful
4. Country Life
5. Thousands Or More
6. Ebernoe Horn Fair
7. Gooch’s Beer
8. Rosebuds In June
9. Sussex By The Sea