On the evening of a balmy Midsummer Solstice 14 singers plus Stanley the dog came to the Chichester Inn and we sat round in a circle and filled the bar with merry song. We were joined by two welcome newcomers, Cathy and Gemma, who lent their voices keenly to our more popular traditional songs and were content to attempt the less well-known songs that we practised. We are always happy to welcome new singers to our group and are able to give you the song words so that you can join in with our singing. Many of the songs that we sang are on the set list for our concert at the Foresters Arms in Graffham on Wednesday 27th June at 7.00 pm. We started with Stormy Winds and went on to sing the Farmer’s Toast and A Smuggler’s Song. These were followed by the West Sussex Drinking Song, Rolling in the Dew, Fathom the Bowl and Poor Froze-out Gardeners. The singing sounded really beautiful, although this time we missed not having Amaryllis and her group of talented harmony singers to add that extra sparkle! The last two songs before the break were the Turnip Hoer and the Bee Boy’s Song.
In the second half we practised a new song To Be A Farmer’s Boy, which could easily become another gem in our repertoire, as it has a very well-known chorus. Then we sang the first two verses of Arthur Beckett’s Song of the Sussex Downsman and were grateful to Keith and Alwyn for guiding us through the trickier bits of the scansion and melody. Stephen regaled us with an interesting song he has researched called The Marler’s Song and Chris, when urged to contribute, gave us The D-Day Dodgers and we all joined in with the refrain. Finally there was just enough time to finish with Rolling Home. Our thanks to everyone who came along to sing. We hope to see you next Wednesday at Graffham, but if not then our next session at the Chichester Inn will be on Thursday 19th July.
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