On the spur of the moment, I decided to pop down to the Baring Gould Festival 2009 in Okehampton, Devon and join the other musicians at the lunchtime session in the Plymouth Inn hosted by Malcolm Woods and had a great time.
I arrived early and the friendly pub lady pointed out the area where the session was to take place but added that there was a Morris dancing display before the session started in front of the pub. Bearing in mind I have recently joined the Exmoor Border Morris side as a band member, I couldn’t miss this opportunity to broaden my knowledge of ’sticking’, ‘hanky waving’ and such like things.
The Cogs and Wheels Ladies Morris put on a fine display but I nipped off early to make sure I got a good seat for the session and found our host for the session had set up residence and lots of musicians were already arriving.
Amazingly, the session went on for seven hours under the gentle and friendly guidance of Malcolm Woods and his assorted helpers. It was a splendid example of what a good session should be. Malcolm was always ready to step in with another great traditional English tune when others had run out of steam but otherwise let the musicians get on with it. Ideal! There were even a few Irish traditional tunes and songs to provide a bit of variety.
I left at around seven pm just about when the hard-working Malcolm (photo right in the black T-shirt) was heading off for a bite to eat. I suspect he was likely to be back later to steer the continuing session through the rest of the evening but, unfortunately, I had to drive eighty miles to get home.
Will I go back to the Plymouth Inn session at Baring Gould Festival 2009, Okehampton, Devon in 2010? You bet I will and perhaps Malcolm Woods will be there doing another great job of running a mainly traditional English folk tunes session again.
Bye for now
Rob
