Now as I was a-walking round Portsmouth town,
Feeling cold and glum,
The Press Room was close at hand
So I steps in for some rum;
I says to the landlord, "A glass of your best,"
And he turns to me with a smile,
"I'll pour you a glass of old Port Royal,
Won't you sit by the fire awhile?"

Well, things seemed to just get better and better, about 20 folks showed up, most of whom led songs. Because it was a somewhat smaller turnout we each got more time to respond to one another, without the stress of wondering if one shouldn't wait until someone else who hadn't sung recently got chance to raise a song.

Bill and Gina Dunlap did make it and led some fine songs. Rich Gato was there with concertina and his custom built metal-stringed uke, haven't seen him in months. There was Barry, Mark, Emery, Peter, Dave (who was only there briefly and didn't lead a song), Bruce, Garde, Jeri, Jeff & Barbara, and Tom & Linn. One new face was Alison from Rockland, who made an even longer run than I did, and there were two other women who led songs whose names escape me. We were short on some of the Gloucester regulars but we certainly had a good time.

I've never heard so much "noise" bleeding in from the evening band getting set-up in the upstairs room. That was a little distracting. The kitchen crew seemed really supportive this time around. Barry has been very good about drawing them out and asking them what favorite songs they would like to hear. "London Julie" seems to win, hands down!

I tried a few newer songs such as "Auckland to the Bluff" by Rudy Sunde from the Maritime Crew of New Zealand and "Pierhead Chorus" by John Masefield. Then I sang some of my regular songs such as "West Indies Blues" (the chorus and back-up was just great) and "The Outside Track" by the Australian poet Henry Lawson.

Maybe Linn can do a better job of filling in who else sang what.

Looking forward to the next one in May!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble