Folk Dreams

Subject: Folk Dreams
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 04:52 AM

In my dream last night I'd won some sort of competition, the first prize was to take Maddy Prior to a singaround of my choice for her 50th birthday. We ended up trawling around Taunton in Maddy's tiny bashed up old car (which stunk of dogs), with me babbling on about how 700 Elves was quite possibly the worst song ever written, and Maddy screaming at me that if it wasn't for Gaudete charting in the Christmas of 1973 I probably wouldn't have got into folk & early music in the first place. I countered by arguing that I was only twelve, and didn't know any better... and so it went on. Eventually, we ended up at the local Wetherspoons, where we found a hearty singaround in progress, and when it came round we performed Butter & Cheese & All as a spontaneous & lively duet, though the other singers couldn't join in the repeats on account of them eating their Sunday roasts. Maddy roundly scolded them for daring to eat when she was singing, and flounced off leaving me stranded in Taunton with two Sunday roasts & extra Yorkshire puddings & some of the finest traditional chorus singing to listen to as I sat there stuffing my face thinking life ain't too bad when it comes down to it.

Not often I have a Folk Dream - what about you?

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 05:34 AM

Her fiftieth? Did you fall asleep in a Tardis?

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Acorn4
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 05:48 AM

My wife went to the same school as Maddy in St Albans although slightly later - apparently she got thrown out of the choir!

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 07:36 AM

Last night, I dreamt of a vintage Hannah-Barbera cartoon called The Real Watersons, in which the intrepid trio of Mike, Norma and Lal went around solving serious crimes in their white transit, and singing lots of traditional songs on the way. Mike was a thin, mop-top type, with a rasping lisp and hilarious facial expressions to match, providing the comedic element to Lal's sophisticated glamour and Norma's superior deduction skills. At one point they sang The Little Pot Stove, quite the most amazing version I've ever heard, classic full-throttle Watersons. Have they ever sang it in reality I wonder? If they have, I've only heard it in my dreams!

Also last night we got back late from The Moorbrook in Preston (where Rachel sang Maid Lamenting) and eschewing an early night we watched EastEnders on BBCi after which I watched bits of Folk Brittania on the repeat showing on BBC4 whilst catching up with Nerd's erudition over on the Green Man thread. I found myself particularly tearful over the old b/w Watersons footage - there's bits of that up on YouTube, but where can you see it all I wonder?

Today, we'll be listening to Bright Phoebus and Holy Heathens in the car. Respect to ye Watersons all.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 22 Nov 08 - 08:19 AM

Man... can I please have some of your dreamware? I usually only get nightmares. Bad ones. Sigh.

I did once have a bizarre folkdream in which I was wandering around a kind of folk music car boot sale. It was in something like a big air plane hangar and there were stalls and cars and vans from which folk muscians and singers and morris dancers were touting their talents. I remember Melodeonboy and Growler from Rough & Ready were in it and Richard Bridge was haggling with someone over the origination of a song and said stall keepers liabilty for passing the song off without proper attributions. Naughtyforty was in it but I didn't know who she was when I dreamed this. Lanfranc and some people from Blackmore in Exile folk and the Margaretting folk were in.

Remember I was just wandering amid seeking for something, but I did not know what. Felt very disappointed in the dream. Still felt let down when I woke. Don't know why.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Ythanside
Date: 23 Nov 08 - 04:17 AM

The most annoying dreams are those where I can hear, or am singing, songs that I KNOW I've never heard before. The infuriating thing is that they fade beyond recall at the point of waking up.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 23 Nov 08 - 04:48 AM

I used to dream tunes all the time - soon as I got up I sang them into my Walkman so that they wouldn't be forgotten. One I call Harvest Myth, sang in a dream in which I worked at an ancient harvest, one of a group of peasants who sang a haunting melody in call and response - very potent, and quite lucid too as I recall. The other I call Plough Myth from a dream in which I was trying to publicly perform Mutton Pie (from Jim Eldon's I Wish There Was No Prisons album) but couldn't remember the tune, so I came up with one which was pretty similar to it, but which didn't fit the words at all. The tune was still me when I woke up, the title coming from the opening line of the song now me jolly lads if you want to learn to plough, come to Ironheads and he'll show you how. I've got a few of these Myth tunes, all from dreams, and all from around 1989-93. Don't get them any more, which is a shame.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 23 Nov 08 - 04:59 AM

Never had a specifically folk music themed dream. Though if I get immersed in the folk singing thing, it'll no doubt eventually come 'cos I'm a right vivid dreamer.

Plenty of origonal music features in my dreams. Though 'cos I can't write or play music as yet, it gets lost.

Including one time a celestial encounter with the planets. The 'music of the spheres' pulled me off of the earth and into deep space. It sounded ike vast abstract angelic choirs and was incredibly potent.

I've used song in dreams, to combat and defeat nasties in nightmares. Which sounds a bit daft! But it worked. And I'm sure I've read that according to some cultures, if you get so-called 'power songs' of that ilk in dream, it's a gift and you should hold on to them.

So folk as yet, but lotsa music. I'll probably get one now though.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 09:15 AM

A group of us (perhaps half a dozen) are gathered together to witness the death of the Sun.
The Sun is massive and bloated, blood red and spewing boiling fire.
'Sundog' is with us and a central figure.
We are gathered together to sing into the heart of our dying Sun, in its final hour.
I'm unsure of our purpose. We are there as participants and witnesses. Perhaps to honour this immense moment.

I wake to George Harrison singing:
"And it's alright, even when the sun don't shine,
and it's alright, we're travelling to the end of the line."

I dreamed this early Sunday morning. Abstract awesome emotions. The honouring of irrevocable endings - immense devastating ones, but done with such naked humility. And utterly absent of any more personally centered emotions. There was no recognisible hope, and so we were guided to sing, simply to partake in this Ending.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 09:31 AM

I dreamt I was playing my concertina,and it stopped sounding ,then it fell apart,and I looked up and there was Louis Killen.
he said that will teach you to repeat the first verse,at the end of a song,
he then sang on my little concertina,waved a magic wand.,
and said I command Dick Miles concertina to work again,and hey presto,it played by itself.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 09:59 AM

At a singaround recently in the Cumberland Arms in Byker and Louis Killen was there; as he sang the world was transfigured; all became calm, pure & perfect as I glimpsed beauty as corporeal wonderment and pondered even the divine.

That was real, at least I think it was...

Similarly, the morning after our first trip to Friday session at The Moorbrook in Preston I woke thinking the whole thing had been a beautiful dream...

It's like that sometimes.

Rosie - I love your Sundog Apocalypse; maybe a god name for forthcoming Sundog album...

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 10:26 AM

Dream I would like to have... hell reality I would like to have.

That I can really join in on tunes with dulcimer and mandolin. That I can play well enough to do little special solo bits in a jam session.

That's the dream I want.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Folkiedave
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 10:32 AM

Whilst not an expert I don't ever remember the Watersons singing Little Pot Stove.

What intrigues me is why John Harrison was missing!!

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 11:47 AM

A God name for an album? Now there's a geezer who knows how to typo...

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 12:05 PM

I had a folk dream last night..

It was that Show of Hands had been allowed back into the Public Vote on the Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 12:10 PM

God names aren't real names, rather god names are secret names, known only by in the secret hearts of our mothers, last the Devil learn them and gain power over us. This is the power of naming, as found in the Gospels and The Names of the Hare; and we see a lot of that on Mudcat too of course - certain individuals who seek to out others behind their Mudcat Identities to gain power over them.

In musical terms, a god name is a working title around which an album is constructed; a conceptual rallying point that unifies the work in hand that might even become the album's actual name. In the case of Sundog, I've got several hours of Jew's Harps field-recorded around the Green-man bearing medieval churches of Norfolk during the summer - somehow, I must bring these together into an hour-long sequence, via all manner of editings and processings, so the god name provides the focus for such a process and will hopefully yield something worthwhile.

And when I woke up, can you tell me where I was?

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Don Firth
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 12:28 PM

Last night's dream was straight out of Upstairs, Downstairs. My wife and I watched the series way back when it was first presented in the U. S. on PBS. Then my wife (who works at the library) discovered that the library had the entire series on DVDs, so we've been watching it all over again.

Last night, all night long, I was trying to mediate with Richard and Marjorie Bellamy about their son James's running around with Sarah, the former underhouse parlor maid now turned music hall star. It was like wading through molasses. I was glad to wake up!

Folk dreams? Nah. I got nuthin'.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 01:37 PM

Eeek, well now I know the festering pit of intrigue that Mudcat is home to, I'll never sleep or dream agian.

God names in musical terms, I did not know, I thought you were making a play on SunDog/God.

Where were you when you woke up? Oh arses, is that some kinda clever Koan thing? I'd suggest you drag out some faded pages of Gurdjieff to answer that one.

Maybe if I were to sit with the sunset fully, and be present to that moment, it'd be worth singing for. Each day's death is an apocalypse of sorts I guess.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Northerner
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 03:43 PM

I dreamt I was at a concert and there was this singer singing this incredibly beautiful song. It was just wonderful! We all joined in singing it. Then after a break for lunch I was invited to give a solo of the song. I headed for the toilet (as I generally do do) to just run through it, thinking, now how does it go? - and I woke up. And of course I can't remember this beautiful song now or even what it was about...

In real life I met Maddy Prior in 2007 at a workshop we were both attending. The students on the course all had to take a turn at doing chores at the accommodation we were sharing - and I ended up cleaning toilets with Maddy Prior. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction - or even dreams...

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Tangledwood
Date: 02 Dec 08 - 05:24 PM

"Dream I would like to have... hell reality I would like to have.

That I can really join in on tunes with dulcimer and mandolin. That I can play well enough to do little special solo bits in a jam session.

That's the dream I want. "


- Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

       T.E.Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 03:57 AM

IB - will be quite curious to see how you use the apocalyptic theme to constellate your current Sundog material. If I get any further nocturnal tales involving him (I often dream recurring themes), I'll post them up here. I now have an image of your character wandering into the outskirts of some little village and sitting down with a group of people for the evening. At that twilight point when the air becomes still and chatter has ceased, he says - "Once upon a time, at the end of the world.."

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 04:25 AM

Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

Working on it Tangledwood. And I have the sore fingers to prove it. Working full time job, living in flat sandwiched by neighbors I need to consider and having joint health issues, impinges on time to practise. Being home with viral infection has given me opportunity to get in more practise.

Here's to maing dreams come true.

Rosie - try
Once upon a world, at the end of time. Sorry I watched Horizons last night.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 04:34 AM

"Once upon a world, at the end of time", of course it must be!
But are you sure that was Horizon you were watching and not Dr. Suess ?

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 05:08 AM

Once upon a time, at the end of the world

Or, as Sun Ra used to say: It's after the end of the world - don't you know that yet?

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 06:06 AM

"It's after the end of the world - don't you know that yet?"

I'm sure I knew that once upon a time, but seem to have forgotten it since then.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 03 Dec 08 - 06:27 AM

Yes of course Horizon (BBC Science show) Professor Brian Fox. What time is it? Very good show last night.

I love Dr. Seuss too. My favourite - One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 06:20 AM

Last night I dreamt of Debby McClatchy singing The Innocent Hare in old-time banjo frailing style - with Ross, Dave Peters & Rachel providing the harmonies on the chorus. I can't quite figure out how it worked, but in the dream it was the finest noise I ever heard.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 06:35 AM

I frequently dream that I am in the countryside or a small town, often near the sea. There is a folk festival going on that I am supposed to be at, but somehow I never seem to get to it.
I have dreamed some of these places several times so that I get to know my way around.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 06:59 AM

Well anyway! Elvis and I... yes he is still alive... went walking up on Kinder and he found it hard going on account of all the weight he has put on. We stopped of at the Pub in Edale and a few pints later he started to sing.... He was of course recognised and within minutes, the press and a large crowd had gathered. I assured them all that he was not Elvis and that Elvis is dead...... We had trouble getting back to the car for the crowd but we did manage to get away eventually and I suggested to Elvis that it might be better if he doesn't sing when we go anywhere. I guess the press must have believed the story as nothing was ever printed... but we know don't we!!!!

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Mar 09 - 07:00 AM

PS sorry that wasn't really Folk dreaming... but I thought it might amuse a few of you.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: GUEST,Edthefolkie
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 12:05 AM

How about songwriters/tunesmiths dreaming songs?

Dave Swarbrick heard what became "Carthy's March" in a dream, and Sandy Denny dreamed some of the scenes in "Late November".

Must be loads more.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Ebbie
Date: 19 Mar 09 - 02:23 AM

Sleepy Rosie, your death-of-the-sun dream reminds me of a disturbing dream I had a few months ago.

The sun was gone- gone forever - and no one knew why, but we knew there was no hope of change.

The produce of the field were all withered and sere; we gathered them in baskets and just stared at them. There was nothing to eat.

The earth was all sepia colored and it was almost night.

There was music but I no longer remember why or who produced it. I know I was involved because I requested a certain song, which I also no longer remember.

I woke up with a feeling of foreboding, as though I was going to get a phone call of some calamity. Never did, though.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: The Sandman
Date: 20 Mar 09 - 08:42 AM

Last night I dreamt of Debby McClatchy singing The Innocent Hare in old-time banjo frailing style - with Ross, Dave Peters & Rachel providing the harmonies on the chorus. I can't quite figure out how it worked, but in the dream it was the finest noise I ever heard.
yeah that would be quite difficult,as Innocent hare is in 6 /8,which is [apparently]difficult to frail to.
Debbie Mc clatchy plays Charlie Poole style[Ithink]correct me if Iam wrong,maybe she frails too.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Harmonium Hero
Date: 20 Mar 09 - 09:28 AM

The nearest I can ever remember to a folk-related dream was back in about 1967 or 68. I was in a theatre, and a man's voice came over the PA saying "Ladies and Gentlemen.....THE VOICE!" At which point, a door opened at the side of the auditorium, and out stepped a man in a cloak (can't remember if he had a hat); he had the cloak drawn across his face, with just the eyes showing, and stood for a couple of seconds scanning the audience (and I could tell from the eyes that he was grinning fiendishly) before sweeping down a long ramp leading to the stage to perform. I don't recall anything after that, but I knew as soon as he appeared through the door that it was Bob Dylan. You just know these things in dreams, without the need for any explanations. It gave me an idea for an act, which I've never done anything about, beyond thinking about how many smalli(ish) instruments you could conceal under a cloak, thus keeping the audience guessing about what's coming next.
Topsie's comment about never arriving at the festival sounds familiar - I have those sort of dreams; in fact most of my dreams seem to revolve around frustration...
John Kelly....dreaming of the day when I can do exactly as I please, without the constant nagging thought that I should be doing something else.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Feb 11 - 03:53 PM

What an intriguing thread.

I've never dreamt a 'folk' dream but the other night I dreamed that I was at some kind of seminar which some friends of mine were attending and they wanted me to join too. "Only $255," they said.

I was most concerned because both friends - one of them a Mudcatter - were drunk and giggly and I didn't know which one of them was planning to drive.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 13 May 11 - 06:35 AM

Last night I dreamt of a country pub adjoining on old church in Hereford in which Tudor Crisps were hosting a Sunday Folk session. Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson were the guests, who for some reason wanted me to play with them. 'But I don't know the material,' I protested. ' - In fact, I haven't even got my fiddle.'
Eliza just shrugged, then handed me her fiddle which I noticed had frets on it tied on with bits of fishing line. 'Well that's something,' I said, relieved I wouldn't have to go fretless. ' - At least it's got frets on it like mine.'
'Ah - but does yours have wheels?' she says, showing me an intricate piece of skeletal brass clockwork affixed beneath the strings which wound up to power tiny hurdy-gurdy wheels. I looked on agog - never in my life had I seen anything quite so exquisitely crafted, as she wound it up and set it into motion, lifting the desired wheel into contact with the strings by means of ivory keys. Such was my excitement I went out to find Les and Spleen Cringe who were in the church serving soup to the punters. 'Les - Spleen - you've got to see Eliza Carthy's clockwork fiddle.'
But when we got back EC was playing an uncensored CD by Nicki Minaj, urging us to listen carefully. 'We're doing the next Waterson Carthy single with her,' she said, ' - Want to be on it, Sedayne?' But before I could answer, I woke up to the nesting seagulls raucously praising an all too iminent dawn in which I lay pondering what sort of wondrous thing a collaboration between Waterson Carthy and Nicki Menaj would result in...

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: GUEST,Claire M
Date: 19 Jun 12 - 06:58 AM

Hiya,

Must've been a bit surreal, Northerner!
I had a "screaming" dream too. Bloody horrible.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 19 Jun 12 - 07:32 AM

Nice to see this again. My latest Folk Dream involved watching Sproatly Smith on Later... with Jools Holland doing the Marx Brothers' Everyone Says I love You augmented by the ubiquitous posh-girls-in-little-black-numbers string section. The way things are going for The Mighty Sproats I reckon that could come true anytime soon.

Here's a dream come true too: WEIRDLORE – NOTES FROM THE FOLK UNDERGROUND

Make your own folk dreams come true by buying a copy...

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: GUEST,Claire M
Date: 19 Jun 12 - 04:08 PM

Hiya,

It'd be a lot worse if said screaming dreams actually happened.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Highlandman
Date: 20 Jun 12 - 10:21 AM

Nice to see this old thread pop up again. I have to say that Diane's post #2 is STILL one of the funniest things I have ever run across. I laughed for days the first time I read it and I am still chuckling now. Maybe it's just me. -Glenn

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: GUEST,Claire M
Date: 25 Jun 12 - 09:43 AM

Hiya,

I had one that I was sitting in the middle of our field, really upset about something & Tim Hart came up and asked me what was wrong. I told him & he re-worded something off 'Folk Songs Of Olde England" & sang it to me in his best oo-arr voice. I said his song was brilliant, asked when he'd do the same for a song with Maddy & he said she'd be along in a minute.

Unfortunately I woke up before she turned up. Couldn't work out why he was in B&W and the rest of the dream was in colour though !!

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Elmore
Date: 25 Jun 12 - 10:52 AM

Last night I had the strangest dream I never dreamed before. I dreamed the world had all agreed ...... zzzzz.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 25 Jun 12 - 10:59 AM

Agreed on what though?

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Elmore
Date: 25 Jun 12 - 02:38 PM

Sorry. Fell asleep. To put an end to war.

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 25 Jun 12 - 06:47 PM

I disgracefully dozed off during Michael Wood's excellent history prog recently. Dreamed Steve Knightley was singing summat about an Anglo-Saxon. Woke up. Steve Knightley WAS singing about an Anglo-Saxon! Does that count?

Subject: RE: Folk Dreams
From: GUEST,Claire M (Permanant GUEST!)
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 03:31 PM

Hiya,

I have weird dreams whenever there's a problem – it usually means my CPAP is playing up – & I mixed one with gig memories & turned it into a story.

My stomach was killing me, & Maddy Prior put her hand on it, wrapped her rainbow coat round me, sang 'Diversus & Lazarus', then said "pain all gone" or words to that effect. When I woke up I felt fine, & I found one of her cds that I didn't have. I'd still luv to find one of those coats though.