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[deltasalmon]

Back to the OP:
You've said you are in the US, but not an approximation of where.
It occurs to me if you are anywhere near Boston, or NY, there are several active morris groups there and the Marlboro Ale is based in Marlbro Vermont. Contacting the Ale might well open a door for local morris and perhaps sessions that might be of help.
Though you might well be miles away!
Q

He didn't say it but his profile says NE Ohio. You never know though, maybe there is a local side somewhere. I'm not sure of any sites like thesession.org but with morris that would have a list.

[Ziachmusi/Louise]

Sorry for the slight change of subject buts what's the tune they start playing at 5:20 in the Radway session, I know I know it but ....🙄

[Julian S]

I just started looking for English melodeon sessions on youtube and they are not too evident. Lots of sessions with fiddlers, concertinas and PA boxes but it took a while to get youtube to yield its store of English sessions. Melodeon players don't often seem to video their sessions, lots if Irish and Scottish and even one of an english player in an Irish pub, lots of single melodeons and duets, but where are the melodeon sessions? I started to strike paydirt when I looked for Sidmouth Sessions, and there they were. try this one for starters..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6fv_oX4TOE

Thanks for sharing this - I never noticed anyone focussing a camera on me, playing the old Salty (couldn't hear the bum notes !)

Julian

[vof]

Sorry for the slight change of subject buts what's the tune they start playing at 5:20 in the Radway session, I know I know it but ....🙄

Prince William? It's on some JK/Brass Monkey albums.    V

[Anahata]

I just started looking for English melodeon sessions on youtube and they are not too evident. Lots of sessions with fiddlers, concertinas and PA boxes but it took a while to get youtube to yield its store of English sessions.

An English music session doesn't have to be all melodeons and usually isn't. All those other instruments and many others are valid, and personally I'd rather a session didn't have too many melodeons or it gets very stodgy. Fiddles are about the best instrument en masse - I've had some great tunes surrounded by four or more decent fiddlers in a session, and still all English.

Also, strictly "English Only" sessions are actually quite rare.

[Julian S]

Yep. Prince William - according to my 'Hardcore English' book (what an excellent collection!) the tune dates back to  1731. I'm pretty certain I learned it from JK and Brass Monkey.

On a general point, I'm no cameraman but I think it would be good to capture more tune sessions on vid, for posterity at least.

J

[Thrupenny Bit]

Yes, Julian has a good point about capturing things for posterity.
Tunes come and go so it would be good to have a nostalgic look back at what was being played at a given time. Also a chance to remember 'ah yes, that was a good tune....' and kick start the memory banks.
Q

[Andrew Wigglesworth]

There's a nice little documentary on the Greenwich English session, when it was held at the Lord Hood. I went for about a year when I was working in London 10 years or so ago. A great session, it was held in the Cricketer's in the square at Greenwich at that time.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUdTffsZLOs

There is something that I'd disagree with on the interviews on that documentary. A couple of people imply that English sessions are a revival in themselves and that Irish sessions somehow go way back and have an unbroken history.

The modern open Irish pub session was basically invented in England in the mid 20th century, due to social, economic and cultural developments. Just saying :-)

Music in English pubs consisted mostly of singing it seems, with the odd tune and step dance. Not the modern open instrumental session which, I think, arose in the folk revival alongside the Irish pub session.

My own perspective on the English/Irish/Scottish thing is that there is more that connects these folk traditions than separates them, and much of that differentiation has been created in the last 40 years or so.

It's been mentioned that there was an upsurge in consciously non-Irish English dance bands in the 1970s. I can see the reasons for that, but also the problems. I think that many of the "Irish music is like this, and English music is like this" ideas were invented in the 1970s and into the 80s, with them hardening ever since. Thankfully the era of the ultra-slow polka is over (sorry, but the music was undanceable). Also, in conversation with people like Hugh Rippon, I think that the supposed "Irishness" of the English dance scene before then is overstated (a point also mentioned by Chris Brimley in his post).

Anyway. Melodeons in sessions. In my local weekly session, I am usually the only melodeon player there. We very occasionally have one come in with the musians who pop in every now and then, but it's unusual to have more than me. Other instruments? Regulars: fiddles, melodeon, concertina, harp, whistle, mandolin, bodhran. Occasionals: more fiddles, piano accordion, guitars, more whistles , another bodhran and of course the odd melodeon player. Very occasional: Uilean pipes, Northumbrian pipes, oboe, slide guitar and whatever else wanders in.

The music we play is a mixture of English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh (often overlooked), along with a smattering of Scandinavian, French, North American (Contra, Quebecois, Old Time etc) tunes. I think this is normal for a lot of obstensibly "English" sessions. The balance changes week by week. If a known "Irish" player comes in, then we get more "Irish", if someone turns up who really likes 17th century English Country Dance tunes, then we tend in that direction. In essence it's a session from an "English" perspective since that's who we are and where we are. The idea of a pure national folk music ranges from the silly to the outright offensive.

[Mike Carney]

The original post from Grape Ape asked a number of interlinked questions, but initially the main one seems to be about what happens in a typical session in England. Additional questions added were about Morris and Ceilidh, the difference between the two and the link to melodeon playing. Several posts have interpreted the question as being about English music rather than sessions in England, and we have had interesting explanations about Morris. To take the question as it started, I can tell you about my own recent experience, which differs I think from the video from Sidmouth. I go to four regular sessions, three in Derbyshire and one in Sheffield, most held once a month but one of them is weekly and I can't fit in going that often!  Almost all of them encourage the playing of tunes and singing from a wide range of traditions, including Irish and other European sources. Only one is more or less limited to English repertoire. At most, participants are asked in turn if they want to start a tune or song. The other one is a bit like a religious meeting where we seem to sit and wait for inspiration to come and for someone to take the plunge...there are a good number of excellent players but very few, for some reasons, will start a tune.
At most of these people seem to choose tunes which are liikely to be known by at least one or two others rather than treating it as a performance opportunity. People usually stay for the rest of the session once they have arrived, and there is usually a really regular crowd. Sessions I have been to at festivals are very different as you just don't have much idea about who will be there. As a melodeon player I can cope with one or maybe two others there but I prefer a real mix of instruments. The question about links to Morris doesn't arise. If someone wants to play a Morris tune they do, but often we'll go through a whole evening without one. I can understand it will be different if the core members of the session are in a Morris side. We have got one or two dancers but more from clogging. Most people will play from memory and pick up new stuff by listening and either getting it then or working on it later at home.
M

[911377brian]

In the 1940's and early 50's we nippers used to hang about the Peterboat at Leigh on Sea to watch grown ups taking their turn step dancing to a one row melodeon player. It seemed to be taken very seriously by all concerned. I wasn't aware of 'sessions' until many years later. The songs that were sung didn't seem to go back very far, the oldest that I can recall was 'Down the Road away went Polly', the rest seemed to be songs from the music hall tradition sung at full blast by everyone. As mentioned by others, the session seems to be quite a modern development. Don't think Cecil Sharp influenced the pub community at all...

[Thrupenny Bit]

I think Andrew and Mike sum up the type of sessions I go to and what I'd expect to find, and usually do find in the Radway.
When I think of 'English' it's a bit of this, a bit of that from wherever, but not wall to wall tunes played flat out without anyone getting a look in from the leading core of musicians.
A large proportion of the musicians at my monthly session I see every Monday night at Morris practice, where they patiently wait whilst we discuss/concentrate on an aspect of the dance. Then play that same tune again. And again....
They are extremely unlikely to play a Morris tune 
Q

[Daddy Long Les]

https://youtu.be/ClmpXAsoAAY

Post-Morris session from 2011 with (amongst others) yours truly on guitar and Martyn White on melodeon and concertina.

[sticky fingers]

Please do not make excuses for the date of the Radway clip!, the," No Irish" sign is on the door or in the window every year!, look out for the hilarious bit at 9.54 when some guy tries to introduce some rhythm into the dire plodding monotonous melody, he is given the thousand yard stare by everyone in the room!, forcing him to turn away and crawl into the doorway, utterly shunned!, the poor man will probably never enter a session again!, welcome to the stuck up pompous world of the Radway English session, everyone in that clip should be ashamed!, is this the way you welcome people!, sf.   

[Thrupenny Bit]

Going back to an earlier post from Anahata about the music being played in the early '70's:
My first lp was Old Swan's 'No Reels' lp.
Members of the group, now old friends, told me their classic lp was titled appropriately - it contained no reels! - and the contents a reaction to the Celtic music then being played. They and others felt they wanted to break out of that particular mould.
Q

[malcolmbebb]

My first lp was Old Swan's 'No Reels' lp.

Coincidentally, in my workshop right now, being played turn and about with Owen's CD.

[Bob Ellis]

Please do not make excuses for the date of the Radway clip!, the," No Irish" sign is on the door or in the window every year!, look out for the hilarious bit at 9.54 when some guy tries to introduce some rhythm into the dire plodding monotonous melody, he is given the thousand yard stare by everyone in the room!, forcing him to turn away and crawl into the doorway, utterly shunned!, the poor man will probably never enter a session again!, welcome to the stuck up pompous world of the Radway English session, everyone in that clip should be ashamed!, is this the way you welcome people!, sf.   

I have been going to sessions at the Radway during Sidmouth Folk Week for getting on for 20 years and do not recognise the session described by Sticky Fingers. A few years ago, somebody (not me!) sometimes wrote 'No Irish tunes' on the blackboard, but it was done tongue-in-cheek to make the point light-heartedly that this was not primarily an Irish session. On many occasions when I have been in there, a smattering of Irish tunes has been played without anybody objecting. However, I have not seen the 'No Irish tunes' notice for several years and we certainly played a few Irish tunes on the couple of times I was in there during Folk Week 2016.

When I first went there, having not been playing very long and being very nervous, I found people very encouraging and supportive. As others have pointed out, the session will vary from hour to hour as different people drift in and out, but the atmosphere is generally friendly and welcoming. I think it is an unfair calumny against some friendly people, a few of whom post on here quite frequently, to describe them as 'stuck up and pompous'.

[gettabettabox]

Always worth popping into the radway, it's where I've heard good, tight, "english" music.
Other times, it's a nice pint and nice crowd, very little fighting or glass throwing.
I'm into Irish music, but welcome good music. The radway is also near my bus stop in/back.

[Andrew Wigglesworth]

Please do not make excuses for the date of the Radway clip!, the," No Irish" sign is on the door or in the window every year!, look out for the hilarious bit at 9.54 when some guy tries to introduce some rhythm into the dire plodding monotonous melody, he is given the thousand yard stare by everyone in the room!, forcing him to turn away and crawl into the doorway, utterly shunned!, the poor man will probably never enter a session again!, welcome to the stuck up pompous world of the Radway English session, everyone in that clip should be ashamed!, is this the way you welcome people!, sf.

I would agree with you that a "No irish" sign is, well, offensive. But, you are in danger of blowing your case through intemperate comments and your own prejudice.

Personally, it's quite a few years since I've been to the Radway, but I do not remember seeing any such sign or notice. That doesn't mean that there was not one, but that people are not consciously supporting a sign like that simply by being there. If had ever seen that type of notice, I would certainly have objected.

Your "thousand yard stare" comment is simply in your imagination. All I see and hear is someone starting to play "Lumps of Plum  Pudding" and people turning to see who it is who's playing, to listen better and be inclusive. The negative connotations are in your mind only I think. I've actually played in sessions with many of the people in that room (in different places, different tunes etc) and you are letting your imagination run away and devaluing your reasonable point.

[Caroline]

Please do not make excuses for the date of the Radway clip!, the," No Irish" sign is on the door or in the window every year!, look out for the hilarious bit at 9.54 when some guy tries to introduce some rhythm into the dire plodding monotonous melody, he is given the thousand yard stare by everyone in the room!, forcing him to turn away and crawl into the doorway, utterly shunned!, the poor man will probably never enter a session again!, welcome to the stuck up pompous world of the Radway English session, everyone in that clip should be ashamed!, is this the way you welcome people!, sf.

Sorry I can't let this pass - utter rubbish, absolutely untrue and I challenge you to prove it.  Your post is insulting to those of us who enjoy the music and friendship of the Radway during folk week. 
How dare you tell me I should be ashamed of being part of the sessions. 

[Thrupenny Bit]

i returned to the Radway sessions after a long layoff a few years ago and now a beginner armed with a different instrument. People were supportive and friendly as they always used to be.
I started to recognise friends made on this forum, all excellent players who had helped me get started.
I don't understand or relate to the alternative view of the Radway expressed here.
Q