Sylvie might be mentioned

29/04/2020

Eriskay Love Lilt - Sylvie - Siyahamba - Lean on Me


Moira Smiley with the Sylvie moves
Moira Smiley with the Sylvie moves


Eriskay Love Lilt  Anne began by embarrassing those of us (me) nearly past our first flush of youth by asking "Who remembers Judith Durham?", one of many notables who recorded this traditional song. Immediately charming, with a poignant theme and a smattering of Gaelic (so easy after Zulu), it was a good song to learn quickly as a group.

Raising the stakes, Anne rehearsed us in Sylvie and showed us how to do the first part of the "body percussion" - we called it something else when I was six.  She was very gentle about the idea of our recording and videoing ourselves - no pressure - but glancing round the screens there seemed to be plenty of buy-in, indeed an advanced stage of thigh-slapping was on show. Moira Smiley's living room lesson, pictured above, is very useful for picking up the moves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTC_zb2LriA

We warmed down by running through Siyahamba from last week and also Lean on Me, accompanied by recorded vocal tracks. Not a bad way to close.