Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot
trad
A gentle little song that I seem to have known all my life. The Everley Brothers had a hit with it in 1958. It has a lullaby feel to it.
Who's gonna shoe your pretty little foot
Who's gonna glove your little hands
Who's gonna kiss your ruby red lips
Who’s gonna be your man?
Who’s gonna be your man, poor girl,
Who’s gonna be your man
Who's gonna kiss your ruby red lips
Who’s gonna be your man?
Papa's gonna shoe my pretty little foot
Mama will glove my hand
Sister’s gonna kiss your ruby red lips
I don’t need no man.
I don’t need no man, poor boy
I don’t need no man
Sister’s gonna kiss my red ruby lips
I don’t need no man.
The longest train I ever did see
Was sixteen coaches long
And the only boy I ever did love
Was on that train and gone.
On that train and gone, poor boy,
On that train and gone,
The only boy I ever did love
Was on that train and gone.
Sessions
This photo was taken at The Spitfire Hotel in Williamstown in about 1985 or 86. The publican and his wife had been at a dinner at The Anchorage, where I did a gig with Phil Day. We got to chatting, and they asked me if I would be interested in organising a regular session on Wednesday nights.
A session is how I best like my music, so I agreed. I asked a couple of others to help me out from time to time, most notably Rab Mitchell and, pictured here with a cigarette, Keryn Archer.
The Dan O’Connell was the best known and most enduring of the session pubs, generally featuring Irish music. There was also The Celtic Club, The Corkman, The Quiet Man, the Normandy Hotel, and many short-lived venues.
In 1983, I started what I called Beginner Sessions at The Royal Oak Hotel in Nicholson Street, North Fitzroy. It was at that time the venue for The Melbourne Folk Club. I was on the committee of the FSDSV at the time, and I lived not far away in Collingwood. We didn’t charge an entrance fee, but the rule was that any of the experienced musicians helping out would not pay for their own drinks.
Although I was competent only on flute, whistle and guitar, I had some experience playing 5-string banjo, accordion, tenor banjo, mandolin and piano, and, briefly, electric bass. I figured I could at least make sure everything was in tune, and match up fingering to the dots.
Our main text, so to speak, was the evergreen Begged, Borrowed and Stolen. We would play a selected tune bit by bit until there was a critical mass who could play it right through. Each week, we tried to go through three or four new tunes, and revisit tunes from past weeks.
The sessions were very popular. We moved them from The Royal Oak to The Robbie Burns. In about 1987, I handed them over to Kathleen Fitzgerald, and she continued them for a number of years.
In 1990 or 91, Phil Day and I started monthly sessions at The Guildford Hotel, on the third Wednesday of the month. This is still running.
I started the Sunday sessions at The Crown Hotel in Newstead in 1997. Participation has fluctuated over the years, but there has been a steady core including Peter Moloney, Phonse O’Brian, Maggie Littlejohn, and recently Russell McKenzie.
