A Long Long Trail

We performed a concert in Talbot House in Poperinge and "A Long Long Trail" was performed for the first time as part of that show: We were in fact the first group to perform in the concert hall at Talbot house since the end of the First World War.  "A Long Long Trail" is actually "Morrigan's" but danced to the music "The Long Long Trail a Winding".

Nights are growing very lonely
Days are very long
I'm a-growing weary only
List'ning for your song
Old remembrances are thronging
Thro’ my memory
Thronging till it seems
The world is full of dreams
Just to call you back to me

There's a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams
Where the nightingales are singing
And the white moon beams

There's a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams
Where the nightingales are singing
And a white moon beams
There's a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true;
Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you

 All night long I hear you calling
Calling sweet and low
Seem to hear your footsteps falling
Ev’rywhere I go
Tho’ the road between us stretches
Many a weary mile
Somehow I forget
That you’re not with me yet
When I think I see you smile

There's a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true
'Till the day that I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you.

Talbot House was run by an army chaplain, Tubby Clayton, as a place for soldiers to recuperate in the first safe town behind the lines near Ypres. It is said that perhaps half a million troops rested at some time in that house. Poperinge, itself was described by the poet Edmund Blunden as, “One of the 7 wonders of the world.” This is how Rifleman Worrell described what he did in the evenings;

The cafes were our only opportunity of seeing anything of life. We used to go to the CafŽ des Allies in Poperinghe. It was a popular place because there was a little man with a squeeze box there and he knew all the right tunes to play. He'd picked them up from the troops and some of them were pretty fruity. He'd start very politely with Mademoiselle from Armentieres (and of course we had our own words for that one) but the universal favourite was “The Monk of Great Renown”, and sooner or later, he got round to Aprs la guerre fini:

Apres la Guerre fini
Soldat Anglais parti
Mademoiselle in the family way
Apres la guerre fini.

Of course all of the troops knew Talbot House and so many of them would have attended concert parties in this very place. We feel very proud and humbled to be some of the first performers here since 1918.