{"id":27931,"date":"2025-07-19T09:09:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T09:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=27931"},"modified":"2025-07-19T09:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T09:09:08","slug":"clara-nolans-ball","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/clara-nolans-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"Clara Nolan’s Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>
<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1885<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writer\/composer<\/td>JF Mitchell<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN4480<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>none<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Robertson, Bell ; Scotland : Aberdeenshire ; 1905
Kurth, Charles ; USA : Iowa ; 1931
McNeilly, Isaac ; USA : Massachusetts ; 1941
Thornton, Mr. ; Australia : New South Wales ; 1955
Douglas, Charlie ; Scotland : Roxburghsire ; 1956
James, Stanley ; USA : Ontario ; 1957
male singer ; N. Ireland : Co. Derry : 1950-69
Shands, R.E. USA : Mississippi : no date<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
Clara Nolan's Ball<\/strong>
As sung by Murray and Murphy
Words and Music by JF Mitchell

New York, Hitchcock Publishing Company


You're all invited and the band engaged,
And we're going to have some fun,
For Clara Nolan gives a ball,
This day she's twenty-one.
We've borrowed knives and table cloths
From all about the town,
And every man must bring a chair
If he wants to sit down.

Will you come? will you come?
And you never will forget it if you come,
Where the bells are ringing And the girls are singing,
And the fiddles and the harp go rum, tum, tum;
With teazing and pleasing, and squeezing free for all,
And courting in the corners at Miss Clara Nolan's ball.<\/em>

Old Casey's coming with his Irish pipes,
And tiddler Neary, too;
They'll play you the Maria waltz,
And likewise Peek-a-boo.
Of course, it's not the Hoffman House,
Just walk inside the door;
If there's no place to hang your hats,
Just hang them on the floor.

The dance commences when the clock strikes ten,
And we'll keep it up till day;
There will be no collection
The expenses to defray.
We've bourbon, rye, and lager beer,
And Philadelphia ale;
And if the keg gets empty, we'll
Go out and fill the pail.
<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Not a Music Hall song as such – it was written in 1885 by former British music hall songwriter,\u00a0JF Mitchell,<\/a>\u00a0after he had emigrated to the USA.\u00a0 In both America and Britain it was best known as a black-face minstrel song- sung by Murray and Murphy<\/em> in the States and the Mohawk Minstrels<\/em> in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pete Seeger sings it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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