THE SOUTHERN TENANT FOLK UNION
The Hawth, Crawley. Friday 29th October 2010
Earlier this year I was shocked to receive the news that Pat McGarvey had lost most of the original lineup and was faced with giving up or rebuilding the band from scratch. Fortuntely for fans of STFU, Pat decided to soldier on with his musical vision and living in the beautiful Scottish city of Edinburgh, struck lucky with the fact that the city has a thriving, edgy folk music scene. This years brilliant album ‘The new farming scene’ has confirmed that he made a wise selection with the new lineup and this excellent concert offered further affirmation that the blend of musicians was equal to the first, what I at least thought, incomparable band! The big difference is that the vocal accents of the first band were, whilst exceptional, fairly neutral, (to a southerner at least!) whereas this lineup contains broad Scottish accents! The quality of the vocalists are the equal of the former band but obviously the difference takes a little getting used to. In the end the music is a continuation of their first two albums americana, old time/folk sound, a music rooted in the British isles, so the different accents blend well. I did receive a little criticism for my review of their new album for daring to suggest that this was an example of what you would find in tracing ‘country’ music back to its roots. Why anybody has a problem with this observation I can’t understand. Allowing for development and modernization over the last couple of centuries it doesn’t take that much of an imagination stretch to link the two together. The instrumentation is similarly acoustic although I doubt the existence of a double bass or maybe even a guitar in the high Appalachians of a couple of centuries ago!
At this concert the band played two sets of about forty five minutes each with the seven of them more less spread out across the width of the stage, giving the evening a more intimate feel. There were songs from all three of their albums, with the majority obviously coming from the tremendous ‘New Farming Scene’. I can think of few bands with a small catalogue of such quality, with the first two discs containing the the epic murder ballad The cold flagstone, the incredible harmonies on A little deeper, (just as good by this band playing live as on the original album version) and Down to the riverside, all played on this night. Pat has taken to explaining a little more about where the inspiration for each of his songs comes from and this works really well, giving an insight into what inspires a high quality songwriter. To me, and a few other people I spoke to afterwards, Let me wipe the tears from your eyes is one of the truly great ballads in popular music. I seem to remember that in a previous review I wrote, I stated that if he writes nothing else, he should always be remembered for this great song, made even more emotional when he explained that the inspiration was his wedding day! I first heard the song played by the first incarnation of the band and thought it could never be equaled, but now it is sung by Ewan Macintyre, his broad Scottish accent gives it a different but no less emotional feel. Every song was memorable including, intriguingly those written by co-lead vocalist (with Ewan) Jed Milroy, whose songs were given an excellent reception by the close to full venue.
Pat McGarvey actually told me afterwards that he wrote most of the songs for the three albums out of necessity, but now felt confident that other people in the band had a lot to offer with their songwriting. Apparently they are working on the next album, on which he will probably not be the only songwriter. This sort of confidence in his bandmates augurs well for not only their next album but also for the future of this incredibly tight seven piece band. The lineup at this particular gig was the already excellent (and promising more), Chris Purcell on guitar and mainly harmony vocals, with the couple of leads he took working perfectly. Ben Ivitsky was just as excellent on fiddle whilst Jenny Hill’s playing of a double bass that was actually bigger than her really drove the sound along and Adam Bulley showed what a highly skilled mandolin and guitar player he is. Jed Milroy shared most of the lead vocals with Ewan MacIntyre as well as playing guitar and banjo whilst Ewan was also responsible for most of the percussion. Finally, Pat McGarvey seems to have the ability to match his harmony vocals to just about anyone whilst his brilliant banjo playing is almost a signature sound for the band.
All in all a tremendous evening of old time Appalachian music, with it’s roots very firmly planted in Britain, that lit up this dreary wet Friday night in Crawley!
P.S. Drifter Promotions have scheduled them to play in Brighton at the Prince Albert on the 26th March 2011.
www.myspace.com/southerntenantfolkunion
www.southerntenantfolkunion.com
Earlier this year I was shocked to receive the news that Pat McGarvey had lost most of the original lineup and was faced with giving up or rebuilding the band from scratch. Fortuntely for fans of STFU, Pat decided to soldier on with his musical vision and living in the beautiful Scottish city of Edinburgh, struck lucky with the fact that the city has a thriving, edgy folk music scene. This years brilliant album ‘The new farming scene’ has confirmed that he made a wise selection with the new lineup and this excellent concert offered further affirmation that the blend of musicians was equal to the first, what I at least thought, incomparable band! The big difference is that the vocal accents of the first band were, whilst exceptional, fairly neutral, (to a southerner at least!) whereas this lineup contains broad Scottish accents! The quality of the vocalists are the equal of the former band but obviously the difference takes a little getting used to. In the end the music is a continuation of their first two albums americana, old time/folk sound, a music rooted in the British isles, so the different accents blend well. I did receive a little criticism for my review of their new album for daring to suggest that this was an example of what you would find in tracing ‘country’ music back to its roots. Why anybody has a problem with this observation I can’t understand. Allowing for development and modernization over the last couple of centuries it doesn’t take that much of an imagination stretch to link the two together. The instrumentation is similarly acoustic although I doubt the existence of a double bass or maybe even a guitar in the high Appalachians of a couple of centuries ago!
At this concert the band played two sets of about forty five minutes each with the seven of them more less spread out across the width of the stage, giving the evening a more intimate feel. There were songs from all three of their albums, with the majority obviously coming from the tremendous ‘New Farming Scene’. I can think of few bands with a small catalogue of such quality, with the first two discs containing the the epic murder ballad The cold flagstone, the incredible harmonies on A little deeper, (just as good by this band playing live as on the original album version) and Down to the riverside, all played on this night. Pat has taken to explaining a little more about where the inspiration for each of his songs comes from and this works really well, giving an insight into what inspires a high quality songwriter. To me, and a few other people I spoke to afterwards, Let me wipe the tears from your eyes is one of the truly great ballads in popular music. I seem to remember that in a previous review I wrote, I stated that if he writes nothing else, he should always be remembered for this great song, made even more emotional when he explained that the inspiration was his wedding day! I first heard the song played by the first incarnation of the band and thought it could never be equaled, but now it is sung by Ewan Macintyre, his broad Scottish accent gives it a different but no less emotional feel. Every song was memorable including, intriguingly those written by co-lead vocalist (with Ewan) Jed Milroy, whose songs were given an excellent reception by the close to full venue.
Pat McGarvey actually told me afterwards that he wrote most of the songs for the three albums out of necessity, but now felt confident that other people in the band had a lot to offer with their songwriting. Apparently they are working on the next album, on which he will probably not be the only songwriter. This sort of confidence in his bandmates augurs well for not only their next album but also for the future of this incredibly tight seven piece band. The lineup at this particular gig was the already excellent (and promising more), Chris Purcell on guitar and mainly harmony vocals, with the couple of leads he took working perfectly. Ben Ivitsky was just as excellent on fiddle whilst Jenny Hill’s playing of a double bass that was actually bigger than her really drove the sound along and Adam Bulley showed what a highly skilled mandolin and guitar player he is. Jed Milroy shared most of the lead vocals with Ewan MacIntyre as well as playing guitar and banjo whilst Ewan was also responsible for most of the percussion. Finally, Pat McGarvey seems to have the ability to match his harmony vocals to just about anyone whilst his brilliant banjo playing is almost a signature sound for the band.
All in all a tremendous evening of old time Appalachian music, with it’s roots very firmly planted in Britain, that lit up this dreary wet Friday night in Crawley!
P.S. Drifter Promotions have scheduled them to play in Brighton at the Prince Albert on the 26th March 2011.
www.myspace.com/southerntenantfolkunion
www.southerntenantfolkunion.com
THE CURST SONS.
The Brunswick, Hove. Friday 15th October 2010.
I really don’t know how many times I have seen the Curst Sons in the last ten or so years, but am always awed by the talent and originality they bring to old time (Hillbilly) and blues music. They link the, what are now, two music formats in much the same way as did the early pioneers of recording. Back in the 1920s, despite the existence of racism, poor white and poor black people seemed able to feed off each other and pass on musical ideas to such a degree that there are plenty of cases of white musicians recordings being placed in the ‘Race music’ category and vice versa. Much of the recording was done on field trips so the executives back in the office headquarters of the companies never came into contact with many of the performers in these early days of recording and promoting, thus leading to such mistakes. It also proves the point that at some levels ‘race’ music and ‘hillbilly’ music were interchangeable. This is exactly the area of roots music that The Curst Sons inhabit and they do so better than just about anyone else you could mention.
There are just the three of them usually, but on this night and other special occasions they bring in other trusted musicians to add to their sound. There were two sets, the first was just Willi, Dave and Tim and the second included the exceptional double bass playing of Phil Jones, Daves daughter Kate on vocals, backing vocals and triangle and they also included the impressive drumming skills of Dickie Jayston.
As a trio they have lost none of their power over the last decade and have in fact developed their sound with more experimentation. They still play the ‘Hillbilly Blues’ of ten years ago, but possibly, having taken their skills as musicians to even greater heights now have the confidence to stretch out even further. Tim Dunkerly is probably responsible in the main for the experimentation, using different effects and completely losing himself in the music, sometimes going off at a tangent and even playing his beloved mandolin with a slide! This means it is necessary for Dave Simner to keep everything together with his immaculate high quality guitar and banjo playing and his ability to read what Tim is about to do! They both contribute vocals but essentially these are taken care of by Willi, who, with his ability to totally inhabit every song he sings could have been born to perform this brand of roots music! At times his vocals can reach such a roar that you try to avoid the line of fire when one of his blood vessels actually bursts despite it never having happened, yet! At other times he sings gently, totally mastering emotional ballads but without losing any of the power. Add this to his ‘Rhythm pole’, washboard, train whistle and occasional use of Jews harp and you also have the percussion covered!
On this night they played songs from various of their albums with the emphasis slightly in favour of their brilliant and most recent ‘The original and Genuine …. ‘. Most of the songs are written by the band, with Wiili being responsible for the lyrics and Dave and Tim sorting out the music. They always include some classic old blues songs as well as their own and tonight a couple of the many highlights were the traditional ‘John the revelator’ and ‘John Hardy’ on the latter of which Tim took lead vocals. At the start of the second set they were joined by Phil and Dickie whose excellent playing gave the power of the music even more of a lift, with Kate joining on vocals to give some much needed glamour and female harmonies to the proceedings! A couple of the songs were actually duets between Willi and Kate. They were, Young bride and Hey moon two songs (amongst several others) that never cease to surprise me that they haven’t been picked up by some of Nashvilles finest, yet! The evening ended with Willi’s roaring vocals reaching a crescendo on their usual showstopper/closer She is gone. It has to be their final song because I doubt that Willi could sing another note afterwards and even they couldn’t follow that!
I know I have written several thousand words about them over the years but they really are a high quality band that stick to their guns with the songs they write and play and always give huge value with their live shows. They are just as capable of creating an incredible atmosphere at a large venue with a huge crowd as they are at the smaller ones. Their showmanship and sheer musical prowess and originality take care of that. All roots music fans should add to their list of ‘things to do before I die,’ ‘See the Curst Sons live!’
www.myspace.com/thecurstsons
www.thecurstsons.co.uk
There are just the three of them usually, but on this night and other special occasions they bring in other trusted musicians to add to their sound. There were two sets, the first was just Willi, Dave and Tim and the second included the exceptional double bass playing of Phil Jones, Daves daughter Kate on vocals, backing vocals and triangle and they also included the impressive drumming skills of Dickie Jayston.
As a trio they have lost none of their power over the last decade and have in fact developed their sound with more experimentation. They still play the ‘Hillbilly Blues’ of ten years ago, but possibly, having taken their skills as musicians to even greater heights now have the confidence to stretch out even further. Tim Dunkerly is probably responsible in the main for the experimentation, using different effects and completely losing himself in the music, sometimes going off at a tangent and even playing his beloved mandolin with a slide! This means it is necessary for Dave Simner to keep everything together with his immaculate high quality guitar and banjo playing and his ability to read what Tim is about to do! They both contribute vocals but essentially these are taken care of by Willi, who, with his ability to totally inhabit every song he sings could have been born to perform this brand of roots music! At times his vocals can reach such a roar that you try to avoid the line of fire when one of his blood vessels actually bursts despite it never having happened, yet! At other times he sings gently, totally mastering emotional ballads but without losing any of the power. Add this to his ‘Rhythm pole’, washboard, train whistle and occasional use of Jews harp and you also have the percussion covered!
On this night they played songs from various of their albums with the emphasis slightly in favour of their brilliant and most recent ‘The original and Genuine …. ‘. Most of the songs are written by the band, with Wiili being responsible for the lyrics and Dave and Tim sorting out the music. They always include some classic old blues songs as well as their own and tonight a couple of the many highlights were the traditional ‘John the revelator’ and ‘John Hardy’ on the latter of which Tim took lead vocals. At the start of the second set they were joined by Phil and Dickie whose excellent playing gave the power of the music even more of a lift, with Kate joining on vocals to give some much needed glamour and female harmonies to the proceedings! A couple of the songs were actually duets between Willi and Kate. They were, Young bride and Hey moon two songs (amongst several others) that never cease to surprise me that they haven’t been picked up by some of Nashvilles finest, yet! The evening ended with Willi’s roaring vocals reaching a crescendo on their usual showstopper/closer She is gone. It has to be their final song because I doubt that Willi could sing another note afterwards and even they couldn’t follow that!
I know I have written several thousand words about them over the years but they really are a high quality band that stick to their guns with the songs they write and play and always give huge value with their live shows. They are just as capable of creating an incredible atmosphere at a large venue with a huge crowd as they are at the smaller ones. Their showmanship and sheer musical prowess and originality take care of that. All roots music fans should add to their list of ‘things to do before I die,’ ‘See the Curst Sons live!’
www.myspace.com/thecurstsons
www.thecurstsons.co.uk
EILEN JEWELL
The Basement, Brighton. 1st October 2010
We arrived at the venue dripping wet on this absolutely foul night. The mood wasn’t helped by the fact that all of the pubs between the station and venue were packed, thanks to the weather, so we couldn’t even get a table to have a meal at and finally ended up standing at a bar dripping wet but eating some decent food! I was starting to think, ‘I don’t care how good the music is, it’s just not worth it’!
Of course it turned out to be more than worth it. Just witnessing the set by support folksy singer/songwriter Barton Carroll made getting the soaking a small price to pay! He has an easy going personality on stage and communicates well with the audience between songs, obviously aided in his stagecraft by also being a member of ‘Crooked Fingers.’ His songs all tell a story and many seem to be slightly left of centre of the path taken by many ‘singer/songwriters’. There is humour, as well as his tales of love and lost love that are very much rooted in the real world. His vocals have a similar sound to a folk singer whose name I can’t quite remember but also has his own unique, appealing style. The whole of his set was excellent but special mention has to be made of Something good. This is the song made famous in the film ‘The Sound of Music’! I kid you not! After the first few words the audience realized where the song was from and there were a few chuckles before we all realized this was not a joke but an entirely new treatment of the song. It is difficult to imagine what gave him the idea but it worked incredibly well! Barton is a singer/songwriter we will hear a lot more of and deserves to succeed for his off centre originality.
Eilen and her band arrived on stage to rapturous applause from the sellout crowd and were instantly into their stride. I’ve seen her four times now and she has become quite noticeably more confident in her stage craft and ability to win any audience over almost immediately. Physically she appears tiny but belies this with her incredible vocals and really is one of the best female singers in country music. She more than does justice to songs made famous by her musical heroine, Loretta Lynn, as evidenced by her current album tribute to this ‘Queen of Country’. On this night she sang several songs from the album including an amazing rendition of the classic, ‘take my man at your peril’ song, Fist city. There were songs from her earlier albums, with several from ‘Sea of Tears’ and a particular favourite being the title track from ‘Boundary County’. Because of the quality of her band, she never seems to be a singer being supported by a group, but is actually part of this superb unit of four. They have been together since before the first album and it shows in their almost telepathic improvisational abilities. Drummer Jason Beek, also now her husband, and upright bassist Johnny Sciascia would grace any band you can think of with their metronomic time keeping and ability to play around the melody, but there are also Jason’s harmony vocals that help to bring out the best in the songs. Finally there is the incredible Jerry Miller on guitar. It is impossible to overstate his importance and mind boggling mastery of the guitar. The playing on the classic Johnny Kidd song Shakin’ all over’ put the original riff by Alan Caddy in the shade. This was not just a one off, his guitar work on every song being just as memorably impressive. Truly one of the best ‘country music’ guitarists for many decades!
This was another full house triumph for Drifter promotions and long may they continue! Along with everyone else in the audience I can hardly wait to see this brilliant singer and band again next year. Even the rain had stopped by the end of the gig. Obviously due to the power of great music!
www.eilenjewell.com
www.bartoncarroll.com
We arrived at the venue dripping wet on this absolutely foul night. The mood wasn’t helped by the fact that all of the pubs between the station and venue were packed, thanks to the weather, so we couldn’t even get a table to have a meal at and finally ended up standing at a bar dripping wet but eating some decent food! I was starting to think, ‘I don’t care how good the music is, it’s just not worth it’!
Of course it turned out to be more than worth it. Just witnessing the set by support folksy singer/songwriter Barton Carroll made getting the soaking a small price to pay! He has an easy going personality on stage and communicates well with the audience between songs, obviously aided in his stagecraft by also being a member of ‘Crooked Fingers.’ His songs all tell a story and many seem to be slightly left of centre of the path taken by many ‘singer/songwriters’. There is humour, as well as his tales of love and lost love that are very much rooted in the real world. His vocals have a similar sound to a folk singer whose name I can’t quite remember but also has his own unique, appealing style. The whole of his set was excellent but special mention has to be made of Something good. This is the song made famous in the film ‘The Sound of Music’! I kid you not! After the first few words the audience realized where the song was from and there were a few chuckles before we all realized this was not a joke but an entirely new treatment of the song. It is difficult to imagine what gave him the idea but it worked incredibly well! Barton is a singer/songwriter we will hear a lot more of and deserves to succeed for his off centre originality.
Eilen and her band arrived on stage to rapturous applause from the sellout crowd and were instantly into their stride. I’ve seen her four times now and she has become quite noticeably more confident in her stage craft and ability to win any audience over almost immediately. Physically she appears tiny but belies this with her incredible vocals and really is one of the best female singers in country music. She more than does justice to songs made famous by her musical heroine, Loretta Lynn, as evidenced by her current album tribute to this ‘Queen of Country’. On this night she sang several songs from the album including an amazing rendition of the classic, ‘take my man at your peril’ song, Fist city. There were songs from her earlier albums, with several from ‘Sea of Tears’ and a particular favourite being the title track from ‘Boundary County’. Because of the quality of her band, she never seems to be a singer being supported by a group, but is actually part of this superb unit of four. They have been together since before the first album and it shows in their almost telepathic improvisational abilities. Drummer Jason Beek, also now her husband, and upright bassist Johnny Sciascia would grace any band you can think of with their metronomic time keeping and ability to play around the melody, but there are also Jason’s harmony vocals that help to bring out the best in the songs. Finally there is the incredible Jerry Miller on guitar. It is impossible to overstate his importance and mind boggling mastery of the guitar. The playing on the classic Johnny Kidd song Shakin’ all over’ put the original riff by Alan Caddy in the shade. This was not just a one off, his guitar work on every song being just as memorably impressive. Truly one of the best ‘country music’ guitarists for many decades!
This was another full house triumph for Drifter promotions and long may they continue! Along with everyone else in the audience I can hardly wait to see this brilliant singer and band again next year. Even the rain had stopped by the end of the gig. Obviously due to the power of great music!
www.eilenjewell.com
www.bartoncarroll.com
Water Tower Bucket Boys.
Prince Albert, Brighton, Thursday 26th August 2010.
I’m not a lover of Bluegrass. It always seems too regimented and over rehearsed, with the musicians seemingly trying to cram as many notes as possible into every song they play, in fact it often seems ‘musical histrionics’ would be a better title. Now, I know that is a completely over the top generalisation but that is always my first impression, whereas conversely, I love most of the old time music that I’ve heard. Bluegrass is derived from old time so there are obvious similarities, thus negating much of what I’ve just written! In fact it strikes me that one of the big differences between the genres is a punk attitude which a lot of old time music had. That is part of the reason I love everything about the Bucket Boys music. They are not a punk band but they have that same homemade attitude that links old time and punk. They are all incredibly skilfull multi instrumentalists but not in a showy way that says ‘Look how clever we are’. They can play incredibly fast when the song calls for it, but can just as easily handle slow ballads. They seem the epitomy of bands that say ‘like us or loathe us, this is what we are and what we play’. Not that I’m suggesting anyone would loathe them, I just use it to illustrate their individuality!
And so it was on a chilly, wet, drab late summers Thursday evening in Brighton that the almost full venue was treated to a high octane musical evening that has rarely been matched, even at this venue that has been putting on gigs for longer than even I can remember! Many of the assemblage knew that the Bucket Boys were an excellent live band, having seen them at their Brighton debut at the ‘Geese’ in August last year. However I don’t think anyone was quite prepared for such an incendiary set as this.
They were really well supported by local ‘Americana’ band, the excellent ‘Koan Brothers’ who played a tremendous set of their own original songs. Many of these songs such as 900 miles, the almost sinister sounding Wreckers and the epic Australia are of a really high quality. They are all excellent musicians, with the band being made up of Steve Reeve on guitar and backing vocals, Nick Streeter, drums and backing vocals, Ed Jones on bass and with Dave Underwood on guitar, harmonica and powerful expressive vocals that lifts them above many other bands in the ‘American Roots’ genre. All in all a tremendous band with some superb songs.
The WTBB duly arrived on stage, by which time the venue was beginning to feel like a sauna with the tightly closed windows running in condensation! This was ideal for the Boys because no warming up was necessary and they were immediately into their stride with the traditional, highly energetic Footprints in the snow. They were apparently, going to play two forty minute sets, but I’m guessing that the heat and the hugely enthusiastic crowd encouraged them to do without what would have probabably been a very welcome break. The atmosphere was pretty much electric throughout the entire gig with much of the crowd trying to dance in the crush and their enthusiasm feeding the band and vice versa, although as far as this goes it was pretty much a chicken and egg situation! The pace never slackened and the band always seem to form a natural rapport with audiences, almost like being entertained at home by old friends. Their music often seems underpinned by the driving fiddle, but with acoustic guitar, banjo and bass always holding their own ‘modern string band music’ could be an appropriate title! As the place heated up Josh Rabie stripped to the waist to try to cool down and was soon followed by Kenny Feinstein. It was that sort of evening! There were a variety of tempos, with several old songs such as the Louvins Cash on the barrelhead, the traditional Sweet chariot, and a brilliant version of The Roving gambler, as well as the little known Carter Brothers highly entertaining Gimme a chaw of tobacco! There were songs from their excellent new album ‘Sole Kitchen’ including Fromage, the brilliant Crooked road and instrumentals including Tea and crumpets and the humourous Blackbird pickin’ at a squirrel.
The band is made up of Cory Goldman on banjo, guitar and vocals, Josh Rabie on fiddle, guitar, banjo and vocals, Kenny Feinstein, guitar, mandolin and vocals and on bass was Leo Lober-Tracy. There was a fair amount of swapping of instruments thus confirming the ‘multi instrumentalists’ tag! Most gigs have something memorable about them but this one, including the Koan Brothers, I’m pretty sure will be remembered in its entirety for a very long time! A truly great live band that also makes excellent albums. What more could roots music fans want!
Note:- The review of last years WTBB 'Geese' gig is on the 'gig archives' page
I’m not a lover of Bluegrass. It always seems too regimented and over rehearsed, with the musicians seemingly trying to cram as many notes as possible into every song they play, in fact it often seems ‘musical histrionics’ would be a better title. Now, I know that is a completely over the top generalisation but that is always my first impression, whereas conversely, I love most of the old time music that I’ve heard. Bluegrass is derived from old time so there are obvious similarities, thus negating much of what I’ve just written! In fact it strikes me that one of the big differences between the genres is a punk attitude which a lot of old time music had. That is part of the reason I love everything about the Bucket Boys music. They are not a punk band but they have that same homemade attitude that links old time and punk. They are all incredibly skilfull multi instrumentalists but not in a showy way that says ‘Look how clever we are’. They can play incredibly fast when the song calls for it, but can just as easily handle slow ballads. They seem the epitomy of bands that say ‘like us or loathe us, this is what we are and what we play’. Not that I’m suggesting anyone would loathe them, I just use it to illustrate their individuality!
And so it was on a chilly, wet, drab late summers Thursday evening in Brighton that the almost full venue was treated to a high octane musical evening that has rarely been matched, even at this venue that has been putting on gigs for longer than even I can remember! Many of the assemblage knew that the Bucket Boys were an excellent live band, having seen them at their Brighton debut at the ‘Geese’ in August last year. However I don’t think anyone was quite prepared for such an incendiary set as this.
They were really well supported by local ‘Americana’ band, the excellent ‘Koan Brothers’ who played a tremendous set of their own original songs. Many of these songs such as 900 miles, the almost sinister sounding Wreckers and the epic Australia are of a really high quality. They are all excellent musicians, with the band being made up of Steve Reeve on guitar and backing vocals, Nick Streeter, drums and backing vocals, Ed Jones on bass and with Dave Underwood on guitar, harmonica and powerful expressive vocals that lifts them above many other bands in the ‘American Roots’ genre. All in all a tremendous band with some superb songs.
The WTBB duly arrived on stage, by which time the venue was beginning to feel like a sauna with the tightly closed windows running in condensation! This was ideal for the Boys because no warming up was necessary and they were immediately into their stride with the traditional, highly energetic Footprints in the snow. They were apparently, going to play two forty minute sets, but I’m guessing that the heat and the hugely enthusiastic crowd encouraged them to do without what would have probabably been a very welcome break. The atmosphere was pretty much electric throughout the entire gig with much of the crowd trying to dance in the crush and their enthusiasm feeding the band and vice versa, although as far as this goes it was pretty much a chicken and egg situation! The pace never slackened and the band always seem to form a natural rapport with audiences, almost like being entertained at home by old friends. Their music often seems underpinned by the driving fiddle, but with acoustic guitar, banjo and bass always holding their own ‘modern string band music’ could be an appropriate title! As the place heated up Josh Rabie stripped to the waist to try to cool down and was soon followed by Kenny Feinstein. It was that sort of evening! There were a variety of tempos, with several old songs such as the Louvins Cash on the barrelhead, the traditional Sweet chariot, and a brilliant version of The Roving gambler, as well as the little known Carter Brothers highly entertaining Gimme a chaw of tobacco! There were songs from their excellent new album ‘Sole Kitchen’ including Fromage, the brilliant Crooked road and instrumentals including Tea and crumpets and the humourous Blackbird pickin’ at a squirrel.
The band is made up of Cory Goldman on banjo, guitar and vocals, Josh Rabie on fiddle, guitar, banjo and vocals, Kenny Feinstein, guitar, mandolin and vocals and on bass was Leo Lober-Tracy. There was a fair amount of swapping of instruments thus confirming the ‘multi instrumentalists’ tag! Most gigs have something memorable about them but this one, including the Koan Brothers, I’m pretty sure will be remembered in its entirety for a very long time! A truly great live band that also makes excellent albums. What more could roots music fans want!
Note:- The review of last years WTBB 'Geese' gig is on the 'gig archives' page
Po' Girl / Hullaballoo Community Choir
Venue 1. Ropetackle Centre, Shoreham - by - Sea on Sunday 9th May
Venue 2. Ralli Hall, Hove, Sunday 16th May.
Both of these excellent Brighton Fringe Festival gigs deserve a mention because of the contrasts in what the, pretty much, full houses witnessed.
On the performance side the wonderful Po' Girl were their usual spellbinding selves at each of the gigs, but huge credit should also go to the hard work and perfect blend of voices by all concerned in the Hullaballoo choir at Shoreham. The event kicked off with the Brighton based choir of approximately eighty local people singing songs, written in the main, by members of the Natural Voice Practioners Network. Their entirely accapela singing was as good as anything that I've heard and it was easy to get lost in the emotional impact they generated.
Po' Girl arrived on stage after a short break and as with Hullaballoo played a half dozen or so songs. The two womens voices are entirely different, with Allison Russells beautifully exuberant vocals dominating the hall. Awna Teixeira's vocals, on her self penned songs, have less power but just as much impact with the feeling she is able to generate. Add this to their multi instrumental talents, beautiful harmonies, Benny Sidelingers brilliant playing of his own manufactured dobro & guitars plus Mikey August on drums and you have a band that anyone with a love of American Roots music would happily pay to see several times in a week; which was exactly what I did! Following Po' Girls short set the Choir & they got together to perform four more songs, two of which were written by members of the aforementioned NVPN. All in all, an evening of beautiful uplifting music.
The Hove gig didn't have a full choir but it played with the emotions just as much. Opening was Alexia Chellun with her beautiful pure vocals on self penned songs and with her own acoustic guitar backing. She really has talent but is in a field where so have many others also have and it really needs something different to grab public attention. This duly happened when Rhi Johns arrived on stage to play three songs with her. Of the songs they played they had each written one and there was also the Moustaki/Monnot penned (for Edith Piaf) Milord. The whole gig was transported to a different level with their beautiful harmonies and sheer pleasure in singing. Their performance of Milord almost made you forget anyone else had ever sung it. Maybe they should give serious thought to continuing their dueting?
Finally, Po' Girl arrived to give an emotion filled performance of songs taken mainly from their gorgeous new album, FOLLOW YOUR BLISS. As with the previous week they gave another fine performance of their roots music. It is difficult to fit them into a particular genre covering as they do blues, old-time country, jazz & folk themes, all in their own inimitable style. Highlights were the beautiful love song Kathy, the gorgeous harmonies of Montana with Alli's clarinet taking a solo and the soaring Western skies underpinned by Benny Sidelingers mastery of the dobro. Anyone that is a fan of any of the aforementioned roots genres should see Po' Girl, they won't be disapointed.
A final word of praise for Rhi Johns, not only for her singing (she is also a Hullaballoo member) but also for the enterprise shown in putting on the last two Brighton area Po' Girl gigs. Last year she was disapointed to see that her favourite band weren't playing in Brighton so she contacted them and said she would put them up if they would play Brighton. They responded by saying if she put the gig on they would accept! The rest as they say is (local) history!
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