Wirral Folk on the Coast - Cream of the Barley

Opening up the Festival, our friend Mal and the residents of Bromborough Folk Club provided a keen if nervous set of favourites, Brass Tacks followed and Phil Chisnall played some fine guitar and sang for us in his well known and well liked manner.

Discussing it later Gill thought we should have had more traditional and local songs to celebrate the Wirral, and I have to agree, in fact the more we think about it, the more focused we are becoming. These opening sets were all "run of the mill" - by which I mean familiar rather anything derogatory, but when Cream of the Barley appeared at the microphones there was a palpable change in the whole room, it was as Gill said, as if a bolt of lightening had passed through and left excess energy in every pore.

Storming into - well to be honest I can't remember - looking back (and it was only 2 days ago) - it seems like there was a maelstrom of players and instruments in front of us, out of which was pouring a boiling liquid Ireland whose vapour became music that so intoxicated the audience that those of us lucky enough to have been there will not forget it in a hurry, and many of us will seek out more of the same.

"The Leaving of Liverpool", "Dublin in the Rare Old Times", "Molly Malone" were included in the set, all delivered with the love and care for the music that I like to see in musicians, but with an extra layer of manic enthusiasm that was at least partly Guiness fuelled, but certainly include a heady mix of Liverpool and Irish humour. The band's rare talents include PJ on vocals, Bodhram, and Spoons, and there are few that can play as well as he does - his wrist is a complete blur as the stick races around the skin producing such rhythms that left us gasping. Eddie on banjo was on some kind of trip, jumping up from his seat, whooping and calling, performing high kicks, and yet played his parts with such empathy to the music - his banjo often providing the pathos componant to the music. The fiddler played the scouse clown with Eddie, his deadpan face occasionally twitching into a smile, his fiddle smooth as silk and the bloke on vocals with the guitar kept it all together without needing any recourse to humour at all!

This was live music in every sense of the word - music played live, music about life, life affirming music and music that makes us feel so alive and eager to live more.

Special mention for the Landlord who was called up to sing Danny Boy with the band.