The John Wright Band at Parkgate Folk Club - 24/11/2005

John Wright? What's he like then? "Well, he used to be a shepherd..." was the only answer I got whenever I asked, so it was some relief to learn that John Wright is now a professional musician and boy can he sing!

This, by the way marks the return to "almost on time" blogging - I hope to go back and fill in the gaps, but I will now try and report just after the event rather than trying to cram in 4 festivals before I go any further! So look out for Fiddlestone on Sunday if all goes to plan.

Eddie warmed us all up with his own wonderful brand of enthusiasm, fun and songs, managing to get through them all without cracking up this month!

The John Wright Band then are John on vocals, local hero Joe Topping on guitar and vocals, Joe Wright on guitar, violin and vocals, and for a limited time only, Chris Parkinson on accordion, harmonica and percussion. John is a big bloke and his (new - from George - Asda) dark suit and black t-shirt set him off well, his slightly long hair and silver hoop earring adding to the image, which, every now and then, reminded me of Tindersticks' Stuart Staples, especially when he cradled a glass in his hands.

We were treated to a set of 14 songs from 14 different song writers - John interprets others' songs rather than writing his own, and every one was performed with a real spirit of feeling. Opening with "Past the point of rescue" by Mick Hanly, John made good use of his expressive face and mannerisms, making lots of eye-contact with the sell-out audience, and continued in this manner for the whole night, drawing us in to his songs with his eyes and his hands.

Continuing with Dave Mallett's "You say the battle is over" the band switched from guitar and fiddle to two guitar mode, giving a rich sound with some very skilful interplays. John describes this song as saying things "the way I feel" made his point but let the song do most of the talking.

Next up was "Time to Learn" from Tim O'Brien and Pat Alger with some lovely washes from Chris' accordian with some great guitar work over. At the end of this song there was just the briefest of a flicker of pain on John's face before his almost ever-present smile returned, a small chink in the mask revealing some of the real man behind? "Close to the edge" by Alan Taylor provided some close vocal harmonies, followed by Pete Abbott's "Windy Harbour" and then Dougie Maclean's devestatingly heartfelt song "Down too deep" closed the first half with Joe Wright providing sparkling violin passage for the bridge.

The second half was to have a "Scottish Lilt" and started with "The Old Boys" from Runrig's Rory and Calum MacDonald with very fine vocal harmonies, a very tight band this, well used to the material, but never seemingly bored of it, "Come By" from Steve Knightly revealed a whiff of Peter Gabriel in John's voice as he sang this song that he inspired from Steve, complete with authentic commands to the shepherd's dog. Don Henley and Bruce Hornsby's "The end of innocence" woke us all up as the band moved up a notch, the 2 Joe's being allowed a couple of solo lines each on vocals - John's obviously not about to let anybody steal his show!

More close harmonies on "Eldorado" by Graham Miles (no web site?) reminded me how clear John's diction is, and his voice is so powerful when he opens it up, rising on his toes towards the mike, adding a couple of extra inches to his already impressive hight. Robin Laine's "Black Clothes" closed the set with John sidling off to let the band play out to a climatic close, and we called them back to do one more - "Whatever goes around" by Chris Jones (no web site?) before we all went home happy and impressed.

"Would you come again?" John asked us afterwards? Too right we would!

Ewen Carruthers at Bromborough Folk Club

John at Bromborough has a habit of providing acts still new to me that delight me with their performances Ewen Carruthers was one of these - I had absolutely no prior knowledge of either him or his material other than that he was from the North East but had moved out to the States some years ago.

Ewen turned out to be older than I'd pre-conceived, but nonetheless impressive for all that - in fact his mellowed out songs had a ring of experience that made them a pleasure to listen to - the product of a man that had been around a bit, but who wasn't frightened to write about what he had found and how he felt about it.

Opening with "In the Course of Bassano" - a World War One song, he soon got diverted from his intended set and was persuaded to re-discover some of his older songs, "Traveler" for example. Ewen played his guitar (he only needed one) with a seemingly easy style that managed to hide the amount of picking that must of been going on, and I later heard that his right hand had been operated on to relieve some problems. This makes his sound even more impressive, because you just can't see how he does it, because his fingers seem to cover each other as he plays. He moved on to "Little White Fluffy Clouds" and the fab ""Little Bit of Me", completing the first half with "Was it You?", a song about Scott of the Antarctic.

Part 2 kicked off with "Old Dog Blues" which contained the line "I don't do fetch, somebody pass me that ball" but got a bit more serious with his "On the Mission", "One More Story" and "The Marriage" which cover the American Goldrush, his first grandchild and a black and white dream.

By the time he'd finished is was so dark that my notes are now unreadable, but he'd done more than enough to sell his CD and book his place in our list of names to watch out for - hope he comes back soon.

Who have I missed this year?

As November draws to a close and I get around to catching up on some of the gigs we have been to this year, I took to thinking about the ones that got away and the others that didn't even come by...

Liza Carthy and the Ratcatchers are near the top of the list, I love the "Rice" CD and they have been to so many festivals and played so many gigs, but not anywhere I've been! Not too worry, the next tour has just kicked off so there is still hope.

Steve Earle - got away when we decided not to go to Cheltenham for the new Wychwood Fesival.

Peter Gabriel - still havn't seen him play.

Queen with Freddie - never did, never will.

Missing Dougie Maclean playing Pertshire Amber at Pitlochrey was sad but we just couldn't get there....

E.S.T. at Brecon - well we were enjoying Cropredy...

No doubt there are more to add - hopes for next year?

Neil Young?
David Sylvian?

Keep music alive!