AFRICA OYE! 2006 - Sefton Park Liverpool - 17-8/6/2006

Hurrah for Africa Oye! You know that summer is due when the brochure appears, usually about a week before the event! This year ours arrived in the post, and their website had been up to date for some time, so things seemed to be looking up! The Saturday dawned sunny and warm and we all packed up our picnics and suntan lotions and went in convoy to Sefton Park - even managing to get a good parking speck this time. Walking across what is known locally as the "old farmers field" towards the stage, it was apparent that there were even more stalls, food shops and so on than last year, although the BBC were noticeably absent. A new feature for this year was the camera crew from the Africa Channel - filming the whole event for the tv channel.

The line up for this year was as eclectic as ever - and just over one hour later than scheduled, Cabruera kicked off for Brazil (and that's the closest I'll be getting to mentioning the football World Cup!) Poor Cabruera had to put with a most dreadfully unready sound system for most of their set, but despite this they managed to attract a good size standing crowd - always a good measure at Oye! - with their mix of Brazilian percussion, folk and rock. The lead singer, Arthur Pessoa often played his heavily fx'd acoustic guitar by rubbing the strings with a ballpoint pen - producing something of a trademark sound, a little reminiscent of The Cure perhaps, at other times they reminded me of early Rush! Once the sound was sorted out they sounded great, always very rhythmic and often very rocky, but sometimes very traditional too. The finale saw all 4 group members hammering away on the bank of percussion. Good stuff.

Actually I will just briefly touch on football again for a minute because it was really noticeable that many of the crowd were wearing football shirts - but from all over the world, making for another colourful aspect of the crowd, which is always a great mix, with a good showing of African style dress as well as the usual festival wear!

Even Floppy made an effort, ditching his usual hoody in favour of this designer Africa Look shirt!

Another positive change this year was the huge increase in the number of bikes - Sefton Park has long been one of the centres of Liverpool's cycling routes, but there were bikes everywhere this year - fab!

Mozambique is the home of Eyuphuro - an eight piece band featuring a very laid back African style electric guitar player and a mass of percussion, with a female lead vocalist. The whole act was very clean and polished and had everybody doing lazy dancing in the hot sun - very pleasant indeed.

Nuru Kane came from all over the place - Medina, France and Mali amongst others, and they got a big crowd dancing to their Tinariwen like tunes (desert rock are we calling it nowadays?). Nuru Kane has more traditional instrumentation than Tinariwen's electric line up and they sported some really colourful costumes and draped the equipment with throws and flags from their various homes. Then Bonga (Angola) kept the dancing going through the scorching heat of the afternoon with accordion tunes played over traditional African guitar rhythm's.

After this, a large crowd gathered - in fact it was by our reckoning one of the biggest crowds we've seen at Africa Oye! 40,000 according to the website - that must be over 2 days surely? - in anticipation of the arrival of Luciano and friends. It was well worth the wait - starting with a short showcase by ace saxophonist Dean Fraser which was sooooooooooo good, followed by Andrew Tosh, son of the late great Peter and following very much in his shoes. Great classic style reggae with real heart. And then, Luciano - in his mock military general uniform (why?) and superstar antics played us out - I've written down "no notes, just lots of great stuff" which is what Africa Oye! is all about - great music from all over the world, great weather, friends and a peaceful, happy time in the field, having a dance or a chill or a veggie special from Quinney's.

Day 2 dawned dull and cooler - we're getting used to this pattern of weather and we went prepared for anything - what we got was Cabruera (again) sounding better today, louder and clearer, though being first up they still suffered for a while from a hollow sound quality. These relatively young lads put on a good show, some chanting, some rapping, both over quite a rocky backing, with more ben/guitar antics as previous. By now it was raining (it's day 2 so it must be!) and they played a suitable song "The Rain it Falls" before ending with raucous Brazilian folk songs, just vocals over percussion.

Afel Bocoum from Mali played next - an older looking group than most of Oye's usual fare, but no less good for that, more colourful costumes and a fine line in hats, the 6 piece band consisted of 1 percussive gourd, 3 guitars and 2 traditional string instruments - one of these sounded like a scratchy violin at first, and is in fact bowed with a tiny little bow, but the sound was great Mali desert rock, layered, hypnotic and well suited to yesterday's weather, by the end it was raining quite hard.

Nothing daunted, Omar Pene and band from Senegal soothed us with his soulful voice and some lovely subtle guitar backing. Two percussionists provided a powerhouse behind this music, one of which looked very much to me like Amadou & Miriam's djembe player who we have seen several times this year already and have been very impressed with his style and energy. Omar himself joined in with a tambourine - and a word here too for Omar's very impressive pink getup. One standout song - "Saturday" during which things got really heavy for a while.

Yet more rain followed and the festival was drawn to a close by "Reggaeman Supreme" Tiken Jah Fakoly from Ivory Close - a great set, characterised by a very laid back bass player providing the backbone and a mysterious lead guitar man (dark shades) who seemed to switch from effortless looking playing to mad, frenzied, exciting, leaping playing, and back again at the flick of a switch. While the set wasn't as exciting as the previous day's closer, it was a good'un and there was a good crowd right to the end - at which point the sun came out for a few minutes. Ah well.....

Another great festival from Paul and the team - really they all deserve some major praise for organising this thing year in year out and to an ever higher standard. Africa Oye! 2007 is going to be even better, and goodness only knows what they'll do for 2008 - Liverpool - European Capital of Culture.

Calico Jack's Annual Music Festival 23-5/6/2006

Calico Jack's is a small jewel in the festival calendar, held somewhere in the rural nether lands of Northwich in Cheshire, it's a nice mix of bluegrass and country music, there's no stalls, one chippie van, real flushing toilets and it's all for charity.

This year the British Heart Foundation will benefit from the takings and the various raffles and auctions that went on during the weekend, which kicked off on Friday night with a line dancing extragavaganza. We didn't arrive until the Saturday afternoon, but thank goodness we did, because we were just in time to catch duo Breeze and Wilson who played a great acoustic set of country and blues, finishing with "our most cheerful song" which was "Papa loves Mama" - in which betrayed trucker husband murders wife and lover by driving his rig into the motel..... A nice touch was the introduction of Toby Wilson's young son for one number, following a Wilson family tradition - long may they run!

Gary and Vera Aspey followed - a husband and wife duo who have been part of the Calico Jack family for years. The act was largely singalongs and lavatorial humour, and featured one particularly fine song "Fat Slag Alice" - a real treat of a take on mining songs.

Scott D Thompson played a nervous solo set that got better as he went along - nervous because he was recording the set to use on a live CD, but he has a powerful voice and made a good fist of the U2 hit "With or without you" amongst his own stuff, which was good enough, but perhaps not my taste. The standard "Summertime" was a highlight, as was his encore Pink Floyd's "Comortably Numb".

Then we got to the "main event" of the evening - Baker's Fabulous Boys in top form - lots of dancing, great music - Russ Williams on vocals on Mandolin - in open neck shirt and taupe suit destroyed his voice while brother Stewart kept things sane on guitar, Lorraine danced about playing her bass and singing, and new recruit (not sure whether this is a permanent arrangement or not) John Dowling joined in with the banjo. The band seem to love playing, they are always full on and tonight was no exception. John Dowling's presence gave them a new dimension and this revealed itself in a fun version of the evergreen (that's code for rapidly becoming the banjo equivalent of "Smoke on the Water", shortly to be banned in all music shops...) "Duelin' Banjos" - fun because the audience became the second banjo, singing in response to John's part (air-banjo's much in evidence) - it went down rather well, as did the rest of the set which included "Caroline" (yes the Quo one), "Ace of Spades" and the grand finale - which may or may not be "Good Morning Captain" - I'm not sure because Russ doesn't so much sing it as try to extract his voice box using sound - I'll try and find out anyway - if you've seen them, you'll know - maybe you can tell me? (Now think it may be Bowie's "Good Morning Girl") - If you havn't seen them - try and find them, it's well worth it.

John Dowling also managed to squeeze in a couple of notes of "Duelin' Banjos) into one of the other tunes which a few us managed to respond to - another tradition starting?

After that we sat down again and festival organiser Ken's band Calico Jack saw the night out with their own mix of country and blue grass, the chill out session!

Sunday was even more laid back as folk drifted home - the weather got damper, the music carried on - it's a lovely little festival and a lot of money was raised - and as the old saying goes "A good time was had by all"

It's a Van Thing

Here's yet another blog for me to keep up to date - its all about VW's, especially our Harry. It's a Van Thing

I've put it together because I've found it really dificult to find certain detailled information, and this is the easiest way to deploy it - and I enjoy doing it to!

As we say on eBay - "Thanks for looking!"

The Family Mahone - Birkenhead Pacific Road Arts Centre - 9/6/2006

Birkenhead Rooooaaaaad! Birkenhead Roooo-oooo-aaaad! The instant adaption of Steve Earle's grinding "Copperhead Road" into the local version introduced us to the live phenomenon that is The Family Mahone. Being more than familiar with Mark Radcliffe's DJ work with BBC Radio 1, and more latterly, Radio 2, we were quite intrigued to see how he would be "in the flesh" as it were.

The live version was actually rather closer to his radio show than I'd expected - obviously the music was live, loud and, often, wild, but the links were just Mark's usual line of off the cuff repartee - and that's fine by me. The band (there are 6 of them) played a mixture of well known (if mildly adapted) standards, and their home grown stuff which was a little bit weaker, but by no means bad! The music is delivered in a full-on manner and with a huge helping of fun - this is not a band that can be accused of taking itself too seriously - with Mark taking the centre front position standing by his sparse but sufficient drum kit, flanked by Christy and Donal on various guitars, mandolins and banjos (they even had 2 banjos going at once at one point!), with Rusty playing seriously energetic accordion on the far end. Bassist Charlie and banjo/fiddle man Doc make up the back row.

Just about every song was described as another "drinking song!" and many of the band's mike-stands were customised to hold a pint glass, so you get the gist! There was a dance floor in front of the stage that was in danger of becoming a dusty desert until Gilly & Ann took to the floor, then Ann & Jim had a go (and got respect from DJ Mahone for dancing to the most complex song they do) and then we were all up and poor Gilly put herself back a week or two with her hip as we flung ourselves around the floor, joined by Christy Mahone with his mandolin for much of it too! In the end we settled for Gilly standing still while I danced around her, and a few other people managed to get up and dance - the music was wild and mostly now Shane McGowan penned, ending with "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" and encoring with"Meet me on the Encore, sorry Corner" - it was an all too short set, they were after all in support of the "main event" a caleidh with Arthur Marshall and the Lifeboat Band (plus various Mahones).

This highlights one of my concerns about some of the lineups in this year's festival, with some rather unusual pairings and some really good acts being put on for too early in the running - but otherwise it was a terrific blast and if wasn't already sold out, we might be heading for the Middlewich gig at the weekend....

Afterwards we enjoyed a late session at Rinty Moneghan's with Alison Parker and the Third Man in charge (though I seem to recall the Third Man was absent...!)

Kate Rusby - New Brighton Floral pavilion - 10/6/2006

About 800 people crammed into New Brighton's misnamed theatre in the sticky heat of the evening on one of the hottest days of the year so far - and they closed all the doors and cooked us even more. Consequently there was no atmosphere and a lot of very hot people when Elbow Jane - tonight's support - appeared un-announced onto the stage. I'm doing all this negative stuff now because its mostly down to the venue - tatty, hot, airless and I guess only used because its got the most seats in Wirral? The fact that there was no compere was an opportunity missed - in fact the rather staid recorded message about not taking photographs made this even worse - 800 people and no good word for the local folk scene?

Enough. Elbow Jane - our third chance to see them this year - and the last chance to see them for a while because they are all going to be otherwise engaged for a few months over the summer. Now with the superstar-in-waiting Joe Topping fully integrated into the band, Elbow Jane grasped their chance to impress a new audience with all their energy and produced a short but accomplished set, opening with "Shape of my Heart", sung by Joe Topping with aplomb, and moved on to their own compositions: "Ecclesiasties" and "Soul Survivor". Then we were delighted to have Joe Wright come on to play a few fiddle tunes with the band, and then take up his mandolin for the grand finale - "Lean on Me". Elbow Jane have a wealth of talent and if they continue to explore the possibilities offered by making use not only of Joe Topping's undoubted skills, but also those of Joe Wright, we might have a folk-rock powerhouse in the making - I personally hope so. Short and sweet then the support, then an unexplained gap while they changed the stage over before some new people came on - oh, no, its not the roadies - that must be Kate Rusby then....

Four dull men and Kate Rusby in a bright pink dress - not that the band was dull to listen to, its just that they were all in black and/or grey, so Kate stuck out really well. The audience obviously contained a lot of existing fans, and Kate was soon into her well developed style of banter between songs, encouraged by the laughter and friendly heckling that came her way. This has, apparently developed over time as she used to be so shy on stage that she could hardly announce the songs, and to be honest it felt a little forced at times and I've heard a few people say that they find it a bit tiresome. It might even be argued that this persona is doing her a bit of dis-service and that there is a much stronger "real" Kate Rusby hiding away behind it - then again, it seems that lots of people like it and she certainly made us smile a few times!

Musically (at last!) the experience was quite good - the band are really good - John McCusker (Kate's husband) played fiddle, guitar and Bazooki, Andy Cutting on diatonic accordions, Andy Seward on upright bass and Ian Carr on additional guitars - an interesting total lack of percussion note - although John McCusker managed to find a good sounding board to stamp his right foot on! I was particularly pleased to be able to hear Andy Seward's bass clearly separated from the other instruments - full marks to the sound engineer - and he was well worth listening to. And what did they play? Quite a selection of songs and even a few tunes - highlights for me being Richard Thompson's "Withered and Died", "Fare thee Well" which had a lovely rich bass, and John Mc on a low whistle and "Young Jones" which featured a rather exciting rhythm. Kate has a lovely voice and whilst she only sang two songs I'd heard before - "You Belong to Me" and "Canaan's Land", it was quite a pleasant experience. I have to say that there were a couple of occasions when the band got a bit louder and Kate struggled a bit to match the increase, and I think this is what leads to the accusations that all the songs sound the same - I don't think this is strictly true but it does maybe limit the repetoire a little.

By the time the concert drew to an end I was struggling a bit due to the heat and lack of air which may have clouded my views slightly, but I was impressed by the way they coped with Ian Carr's broken string - turning it into a comedy routine. The vaguely soporific feeling was re-inforced by choosing "Canaan's Land" as a closer, because it fades out rather than reaching a climatic ending to the night, then Kate gave a solo rendition of "Underneath the Stars" as an encore.

I don't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy this concert, because I did, but the venue didn't help and I'll think twice before going back there in the summer.

So we had a bit of a chat and browsed the stall, then set of en masse for Fort Perch Rock - banged on the door and shouted a bit, only to find a rather bemused resident wondering what this gaggle of folkies wanted so late at night - turns out we had the wrong venue and had to set off back inland to a pub of the same name! Sorry folks. Anyway, the pub was packed and hot, so we set up a fringe meeting outside and had a cracking time - thanks to all for a great session!

Wirral Folk on the Coast - Vale Park - 11/6/2006

A really pleasant Sunday afternoon spent in the sun, listening to live music in the company of many friends.

That would probably do to describe this afternoon's event, but we should make mention of the various artists who took part - we missed Tansky (sorry lads) , but we arrived just in time to hear most of Garva's set, which was a mixed blessing because it meant that being early on, the set would be short, and to my mind (and many others I spoke to), Garva should have had the last and longer slot - it was certainly perfect music for the event, local musicians playing all manner of music, notably their well know version of Ray Davis' "Waterloo Sunset" - with Tony Gibbons (vocals, cittern), Terry Coyne (vocals, flute, whistles, fiddle) and Lesley McGough( keyboard and vocals) and two special guest who's names I didn't right down, but I'll ask Shay later in the week and add them in then! It all ended far too soon, we were still tucking into our picnic lunch!

Next up were Vocal Point - a new band featuring John and Angie Owen, John's sister Sue Farley, and Patricia Ward - as their name suggests, Vocal Point make good use of the 3 voices available to them, with just a small amount of acoustic guitar and occasional percussion from Angie when required. I have always liked John's voice and the group have a good harmonic sound, and how good it is to have the a group where the male sex is for once in the minority. They got an enthusiastic response, and certainly their opener - an African sounding song, delivered a'capella, was really good, and each of the 3 singing members was given a solo spot. Perhaps this venue was a little too wide open for this sound though, certainly we've heard them in more intimate settings sounding great, and the delicate harmonies really do deserve to be heard, but the songs where well chosen and well done. One final observation - they all stood about 6 or more feet apart on the stage - surely a group like this need to be closer together?!

The event was headed up by "The Neil Spiers Band" - a new name to me - even when he explained it wasn't his real name I still hadn't heard of him! "Neil" is a talented multi-instrumentalist who managed to play at least 4 instruments in his set - guitar, banjo, low whistle, and clarinet and he was backed by a further guitarist, bass and keyboards, with Lisa featuring on lead vocals for many of the songs. The band was rather new, in fact they claimed to have only played all together once, yesterday, so there was more than a hint of the act being something new and not yet having found its real identity, and some of the (very) newly written lyrics felt a little repetitive - however there were some really strong points too - an instrumental "Made to Measure" for instance, Lisa's solo "When You Hear a Baby Cry" - a complex and unaccompanied veganic lyric delivered well if still a little raw. Another good song, "Pit Brown Lassie" had a really traditional feel to it, and I enjoyed that, but overall the set lost my attention several times, and there were a lot of people heading home before it finished. As I said earlier, it could have been better if Garva had filled this spot, and let Neil Spiers have a more concise set earlier on, but lets not go on about it, it was a lovely afternoon, and the venue is perfect when the weather co-operates.

Thanks to the organisers and especially to Richie Woods and everyone who did a great job on the sound - a huge improvement on last year and it really made a difference.

Bob Fox at The Old Manor Folk Club - 11/6/2006

One word summed up this performance tonight - brilliant - it was my word, and Bass Man Bob came up with the same word when we met afterwards - Bob Fox is nearing the end of a long tour of the UK, nearly 30 venues in 5 months, and was on top form, despite having played in Sunderland the same afternoon and driving over to Wallasey in time to sound check before most of us had turned up.

The gig was also the 13th and final one of the Wirral Folk on the Coast festival, a grueling schedule for anybody that made it to all of them (ok, we did 12/13 - but then we were at Wychwood for the first one), but the room was full of expectant folkies, many fresh from an afternoon at Vale Park.

Bob Fox then, a "BBC Folk Singer of the Year nominee" according to his blurb, launched into a version of "Jack Crawford" - about na Sunderland hero, and we were instantly aware that we were in the presence of a top performer - Bob's guitar playing - Gill described it as generous, and this sums it up well - there's no skimping, plenty of spring to it, and Bob's Fylde guitar rang out loud and clear, whatever style it was asked to perform. I'm told that the instrument has been patched up and repaired several times over the years, and I'm often impressed by players who get through a whole set using only one instrument - I know there's nothing really in this, you can switch guitars to get new sounds or to avoid re-tuning all the time, it doesn't make you any less of a player, maybe I'm just impressed that so much can be got out of one instrument.

Bob's set was mixture of old and new, traditional and contemporary - and I enjoyed how, in several cases, he would play a traditional tune in the midst of a song, for instance Joe Wilson's "Bonny Gateshead Lass" was augmented by "Elsie Marley" and "Cock of the North" featured, most fittingly on the tail end (!) of "The Whitby Tailor". There was plenty of background given for the songs, delivered in Bob's engaging and witty North-Eastern manner, but not without a touch of scouse repost - there was an on-going adjustment to the levels for the stage monitor and at one point Bob said he thought there was a lot of reverb, "It's the Liverpool Echo" quipped Tony Gibbons. There was yet more laughter when Bob lost it during this song, laughing at the story that he must have sang so many times!

There were many songs from the great writers - Ewan MacColl's "Champion of Keeping 'em Rolling", John Tamms' "Remembrance Day", and several by Andy M Stewart. Highlights included the hanging chord that Bob left at the end of "My Love is in America", perfectly capturing the unresolved story in the song, and his gripping and moving rendition of Ralph McTell's "Peppers and Tomatoes" another fantastic song from the horrors of recent conflicts, this one from Kosovo. During this song there was the hint of a high harmony during the chorus, but no sign of anybody else singing ......

"Rambling Rover" was his ever faithful closer - a good philosophy to hang on to - and "Galway Shawl" was his popular encore, both very much local favourites and both "well sung" by the audience. Bob I know felt it had been hard work, with the heat and a few sound problems, but the audience was appreciative and we had a good time. A most fitting end to the festival.

A word before I go about Phil McGinity, who compered tonight's show, singing Richard Thompson's "In Limbo Now" really well, and performing several of Jake Thakray's complex songs. Phil is one of the local folk stalwarts with who we have had more and more contact in recent weeks, and you will be reading more about him here soon. (Nothing to worry about Phil ...!)

Wirral Folk on the Coast Festival 2006

Read this in the tone of one of those TV documentaries where the journalist is speaking quietly into a portable tape recorder with the lights turned down low and everybody can tell its late at night and this is a special bit of the programme:

Well its just about 1am now on Monday morning and we're just winding down with a nice cup of tea and reflecting on what has been a hectic week of events. It's not the right time to put out any detailed comments, but lets just say that tonight Bob Fox was brilliant at The Old Manor Folk Club and we had a lovely time this afternoon in Vale Park, where Garva were particularly good and the sun just shone and shone.... and the session in (and outside) the Perch Rock pub last night was an absolute delight.

I've been fielding compaints all week about the lack of new reports here (Bob, Jim, Ian et al)- its not because we've been slacking or anything, but we had to take a short break to cope with a bout of illness, but we're both on the mend now and it's a good time to say thanks to allthose who have sent good wishes and kept our spirits up these last few weeks. Now the FolkingAbout notebook is bursting with my scribbles from loads of events, noteably the Wychwood Festival, the Wirral Folk on the Coast mentioned above, Karine Polwart and Reckless Elbow. I'm going to get stuck in this week and try to catch up because its summer and there's so much to see and hear.

So keep checking in - thanks for bothering - hopefully there will be some interesting stuff for you all - there's at least one minor shock for regular readers to look forward to.....

Next up is Africa Oye! in Sefton Park, Liverpool - thats next weekend - check their website at www.AfricaOye.com - (we're in the picture gallery but you can only tell its us if you've had at least 5 pints of beer first cos its all fuzzy. ) This is Liverpool's best kept secret and if you like your music rythmic, get along - its free, its great, and the sun (nearly) always shines.

Just as an aside - the other blog I write is over at ItsJustPlayingTrains - I few people have asked where it is - so now you know - its even more behind than this one, but I've got some new pictures to put in there, so that will be done asap.

Thanks again - see you out there in the real world soon!

John & Gilly

Karine Polwart & band - Birkenhead Pacific Road -26/5/2006

"Terminal Star" - on reflection an interesting first song, but there was no hint of irony as Karine Polwart and her band kicked off their first appearance in Birkenhead, and our first time seeing them play live. Not that we were unfamiliar with their work, having been anticipating this gig for weeks following several CD purchases and lots of time on MySpace. The song starts quietly and builds nicely, with Karine's brother, Steve, playing 12 string electric guitar and bassist Kevin and vocalist Inga both playing melodicas - Inga's being a rather posh looking bass version, indeed from where we were sat, it looked like a large breathalyser test kit! Drummer Matty started out with a gentle rhythm using felted heads, moving onto brushes as the song progressed, while Inga moved to accordion and Kevin to his bass - by now the song had us all captivated and we knew we had come to something special.

It was almost intantly apparent that Karine had surrounded herself with a fine set of musicians, not just for the album or the tour, but seemingly for the long haul, with her brother Steve, and her husband Matty representing family, Inga also shares their house and while I don't know about Kevin, I expect he is a regular visitor, because the band is so together and their performance so intricate that it has to be a matter of constant practice and familiarity with each other. Matty's rhythms weave their way through the band's sound, rarely using anything much heavier than brushes, his style is restrained and yet underpins the whole thing, while Kevin's upright bass is very much "plugged in", but also has a delicate feel to it, even when the strings are occasionally bowed.

Moving through the set, with "Only One Way", "Daisy" and "Hole in the Heart", my notes are all about subtle, complex, delicate and powerful - the sound as really good, with different voices dropping in and out of the songs to maintain the fine texture of the music, and yet when Steve got to play his lead break in "Hole in the Heart", it was loud, but by no means overpowering. Karine's songs are more than worth listening to, her tunes and her lyrics are in a class of their own and are well matched, while Karine's lead vocals are superbly augmented by Inga Thompson's harmony's which sound so fragile and delicate, but are another key element in the band's sound. Inga (who is originally from Shetland) also provides some fine accordion playing, but rarely in the traditional manner of accordions, more like long washes of sound that came over like tangible atmosphere.


"Take its Own Time" and "Holy Moses" were the next 2, slightly slower songs, with 2 acoustic guitars in play for "Holy Moses" ("lovely" I noted) and also into "Waterlilly" - a favourite here, so very very powerful and further highlighting Inga's vocal talents. Karine explained the story behind the song, her usual aversion to telling "same old story" being reversed into a declaration of intent to always tell this one further tale of horror from Bosnia's store of many such, and sang it with great feeling - her face showing the pain of the lyrics.

The first half wound up with "The Good Years", featuring 4 part harmony, bowed bass, 2 acoustic guitars and is due to appear in a new album of Scottish music any time now.

Part two opened with "Maybe There's a Road" and featured Steve on electric 12 string and demonstrated the band's subtle use of instrumentation, fading voices in and out throughout the song rather than having them all blasting away at once. This song also featured the bass being used where the bass drum might have been used. "You put me back together again" saw Inga playing her triangle, then the single "I'm going to do it all someday" provided us with smooth 4 part vocal harmonies and a knockout electric guitar break - one of those parts that make me want to learn to play the guitar!

The band sloped off then and left Karine to deliver her one of her contributions to the latest Radio Ballads series - "You Can't Weld A Body" - a very good song in the Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding mould - well not mould - genre? - via J Love anyway. You'll get my drift - and it let us listen to Karine's guitar playing which was well worth it, she plays with a lovely tone, and her voice is good and strong. The seriousness of this song was counterbalanced by "John Clark", a wee bit of fun about a gas fitter.

"Where the Smoke Blows" fairly rattled along, with a short lead break and a 4 part vocal section that sounded almost Scandinavian for a moment, vocal harmonies also featuring strongly in "The Sun's Comin' Over the Hill" which may have been even slower than the CD version, leading into the last song - a rocking version of "Waiting".

For the encore we got "The News" and "Follow the Heron" and it occurred to me here that Karine sometimes sounds a little like Tracey Thorn in her earlier days. The band were excellent - making best use of the voices available, giving individual instruments space when required and some really fine touches - the last note of the performance delivered without any show by Matty drawing the bass bow across the edge of a cymbal - a neat and rather typical touch from this band.

Karine Polwart deserves to go far - certainly we would be happy to travel to hear her perform again - a good indicator of any artist's popularity in this house!