Kristina Olsen at Biddulph Town Hall - 18/7/2006

Remembering our previous attempts at finding gigs in the Potteries, we set out early and managed to arrive a good 2 hours before the start - so we bagged the best seats and went and had dinner!

It was one of the hottest days for about 100 years (really!) and everybody was feeling it, but the hall filled up nicely and lots of people had brought food and drink, so it felt quite festive. First up tonight were "Loud Mouth Women", in what is becoming a regular slot for them at the end of their summer rehearsals period. "Loud Mouth Women" are a local womens' free access singing group and when they came on, they had to line up in front of the stage because there were so many of them - 34 we counted, plus Mary up front leading. We weren't sure what to expect, and to be honest I was dreading the possibility of the worst kind of church choir performance I used to endure, but when they started their a'capella act singing in an African language a song slightly reminiscent of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", but much better, my hopes were lifted, followed by my spirits and my enjoyment! They sang their hearts out, sometimes in unison, sometimes split into 2, 3 or 4 parts, but always smiling and putting everything into it.
They sang "It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it" (Fun Boy 3/Bananarama version), "We are one" (most appropriately) and a further selection of African style songs, all sung by heart and a'capella. Great stuff.

Eric Cox then introduced Kristina Olsen - I should declare a bias here - I like Kristina Olsen - we caught her twice at the Bridgnorth Festival last year and she made a big impression, and we said then that we would make a point of catching her again if she came within range. Well here she is, and here we are! Ann and Jim had also made the trip, and another couple had come down from Heswall so obviously there is quite a draw.

Kristina chose "Part Time Love" to open and was instantly in trouble with the guitar pickups which continued to give problems all night, but nothing daunted, switch to a microphone and carry on... The song features some complex guitar work not unlike John O'Connell's solo in the middle of "Moondance", and this is her opener - she hasn't even had time to warm up yet, and from where we were sat we could see and hear the expressions and little sounds Kristina makes as she and her guitar communicate with each other, and they with us. Her guitar playing was really intricate, some notes bent sooo far, and lots of well used harmonics too, the whole song is held together by the constant heartbeat on the bass string. Then, for a few moments the guitar is slung round behind her and "Love Kristina" - a short, light-hearted a'capella song. The instrument is returned to favour for the next "Dangerous" - but it probably wished it hadn't been, because she hammers hell out of the strings at times, no wonder she wears plasters on her right hand fingers! It's a great song though, loud and emotional.

My favourite off her last CD - the exquisite title track from "In Your Darkened Room" came next - a much smoother and darker sound, enhanced by the tiny sighs and occasional tuts from Olsen as she continues to wring that guitar. I can't say enough about this song - it grabbed me right inside when I first heard it at Bridgnorth and it continues to grab and twist and pull at me every time I hear it. I don't recall Kristina ever saying anything by way of introduction, but whatever inspired her to write it certainly exerts a major charge and never fails to niggle away at my emotions. Watching Kristina perform it close up here, and later even closer on her live DVD, I suspect she still feels it deep too.

A few songs later the long suffering acoustic was laid aside in favour of the big red one, playing bottle-neck slide blues on Robert Johnson's "Come on in my kitchen", using the bottleneck to suggest more and more of the lyrics as the song progressed, aided by "knowing looks" towards the audience. All this singing was of course peppered with Kristina's own brand of things to say between songs - some of it biographical, a few jokes, a kind of aural blog, including the recipe for her potent cold- relief - hot chilli tea, which she consumed throughout, all of it somewhat more brash than you usually experience in folk clubs. "Didn't think it would happen tonight" concluded the first set ( time for a second brew?) with a bit of audience participation and a really loud vocal.

Part two of the evening commenced with more joy from the Loud Mouth Women - various "Generic African" call and response songs followed by "Don't worry, be happy", "I'll fly away" and the Crystals' "There's nobody like my baby". Finally they sang "We're going home" by The Mighty Zulu Nation and after a few verses they began to parade slowly off and around the side, still singing their joyous song and waving as they went - just brilliant.

Kristina re-appeared with her hair tied up - quite literally as it turned out - she showed us how after the gig - bluesing about on her acoustic again with "Stop Doing So Well" and then "The Truth of a Woman". The 'tween song chat caused some embarassed giggling from around the room when mentioning finding someone to neck in the carpark, and hoots when it moved on to talk of life classes....

"New Love" was a classic Olsen penned song - sometimes you can just tell - maybe there's a batch from a certain time, or perhaps it's just "her" sound, anyway, the next one, a very new song, "Move On" was rather more unique and as the little blue practice guitar had also failed to work with the sound system, came played on the acoustic for the very first time - "character building" as Kristina said afterwards. There were problems with the sound all night, "poltergeists in the pickups" but it didn't seem to harm the performance any - the mikes worked just fine anyway. Only one song with the concertina tonight - "If I stayed" and that short but sweet.

"The Man with the Red Car", then a lovely instrumental played on the red steel guitar "Phoebe's Iceburg" - written on a train and very beautiful indeed - before ending up with "Big O" featuring those Loud Mouth Women again, who, having had 10 minutes to learn the chorus all crammed into the kitchen, may have been a little surprised at the remainder of the lyrics - certainly there were some interesting expressions when light dawned! Plain speaking songs are what you get here, often with pretty complex instrumentation, but always straight forward.

We got 2 encores - "Cry you a waterfall" - a happy/sad song for a departed friend, then the fun filled "Better than TV" which rather understates the level of entertainment Kristina Olsen had provided all evening, with help from the Loud Mouth Women - thank you all very much indeed.

Kristina Olsen returns to the UK in October with cellist Peter Greyling (tour dates here) and Folking About WILL be there!

John O'Connell at The Pollards Inn, Willaston - 16/7/06

Just a brief note really to say that John is playing a whole series of local pub gigs at present - The Tap - Eastham on Tuesday 25th July, The Dibbensdale Hotel, Bromborough on Thursday 27th are the next 2, and they are in addition to his regular spots around Liverpool at the weekends.

John was brilliant at The Pollards, maybe a tad too loud for the space, but we were sat at the front! The set was pretty much as usual, but John's repetoire is big enough to allow him to vary the content from night to night, so no Van Morrison tonight, but a lovely rendition of Damien Rice's "Cannonball" stood out for me, amongst others. Gary Hennesey(?) came and played mandolin for a spot, so we got Rod Stewart's "Mandolin Wind" and U2's "Losing My Religion", both with poor Jimmy sat off in a side room, but still playing bass, and then Dylan's "Little Sadie" and "Whiskey In The Jar" a la Thin Lizzy.

Another very good night from John - see him if you can.

Eric Bogle & John Munro - Parkgate Folk Club - 8/6/06

This isn't going to be too easy to write - Eric Bogle is after all a superstar in folk terms - but lets wait a moment and comment on a new rising star that appeared in the Wirral Folk on the Coast Festival - Big Bob - Bassman came on with club organisor Eddie Morris to sing "Kelty Clippy" and play along on "Can't do right", and then this new duo abandoned their instruments to sing "The old pool" a'capella to geat acclaim. We didn't manage to photograph this event, but here's Bob enjoying a quiet moment earlier in the Festival. The duo were joined by another local legend and registered wreck, Don, with his bones for "Making Songs". We look forward to reporting on more gigs by this new act in the near future!

Eric Bogle and John Munro - not one but two superstars that had sold out the Parkgate Folk Club months ago and had poor Eddie's phone ringing day and night for weeks as people became more and more desperate to get tickets. So the upper room at the Boathouse Hotel was jammed tight with expectant folkies from all over, the temperature was high, the air was still and the air conditioning not up to much.... Eric advised us early on that he was suffering with a cold, but he battled on anyway. With Eric on accoustic guitar and John Munro on mandolin, they introduced themselves with a little comic number "My name's Eric" which had us all laughing. After that things seemed to be more serious as the pair worked their way through their set. Eric rumbles away, leaning back a touch, head back, eyes closed when he's singing, whilst John sings higher, seemingly nonchalant. The sound is very crisp and accomplished, and John's mandolin playing got special notice from me several times, particularly during "A good man died today" and "No man's land".

In the second half John sang his own great song "Cross the border" in fine style, then "A reason for it all" found the duo singing alternate verses with some great guitar work, building up to the amazing finale where both men sang separate words in opposition to each other to end this moving and powerful song which had lots tears in lots of eyes, men and women alike. This section was the highlight of the set, which, while I often wrote down things like "nice guitar" and so on, ultimately failed to light my fire. The balance of the songs was heavily towards the protest, miserable and maudlin, the mood between songs similar and the whole thing felt a bit heavy and disappointing. Not bad by any means, but certainly not up to the star billing I'd expected. I said at the start that Eric had a cold, so maybe that was getting him down, and the room was very hot and airless, not a great help in the circumstances, so fair enough, I'd see them again certainly, but I'd hope for something more next time.

The good news is that John is returning to the UK and Parkgate with the great Australian band Colcannon next year, we'll be there!

Doghouse Skiffle Group - Telfords Warehouse, Chester - 30/6/06

A balmy Chester evening saw the Doghouse assemble to entertain the bright young things that frequent this popular night spot. Not being due to start until 10:30pm, there was plenty of time for a few pre-show drinks and socialising while we celebrated Gilly's 50th birthday - I wish I could say this had been specially arranged, but it hadn't so I won't- but it was a good excuse for an impromptu party with our favourite skiffle trio from Hull.

At the appointed hour then we gathered in front of the small stage in a low ceilinged room to the side of a packed but noisy bar, and witnessed the DSG in another mode altogether. Unable to communicate directly with most of the audience, many of whom were still in the bar, Garry was forced to leave out much of the between song banter and let the music do the talking. Reviving the old favourites and applying their own peculiar style of skifflisation to modern classics, the band played their hearts out and pretty soon the room was full, as the crowd came over to see what on earth was going on. At the front meantime, we were dancing the night away in a whirl of bright lights, very loud music and lots of gyrating bodies - and all in a very confined, very hot space! "Sixteen Tons", "Rock Island Line", "Train, Train", "Fulsome Prison" all churned out one after the other, Alan became the local hero for the several young men dancing away in front of him, as the crowd grew, Garry was able to work in a few quipps and got a few laughs. Soon the place was bouncing and "A day in the life" was rolled out, but the crowd was in for yet more treats when they got into the "The Legend of Jesse James", complete with held breath, reverse singing and the amazing "Bohemian Rhapsody" mid-section. "Cigarettes, Whisky and wild wild women" piled on the fun (complete with gigantic drum stick - my favourite bit - "You'll hear the bugger now!") and then ....

It was all over in a flash - the set ending with "Goodnight Irene", the traditional "Tigers!" chant being replaced by a topical "England!" at the end, a gesture which seems to have upset the management, but never mind eh? Once again the Doghouse had triumphed over adversity, a great show under difficult conditions.

Ewen Carruthers - Bromborough Folk Club - 28/6/06

A very welcome return to Bromborough for Ewen (see last year's report here) and he was given the whole second half to entertain us. Ewen only plays his own stuff, and his opener was "Old Dog" - a bluesy number which is all based on one riff repeated many times. In "Mr Anderson" Ewen proved his writing talents by managing to rhyme "great war" and "snore", and played in something of a Mark Knopfler style with a nice delicate touch. His voice, mellow now, but retaining his North Eastern accent at times was pushed to something more hoarse in "Hey Katrina", Ewen's hurricane piece and his guitar style seems to involve wrestling the sound out of the instrument at times, not quite with the venom Neil Young would use, but there was some major effort put into the sound.

"Love Birds" and "One More Story" followed and then, after an explanation that this is about Joni Mitchell, Ewen played "In Your Studio" and there was a very definite gear change, both in lyrical and musical content, a much richer sound which made us sit up and pay even more attention.

Ewen calls himself an easy listening folk artist and many of his songs fall into this category, but his lyrics can be quite deep and deserve to be heard - for example in "Lonely Little White Cloud":

"California living's great,
Until you start to shake"

Marvelous!


Winding up with his well known "Rubenstein Remembers" (as recorded by Allan Taylor) which had everybody going, Ewen was well received and so long as he keeps returning to England, he will be welcome back at Bromborough.

Cream of the Barley et al - Bromborough Folk Club - 7/6/2006

Just how many acts can you squeeze into one night at a folk club? Bromborough's contribution to the Wirral Folk on the Coast Festival was a specially extended version - kicked off early and finished late, packed to the gills and sold out weeks in advance.

It was down to the resident irregulars -"The Illych People" to get things off the ground, and then regular resident Phil Chisnall competed with the bells from next door's campanologists' practice session, sometimes aided by Chris Wilcox on violin, a mixed set of his own work and covers, finishing with a nicely done version of the popular "Caledonia".

Next up - Sally Williamson - this time with an electric bass and percussionist who added an extra dimension to her sound. Five songs, mostly her own compositions, all delivered in Sally's very polished, clean style - her guitar playing is always very accomplished, and sometimes I find myself wanting Sally to go one stage further and whip up a bit of a lather. At one stage during a quiet song, the drummer John Lancashire gave a great heave of his shoulders, paused as if counting down, and I thought "here we go..." But no, he was just having a stretch and while the song built nicely with both the bass and later bongos, the sound stayed on the ground floor.

It's actually harder to write this kind of thing down about folk who you meet quite often (very often in Phil's case) and I trust that everybody takes it in the spirit it is meant - I'm just saying what I think - and you may get your chance to turn the tables one of these days...

Fourth in line was our local Urban Troubadour - John O'Connell - regular readers will have picked up that I like John a lot, and tonight he played a short but well defined set, Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Stevens and Janis Ian covers, his own "What a day..." and then he sat down and played an instrumental "One Time Swing" which had everybody craning their necks to get a glimpse of his technique as he rocked his way through the tune. "Moondance" concluded a set full of passion and confidence, in which he controlled the 'temperature' of the music to perfection. John has developed a fine crack in his voice too and he used it here to great effect over his rich guitar sound.

The John Dowling Bluegrass Band - John D, Russ Williams (bass) and Ian (accoustic guitar), played a laid back set with the ever modest John Dowling redefining the banjo standards with more than adequate support from his 2 friends. "Gypsy Jazz" highlighted Ian's accoustic guitar, and then, once they had agreed the key, "Red Headed Boy" and "Red Bull Boogie" followed. "Lady Madonna" gave each of them a chance to solo, and the audience was singing along, but there were problems with the sound that marred this set somewhat, and they finished on a bluegrass high with "How Mountain Girls Can Love" before John O'Connell returned to duel with John Dowling in the now standard "dueling Banjos".

And so to the top of the bill - Cream of the Barley - eagerly anticipated by those who caught them at this event last year - and by those who heard what they had missed, the place was crackling when Shay brought them on - now most of the bands I've heard who play this style of Irish music work up to a frenzy and play out with "Irish Rover" - The Cream of the Barley STARTED with this song and took us up from frenzy to whatever's next! There was uproar for "The Leaving of Liverpool" and "Maggie May", there was "Ride On", Shay got invited up to sing along on "Whisky in the Jar" to great applause. When they started to play "The Boxer" in the wrong key, there was a quip - "He wasn't that poor- start again" and off they went, playing the most unsubtle version of this song your likely to hear - it felt like a Sherman tank being used to crush a grape - later the banjo broke a string and the rest of them just carried on while he went off to change it, until he came back - whereupon they hurled abuse at him!

A slight rest while they calmed down for a moment playing "Carrickfergus", and then it was back to uproar for "Nancy Riley", with the sweat pouring off the players, the floor bouncing and some rarely spotted smiles from some of the regulars!! And through all this, Keith the fiddle player stood and smiled his contented smile and played away as if this was all just normal....

They closed with "Holy Ground" and an instrumental I didn't write down the name of, but by now there was dancing too and Peter, the landlord of the Bridge Inn came and finished things off with "Danny Boy"

Wow - I'm worn out re-living this as I type it out - it was another cracker of a night - well done John Coleman and everyone for sorting it out - and it was only Wednesday - half way through the Festival...... That's six acts by the way - not bad at all for under a fiver!

Bromborough Folk Club meet every Wednesday evening at the Bridge Inn, Port Sunlight, Wirral - all are welcome.

Last Night's Fun - Lymm Folk Club - 2/7/2006

Ably but perhaps un-necessarily supported by Bernard Cromarty, Last Night's Fun played 2 short sets in a room which, despite Stuart's emergency air-conditioning, was so hot and airless that one rather wished that the gig had been held in the car park! Bernard Cromarty is one of Lymm's stalwarts and he managed to prove his billing as a multi-instrumentalist by playing a different instrument for nearly every piece - starting with "Dark Island" which he had talked up for us before hand because it showed off the full range of his piano accordion. Sure enough it built from a few quiet notes to a fearsome roar before dying down again, and the last note was beautifully controlled. Bernard went on to cover "Put up a parking lot", and Cyril Tawney's "Sally, free and easy" amongst others, his voice adding it's own particular colour to the performance.

I mentioned earlier that the support was probably unnecessary, and certainly, without taking anything from Bernard, who has his own night later in the week during the Lymm Festival, we could have done with allowing as much time as possible for Last Night's Fun, a band who, as we were soon to find out, need a lot of time to tune and regroup - and a tell a few jokes, and ask a few questions, and pass the time of day, and all of this between each song or tune. Indeed, when Mal was suggesting we made the trip to this gig, I was a bit worried that the "banter" might be a mask for some otherwise dodgy performing. A listen to their album "Dubh" seemed to dispel this thought though, and whilst I have opened my notes with the words "much fun", I would soon be listening to a collective of musicians who have overcome their geographical differences to gel into a marvelous performance unit.

The three piece band have a way of playing that is conventionally built around the rhythm section, but convention ends there because the rhythm section is Chris Sherburn's left leg and Denny Bartley's guitar, with verbal instructions being issued in short bursts by Chris Sherburn which might have been intrusive but for his sensitivity to the mood. Gilly even whispered to me that she thought the way he controlled the music, urging it on, and sometimes emitted soft sighs, was quite sensual. My less feminine thoughts were more of listening to the Red Arrows commander Red 1 giving his split-second cues - "round again - GO!" Denny Bartley, the other half of this section, plays his guitar in so many different ways it's hard to single anything out - certainly his bass strings are used to great effect at certain times, whilst at others he'll be tapping gently on the body to simulate a bodrhan, and then he'll strum hard and fast and then he'll be sounding like Juan Martin for a minute - and that's just the rhythm section folks....

They opened with a tune: "Downham Market?" which was great, then Denny opened his mouth and sang Ewan McColl's "Move Along" and it felt like a storm blowing in across the room - Denny is slight but his voice is something else all together, it's a powerful force with a major emotional crack in it that is not at all sentimental, but sounds like its been hard won from a difficult seam.

So you will appreciate already that this was a good night and I was really "digging" this band. I havn't even mentioned Chris' concertina either. Denny's voice is put to great effect in "Next Market Day", which starts with just his guitar, then Chris adds some very subtle concertina sounds in the background which turn sublime at the end, and then they change gear again, directed by one of Chris' soft commands, Nick Scott powers up his nuclear pipes and Denny starts hammering away at his strings, capo on somewhere around the seventh fret, fingers down around the twelth and strumming it for all he is worth.

The final song of the first half, "The Roseville Fair" sounded to me like a Bruce Spingsteen lyric:

"You were dressed in blue, and you looked so lovely

Just a gentle flower of a small-town girl

You took my hand, and we stepped to the music

With a single smile, you became my world." from "The Roseville Fair" - Bill Staines

Brilliant.


For the second half we decided to stand up - we were sat at the back anyway, so it wouldn't harm, and the better view seemed to improve the sound too! We got "Sammy's Bar", another of Cyril Tawney's songs, then a self penned tune "Doxford Hall" in which we witnessed the band's total immersion in what they are playing - often all 3 have their eye's closed as they play, and certainly the effort they put into their playing is tangible in the sound they produce.

One piece of deft work saw Denny whip his capo off the frets mid tune, place it on the end of the neck and carry on playing without it affecting the flow at all - you wonder how often it ends up on the floor, but I suspect it's one of those things that you can just do after a while when you can play so intently.

The last song - yes they only managed to fit 3 in - was "The Autumn Child", but before this Chris continued to rib Nick and his pipes in his dry, cutting way, ending with an almost whispered, "Play that funky music pipe boy!" This humour is a staple part of the LNF act, it's all well meant and seems to be accepted without any rancour from Nick, who seems to take the butt of most of it. Chris certainly has the quick wit and keen eye that you need to produce the kind of hilarious off-the-cuff quips he deals out, and his long drawn out tale of eating an Opal Fruit was funny enough, before he delivered the coup-de-gras and said that this story was included because they had received a complaint that they didn't give out enough detail between songs!

The all too short set was completed with 2 encores - "30 foot trailer" and a tune called "Akward" I think - "more?" said Chris - "you can tell they've paid ten quid to get in!"

Did I mention Nick's pipes? Well, apart from being the target for much lighthearted abuse from Chris, they are a wonder to behold. Just sat on the floor you would swear that somebody had left a heap of old recorders and bits of trombone laying around. Closer examination would allow you to suspect that a fishing rod might have been included, and that maybe a snake charmer had left his pipe there too. In Nick's hands (and elbows too) though, they turn into a thing of great beauty, the drones working with the chanter, the sound erie and yet melodious. I'm told these things are hard enough to play in tune, never mind play well and in tune. Nick manages to play VERY well and in tune and, despite the fun, he is an equal talent in this rich lineup.

Just one final illustration, the tune "The Autumn Child" starts with a complex and exciting section featuring Nick on the pipes, it drew a round of applause much like a jazz solo, which almost drowned out the silky smooth transition from pipes to concertina - a real highlight for me in a night that felt like one long highlight, and a performance that left Gilly overcome with emotion, so intense was the experience.

There are a some acts that we enjoy, others that we look out for playing locally, and some that we feel we would travel a long way to see again. Last night's fun are very firmly in the latter category and I hope it won't be too long either.


- Addendum - I don't normally do this, but today we listened to "Tempered" - the most recent studio album from the boys and we was robbed not hearing them play this! - "Whiskey in the Jar" on the CD is such a fine rendition - far and away removed from the hurtling fevered version put out by Thin Lizzie, this is a sensative and moving ballad that would have been fantastic to hear live - catch them if you can, and insist that they sing this song when you do!