| Reviews 2019 | |||
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Woodman Folk Club - Reviews |
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| Fragile Hearts |
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| Dick Woodhouse | 28 June 2019 |
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Not only was the club’s usual MC, Bryn Phillips absent (on day release for
good behaviour), but the regular reviewer Les Jones was also missing, so
you’ll have to make do with me folks! Bryn’s, place was taken by his "Stunt Double", Chris Irving, who, in his usual irreverent manner told us about the acts booked for the forthcoming Bromsgrove Folk Festival before introducing the first act, “Nothing to Prove”. They started with one of Paul’s songs, “Just What You Have Done”, followed by a couple of tunes “Planxty Irwin and The Merry Blacksmith”. Their set was rounded off with “An Ordinary Man” (written by Peter Hames). Corinne and Barry Priest then went up for a couple of songs – the title of first of which, I have to admit, I can’t remember. This was followed by “Black and White 1945” (written by Ross Brown). Corinne’s guitar accompaniment was superb for both. Then it was time for the main act, “Fragile Hearts”. Steve Nesbitt is an accomplished guitarist and singer-songwriter, and Helena Rosewell is a classically-trained cellist from The Royal College of Music. We have seen Steve perform solo at The Woodman on singers’ nights on a couple of occasions in the recent past, with some of his own songs. Helena has been seen around the Birmingham area playing her cello to accompany “The Lost Notes” and Tom Martin, but a few of months ago on a singer’s night, Steve and Helena appeared at The Woodman as the duo “Fragile Hearts. They were so impressive that Deb and Derry decided to offer them a booking as guests. With a few exceptions, almost all the songs performed by Steve and Helena were written by Steve. They started with “Multnomah Falls” and this was followed by “Saying Goodbye”, a song about being made redundant after 28 years’ service, and the false platitudes spoken by the boss during the dismissal. Freefall was a song about Halloween, and then “Pythagoras”. “Famagusta” was a very sad song about Steve’s childhood growing up in that place in Cyprus in the 1960s, and the diagnosis of his mother’s terminal illness. This was followed by “Billy was a Budgie”, which (I think) described the return of Steve and his pet budge to the UK after leaving Cyprus. Helena played bass ukulele for this song. Steve then swapped to his Lowden guitar to play “Strangers”. Chris Irving began the second half with a song about hobos, and this was followed by the inevitable Folk Club Raffle, in which Megan won the wine - again! Steve and Helena began their second set with “The Other Side”, followed by “This is How You Lose Her” – a title inspired by a book by Junot Díaz. “The Happy Eater” was a metaphor for all the things we no longer have, such as Atari computers, Block Buster video etc. Steve and Helen then performed a beautiful version of “The Mountains of Mourne” (written by Percy French in the late 19th century) with both of them playing guitar. “Leven Lullaby” was inspired by a memorial bench to Jackie Leven on the Greek island of Paxos. Steve sung “The Year of The Cat” (written by Al Stewart) as a solo. “Old George” was written about a man called George from Carrickfergus, who lived in the flat below Steve in Bearwood and was amused by the similarity of his and Steve’s accents. No one knew his second name and nobody came to his funeral. The encore was an instrumental – I think it was “Ashokan Farewell” (written by Jay Ungar). A very enjoyable evening was had by all and I hope that we’ll see them again in the not-too-distant future. |
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