| Reviews 2022 | |||
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Woodman Folk Club - Reviews |
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| Steve Tilston |
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| Woody* | 21 Oct 2022 |
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Hi everyone Woody here again with a review of another fabulous night at
the Woodman Folk Club. The evening began with some audience participation, which was a little unusual, but then it is not Debbie Jones’ birthday every week. (25th October if you want to mark your diary for next year). To show what a well trained folk club audience we are MC Bryn counted us in and we hit the first note spot on without any hint from anyone as to what key we were in. Appropriate harmonies followed. Happy Birthday Debbie. Support this week was provided by John and Carol Hoare, who in recognition of their new found niche as support for various acts around the club circuit had decided to call themselves Lintel (support Lintel get it?). Whether this was for tonight only is yet to be seen. John of course played guitar and lead vocals whilst Carol provided backing vocal and keyboard accompaniment on the first 3 of their 5 songs. Each song was a dedication. Firstly an Allan Taylor song about a tramp (For Derry); Carrickfergus about a drunk (For Debbie – not sure if he got away with this). This was preceded by a poem entitled High and Low, written by James H Cousins, and beautifully read by Carol. There followed a lovely rendition of the Pete Abbot song Another Evening In dedicated to those who are still suffering too many evening this way. Turn. Turn. Turn, is a Winter Wilson song which features in the play Footprints and set around ropemaking. Dedicated to Liz Truss who has had a ropey week. (This joke may last as long as her tenure and therefore be meaningless shortly). Finally the Pete Kelly song The Raid , about a zeppelin raid on Wednesbury was dedicated to all the artists who have given time to John to help his learning of such songs as this. Our thanks go to Lintel for setting up the evening for Steve. I have checked Woodman records and can confirm as MC Bryn revealed in his introduction that that this is Steve’s 11th visit to the club this century. Since records only began in 2000 it is possible that he has in fact been here more often than this. This is only the second time I have seen him live and I am still asking myself why. But there it is, my error. He is undoubtedly a consummate professional, who manages to engage with the audience from the outset, sharing jokes and anecdotes and encouraging participation in choruses. (Obviously impressed by our rending of happy Birthday). I am totally mesmerised by his amazing guitar playing; his fingers never seemed to rest for one second as he skated effortlessly up, down and across the fretboard, providing melodic and rhythmic accompaniment to his songs, all of which were not in themselves easy to perform. As is normal the evening was neatly divided into two segments, the intermission being filled by the drawing of the ubiquitous raffle. (I didn’t win). The first set began with Rocky Road – a song written for Fairport Convention – followed by Daylight Rising the opening track of his latest cd, about his life on the Yorkshire Moors. This was followed appropriately by the first song he wrote when he moved to Yorkshire, inspired in part by, the railway featured in the Railway Children and the sighting of an old American steam train on the track. He did mention that his location taught him the meaning of the word Wuthering. Like A Blues For The North Wind. His next song Satellites Decree was preceded by a wonderful story about the journey by foot passed a waterfall over a bridge, a photo of 6 men who died in WW1 and inspired a Ted Hughes poem and on into the local town where he was met by members of the Sealed Knot who imbibed a little alcohol while commemorating a battle on the bridge. It has to be heard to fully understand. Nothing To See Here from the new cd gave us a little giggle when Steve could not remember the first line – we have all been there. I haven’t the words to describe his next song Waters Of March by Antonio Carlos Jobim. He describes this as his favourite song which has taken him 40 plus years to get to grips with. It is no criticism to say that, partly because it is a new song in his repertoire, he took three attempts to complete it. His persistence won him tremendous applause for the complexity of the guitar work and the sheer volume of the seemingly unconnected lyrics. Well done Steve. The set was finished with a superb piece of rockabilly, My Mystery Train, based on the Junior Parker song, Mystery Train, made famous by Elvis Presley. Set two opened with Oil and Water, a song he performed on the Jools Holland TV show 11 years ago this month, which can still be found on YouTube. There followed an audience request for a particular favourite of mine Let Your Banjos Ring. The next song Sovereign of Tides demonstrated Steve’s guitar skills again – a song with an Indian feel and a sitar style solo in the middle. The Devil May care was dedicated to the late John Martyn who lived with Steve for a while and with whom Steve toured – too long he says – during which he was exposed to John’s excesses, which finally proved his undoing. The delightful Magical Flight was the eponymous title of a Wizz Jones album the song being written by Alan Tunbridge. This was followed by The Fisher Lad of Whitby which he described as a proper folk song. The final two songs featured another audience request The Night Owl Homeward Turns and The Road When I Was Young – his most auto biographical. Except of course they were not the last as he had to give us an encore by demand. Slip Jigs and Reels was my request. I love the completeness of the story, the simple accompaniment – which of course is not as simple to play as it seems. So concluded another visit by Steve who because of Covid had not been to see us since 2019. Let’s hope it is not so long until the next time. And so, another evening came to an end and the audience wended their way home to return another day. I shall conclude as normal by saying A Wonderful Night Was Had by All. Here’s to The Next One. * Notes taken by Les Jones, who also typed up the review, but the views expressed are those of Woody, the club mascot. |
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