This club celebrates not only the English Celtic heritage, but other traditional music is celebrated too.
Paul and Jennifer presented acapella harmony…one sea shanty dating from the Napoleonic wars ,and “Cluttering clattering” about coal miners going to work in the 19th century …. their wooden clogs making that sound on the cobblestones.
Warren and Fi sang a Moody Blues song…excellent singing and guitar playing. Then something really unusual… a Maori song to a reggae rhythm played on autoharp and chromatic harmonica… very interesting.
Tod and Geoff presented rollicking songs in the Irish tradition…”Hot Asphalt” about road working in the more modern period and a Sinhead O’Conner song “Foggy dew”….backed by guitar and piano accordian.
Jean Reid was facinating, seeming to draw from free jazz more than traditional music…singing in odd time signatures…like Ornette Coleman, playing guitar as well.
Bill and Madeline covered a John Prine song, both playing guitar and singing in beautiful harmony.
Helen playing a modern take on a traditional Irish whistle (space age carbon fibre) and Janet on guitar brought strands of Eastern European ,and Celtic music together – indeed, “Elijah”…sublime. Then Helen changed to Northumbian pipes (these are worked by a bellows under the arm). Majestic, haunting music from the English Tradition.
Ian Bartlett (the headline act) opened acappella ….a powerful voice with the other singers of the club joining in on the chorus, covering a song called ‘Diesel and Shale,” by a more modern English folksinger Cyril Tawney (about his time in the British Navy submarine service). “Eleanor Plunkett” was a beautiful haunting flute melody about Irish land confiscation by Oliver Cromwell. Then “Monks March” on concertina about a General in the English civil war, who changed sides from the Cavaliers to Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads. Then another Cyril Tawney song about burial at sea “Nine Fathoms of Water and Six Feet of Mud.” Using a melodia for accompaniment, Ian presented traditional songs about Sussex and the Isle of Wight, where he lived as a young man. Then acappella with a drum rhythm, a song about a sailor, alcohol and a prostitute. Ian finished the evening with a drinking song about Henry VIII and his fight with the pope (“The Man in the Moon and St Peter’s Spoon).
Geoffrey
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