Live | 2023 – MY NORTHERN SKIES

SIERRA HULL AND JUSTIN MOSES | UPPER CHAPEL | SHEFFIELD | 27.01.23

Standing next to the four stone Ionic columns in front of the Upper Chapel Unitarian Church on Norfolk Street tonight, waiting for the sound checks to finish, I’m reminded of the days when I would wait by eight similar columns just a little up the road, in this case, those of the Corinthian order, as I waited on the steps to see such bands as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Wishbone Ash at the City Hall in the early 1970s. Sheffield has always been pretty good with its architecture as well as its music. The one other thing about tonight’s presentation, which also reminds me of those early days, is the excitement and anticipation I’m feeling before the show. I’m actually really looking forward to this concert and I sense that those beginning to form an orderly queue around me, share the same sort of enthusiasm, not least the promoter Stuart Basford, whose role isn’t limited to his promotional skills and unquestionable taste, but also to that of delivery boy, picking up the pizzas from across the road.

Sierra Hull and husband Justin Moses appear to be the calmest and most composed people in Sheffield tonight and the kind of music they create requires that extra bit of attention. If anyone in the chapel has any doubts as to what the term ‘sore fingers’ means with regard to bluegrass pickers, then it will soon become obvious. These two play like demons, whether one has a guitar and the other a mandolin, or whether they both have mandolins, playing them simultaneously or even whether they just pull out the guitars, both musicians labour their chops for the duration. The Upper Chapel is a dry venue, therefore no clinking of glasses or disruptive visits to the bar mid-song. Sierra and Justin can present their music knowing full well that their audience is paying attention. At times they play more notes per beat than is humanly possible, but this is perhaps due to the two musicians picking up their instruments from a very early age. It becomes second nature. Using just three mics, each attached to the same stand, the couple huddle in Grand Ole Opry fashion, in fact the chapel itself lends itself to that same sort of atmosphere, including one or two bits of stained glass, very much akin to the Ryman back home. The venue probably makes the Nashville-based musicians feel very much at home.

As the two musicians settle into their first set, while our ears become accustomed to the volume these three mics, making the performance sound as acoustic as possible, almost as if they’re playing in our respective living rooms, the songs and tunes begin to flow. There are songs and tunes from Sierra’s most recent album 25 Trips, notably “Beautifully Out of Place”, “How Long” and “Last Minute”, not to mention the gorgeous “Ceiling to the Floor”, where this reviewer empathises completely with Sierra’s fear of heights, though this doesn’t prevent me from perching myself on the balcony for the show. One or two older songs also come out to play, “Best Buy” for example, which sees Sierra in a playful mood, in fact everything about tonight’s performance is playful, joyful and uplifting, matched always by Sierra’s infectious smile and engaging personality. Paying tribute to those who have gone before, it’s rather pleasing to hear the duo’s take on Doc Watson’s “Walk on Boy”, with the Doc’s memorable voice echoed in this fine rendition. After various cancellations, postponements and reshuffles, this eagerly awaited appearance by the duo has been very well worth the wait.

JOCELYN PETTIT AND ELLEN GIRA | BISHOP’S HOUSE | SHEFFIELD | 18.02.23

Bishop’s House is an old yeoman’s house with a history that stretches back to the mid-16th century, to the times of Mary Tudor, its ancient stone floors and beamed roof a preserve for many stories and secrets. Once you step into the house, it feels like you have stepped directly into history. One imagines this experience to be even more enchanting to visitors from abroad, and in this case, Jocelyn Pettit (pronounced Peddit) from the west coast of Canada, and Ellen Gira from the east coast of the USA respectively. A small but enthusiastic audience gathered under these creaky old oak beams in the dimly-lit ground floor concert room, illuminated by a corner standard lamp and a smaller table lamp placed upon an old carved chair. Jocelyn and Ellen met in Glasgow back in 2018, the city where Ellen now resides, almost immediately forming this musical partnership. If the centuries appear to be etched into the stone walls of this fine old building, then youthfulness is etched into the faces of tonight’s two guests, as they walk into the room for tonight’s concert, Jocelyn carrying her fiddle, whilst Ellen carries her cello. The two musicians are a long way from home, yet their confidence as first rate musicians is immediately felt as they launch into “Fleur Reels”, the opening tune from their debut album All it Brings. The stone slabs beneath Jocelyn’s feet can feel the weight of her clogs as they provide the highly rhythmic and percussive taps, reminiscent of those in Quebecois music. I imagine, if there had been a little more floor space, one or two step dances may have ensued from both Jocelyn and the audience alike. Much of the set is centred around the duo’s debut record together, notably “Powder Room Jigs”, which demonstrates the duo’s musical telepathy, something Ellen jokingly refers to as Cellopathy, a new word for the relationship between these two significant instruments. During the evening there’s plenty of whoops and hollers from the audience, courtesy of one person in particular, who clearly enjoys the more uptempo numbers. The duo must feel very much at home as the room swells with love. It’s not difficult to warm to this duo, whose infectious smiles remain on their faces throughout each of the two sets. The songs are occasionally borrowed, Dougie Maclean’s timeless “Ready for the Storm” for instance, together with Kate McGarrigles’ gorgeous “Cheminant a La Ville”, delivered in French, two songs that appear on Jocelyn’s current solo album Wind Rose. Two full sets featuring both songs and tunes, together with some fun between-song interplay, makes for a hugely enjoyable evening and hopefully it won’t be too long before we get to see them in these parts again.

KATIE SPENCER | ROOTS MUSIC CLUB | UKRAINIAN CENTRE | DONCASTER | 24.03.23

Once again, the Roots Music Club in Doncaster, a club known for its ear for good music, set up the stage for the return of the young singer, songwriter and guitar player Katie Spencer, for her first full show in the city, having previously dipped her toe in a year ago, when she came along to play at a benefit show for Ukraine at the Regent Hotel. Katie returns armed with a couple of acoustic guitars, seemingly delighted to be finally playing at the Ukrainian Centre, after a bit of juggling around lockdown interference.

Performing songs predominantly from her latest album The Edge of the Land, the singer remains composed throughout, delivering a couple of sets made up of songs that appear to hug the fringes of folk music, albeit with an ambient jazz feel, her guitar playing gentle and atmospheric throughout, especially on such songs as the opener “Take Your Time”, which immediately brings the audience to silence. It really is easy to warm to Katie, her easy-going between songs manner, together with her youthful charm and her respectful acknowledgement to those who have gone before, makes for a perfect balance between songs and stories. There appears to be no rough edges with Katie’s music, the songs consistently mature and well-crafted, with the occasional instrumental piece such as “Bear’s Tune”, remaining anything but throwaway. During the performance, Katie looks back at some of the songs from her debut album Weather Beaten, released back in 2019, airing once again the instrumental tune “Helsa”, the album closer “The Hunter”, together with the title track itself. But it’s mainly all about the new album, with fine performances of “Sweet and Gentle”, “Roads”, “Silence on the Hillside” and others. Concluding with her homage to one of her foremost influences, John Martyn, Kate creates atmosphere via her effects pedal for a fine reading of “Small Hours”, a perfect way to conclude what was essentially a note perfect couple of sets.

MIKE + RUTHY | TOWN HALL LIVE | KIRTON IN LINDSEY | 07.04.23

It’s a family thing, that’s for sure, something that became immediately apparent from the moment I arrived at the Town Hall in Kirton in Lindsey, a place I haven’t visited in a good while, over ten years in fact. As I sat by the concessions table, fiddling with my camera, preparing to take a few snaps during the show, to go with this review, I noticed a portable hand recorder on the shelf behind the pile of CDs, LPs and T-shirts that a young person was busily arranging.

‘I think we’re being recorded’ I whispered to the young girl.
‘I know’ she said, with a smile.
I noticed the word Ashokan printed on the girl’s T-shirt.
‘I like your shirt’, I said, going on to enquire, ‘Does this have anything to do with your Grandpa?’. She nodded again, her smile widening.
‘What’s your name?’ she asked. I told her my name, and she told me hers.
‘Well that’s a lovely name.’ I said.
Opal continued to arrange the merchadise, while I did some last-minute checks to my lens.
‘Do you know who’s playing the bass?’ I asked, watching another young person take his place at the back of the stage, sitting on a raised platform, busily tuning his strings.
‘Oh, that’s my brother Willy..’, she revealed, ‘.. but he prefers Will’.
‘And I’m guessing the other two are mom and dad?’
‘They certainly are’ she concurred.
I think I made a new friend.

The theme of families, could not be clearer than with the duo’s latest single, a song simply entitled “Families”, recently released by the duo’s larger band, The Mammals:

‘Families get scrambly and families get weird
Sharing last names, sharing fears
Under one roof or across state lines
Think your family’s strange, take a look at mine’

Mike and Ruthy are noticeably pleased to have their small family with them on this UK tour, a tour I’d been following since it began a few days earlier, with a little help from fellow reporters up and down the country, whose highly positive reviews and accompanying photos had been popping up on social media sites, providing me with much anticipation for tonight’s performance.

As both Mike and Ruthy approached the twin microphones centre stage tonight, there was an anticipatory silence, to give everyone’s ears a moment to adjust to the volume. No one was going to turn up the volume to eleven tonight, rather it was going to remain quite easy on the ear from the start. The twin mikes picking up everything we needed to hear, with the gentlest of bass notes floating in from the back of the stage.

Mike and Ruthy had quite a repertoire to choose from, not only relying on their Mammals material, but also their Mike + Ruthy Band songs, such as tonight’s opener, “Bright as You Can” and “Rock on Little Jane”, a song written for the little person I spoke to earlier. ‘Opal didn’t quite scan’, Mike explained, so Jane it is and Jane it remains. The duo alternated between guitar and banjo (Mike) and fiddle and ukulele (Ruthy) the latter having been crafted by Ruthy’s mother back home. The juggling of instruments was problem-free throughout the two sets, mainly due to the duo’s reliance on the microphones rather than an abundance of unnecessary wires. This also gave the audience a glimpse into how this material might sound on the back porch of the family house back home in upstate New York, or at least that’s how I imagined it.

With one or two moments of fine storytelling, the songs found their place within the narrative, with liberal mentions of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, those giants who went before them, whose shoulders they’re only too pleased to stand on. The songs are one moment joyous, sad the next, with plenty in between to tap your feet to. Perhaps the most moving moment of the entire evening was towards the end of the second set, when Ruthy played a note perfect rendition of her dad’s iconic “Ashokan Farewell”, which I can’t listen to without thinking of Sullivan Ballou’s final letter home, before being killed at the first Battle of Bull Run, during the American Civil War, as seen and heard in Ken Burns’ impressive documentary series. As Ruthy said in her introduction, the tune brings joy and sadness in equal measure, played often at both weddings and funerals. The room remained silent throughout. A tear gently formed.

The familiar songs kept coming throughout, both new and old, some utterly soulful, certainly a fabulous reading of the old Etta James song “Something’s Got a Hold on Me”, where Ruthy reaches the notes some of us can only dream of reaching, the uplifting sing-a-long “Radio Signal” to one or two entrenched in the tradition, notably “The Hangman’s Reel”. After a good fourteen songs, the duo closed with a nod to their friend and mentor, the late Pete Seeger, with a fine reading of “Quite Early Morning”.

I already had a feeling that I was going to enjoy tonight’s performance before I arrived at the venue, but possibly not quite as much as I did. Having the Rye Sisters open for Mike + Ruthy, certainly raised the bar for what followed. This was a thoroughly enjoyable show with plenty to think about, reflect upon and remember until the next time they return, which I’m sure they will, and hopefully soon.

SUTHERING | ROOTS MUSIC CLUB | HYDE PARK CLUB | DONCASTER | 14.04.23

Julu and Heg originally planned to visit Doncaster for the first time last year, but their plans were thwarted by Covid intervention, having had to postpone their appearance rather than cancel it, their determination to play for the Roots Music Club at some point undeterred. Tonight, the two musicians arrive on a wet and grey evening, not only to play at the Roots Music Club for the first time, but also at an alternative venue to the usual one (the Ukrainian Centre). Shortly after their arrival at the Hyde Park WMC, the room fills with Suthering’s unique sound as the sound check reveals something very special.

The duo’s debut album, If We Turn Away, was released last year and is made up of predominantly self-penned material, along with a couple of traditional songs, “Blood and Gold”, which the duo kick off with tonight, and “Sovay”, performed later in their second set. All the songs from the album are included in the set, with one or two further surprises, notably a beautiful reading of the early Moulettes favourite, “Songbird”, which is treated to a fine a cappella performance. With Heg on the piano for the most part, occasionally switching to the harmonium, Julu makes very good use of her small-bodied Taylor, with the occasional flute or low whistle accompaniment. It’s the voices though that make you sit up and listen, two voices seemingly made for each other, which stand out both accompanied or a cappella.

Now based in Devon, on the edge of Dartmoor, their musically conducive environment is described in some of their songs, notably Heg’s gorgeous “Kingfisher”, her piano motifs mirroring the swooping of the vivid blue bird along the canal close to their home. Close your eyes and you’re there. Nature is a major influence on Suthering’s music, their name itself taken from Landmarks, a book by by Robert MacFarlane, the word meaning the sound of the wind through the trees. Julu’s “Black Bull of Norroway”, the song that opens their album, tells the story of three sisters, a witch, a carpenter, a giant black bull and lots of otherworldly shenanigans, which keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, all delivered in the duo’s authoritative way with storytelling. As a prologue to “Mary”, Julu asks for any suggestions of possible local derivatives of the word cad or scoundrel, to which the Donny audience make one or two unrepeatable suggestions. Julu’s “Ghosts of Winter”, a brand new song, is aired tonight a good year ahead of its anticipated release, a strong song with some almost ethereal harmonium accompaniment.

Noted for their songs about strong female characters, to the point of changing songs (even their own) if the woman is seen in a less than powerful light, failure to include “Sovay” in the set, would’ve been remiss of the duo. With some strident piano motifs, the song is given new life in the hands of these highly empathetic musicians. For the penultimate song of their final set, and possibly their finest song, the duo perform “Gather”, which features some of the Julu and Heg’s most beautiful intertwining vocal harmonies. Closing with a fine parting song, “Health to the Company”, a companion song to “The Parting Glass”, Julu and Heg are encouraged to return to the stage for one final a cappella performance, choosing to leave us with the gorgeous Hebridean song “Seagull of the Land Under Waves”, a performance so perfectly dovetailed, it’s difficult to tell which harmony is coming from which singer. Superb.

Set One:
Blood and Gold, Kingfisher, Black Bull of Norroway, Downfalling, Boatman, Songbird, This Land.
Set Two:
Home, Mary, Ghosts of Winter, Sovay, Gather, Health to the Company, Seagull of the Land Under Waves.

RON SEXSMITH | UPPER CHAPEL | SHEFFIELD | 13.05.23

Saturday night in the heart of Sheffield’s theatre district, a warm spring evening air welcomes in a potentially memorable night for many, as they arrive in the city, mostly by car, due in part to the ill-timed rail worker’s strike. Two Doncaster natives planned to nip over on the train and perhaps have a couple of swift pints in the Head of Steam just over the road before the show, but this plan is scuppered by another union dispute. A dry night instead. The Canadian singer songwriter manages to get to the venue after an appearance in Leeds the night before. Ron doesn’t have to worry himself about rail strikes, or indeed driving through traffic, as he leaves this particular chore to his tour manager/wife Colleen, who soon busies herself around the stage area in the Upper Chapel. Yamaha grand (check), Taylor acoustic (check), Evian bottle (check), scribbled set list (check). We’re ready to go.

Colleen leads Ron to the stage almost as if taking a little boy to school for the first time. Clipped to his jacket, her husband wears a brooch of a Yellow Throated Warbler, a songbird native to their part of the world, and an appropriate symbol for Ron’s own particular vocation. The warbling soon begins with the familiar “Former Glory”, the opening song to Ron’s Cobblestone Runway album from 2002, leaving some of us astonished when we realise that the song is now over twenty years old. It still sounds as fresh today as it did when we first heard it at the beginning of the Millennium, a notion that pops up throughout the next couple of hours as one fabulous song follows another. There’s been a good fifteen albums released following Ron’s eponymous debut back in 1995, yet the songwriter finds a place in both sets for one or two of those memorable songs, including “Speaking with the Angel”, “Lebanon, Tennessee”, perhaps the best vocal performance of the night, and “Secret Heart”, his most covered song with versions out there by Rod Stewart, Feist and Nick Lowe, to name but a few. Moving over to the piano midway through the first set, Ron reminds us of “Pretty Little Cemetery”, a song originally performed on guitar back in the mid-nineties on his Other Songs album, a curious song that still chimes and charms at the same time.

After what can only be described as a superb opening set, a set made up of no fewer than fourteen songs, Ron returns for the second set, with a completely different wardrobe, notably a blue blazer with a huge maple leaf printed below his left lapel, the word Canada almost obscured by said lapel. He could be mistaken for the Canadian equivalent of a Pontins Holiday Camp entertainer. Ron wears his home proudly on his sleeve (well, not exactly on the sleeve, but you know what I mean), at one point paying tribute to his fellow countryman, the late Gordon Lightfoot, who passed away only a few days before, with a heartfelt reading of Lightfoot’s earliest songs, “Ribbon of Darkness”, a hit for Marty Robbins in 1965. Perhaps the most moving moment of the evening though, was Ron’s reading of the sublime “Foolproof”, a song he claims to have written for Elvis Costello’s wife, who hasn’t recorded it yet… there’s still time Ron.

SARAH MCQUAID/MICK JENKINSON | THE ROOTS MUSIC CLUB | HYDE PARK CLUB | DONCASTER | 26.05.23

There’s at least a couple of good reasons for popping along to the Roots Music Club tonight, the second to be held at the Hyde Park Club in Doncaster. Sarah McQuaid is certainly one of them, but also Mick Jenkinson, who partners up with long-time collaborator Kev Fitzpatrick for the premiere of a handful of songs from his newly released debut solo album When My Ship Puts Out to Sea. In fairness, one or two of these songs have already been performed recently in other local venues, but tonight sees the Doncaster singer, songwriter and poet give it all before friends and peers, with a set that includes such new songs as “Knoydart (Walk Down With Me)”, “Don Navigation Blues” and the title song “When My Ship Puts Out To Sea”. It doesn’t take long for Mick and Kev to settle into a comfortable set, two musicians working in tandem with that same telepathy we’ve seen before in musicians who’ve worked together for more years than it’s necessary to mention. The country-influenced “Alcohol & Heartache”, co-written by the poet Ian Parks, who is also present in the audience tonight, takes the mood in one direction, which prepares us for Mick’s live debut of “Lockdown Blues No 1”, which takes us in another, before finishing with “The Lowering Down”, a poignant conclusion to a fine set. The night was originally conceived as an intimate performance, to be staged in the smaller lounge room of the club, yet it seemed necessary to relocate to the larger concert hall, due in part to Sarah McQuaid’s impressive and somewhat space-filling musical arsenal, which includes a couple of guitars, a keyboard, a drum and an additional box of tricks at her feet. Sarah’s voice is in a strange way reminiscent of that of Bridget St John, a familiar voice from several decades earlier, a deeply resonant voice that perfectly suits this sort of material. On stage Sarah can charm, is openly friendly and performs with some determined conviction. With more than a little help from her sound tech, Sarah’s looped voice and multi-tracked instrumentation can at times develop into an orchestra of sound, all of which enhances rather than clutters. Drawing from an impressive repertoire of songs from her back catalogue, together with one or two more recent songs, such as “If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous”, Sarah performs as if to a packed room, which is in reality sadly sparse tonight. Included in the set are one or two notable covers, including Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue” and John Martin’s “Solid Air”. It would have been nice to have had a few more people in the audience, but the three musicians on stage tonight perform like troopers.

EARL OKIN | REGENT HOTEL | DONCASTER | 22.06.23

Back in the mid-1980s, when I was playing in one of my first folk bands, alongside Mick Swinson, a noted Doncaster guitar player, we used to rehearse in Mick’s upstairs ‘music room’, a chaotic space loaded with a variety of musical instruments, recording equipment, records, magazines and books, the usual musician’s space, the walls of which were decorated with a few posters. One of these posters was from the fifteenth Cambridge Folk Festival, the year Ry Cooder, Doc Watson and the Woodstock Mountain Revue headlined. It was 1979, and a weekend ticket would set you back all of £7.50. Beneath these headline names, a little lower down the poster, was Earl Okin, a name that intrigued me at the time. ‘Sounds like one of those American guitar players to me, along the lines of Happy Traum, Dan Crary, Stefan Grossman and the like, and probably has a tablature tutorial published as well. What did I know? The name was completely new to me. It was only later that I discovered that Earl Okin was actually British, born in Carshalton, Surrey and a musician who has spent much of his life living in Notting Hill (or to be more accurate, Notting Dale), where he’s been living since 1961, writing songs and collecting what now amounts to 10,000 78rpm records. ‘I’m steadily moving gradually towards Australia’ he later quipped, ‘metre by metre’.

Almost exactly 44 years after his one and only appearance at the celebrated folk music festival, I found myself face to face with the man whose name was on that poster, in the bar of the Regent Hotel in my home town, where I found the 76-year-old musician leaning against the old marble fireplace, looking for all intents and purposes like a late period Buster Keaton, though devoid of the familiar pork pie hat and slap shoes. Instead, Earl was attired in his usual tuxedo-styled jacket, gold tie and matching handkerchief, pocket watch chain and customary spats; he was ready for business. There’s something of the old musical hall performer in his appearance, though his music is purely jazz from around the same era; Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter and Irvin Berlin immediately spring to mind. He tells me that Peggy Lee is his favourite singer and that the bulk of his record collection is made up of the old operatic singers, including records by the great tenor Enrico Caruso. During the evening, other extraordinary details of his life come out, either on stage or later, when I sit with him in the hotel bar for a lengthy chat. The fact that he holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of Kent doesn’t arise, though having worked as a schoolmaster for eleven years does. Some of the details of his legendary tour with Paul McCartney and Wings in the late 1970s are also revealed. I can’t imagine what a Wings audience might have made of Earl Okin, especially in the late 1970s, but I imagine the experience had its fair share of ups and downs. More suited to his idiosyncratic personae could perhaps have been Earl’s appearances on one or two of the chat shows of the era, those presented by Michael Parkinson and Russell Harty.

Now very much accustomed to large audiences, certainly the audience he would’ve faced at the Cambridge Folk Festival all those years ago, the millions who would’ve seen him on the telly back in the day or certainly the thousands of Wings fans who sat patiently waiting to hear “Mull of Kintyre”, yet tonight, this ‘entertainer’ was happy to ‘entertain’ before just a handful or so who came along to the Regent to see him perform. Those present were privileged to witness this unique performer in action, a musician who would alternate between a simple gut strung Spanish guitar and a piano (not a Steinway sadly) during his two sets. Difficult to categorise, Earl is perhaps slightly reminiscent of Jake Thackray, but only slightly. Maybe there’s a little Leon Redbone in there, but not much. He certainly fits the ‘entertainer’ group of performers who were around the folk clubs in the 1970s, but he really is quite unique. His repertoire ranges from old standards like “Lazy River” and “When I Fall in Love”, and he gives a fabulous reading of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”, but also specialises in Bossa Nova, delivering a pretty spectacular “Girl from Ipanema” tonight, surely a nod to the late Astrud Gilberto who the world lost a couple of weeks ago. Earl’s own songs are also up there with the best of these standards, such as the gorgeous “Yesterday’s Wine”, which I can’t stop playing now, either in my head or on my stereo system. There’s something utterly relaxing, almost calming about an Earl Okin performance; nothing seems to be rushed, guitar strings are brushed gently, piano keys are caressed elegantly, and his voice is never polished, but rather, natural, organic and real. With each song, Earl has a story to tell, each infused with both humour and candour, storytelling at its best. He’s a performer everyone should see, something I hope to do again soon.

In support, was local singer, guitar player and guitar fixer Stuart Palmer, who provided just the right sort of warm up, for an already warm night at the Regent. Stuart also provided the sound for the show.

CURTIS ELLER’S AMERICAN CIRCUS | GREYSTONES | SHEFFIELD | 06.07.23

‘Funny isn’t it?’ says my old pal Pete, as he gets into the car tonight, ‘I’ve only been to the Greystones once before, and that was to see another circus!’ As my companion for the evening reminisced about seeing the Slambovian Circus of Dreams at the venue a few years ago, I attempted to explain who Curtis Eller is, and what his American Circus is all about, having seen them both a handful of times before. It was no mean feat. ‘He’s not really a clown as such, though he wears oversized baggy trousers, held up with braces (suspenders)’ I offered, somewhat tentatively, going on to say ‘.. and he’s not really an acrobat, though he does tend to throw himself about the stage a bit and uses a straight-back chair as a prop, which he sometimes climbs upon to do pigeon impressions’. I could feel my friend’s growing concern, so I quickly concluded ‘Oh, you’ll love him, he’s just an extraordinary song and dance man’ and put my foot down as we scurried along the M18.

Though Pete hadn’t seen Curtis Eller or indeed his American Circus before, the musician’s reputation hadn’t passed my old friend by. He knew instinctively that he was in for a treat. Once Curtis took to the Backroom stage tonight at this noted Sheffield venue, all was immediately revealed as the performance began, with the banjo-totin’ song and dance man soon perching himself on a straight-backed chair, whilst encouraging the audience to do said pigeon impressions, with his usual confidence, panache and sense of occasion. Any doubts as to what this performer is all about immediately evaporates before our eyes and ears. Armed with his familiar battered banjo, Curtis manages to fill the stage, almost like an old vaudevillian novelty act, though any such notion should perhaps be left at the Big Top door (or flap, or whatever they call it). Reminiscent of a modern day Buster Keaton, Curtis dominates the Backroom stage even before the band comes out, which for this tour consists of singer/dancer and Bipeds co-founder Stacy Wolfson, bassist Hugh Crumley and drummer Andy Lyth. It’s difficult to take your eyes off Curtis for one single moment, as he embraces his banjo, delivering the occasional high kick at strategic points, though Stacy’s highly theatrical Stevie Nicks movements can at times be irresistible; at one point, the singer lying provocatively on the bar like Manet’s Olympia.

Opening with a couple of solo songs, “Taking Up Serpents Again” and the aforementioned “Last Flight of the Pigeon Club”, Curtis appears to be among friends. Even the support singer Jody Davies of the Fargo Railroad Company mentions the time Curtis previously performed at the venue, with particular reference to the singer’s penchant for leaving the stage and mingling amongst the audience. Curtis does leave the stage once or twice during tonight’s show, so as to not let his people down. As both a solo performer and as the band’s frontman, Curtis has the ability to keep his audience entranced throughout, with his own idiosyncratic style of song making, which takes on subjects that cover memorable moments in American history, with an emphasis on certain individuals, such as the boxing giants Ali and Louis, film icons Laurel and Hardy, politicians Nixon and Kissinger, not to mention the King himself, as the singer longs for three more minutes with Elvis. Perhaps Richard Nixon features rather too much in a single set, on this occasion leaving Amelia Earhart up in the air and Buster Keaton very much on the cutting room floor. Despite the fun, the theatrics, the unique conversation between performer and audience, the one thing you leave a Curtis Eller performance with is a sense that you’ve been reminded of the injustices of the world, though you never feel you’ve been beaten over the head with it, certainly during his tender though biting introduction to “Conscientious Objector”.

Curtis has been at this for over twenty years now, bringing his own particular brand of entertainment to a growing number of enthusiasts and when asked for song requests, the audience was quick to respond with more than a handful of suggestions, including “Sugar in My Coffin”, which the band finished with.

PETE MORTON | ROOTS MUSIC CLUB | HYDE PARK CLUB | DONCASTER | 14.07.23

It’s probably testament to a seasoned performer, that low numbers, ie. not many bums on seats and general apathy in a former town (lest we forget, a new city), that a half-empty room soon becomes a half-full room when the right attitude is applied. Pete Morton is such a performer, who fills a sparsely attended lounge at the Hyde Park Club tonight with his songs, his enthusiasm and his sheer professionalism, which effectively sees out the current summer season of the Roots Music Club. Pete has been around for a good while, that’s for sure, starting out as a young folk singer in the mid-1980s after playing in contemporary bands around the Leicester area. His debut solo LP on Harbourtown Records, Frivolous Love, signified the arrival of a new and confident voice at a time when such a thing was very much needed. I was onboard immediately, picking up the album, then dutifully nabbing a couple of songs for my own set, including “Babe of the World”, and later, “Water from the Houses of Our Fathers” from the follow up One Big Joke. Tonight Pete opened his first set with a song from the pen of another folk singer, his namesake in fact, Pete Seeger, with a fine reading of “Oh Had I a Golden Thread”, the opening song to his most recent album, released just in time for a world pandemic. A Golden Thread provides the bulk of tonight’s performance, with the first airing, in Doncaster at least, of such songs as “Immigrant Child”, “Yemeni Moon”, “We are the Trees at the Side of the Road”, “I Live Your Love” and an impressive rendition of the traditional “Barbry Allen”, demolishing at least two strings in the process, which Pete changed whilst performing his most famous song unaccompanied, the celebrated “Another Train”, at one point with a string in his mouth; who said men can’t multitask? A quality wordsmith through and through, Pete negotiates protest, love, relationships, humour and nostalgia seamlessly, bringing to each song a sense of immediacy, as if it might just be the song’s last outing. A talking blues such as “In the Days When Time Was Different” is full of unexpected references, notably a line or two from The Supremes’ “Stop! In the Name of Love”, an old personal Dansette favourite. Concluding with a steaming rendition of Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line”, the final chorus faster than a streamline train, Pete Morton leaves a satisfied Doncaster audience in awe. This is precisely how to put on a show.

UNDERNEATH THE STARS | CINDERHILL FARM | BARNSLEY | 04.08.24-06.08.23

I can’t really claim to know the Rusby family all that well, though I appear to be on first name terms with Kate’s husband, her father, her sister, her brother, her best friend and possibly even one of her kids, but curiously, I’ve never actually spoken to the Barnsley folk singer herself, despite having followed her career since the mid-1990s, bought all the records and taken literally hundreds of photographs of her on several stages up and down the country. The closest I’ve come is perhaps when the singer fumbled through her bag lying at my feet, as I interviewed one or two of her friends backstage at the festival last year. My first encounter with that special voice came after hearing a song played on the Radio 2 Folk Show, when Jim Lloyd used to present it, and then driving over to Sheffield to pick up a copy of the album, which also features fellow Barnsley singer Kathryn Roberts. I heard two very distinctive voices on that album, but had no idea which voice belonged to which singer. Looking back at that now familiar CD cover makes me realise just how young those two singers were back in 1995 and how neither of their respective voices seem to have changed over the ensuing years. Over the last ten years, Barnsley’s finest export has been able to stage her own festival on the fields close to home, where the singer can enjoy a weekend with her family, friends, fans and fellow musicians alike, while also inviting some of her favourite artists and bands to join in the fun.

Once you visit the Underneath the Stars festival, you become part of the family, or at least that’s how it feels. The Cinderhill Farm site is relatively small when compared to other established annual music festivals around the UK, and though you’re not immediately on first name terms with everybody around you, it doesn’t take long to acquaint yourself with one or two new faces. A sense of community soon develops, where friends meet up year upon year, some who travel far, some who come from just down the road and after the usual pleasantries, ‘how’s the kids?’ for instance, or perhaps ‘you look different.. it’s your hair isn’t it? or specifically for this weekend, ‘hope the rain keeps off!’, the festival soon gets underway. The music starts early on Friday, with some of the so-called stargazers still negotiating the slightly congested inroads or pitching their tents for the weekend, a couple of acts from the Leeds Conservatoire ready to take to the stage, namely Molly Aisha, a young singer songwriter from York, followed by Willow Changelings, a Leeds-based quartet, effectively each having the huge Planets stage to themselves, with all the space, lights and superb sound at their disposal as people continue to arrive.

We don’t have to wait long before our aforementioned host arrives, specifically to treat us to perhaps the most memorable moment of the entire weekend, as our pink-caped heroine attempts to guide a soggy tea bag into a mug attached to her belt by means of physical agility and mental ingenuity. Beside her, the similarly attired Barnsley-born actor and old friend, Shaun Dooley, known for his TV, theatre and film work, most recently appearing in both Gentleman Jack and It’s a Sin, had already succeeded in the task a good couple of minutes before, receiving some appreciation from his fellow teammates and the audience alike. This fun spot in the programme has become a tradition at the festival, with memorable versions of This is Your Life and Family Fortunes already staged, with guest appearances by the likes of Ruth Jones, Dawn French and Jason Manford over the years. These fun events always make for an entertaining way of settling visitors into the swing of the weekend, while at the same time allowing our hosts the opportunity for a bit of cheesy fun before the serious business of running a festival gets underway.

Underneath the Stars is one of the few major music events where you are able to see all the main stage acts throughout the weekend, without feeling you might have missed something on the other stage. All 32 acts alternate between the two stages, namely the seated Planets stage and the slightly smaller standing room-only Little Lights stage, with the audience moving between each stage at hourly intervals.

The music throughout the weekend is diverse, with performances on Friday by some of the best singers and musicians on the British folk scene, including the all-female folk trio Lady Maisery and the legendary Martin Simpson, who is a late addition to the line-up, standing in at short notice for the Irish singer David Keenan, and whose reading of both Woody Guthrie’s “Deportees” and Leon Rosselson’s “Palaces of Gold” still resonates. The Often Herd don’t disappoint either, as they deliver a fabulous set of bluegrass songs and tunes, before a couple of outstanding blues-fuelled voices beckon the crowds to the Little Lights stage, with both Ríoghnach Connolly of Honeyfeet and Elles Bailey and her band making the the stage their own, both providing breathtaking performances. For sheer enthusiasm, the much anticipated Scouting for Girls completes the Planets stage performances on Friday night, with an insistence that everyone (who can) get out of their chairs and onto their feet for the party. Not usually my sort of thing but full marks for audience engagement.

The second day at a festival traditionally begins late, usually as a result of the previous night’s excesses, and in the case of Saturday morning, the threat of heavy rain heading in from the west. It’s already muddy underfoot but manageable with a good pair of boots or wellies. One couple defies the rain by partaking in ‘precipitation ping-pong’, while the wise participate in a bluegrass workshop, each participant bringing along their banjos, mandolins and the odd saxophone. While other early risers enjoy a spot of communal exercise, The Deep Blue demonstrate, for want of a better expression, ‘girl power’, on the Little Lights stage, the song “Cotton White Linen” alone worth getting up early to hear. The song is unexpectedly reprised later in the day when the band return to the stage to stand in for Holy Moly and the Crackers, who are unable to appear due to illness. With gorgeous harmonies throughout their set, these four Manchester-based singers and musicians brighten up an otherwise dreary looking day. Meanwhile on the Planets stage, it’s a festival of spring chicks as the Barnsley Youth Choir gives us the first glimpse of our future local stars, a family moment enjoyed by all present.

Perhaps the festival’s high point comes when Angeline Morrison and the Sorrow Songs Band arrive on stage, fresh from their much talked about appearance at the Cambridge Folk Festival the weekend before, who captivate an almost silent attentive audience, as the eloquent and articulate singer delivers food for thought during the hour-long set, each song explained in its historical context. ‘Beautiful..’ says the singer, responding to the audience’s vocal prowess, ‘..let’s raise the roof’. “Slave No More” is a heartfelt and moving conclusion to perhaps the most fascinating set of the weekend; the roof, as well as the bar, very much raised. The day also sees performances by Skerryvore, The Shires, Newton Faulkner, Rum Buffalo and Alligator Gumbo, a day of diverse musical endeavour, bookended by The Deep Blue and the late night return of the fantastic Molotov Jukebox, fronted by the highly enigmatic Natalia Tena, known in Winterfell as Osha, the Wildlings woman, and in Cinderhill as the amazing accordion-wielding wild woman of Cawthorne, who sees out Saturday night with a party that I’m only too pleased to have an invitation to.

Come Sunday morning, it’s pretty much down with the brollies and up with the parasols as the sun returns to sprinkle a blanket of joy on the farm. The rain may have dampened the ground earlier, but certainly not any of the stargazer’s spirits, as the final day begins with more superb music. The Oxford-based The People Verses, featuring the highly expressive singer Alice Edwards, appears to woo the campers awake in the sleepy field next door, and like The Deep Blue previously, the band herald in another promising day. Bluegrass musicians jam together in the open spaces, as a seven foot sloth wanders around the site, hugging kids and adults alike, while the Toulouse-based eight-piece Super Panela brings a taste of the rhythms of the Caribbean and the pacific coasts of Colombia to Barnsley. What better way to bring sunshine to the eyes and ears of sleepy stargazers.

It would be futile to make a connection between the sublime Haiku Salut and the bizarre Bar Steward Sons of Val Doonican, other than the fact that the two outfits are trios, the former, an all-female Derbyshire band who perform their own brand of moody atmospheric electronica, the latter an all-male trio who provide manic mayhem throughout their set, which features much audience participation, one or two special little guests and a spot of crowd surfacing, which causes a moment of panic amongst the security team. Scott, Bjorn and Alan welcome a couple of younger members of the Doonican clan on stage, who between them, almost steal the show to the delight of the audience, who never really know what they’re in for with these garishly attired sons of Val. It’s becoming a tradition now to see the Bar Stewards at the festival, one of their number now resident in the nearby village of Cawthorne, their similarly attired fanbase dominating the field throughout the day. They say you can see the great wall of China from space; a Bar Stewards fan can be seen from precisely the same spot.

Rounding off the day, and the weekend, we see the appearance of the Nashville-based singer songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman, who brings some of the sunshine of the Volunteer State to the fields of South Yorkshire, who in turn chooses one or two songs from her current album (this week’s featured album in fact, Crazy Town), including the perceptive “Put a Woman in Charge”, as well as some of her older and more established material, interspersed with personal stories that challenges even the driest of eyes. The Magic Numbers, featuring the Stodart and Gannon siblings, notably Michele Stodart, who has a good professional relationship with the folk music world, are unsurprisingly superb as they make their first visit to the festival, and judging by their performance, I would be surprised if it’s their last. By mid-Sunday evening, Kate Rusby returns to the stage for her headliner show, who welcomes her band on stage with relish, superb musicians all. Delighting the packed audience with a wealth of familiar songs both new and old, interspersed with her usual engaging between-song chat, the singer even stopping to read her fanmail on stage, the weekend draws to a close, as the sun sets once again on God’s own county.