TATTERS
THE NEWSLETTER OF TRADITIONS AT THE TIGER
Below is
the current edition of our monthly newsletter. If you would like
to receive this every month by e-mail, or would like to get a past month's
newsletter e-mailed to you, then please contact
Dave
Sutherland.
www.tigerfolk.com
JULY/AUGUST 2010 EDITION
You
know that you are getting old when………….you leave a festival during the afternoon
break to go home for your tea! Well, it wasn’t exactly planned like that but
somehow our conversation about Stainsby closing at 6pm on the Sunday night this
year transferred itself to the Spring Off The Tracks that we were attending and
one of us had arrived without any warm evening clothes so a quick trip home was
necessitated and while we were there we might as well pop the kettle on.
A
far cry from the good old days when you could live quite comfortably for an
entire weekend on a beefburger or two and a couple of ounces of Old Holborn and
find a corner of someone’s tent to collapse in a drunken heap for the night.
This year it was essential to wrap up like you would be facing a winter’s night
so cold can Donnington get as the evening draws on. Even if I didn’t find very
much this year that was exactly up my street, we had to miss Martin Simpson due
to our Granddaughter’s first birthday, it was immensely more comfortable to
watch the music equipped to face the elements; maybe it lacks the conviction of
the younger element who, a fortnight later braved the downpour at a larger
festival in the same area to watch their heroes, Aerosmith, the last band of the
night and then drag their soaked and bedraggled selves home as one of ours did
at 2am the following morning. But as I said it’s all about getting old!!
It
was family events which stopped me getting to Southwell too; It was looking good
for the weekend with only the England v U.S.A. game standing in the way when our
daughter up and gets engaged so the results of the impromptu party on the Friday
night blew that out of the water however I did hear that it was very good.
So
it is quite possible that my festival season may well be over before it has even
got started so here is where our dear readers can help us; if you are off to
Whitby, Sidmouth, Shrewsbury, Cambridge etc or if you have been to Southwell or
Alcester please let us know about it. Was your festival good, bad or average?
Did you see any new bands that impressed you or was it the old stagers who
showed the way? We really want to know and then our September issue can be a
festival special.
Send
your contributions to
dsutherland3@hotmail.com as they will be
most appreciated.
By
the way talking about the World Cup, but not for long, someone asked me “What is
the difference between Leonard Cohen and a Vuvuzela?” The answer was that you
can get a tune out of a Vuvuzela!
No I
didn’t think that it was funny either.
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Sunday 6th
June 2010
Sam Lee and the
Gillie Boys
[Michael Wright, Martin Teshome, Gina Le Faux]
(I never did get around to
asking where the name came from; but having discovered that Gina is a champion
trout angler and qualified casting tutor, maybe it’s that sort of Gillie. Only I
thought that was spelt with an h, being a Scots Gaelic word.)
We originally asked Sam Lee and
Michael Wright to do an evening for us, having seen them together on stage at
Whitby last year. As the date grew closer it became less clear exactly who would
be turning up with Sam, but we were happy to trust his judgement. On the night,
we had an eclectic line-up of Sam, Michael, Martin Teshome and Gina Le Faux,
producing an ever-varying instrumental combination to accompany Sam’s fine
vocals.
The taster session was given by
Sam and Michael, featuring three songs collected from (southern) English Gypsy
singers; Lovely Johnny and the Colour of Amber from Mary Anne Hayes, (the
Brighton flower seller who is the singer I most regret having not heard live)
and The Deserter from Wiggy Smith.
When I first heard Sam singing,
usually in late night sessions or from the floor at clubs/concerts with
knowledgeable MCs, I sort of assumed from his affinity for Gypsy singers and
songs and that curly dark hair that he was from a gypsy line himself; it was a
year or two before I got to know him well enough to find out that the exotic,
eastern looks are from Jewish descent. Sam made that clear quite early in the
first full set when he pointedly sang a version of Little Sir Hugh, a ballad
whose anti-Semitic sentiments frighten off many singers.
These three examples of the
repertoire exemplify for me what make Sam such an interesting voice in the
current traditional scene. His research credentials would do justice to a PHD –
time working for the EFDSS as well as invaluable months spent learning from the
great Scottish Traveller storyteller and singer, Stanley Robertson; but his
approach to performance, as demonstrated by the arrangements and interpretations
we were treated to on the 6th, is neither academic nor
over-reverential. Nor does it resemble the rock-influenced styles of bigger and
better-known line-ups – Bellowhead, or Eliza Carthy’s or Damien Barber’s bands.
Instead, what we had from the
Gillie Boys was a sound well-suited to the intimacies of a small room; a more
jazz-influenced melding of drone lines from cello or Jew’s harp or Shruti Box
(look it up on
www.shrutibox.co.uk – it’s a very simple
table-top free reed ancestor of the harmonium) with melodic lines weaving in and
out between fiddle, mandolin, cello again and Sam’s voice. There was more than a
slight feel of improvisation to some of these melodic/harmony lines at times –
they pretty much confessed to improvising the encore, having not played together
long enough to have any songs to spare!
The sense of this line-up and
their music being something of a work in progress worked to our advantage over
the course of the night, as the programme was padded out by individual
contributions and differing pairings – 2 reels from Gina’s mandolin, Michael’s
Music Hall Jew’s harp showpiece number, unaccompanied song from Sam.
Sam paid tribute to Stanley
(Robertson) several times during the evening but there is nothing of imitation
in his singing of the songs learned from him. What Sam has taken from Stanley,
and many other sources, I would guess – is a deep sense of the song as a
story to be lived through as
much as told. As he sang the Waterloo ballad, Macdonald of Glencoe, he was a
swimmer breasting along the flow of the song, ornamentation and decorations in
his delivery the natural result of his own evident enjoyment of the song as the
medium through which he was moving, like a trout flicking its tail as it darts
about the clear stream (Gina may appreciate that analogy!).
If Sam and the Gillie Boys are
a work in progress, then it was a privilege to be part of their evolution!
It was a good turn out and
Jack, MC-ing, was able to bring up a couple of new faces as well as many
familiar and welcome returnees to the floor spots. But, do you know what? Just
for once, I’m not going to list them all – either you were there and enjoyed
‘em, or you weren’t, and don’t deserve to know what you missed!
Serves you right for missing a
great night.
Corinne Male.
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Bendle’s Bit
It was one of those beautiful,
hot autumn days, it was a halcyon day, an Indian Summer Day. It was a hot,
brassy hot, hot day that warned you in its heat of the deep chill of the night
to come. It was a perfect day for being with friends and like minded folk at a
festival of singing, and so we were.
Late in the afternoon people
were gathering out in the farmyard, far too nice to be inside, for a meal prior
to a big sing that would keep the impending cold at bay at least until
midnight. The air was full of the finest music, that of people enjoying
themselves, the sound of laughter was born up into the air by the swallows that
hawked around above our heads and flew with reckless abandon as if, they too,
were drinking in the atmosphere.
As food was finished and wine
glasses emptied, there was a drift up to the barn in readiness for the highlight
of the weekend, the wall to wall singing marathon of chorus songs. But some
lingered around a picnic table, the atmosphere grew more peaceful and we could
hear the swallow’s contribution in the whirring of their wings as they too,
seemed to enjoy reclaiming the crew yard for their own meal, a multifarious fare
of entomological beings. The talk and laughter flowed as we ran the gamut of
idle chatter as well as putting the world to rights, of course. At first we
didn’t notice the cooling of the air but it soon became a bit too nippy to be
outside, so we adjourned indoors, made coffee and carried on. The conversation
turned to birds as is not that unusual amongst us but this time a tale of
nightingales was told. Of a walk through a bluebell wood in early summer to
hear the liquid notes of this elusive bird and of the forlorn singing of a male
with no mate. From this experience came forth a song, that having heard it, was
a must have, it was far too good not to have in the song locker.
Within a week a CD dropped
through the letterbox and lo and behold, here was the song. Now that was pretty
efficient by anybodies standards and it was only 2 years later that it all
became apparent. Barry and Ingrid Temple were in the throws of recording a new
CD with this song on it but circumstances dictated that the project be put on
hold, but no longer.
All Dressed Up is now available
for all to enjoy. A mix of self-penned, contemporary and traditional songs,
this is a CD to cherish. As you would expect from Barry and Ingrid there is a
strong influence of their native north-east, but don’t worry, you won’t need a
translator and Scott Dobson’s “Larn Yersel’ Geordie” can stay on the shelf.
Songs of local people and events, mix with interesting versions of well known
songs and some not so well known. The title track is a must for anyone with an
interest in fox hunting, I’ll say no more. Opening and closing a CD is rarely so
professionally done as here, the “Topping and Tailing” of All Dressed Up is an
example of this elusive art. If I could wax lyrical I would do so for all the
tracks on this recording but that would take away and spoil your enjoyment when
you listen to it.
So get yourself a copy of All
Dressed Up and have a Cadburys Flake experience, indulge yourself.
John Bentham
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Sunday 4th July
Notts Alliance
It's about time, isn't it? You'd have thought that,
these local boys having made such a name for themselves in recent years and
being no strangers to the club as audience and floor spots, we would have booked
them for a whole evening long before this. Actually, we have, but only as a last
minute replacement when Pete Coe was once unable to appear at short notice and
these good friends of the club agreed to stand in; for which we humbly apologise
both to them and to you, our audience, at being so slow to bring the longest
running and finest a-cappella group on the local scene to the top room in all
their splendour, for a properly-heralded booking. For anyone reading this who
doesn't know, Notts Alliance started life as the residents of the Nottingham
Traditional Music Club, one of the great clubs of the scene from the 60s through
to the 80s, when it sadly closed. In recent years they have adapted their
harmonies to the works of a range of songwriters to complement their wide
repertoire of traditional songs, featured in festivals all around the country
and released three CDs. A long time coming, but a night well worth waiting for.
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Sunday 18th July
Danny Spooner
Here is a remarkable man; and considering he has to
come all the way over from Australia you won't get many chances to hear him. I
seem to remember that, when he visited us a couple of years back - and was a
total revelation to me, for one - Danny thought it possible that might be his
last tour; well, we've had another chance and were quick to seize it. Danny was
born in London and, as a young lad, literally ran away to sea, signing on as
crew to the East Coast barge skippered by Bob Roberts. Bob realised that Danny
was under the legal age to sail, but, recognising determination when he saw it,
deliberately overlooked that and became a father figure to the youngster, who
thus learned seaman ship and songs in equal measure over the coming years of
trading between the Thames and the ports of East Anglia. It was Bob who advised
Danny to emigrate to Australia in his 20s, where Danny's seagoing took in the
whaling boats along with many others and his song-gathering continued. When
Danny sings "The Wee Pot Stove", you can hear the Scot's accent of Harry
Robertson who wrote the song and from whom Danny learned it. A rare chance to
meet and listen to a real bearer of the traditions of both old and new worlds -
don't miss it.
And finally………………….
we have been collating all the responses to our questionnaires regarding our new
name so it wont be long before all our publicity etc will bear the results of
our member’s suggestions.
Regardless of which name we use going forward you can
be assured that there will be no changes to our mission which is to bring to you
the best of traditional folk music and song from around the British Isles and
further afield – a mixture of well known faces and some new names to the club.
When we re-open in September we will be presenting
three nights of artists who will be making their debut at the club, On the
September evening we will welcome Rees Wesson and Yorkie Bartram a couple that I
first saw as members of the Cajun band Joe Le Taxi back in 1994 but who turned
up at the National a few years later. October sees newcomers Paul Anderson and
Shona Donaldson and then in November we have, surprisingly enough, a first for
Sam Sweeney and Hannah James; you might want to book your seat for that night.
SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER
Traditions
at the Tiger