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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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FOLK AMERICA
HOLLERERS, STOMPERS AND OLD TIME
RAMBLERS |
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The
Barbican, London
January 21st 2009
Things
have certainly come a long way for ‘hobo’
bluesman and collector of largely dysfunctional
guitars, Seasick
Steve, since your Whiskyfun reviewers
saw him at the Borderline just over a
couple of years ago. |
| You
may remember that he’d just been ‘discovered’
– courtesy of the patronage of London DJs
such as Charlie Gillet and Joe Cushley, and the
‘novelty spot’ on Jools Holland’s
2006 Hogmanay Show (this year’s contenders,
a ‘humourous’ harmonica four-piece from
Finland or thereabouts, didn’t quite hit the
same spot). He moved seamlessly from the Borderline
to Festival stages throughout the country and has
been a must-have performer at the likes of Glastonbury
and Reading ever since. At the end of last year
he toured the UK – starting with a sell-out
show at the Royal Albert Hall (the Borderline, capacity
275, Albert Hall, capacity 7,000), which I would
have predicted to be a disaster, given the cold
nature of that late-Victorian structure, but typically
Steve delivered a “hugely entertaining, at
times staggering show”, according to the Guardian.
He’s even been nominated for a Brit Award
(“I didn’t know what a Brit was, but
if it means I’ve done a good job, then that’s
ok”), and having won us over with his insouciant
charm, self-deprecating manner, and genuine sense
of humility (not to mention his wonderful playing
and singing), is in danger of becoming, if he isn’t
already, a certified National Treasure. And I can’t
help thinking that his presence on stage as compere
of this first of two ‘Folk
America’ concerts at the Barbican, has
helped fill the hall with a wonderfully disparate
and enthusiastic audience, because a lot of us,
like Steve, haven’t heard of any of the mostly
young performers on this bill of ‘Hollerers,
Stompers and Old Time Ramblers’. |
| The
two concerts are part of a BBC series on American
roots and folk music, so depending on where you
live, you may be able to see some of the wonderful
films that have been assembled for this, including
concert footage, on the equally wonderful BBC iPlayer.
And whilst the first night was a sell-out, the second,
‘Greenwich Village Revisited’ was apparently
struggling to shift seats, judging by the 20% discount
that was being offered, and the fact that it was
still being advertised two days after the event
– desperation indeed. No doubt down to the
Billy Bragg effect, as the Braggster was introducing
night two – and let’s face it, who wants
to be harangued by Billy about Woody Guthrie, like
a classroom of ignorant school children, in the
middle of a recession that might just be as deep
as the dust bowl? |
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No
– Seasick’s laid back approach was far
better, starting the evening with a few tunes like
‘Falling down blues’, and then sitting
back in his rocking chair, giving the briefest introduction
to each artist. It was his rocking chair, and the
clothes on the hokey washing line behind him were
his, as was much of the other bashed-up furniture,
purchased largely, we were told, in Murfreesboro,
Tennessee, which as any of you whisky travellers
will know, is on the road to the Jack Daniels Distillery
in Lynchburg. Tonight, no doubt to abide by BBC
regulations, Seasick’s bottle of Jack, his
ever-present on-stage companion, is suitably disguised
with a mock label and surely a collector’s
item by now. |
| The
evening’s performers were an eclectic bunch,
and frankly it was one of those occasions when the
second half somewhat failed to live up to the promise
of the first. Final act The
Wiyos, were entertaining enough with their take
on Blind Willie McTell’s ‘Dying crapshooter’s
blues’ and “pick-me up murder ballad”
‘Leaving home’, aka ‘Frankie and
Johnny’, but were in reality only a rather
inferior ‘roots’ take on Spike Jones
and His City Slickers – playing very well
but not as amusing as they thought. And their urbanity
(they’re from Brooklyn) was somewhat at odds
with all the other performances. Preceding them,
Diana Jones
(“she brought the silence on me” said
Steve of her rehearsals) was worthy, with songs
about dying Scottish miners trapped in the bowels
of the Appalachians, and the indignities suffered
by native American children at the hands of ‘educators’.
But her vocal range seemed somehow stunted, and
without her accomplished accompanists on tenor guitar
and fiddle, her set would have been weak in the
extreme. Compared with this, the first half was
a delight. Allison
Williams, on claw-hammer banjo, and fiddler
Chance
McCoy powered their way through tunes such as
‘Dance all night with a bottle in your hand’
(a new Whiskyfun anthem perhaps?) and ‘Wild
Bill Jones’ (“Wild Bill Jones and that
long-necked bottle have been the ruin of me …”)
with a remarkable energy, and the dancing of guitarist
Danny Knicely brought the audience to their feet.
The talkative fiddler and accordionist Cedric
Watson and his Bijoux Creole gave us a slightly
different take on the Louisiana Zydeco style, with
some wonderfully percussive full-body washboard
playing from Joseph Chaisson. |
| However
pick of the bunch was the unlikely American/Australian
bluesman C.
W. Stoneking, with a voice and style that has
to be heard to be believed. “Man, he lost
in the 1920s” said Steve, which is a pretty
good summary of Stoneking’s ‘hokum’
style. But it would be wrong to dismiss him as simply
a pastiche performer – his songs, which in
this short set ranged from ‘Darktown strutters’
ball’, ‘Dodo blues’ and the “Jungle
calypso murder ballad” ‘Love me or die’
have real depth and colour, and an edge which means
that Mr Stoneking has been filed in my very favourite
‘Weird’ box. And I don’t think
I was alone in my enthusiasm – the rush for
his CDs from the merchandise stall was such that
they were as rare as, well, Dodos. Catch him if
you can. |
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Seasick, accompanied by drummer Dan Magnusson, ended
the evening with two more tunes, but not before
he’d given us some cookery tips on how to
make an apple pie in a skillet – “an
apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without
a squeeze”. They played ‘Waiting for
the train’ and ‘Chiggers’, a tribute
to the little critters who inhabit the tall grass
of the Mississippi Delta and will eat you up if
you give them the chance (who else could get away
with the line – “I wear my socks up
to my knees”?), before the entire company
returned for the obligatory big encore, Uncle Dave
Macon’s ‘Won’t get drunk no more’.
At which point the audience delivered the ovation
it had rehearsed with the BBC’s film crew
at the start of the evening, although by this point
it had been well and truly earned by all. -
Nick Morgan (concert photographs by Kate) |
Listen:
C.W. Stoneking (and his gothic hillbilly
music) on MySpace
Seasick
Steve's MySpace page |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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