Edwina Hayes 11/3/2017

I discovered fairly late in the day that Edwina Hayes was playing locally at a Chepstow folk club. Having seen her a couple of times before I was delighted to catch her so close by. She seems to gig regularly without ever receiving the attention she deserves both for her voice and for the songs she writes. There was a support of local folky Johnny Marsden who had lots of supporters in the hall and who did a short set of five songs. Edwina went through a mixture of her own songs and lots of covers - including three Richard Thompson songs which is a big plus as far as I am concerned. For the record they were 'from Galway to Graceland', 'Down where the Drunkards Roll' and 'Waltzing's for Losers', a great trio of songs to pick. Of her own songs she did 'Leave a Light on for You, 'Season of Love', 'I won't Say Your Name' and a couple I hadn't heard, one written for her aunt and one written in the style of Kate Rusby which immediately followed a Kate Rusby cover. Edwina was very chatty and the evening had a nice ambience which was somewhat spoiled by the two muppets who ran the folk club. They loved being on stage and overran the interval by 20 minutes thereby curtailing the performance just before Edwina got to my request of something from 'Desire'. She had kindly agreed to do 'Sarah' but as it was one of the last requests it got cut off. The encore with Johnny Marsden was the delightful 'Speed of the Sound of Loneliness' followed by 'Mr Tambourine Man'. A good way to finish