Eddie Reader 25/4/2017

The support was the excellent Adam Holmes who we had seen just two weeks before as a band member of the John McCusker band. This time it was just him on guitar and a keyboards player. It was a shame he was only on for half an hour. His songs sounded even better at second time of hearing. Eddie Reader came on with a five piece band supporting her, double bass, guitar x 2, accordion and keyboards. Notable were Boo Hewerdine on guitar and Alan Kelly on accordion . Boo was notable as a singer songwriter whose name I had first heard in March at the Edwina Hayes gig. The support act there were irritating but they majored on Boo Hewerdine songs and here was the man in person. Unfortunately he had only one featured song the superb 'The Man That I am' about forced child migration to Australia in the 50s. It was much better by him than at Chepstow! The other notable musician was Alan Kelly who was just very good. His skills were displayed particularly on a reel that he soloed on his fingers racing over the keyboard to great effect. I am not sure what I was expecting from Eddie Reader but the set was surprisingly diverse. There was some Celtic stuff but not much, there were a couple of Fairground Attraction songs which was to be expected, but there were also tributes to Ella Fitzgerald marking the 100th anniversary of her birth (which was that very day), a tribute to Amy Winehouse ('Losing Game') and she finished with 'Moon River'. Meanwhile the set also included more recent Eddie Reader songs such as 'Vagabond' and 'Pray the Devil Back to hell' (pretty much dedicated to Donald Trump!). there was even an off-the-cuff accapello Edith Piaf song. Her voice and singing were of course excellent but she also had a great stage presence - exuberant, funny, warm and confessional. You'd definitely want her as a party or dinner guest even if she couldn't sing. 2017 is working out as a year where I am seeing a lot of fairly low key artists who don't even sell out the halls they are in but are superb musicians continuing to tour their music and not resting on their reputations or back catalogues. I find I like that a lot more than the high-price big-venue scene that is the polar opposite. That is not to say that all the big names have stopped being creative or delivering fantastic gigs - Dave Gilmore and Neil Young certainly do both those things - but there is too much of it for my taste.

Alaw - 21/4/2017

Alaw is Welsh for melody and the three members of the band are stalwarts of the local Celtic music scene although this gig was ust the other side of the Wye in Brockweir. This particular trio is led by Oli Dickson-Wright on fiddle supported by Jamie Smith on accordion and Dylan Fowler on guitar. Mabon on the other hand who we saw a couple of years ago are led by Jamie supported by Oli. Dylan we saw a few weeks ago playing a Celtic guitar concert with a Scot and a Breton. The three of them in a small village hall are a delight. Masterly musicianship, lots of warm energy and ambience and the particular brand of Celtic music that is Welsh Celtic music is grand entertainment. There are jigs and reels aplenty but also slower more plaintiff pieces. Dylan's solo guitar tunes that started the second half were a joy - the first part of it was in a Breton style and named after Soig Siberil (the aforementioned Breton guitarist). Lord Canaervon's Jig (that actually wasn't a jig) was memorable too but in fact the whole gig was at a constantly high level. Alaw played stuff from their first album and newer stuff from their upcoming album. Just a great gig and all for £8 and 5 mile drive.

John McCusker - 11/4/2017

I have seen John McCusker play a number of times mostly with Transatlantic Sessions bands or Mark Knopfler bands. This was the first time with him as the star of the show. I was expecting it to be all Celtic music as featured on his latest album but was pleasantly surprised that he gave a lot of time and limelight to Adam Holmes who played electric guitar with the band but also showcased a number of his songs which had a Country feel to them - sort of Edinburgh meets Nashville. Also in the band was Andy Cutting on accordion, Innes White on acoustic guitar (who I saw recently in Karen Matheson's band) and Toby Shaer on second fiddle.(mostly). The gig had a great ambience with all the band seated in a semi-circle as equals and with some gentle joshing from John McCusker. I didn't know the titles of a lot of the songs but I did note 'Leaving Friday Harbour' as particularly evocative in that lilting Celtic style. The musicians were all excellent and dedicated to the overall sound. The accordion was understated but right on the money, the two fiddles beautifully meshed and the guitarists complimentary to each other and the band sound.

Roy Harper 26/4/1980

I have seen Roy Harper a lot over the decades starting in 1968 in Hyde Park as a stoned support act, through to a 2005 gig at Newark. I couldn't get to his tours over the last few years for one reason or another but maybe it is better to remember him as the fierce, angry younger man. Actually he probably is still fierce and angry even though he is in his late 70s by now. This gig at Surrey University in 1980 saw him pretty much as his peak belting out most of his new album (The Unknown Soldier) and as usual some gems from the back catalogue. Chief among those for me was 'Hallucinating Light' which always came across brilliantly live. Other Harper classics played on this gig were 'One of those days in England', 'Old Cricketer' and 'One Man Rock and Roll Band'. The rest of the gig was mostly the new album which includes some pretty good tracks as well. Of course there was the usual banter from Roy - there always is.