Hannah James & the Jigdoll Ensemble - 20/10/2019

I wanted to go to this gig because it promised some clog dancing and we certainly got some superb, mesmeric step dancing from Hannah. It was also a folkish gig with a band that featured András Des on percussion, fiddle player Kate Young, and bassist Marti Tarn. The set opened with a short band intro followed by some superb clog dancing and then continued with Hannah playing accordion (usually whilst adding steps with her right foot). Hannah's singing was good and I really like the harmony vocals that the fiddle player Kate often added in. I didn't know the songs but I remember liking one from her first album called 'Treasures' that featured a variety of percussive sounds and also a lovely accordion led song that ended the gig called something like 'Talikkas Song'. Meanwhile every so often we had more clog dancing or soft shoe dancing or tapping including some serious acrobatics and a dancing duet with the percussionist. A different type of gig and very enjoyable. There is something about clog dancing that gets through to me in a way that a lot of more formal dancing does not.

Kit Hawes & Aaron Catlow - 17/10/2019

This was a small gig in The Glass Room at St Georges, my attendance motivated by a notable contribution from Kit Hawes as guitarist in Set Lakeman's band earlier in the year. This was full-on folk gig with just two of them, Kit on acoustic guitar and Aaron on fiddle. The performance was excellent, subtle but passionate. Some of the songs stood out for me, 'John Barleycorn', an original Kit Hawes track written about Norway followed by a mediaeval German tune, a Kit Hawes song 'Crossfire', the encore track featuring lovely fiddle playing in a sort of East European/Middle East genre song. They deserved a bigger audience although those that were there were very appreciative.