27th September 2022 .There was a certain ambiguity about how I’d specified the evening as Vintage/Goodtime. However, I thought I knew what I meant, and everyone else thought they did, so we were all on message in some way. Having been in London all day, I just managed to arrive for the 1945 start and many thanks to the kind soul(s) who started to write the playlist before I got there. Also of course thanks to the merry humpers Simon et al who set up and dismantle the kit, and Jason on sound with Lance’s help. I quickly tuned my guitar (more of this later) and launched into Diamond Ring Blues, a jug-band song of the 1920s or 1930s which is one big long enormous double entendre. Simon Watt started with Love is the Sweetest Thing, from 1932, written by Ray Noble and recorded by Al Bowly. It seems that a lot of these vintage bittersweet songs chug along nicely on a cycle of four chords with interest provided by which chords they are. However, Laura got up and raised considerably more interest than the harmonic analysis with her tambourine-slapping dance, which has become a featured part of Simon’s act. Laura, in case you missed it, is Lisa’s twin sister, not so long ago returned from distant Italy. Simon followed with Try a Little Tenderness, another Ray Noble recording of the same year, which emerged in The Commitments film of 1991after Otis Reading had made a soul hit version in the 60s. Brenda has become a regular over the past months, both here and at the White Horse Folk Club – which is to move to the Bells on alternate Mondays starting on 3rd October. She read, as a poem, the lyrics of an Alan Jackson song The Older I Get which produced looks of recognition on several faces and then did a short poem of her own. Brenda is also one to get up and dance, and did not disappoint later on. David and Pam arrived on stage next. Last time Pam danced while playing the accordion (is there no end to this dancing madness?) but this week was relatively static. They performed a 50-year-old Dick Powell song Water Bound followed by two segued instrumentals Staten Island and Shenandoah Fore, all with great, good-natured, competence. Lisa and Jason dipped into the Great American Song Book with Hoagy Carmichael’s Georgia On My Mind, and then surprised us all with a folky version of the King’s (Elvis that is, not Charles) Don’t Be Cruel. They have become very good at re-interpreting the genre of famous songs – I remember their sweet harmonies on Leadbelly’s Old Cotton Fields Back Home a few months back. Jane Ingles very rarely misses either the Bells or the White Horse. The Great Divide is part of her standard repertoire and fitted well tonight. In the true spirit of the vintage vibe, she came up with Dream a Little Dream of Me all the way from 1931. It was recorded by Wayne King and his orchestra in more innocent times and has been recorded by The Beautiful South and Mama Cass among many others. Jason returned for his spot and came up with some genuine goodtime smut with Diddy Wah Diddy, which he reckoned would have earned him a clip round the ear from his dad, Gerry, not for the lyrics but for his extended ragtime guitar solo, which sounded great to me. Diddy Wah Diddy was recorded by Blind Blake, among many others. The last time I heard it was a heavy electric version by The Blues Band at the Rye Festival a few years back. In the 1980s I played stand-up bass in The Brockley Brothers and we performed it every week during our residency at Bunjies. For his second song Jason called up Lisa and Helga on vocals and flute respectively for a cool enchanting version of Summertime. Clive hit another four-chord cycle in Blue Moon a real classic by Rodgers and Hart from 1934. He followed with Try to Remember (the kind of September….). I was surprised to find it was a musical song from the 1960s. Perhaps I’m conflating it with all those other earlier September songs – September in the Rain, September Song etc. Any way the songs were certainly in the spirit intended. Steph applied her mellifluous voice, and her sure knowledge of which chords lead to what, to the 1973 hit by Tony Orlando: Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree and the 1939 song by Sheldon Harlech and Eric Ashworthy A Nightingale Sang in Berkely Square. ‘A bit of romance before the lights went out’ she told us. I suspect there was even more afterwards. Terry Lees arrived with some more Blind Blake – Blind Blake’s Rag – which he remembered Jason’s Dad Gerry playing when they did a gig together back in the day. He then came up with an excellent version of Dire Straits Juliet. Chris Martin did two of his original songs from 1989: Get Yourself a Good Time and Guardian Angel. You can’t argue that there’s not an implication of feelgood in those titles. One of the good things about the evening was frustration of expectations about how old, or young, the well-known songs were, where they came from and who wrote them. Heather performed Shine on Harvest Moon, which dated all the way back to the Ziegfeld Follies of the early 1900s and The Autumn Leaves or Les Feuilles Mort as the original Jaques Prevert version was known. Lance’s idiosyncratic songs are often about specific local characters (including quadrupeds) and local events. His first song Man’s Best Friend dated back a couple of years to neo-covid times when local Jack Russell Monsieur Hulot howled all through one of Helga’s songs. I was so lost in reminiscences of that wonderful era that I forgot to write down what his second song was. Sorry lance. Last in the cycle was John Stephens who went back to the 1960s to perform Paul Simon’s April, Come She Will and Leonard Cohen’s So Long Marianne. Thake you back to the times of huddling heartbroken and profound over Dansette record players in bedsits, little knowing the joys of the emerging Blue Nun era. I started round two with When Did You Leave Heaven, learnt from a Big Bill Broonzy EP in 1960-whatever. I asked Helga to join me in that easy jamming key but it turned out that my guitar tuner was actually a semitone flat, which meant that Helga had five sharps digging into her fingers. Sorry Helga. I tuned and we did it again. Much better all round. The 1960s and 1950s were well represented in the last round. Lisa and Jason: Wonderful World; Jayne Ingles: Big Yellow Taxi; Terry Lees: California Dreaming; and the anthropomorphic love song from Flanders and Swann: Mud, Glorious Mud. Does anyone know the difference between anthropomorphism and personification? It’s probably important. Chris Martin’s song from the late 80’s Life Ain’t Been Easy was intended for female singers with big voices but sounded good from him. Heather did Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out and I finished with a sing-song on Irene Goodnight. Which it was. Keith Willson
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A little soul singing amongst the hearts of loss. The bartender he has a friend in you. A song of silhouettes proclaims a falling cross. As kings and queens become old news. A song of fire of passion that underlies us. Love still grows in our garden of dreams. A tune from the highlands rising above us. The rich leave the poor to drift downstream. You won’t find fame, but don’t you cuss Singing glory will never be yours God, let me sleep through your songs tonight. Cartoon misery really does bore Mourn the loss of sea life that we kill The ownership was never our right. But love me tonight and give me my fill Come with me in the highest delight. Our brothers will finally lose all their breaths. Our dogs shit their pots full too. As Brighton rocks us to our deaths Leadbelly will sing to us anew . . . 🎶 JL, 13 September 2022 Thank you to Simon, Laura, Manus, Terry, Heather, Chris, Colin, John, Lance, and Keith for their fine performances. And thank you to my lovely Lisa for duetting with me once again. Best wishes, Jason 30th August 2022 The night was not one of the best attended of the year but although we lacked quantity, we made up for it with quality. My opening song featured a swearword (you know the one) so maybe this frightened people off. I started the ball rolling with a Danny Schmidt song “Beggars and Mules” followed by my own “I’ve got a Black Hole in my Garden”. It was nice to see Oliver again and to hear his interesting guitar style. His songs were “All along the Watchtower”, “Amazing Grace” and later a great song by Donovan “Gold Watch Blues” about the standard reward for a lifelong job (gone are the days). Chris was next and he was also in a sweary mood opening with his “Tuning Song” which he followed with a song he had just written called “Acoustic Blues & Me” and his last offering was “Sanity”. A gradually recovering Heather then gave us a song of her own called “Being Me” and finished with a very pretty version of the Scottish ballad “Ye Banks and Ye Braes”. When I arrived at the Bells, I was both surprised and delighted to see old friend and past Six Bells regular Mike Osborne waiting to perform. Mike is a very skilled musician who hails from Hastings. Mike gave us the blues classic “Come on in my Kitchen”, followed by “Love Train” (not the O’Jays soul song) and finally “Don't Want To Know”, the John Martyn song. It was also nice to see Brenda again and she came up with an A ‘Capella version of the Bette Midler song “The Rose” and after that a poem “Dust if you Must”. Terry Lees is always a very welcome addition to any musical event, and he gave us his own arrangement of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice it’s Alright” and another Scottish tune “Miss Mcleods Reel”, usually only attempted on the fiddle! Lisa had allowed Jason out on his own and his songs were “End of the Waves”, the classic “Nobody Knows You” and his own “There was a Young Man, Namely”. Our resident flautist Helga accompanied by Jason performed “The Blues is a Country” followed by a jam in Am with Terry. John gave us some rock’n’roll with Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and “Every Move You Make” by The Police. Finally, we had Sophie and Matthew who gave us a really great set of songs written by Sophie and not for the first time at a folk club I found myself wondering, why are these people not famous? The songs sung were “Storm Breaks”, “Down the Road” and “A Place to go Home”. As the night wore on the audience dwindled leaving Jason and myself to pack away the gear for another two weeks. Next time, once again Jason will be running the club, so until then it’s goodbye from me, and its goodbye from him. Simon 16th August 2022 Oh well, my Odometer turned the 100,000 milestone on the way over. As host for the evening, I started 1-minute late in deference to this clockwise omen. So, I wasn’t exactly prepared to “party-like-it’s-99” and you can’t turn it back can you. However, there was a bit of a party vibe going on in there. It was a very nice summer’s night; kind of loose and uninhibited – resourceful. I sound checked in with a bit of Duke Ellington material and picked up the pace with some R&B to be followed by Simon [c/w Elvis, whose Odometer was being celebrated intermittently, the anniversary of his death still on the clock]. After that, some folk music by Steph including a lovely ‘Dropped D’ instrumental Irish piece on guitar. That’s an expansive tuning and it permeated through the humid stillness of this rather atmospheric evening. Helen put us back in the 60s prior to Lisa & Jason with a couplet of duets [like a summer breeze] before being joined by Helga on flute at this point [when I seem to have dispensed with taking notes by giving them instead as a resident “Blues Guitarist”. With the addition of Keith panned right [acoustic] and me on the left [electric], it sounded quite good as a Blues/Jazz soundscape. Okay, having had a cup of tea, I refer to my somewhat less than chronological, scrawled out list. Oh yes, Heather & C J Martin started, out of necessity perhaps, to sound like a consolidated duo as they pooled their resources before turning it around into ‘Chris & Heather’ [recollections may vary at this juncture], you see: ‘resourceful’ is good! As is ‘’Tilsmore’, a good duo consisting of John & Bev. And another good duo consisting of ‘Charlie & Lucy’. Then it was time for John Stevens with his PRS Electric Guitar [a performer’s rights must be upheld in this society] and the Songbook of Covers; Party 99, it may not be, but the spirit was there. Keith, the consummate visionary, put us back to some original material through the literary lens of his metaphorical ‘Telescope’ - analogous to his in-the-moment miked-up guitar [Keith’s a wordsmith]. The surprise of the evening, though, was BRENDA! She sat, she danced, she plucked up the courage to get up with it and sing for us. More, very well supported, ELVIS ensued – it woz emotional! Penultimately, Ian came on to conclude really. With his unique 12-string sound being conducive to his well sung, well expressed songs of natural environments. Starting locally. he produced some touching imagery for the mind and the soul; the man delivered …. After Ian kicked Dim Tim [me] to the curb ‘The Stereo Soundscape’ resumed for some steppin’ out blues, for people to walk out to as the Ark disembarked leaving us to clear its hollow deck for the next turn of events. And my old Fiat 500 hummed all the way home – “Shall-we-do-it-again?” Manus 2nd August 2022
Chiddingly Skyline we hear a song of Cat’s Cradle Within my soul I did feel a spark Music then takes us to West Ireland Lament for a great thespian who made his mark Chiddingly Skyline we celebrate our grand-children Truth and beauty remember the river man Music bring us together again for one night With you all kinds of blues we play whatever we can Chiddingly Skyline up Blueberry Hill and Dixie Down The lark ascends above the lowly folk lands Music can tell tales of strange walling Bungeroosh built by the mason’s hands Chiddingly Skyline takes in a Northern coal town Moon dancing as a blue moon to the glory of love Music for the dead and for the ever young A summer of swimming and the song of the dove Chiddingly Skyline brings family histories From mining the earth in which we lay graves Music for the dead towns, the dead sea and its fish We suffer the darkness from those big waves Chiddingly Skyline give me flowers and brightness Let me banish the black dog forever Music can lift us out of the mire Depression is something we can all sever Chiddingly Skyline waiting so long for our Queen She sings with such joy that still shines through Music once again has brought us together Whatever rights and wrongs I’ll spend life with you Chiddingly Skyline in sight of Sussex hills Adonis Blue weaves all around their flowers Music made of each and every breath we take Wild horses we shall ride through eventual showers And so Chiddingly Skyline you brought us together Once again we all shared music and love For this life is but one life not lasting forever Or can we be born again just like the one dove ? “Chiddingly Skyline”, by Jason, dedicated to all the lovely folks who turned up to perform and to listen and who created a wonderful evening. Thank you Steph, Paula, David, Manus, Helen, Terry & Natasha, Jim & Josie (AKA Milton Hide), Phil, Helga, Chris Neale, Simon, John & Beverley, Pat Langridge, Tony Parry, Jayne, Pete, Ian and John. And thank you once again to Lisa for singing and playing with me. 19the July 2022 It was Britain's hottest ever day with record breaking high temperatures reported all over the country. Caring, responsible dog owners resorted to taking out their pets very early in the day to avoid the worst of the heat. The ground during the day becoming hot enough to burn their pet's delicate paws. As dogs don't sweat, they have limited means of regulating their body temperatures, another issue. Owners of Koi card and goldfish ponds looked on in alarm as the temperature of pond water rose dangerously high and oxygen levels dropped. The ill and infirm in this country were advised to stay out of the sun and people were asked to keep a neighbourly eye on them. Against this background Against this background the following brave and hardy souls ventured out to the Six Bells in Chiddingly for the Bob Dylan themed open mic night. Before the event we decided to perform outside as we thought we would be cooler at that time of the evening/night. As it turned out the weather had begun to break. We decided to hold the event inside which meant a hasty setting up of mixer, microphones, speakers etc. I, (Lance Maleski) hosted the event and performed ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ and ‘Mr Tambourine Man’. I passed the baton to Simon Watt and he performed ‘I Threw it All Away’ from the album Nashville Skyline, ‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ and lastly a song from the album ‘Oh Mercy’ ‘Shooting Star’. Helga was up next and performed a song by Wolf Bierman best translated (it was sung in German) ‘Take Heart’. Helga’s next choice of song was written by Joan Cartwright ‘Blue Bossa’. Jason Loughran joined Helga and performed ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’. Helga left the stage and Jason remained to perform ‘Only a Hobo’ a Dylan song he fist heard on Rod Stewart’s second studio album Gasoline Alley….. then Jason completed the last of his three songs from the Dylan album ‘Blood on the Tracks’ ‘Simple Twist of Fate’. Manus McDaid performed the Bob Dylan song ‘Born in Time’ from the album ‘Under the Red Sky’. Manus then performed ‘Fanny Mae won’t you Please Come Home’, a Buster Brown song. At this point we had a break as many of us wanted liquid refreshment. Chris Martin welcomed us back and performed the Bob Dylan song ‘It’s all over now Baby Blue’ and the two of his own compositions ‘Xerox Armies’ which was influenced by Bob Dylan and the way he writes his lyrics and ‘Unwanted Fruit’ that he wrote during an open mic night in Tunbridge Wells. Heather Curry followed Chris and used her keyboard to good effect and performed beautiful versions of three Bob Dylan songs ‘The Time’s they are a Changing’, ‘Just Like a Woman’ and lastly ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’. Frank Xerox made a very welcome appearance and followed Heather. He performed beautiful versions of three Bob Dylan songs ‘Sign on a Window’, ‘Just Like a Woman’ and lastly ‘My Back Pages’ from the 1964 album ‘Another Side of Bob Dylan’. Rounding the evening off was Keith Willson with three Bob Dylan songs ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’, Pawn in the Game’ and ‘The Time’s they are a Changing’. That’s it, we all helped pack up and left to go home in the heat of the night. 5th July 2022 This enjoyable evening was kicked off by Manus and Helga, with a Jazzy-Latin instrumental improvisation on guitar and flute – Jazzy Latin in 6/8 – which went off smoothly. Next was Simon with two short songs: Rollin’ Rollin’ (Randy Newman), followed by How Do You Like Your Coffee in Bed (Tom Paxton), which showed Simon’s ragtime guitar skills to good advantage. Anticipating next open mic night’s Bob Dylan theme, Steph contributed a beautifully soft rendition of his classic Blowing in the Wind, which suited her lovely voice. Her second song, I live not where I love, featured lyrics dating back to 1630. Manus played two R&B numbers on his mini-guitar which he had just finished refurbishing: Robert Cray’s Bad Influence and his own arrangement of Singing the Blues (Altered Blues), adding an instrumental part by Pat Metheny. We all appreciate Helen’s a capella singing, and enjoyed her interpretations of This Wheel’s on Fire (Bob Dylan & Richard Dalco) and A Groovy Kind of Love (Wayne Fontana and the Mind Benders). Great voice and guitar harmonies came next: Jason and Lisa playing the classic Helplessly Hoping (Stephen Stills), followed by Perfume Garden, one of their own songs with a haunting, tuneful melody. Newcomer Charlie offered two great songs, Ginseng Sullivain (Norman Blake) and Raggy Levy, an old worksong from Georgia (USA), reimagined by Jake Xerxes Fussell. Keith brought his usual infectious energy to the evening, performing two of his own songs, Dusty (about a typewriter awaiting new compositions) and Don’t, featured on his CD. Terry’s renditions of the American Ballad of Long John Dean and Scottish Miss McCloud’s Reel showcased amazing sounds and twangs, giving you the sense that several guitars are being played at once. Paula followed with the lively tune Dance, Dance, Dance and then a new self-penned song which only had its second outing on the night. Next up was Jayne with Twisted Whiskey, a song she recently wrote, showing her skills with thoughtful lyrics, beautifully sung and accompanied. She finished with Across the Great Divide (Kate Wolf). And then we had the great pleasure of something completely different! Garry brought this Scottish Bag Pipes, and filled the entire pub with rousing renditions of Flett from the Flotta Wings and the Flower of Scotland Skye Boat Song. To round up this evening of great musical diversity, everybody got a further song. Manus and Helga: Blues in E Improvisation. Simon: Rocket Man (his satirical tune about the North Korean dictator). Steph: Fling it here! (Yetties). Manus: Desperate Don (own song). Helen: She Moves Through the Fair (Loreina McKennit). Lisa and Jason: Calcutt’s Fair (joint composition). Charlie: Midsummer Day (own song). Keith: The Worst Thing (own song, CD). Terry: Eilan Donan (Scottish tune). Paula: Caravans (Mike Bates). Jayne: Why Worry (Mark Knopfler). 21st June 2022 What a wonderful way to celebrate Midsummer! Well, not the middle of summer necessarily, there’s plenty more of that, but it is the Summer Solstice today. So many excellent musical performances and so much variety. I will thank Jason and Simon at the front of the blog for setting up the sound system earlier in the day and for Jason working tirelessly to bring us good sound as swiftly and smoothly as possible during the evening, with Lance stepping in briefly when Jason was performing. It took a while for everyone to arrive but as more performers turned up we had what seemed to me to be a high energy positive vibe going on with several new faces, well, new to me. Following my first offerings of Joni Mitchell’s ‘For Free’ and Ricki Lee Jones’ ‘Danny’s All Star Joint’ on keyboard, Bev and John performing as Tilsmore, took the evening forward in country-style, with ‘The Dark End of the Street’ by James Carr, and Bev’s song ‘Shotgun Wedding’. Both playing guitar and giving us some lovely vocal harmonies. Jason and Lisa also both playing guitar, but in a very different style, sang the Ry Cooder song ‘Travelling across the Border Line’. Again we had some lovely harmonies and additional support and embellishment from Helga on flute. Bill Munroe’s ‘Blue Moon Kentucky’ continued their characteristic harmonies and musical threads. Manus sat to play his recently restored 70 year old acoustic Spanish ‘Tatay’ guitar to give us a Spanish inspired interpretation of ‘True Colours’. The song written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg was made famous by Cindi Lauper. Reflecting on Jimi Hendrix’s Native American heritage his next song was ‘Little Wing’. The wandering song speaks of a woman who embodies the wild spirit of nature, communicating her positive energy through shining light. Helga returned to the mic and played Tanquillos, a flute piece composed by Juan Pakia (apologies if I don’t have the name quite right) followed, with guitar support from Jason, by Dimming of the Day, a song by Richard Thompson. Simon began with Gillian Welch’s ‘Barroom Girls’ … Oh the night came undone like a party dress …. Followed by Danny Schmidt’s ‘Company of Friends’, remembering the words was apparently a test of his memory. He passed, of course. All of our performers were receiving loud appreciation, which really built the vibrant energy of the evening. Lance was at the mic next with a song called ‘Time is a Stealer’ observing the changing of life’s tides and fortunes. His second song reflected the beautiful countryside along the Downs between Seaford and Beachy Head. (One of the most beautiful places on the planet as far as I am concerned!). With a complete change of presentation i.e. total absence of musical instruments, the lovely ‘Botticellis’ trio of Joey, Gillian and Lynn sang exquisite harmonies starting with the Kinks’ song ‘Lazy Afternoon’, joined by Lisa for a temporary quartet before they went onto ‘My heart goes out to You’ a song written by Anders Bagge, Allan Rich and Rick Nowels for Belinda Carlisle but also known for a version by Amy Sky, Olivia Newton-John and Beth Nielson Chapman. This lovely trio had travelled from the distant shores of Littlehampton, Southwick and Brighton to join us and we felt suitably privileged that they made the journey. How the styles swept one way then another as Keith took over to present something of an ‘homage’ to the American songbook (if I heard him right) with his song ‘Can I love You Enough to Let You Walk Away’. James joined him on percussion for this and the next ‘Slow One’. This song also included Helga on flute with a solo spot, as the mood went sliding from jazz into blues. It’s in the name, but the Six Bells Folk and Blues Club doesn’t often see much blues, or folk, in its more traditional sense, but plenty of other genres with country often making an appearance. Tonight was an exceptional cross-section of material and style. Sophie stepped up with her guitar to sing two of her own songs in soft contrast to the greater intensity and complexity of Keith’s two-song set. The first was ‘This Life of Mine’ a quietly confident observation which she followed with a new song that doesn’t yet have a name but went along the lines of ; ‘ It’s a special thing to love and be loved in return, …. One thing I’ve learned’. Neil has been to the Bells before, but apparently not since before lockdown. He was definitely playing blues, starting with a Billy Boy Arnold song: ’Don’t Stay Out All Night Long’. Mississippi John Hurt was inspiration for the second piece and both songs were very powerful and complex, well I say complex, I think his fingers were becoming a blur. Always a welcome contributor, Jayne came to the mic and sang ‘Across the Great Divide’, a Kate Wolfe song. Her second song was one of her own: ‘Freedom Bound’ which contemplated waiting for the right time to make a move with some lyrics about the last train running freedom-bound…. and I’m thinking with the current rail strikes there could be a joke in there somewhere, but I don’t think the sentiments of the song were joking. Monica had decided to join us tonight and borrowed a guitar to sing ‘Streets of London’ by Ralph McTell which offers a reality check to those who may feel hard-done-by. She encouraged the audience to join in, and so we did. Thank you Monica. With everyone having played, we moved into second appearances which some of us decided to miss as time was beginning to run short. Bev and John (Tilsmore) sang ‘Diane’ by Cam, starting by singing in unison then brining in their guitar accompaniment. We moved swiftly onto Manus’s self-penned song ‘Desperate Don’ a blues about living in darkness under the duvet. We had some very accomplished blues singing and playing tonight. Keith’s song ‘Baby Steps’ about taking chances in life went at a pace that reflected the title in its slow and measured progress. He was again supported by Helga on flute and James on percussion. Moving from baby steps to chains, the Botticellis gave us ‘Chains of Love’… baby’s got me locked up in chains, got a hold on me …. Then into another blues from Neil inspired by Eddie Taylor a musician and singer in his own right who was also well known for supporting or working with the likes of Jimmy Reid and John Lee Hooker. It felt like the evening had reached a crescendo and it fell to Jayne to bring us gently back down with her song ‘Queen of Procrastination’. For her it was bluesy and wandered along, very laid back, bringing our midsummer evening of music into a soft landing. It was a wonderful collection of performers and performances and I felt really privileged to be hosting. I was going to sing Woodstock by Joni Mitchell, had there been more time, but still felt it was important to echo her line ‘we are stardust’, because technically we are actually formed from elements created through various super-nova stellar events over unimaginable millions of years, and I wanted to reinforce that idea that we truly all are stardust and carry that spark. I think the spark was working very nicely, thank you very much, this evening. Thank you everyone and I hope those who are regulars, those who are newcomers and those who are returning, will join us again, soon. Ella. 7th June 2022 As host for the evening and with people still arriving, I thought I'd play it in with a couple of guitar instrumentals [perhaps more later] It was billed as a 'Singer's Night'. Stef' came up with her guitar and sang a couple of ballads starting with Frankie Laine's 'I believe', which had been well recorded back in the day, and she was followed by Terry who continued the theme, stylistically at least with 'The Ballad of Dean' of the Bowling Green Prison, Kentucky. And a very interesting personal arrangement of the Jackson C. Franks song 'The Blues Run The Game'. Then our first duo in Lisa & Jason with Lisa singing more in the mid-range than usual with, what I thought of as their “folk song” provisionally entitled, 'Tapestries' and another original after which they were persuaded to stay on for 'Blue Moon' in which they were joined by me, on the nylon strings [gtr] as a Standard. Lisa's friend, Joey followed up with her own 'Over Grey Clouds' on gtr/vocals and then with Buddy Holly's 'Doesn't Matter Anymore'. Then it was Clive with 'Fathers and Sons' [Cat Stevens] and his own 'Like A River' which he introduced as a sort of prelude to C J Martin [he writes his own songs, in a similar vein, too] and he went with the flow as time passes us by : 'Journey' as a prelude to 'Another Journey' and Heather with the jaunty 'Leaving On A Jet Plane' which she resolved with a nice C Maj 7th inversion on her nylon strung gtr. And, a Harvey Andrews piece called 'Drifting On A Breeze'. More originals, this time powerfully delivered by the Singer/Songwriter [reforming Attorney at law from N. Carolina] Erika; 'Cathedrals In The Sky' and something in rather close proximity to a love song [she confessed] – 'As I Am'. Nice to see/hear Jim Neale again, a week since The C&A in Eastbourne of which he is a mainstay [end of June : a Singers Night' he told us] before singing with his gtr [much envied Yamaha FG 180] in a mellow tone, 'The Summer Before The War'. Then the anecdotal {50 shades Of Hay, of Herefordshire} aka 'The Hiring Fair' which was funny. Colin Chapman continued with good humour in a bluesy rendition of himself as the Human Hybrid : 'Stuff It!' and another case of mistaken identity within 'In The Long Arm Of The Law' which reminded me of Peter Sellars and Stephanie Powers in The Pink Panther – “de loar? Yes, hmm, yes, the law” [excuse my quasi-French indulgence here but I have an arch-top gtr called The Loar], this 'long arm' thing is pretty Universal, though. It gets me every time! Moving on, Robert Aldridge came out with 'Sweet Sixteen' and a more obscure song [he couldn't remember the title of it] effectively, penultimately, to our second duo performance of the evening, Charlee & Lucy, at which point my shorthand seems to have gotten rather opaque. Charlee, though, accompanied on gtr and there was a song about an orphan as written by Gillian Welch [he told me] entitled 'Illinois'. With an emphasis on the harmonies, it was very enjoyable. Keith concluded this set with a more recent song of many [recording CD wise though, still a-work-in-progress. till Friday ...]. 'Complete Respray' and an atmospheric instrumental piece called 'Reflections'. Both of these well defined little gems were played on an Antoria semi-acoustic Arch-top gtr. A nice variant I think. I am invested in these things, heavilly. I picked up on the protocol, though, coming round again, with a song – my song, 'Murray's Bar'. Stef followed me with 'The Coming Of The Roads'. Terry gave us an instrumental, an English Dance Tune as performed on his recently acquired, and open-tuned, CF Martin – I think he has bonded with this one …. Joey/CJM/Heather [Brand New Melanie Roller Skates]. Erika, 'To Believe in this Living …' Jim, 'Still Crazy After All These Paul Simon Years'; Colin, 'Ordinary Things'; Robert, 'Cowboy Theme'. One for the road? Keith played us out with his anthemic [it seems, after just recently recording it in my flat], 'The Slow One' let us down gently - whilst lifting us up in spirit, for our return trips – good music has a way of doing that, doesn't it! As I dispatch this, here's hoping Simon's cold improves soon as it prevented him from participating in another nice night out, this time. Manus Remembering the Halcyon days of the club followed by the wild swings in location and attendance during and after Covid, I was truly dazzled by the numbers of old friends and new faces that turned up on Tuesday. A few regulars appeared as expected, but then they kept coming, and still they came some more. Not only musicians. There were several people who said they'd 'just' come to listen. That activity is never 'just' – having an audience makes a real difference to how the musicians feel about the evening and I hope that audience enjoyed it and will come some more. There was such a variety of genre: country, blues, pop, jazz, folk, and such a variety of instruments: piano, accordion, flute, guitar, a capella vocals and even percussive dance. To kick off, I did a piano version of my own Lives You Could Have Tried. The first guests were Pippa and David doing expert covers on vocals and guitar of Oasis' Live for ever, George Azur's Anyone and Fleetwood Mac's Dreams. Simon Watt was up next with a couple of country(ish) songs including Dylan's Spanish Stair. We weren't treated to Simon's self-penned humour tonight but if that's what you need he's just produced an excellent album God's Christmas Card which is on Spotify, Amazon, Apple and CD. An exciting Celtic Duo Shindig followed, playing accordion and guitar. They started with Cherry Tree. It was during the second piece, a reel, that the accordionist let her feet loose and became the rhythm section too, emphasising the downbeat with dance, while still playing. A first for the Bells, I think. Helga played the jazz standard Black Orpheus on solo flute and then invited up Jason and Lisa for her second song. With their close harmony singing and empathetic guitar playing they are a wonderfully matched pair. A rather unlikely, but entirely successful, choice for their song was Leadbelly's Old Cotton Fields Back Home – their sweet style a million miles away from Leadbelly's original blues shouting and blending well with flute. When it came to their own spot they did the poignant Handbags and Gladrags and a song by Jason's Dad, Gerry Loughlin. Manus, the resident jazz phenomenon, did some bluesy plucking on Ray Charles' Halleluiah I Just Love Her so. Manus' arrangements always bring something new to standards and he writes original stuff too. Welcoming Chris Martin to the Stage, I had no sooner remarked on how many CDs of self-penned songs he has produced than he pressed yet another into my hand. This new one is called Clearly Opaque. Chris sang about looking for a friend as one of his two originals. Heather sang the folk song The Water is Wide known in many incarnations as Waly Waly and having roots in Scotland. She took many of us back to our halcyon days with James Taylor's You've Got a Friend – neatly replying to Chris. Spider fingers Terry Lees, who appears on Radio Bexhill this weekend, did some intricate work on his own bluesy composition She's Bound to Love Me Some and then tuned down to low and rumbly open C for an instrumental Merrily Kiss the Quartermaster's Wife. Paula reminded us of the times when Britannia ruled the Eurovision Song Contest by singing the last British Success Love's True Light. From a Distance followed, and nicely sung too. Helen showed her usual bravada in solo a capella performances from the world of pop, with "All Round My Hat" by Steeleye Span and Moondance by Van Morrison. Returning to Scotland, Stephanie sang the Skye Boat Song and then did a Leon Rosselson number Coats Off for Britain. It was nice to hear his humour again and Steph's comic timing and intonation came off well. Bob Melrose's return to the club was welcome and he gave us some assertive bluegrass picking on Like a Summer and then played Church Street Blues. By this time the angel's share of the audience had evaporated and Bob was one of the three patient souls yet to sing, all last but definitely not least. Sophie sang well on one of her own Looking for a Place to go home and the final surprise was some fine vocal work, accompanying herself on piano, from Amanda Shaw. Eva Cassidy's Song Bird was great. All three of these late acts were very good and very welcome. I finished with Too Sad To Sing The Blues with superb flute from Helga. A welcome reunion to complement all the new and old faces seen tonight and well exceeding any expectation of the night I had. Jason bravely tackled the PA. Thanks to him, Simon Watt and everyone else whose organisation made the evening a great success. |
AuthorThe person that runs the evening writes the blog Archives
February 2024
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