Tried & Tested

Robert Aldridge

Lucy & Charlee

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

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Joey