Golden October with cosy evenings, or rather political with geopolitical divisions
The motto of the evening was ‘Cosy evenings, the true north, the northern English counties and other physical and geopolitical divisions’. Is this unwieldy or just broad? Is it familiar and cosy or is it descriptive of former and existing political tensions? Probably a bit of each and that's how the evening unfolded, beginning - as always - with the heartfelt welcome ‘Laaaaadiiiees and Gentlemeeen, Mesdames et Messieurs.....’ from our Master of Ceremonies John Harrison. Yes, our John still has a powerful and ‘rallying’ voice, with which he always creates the calm that an amplifier-free atmosphere needs. And he not only opened the 150th Folk Club with his call, but also, as usual, with his contributions of poems and songs adapted to the theme. ‘The Green Man’ by Martin Donnelly metaphysically described all aspects of the evening - nature, both in fauna and flora references, cannot be separated geopolitically, nature provides a sense of belonging, nature thrives in the true north (well, elsewhere too, but fits the theme so well here), and nature is simply the basis of all life and therefore also the mythological personification of nature - The Green Man.
‘The Dove’ continued the theme as a poem, written by John, describing the River Dove, which separates the English counties of Staffordshire and Derbyshire and thus represents a natural divide in geopolitical contexts. The next song, ‘To The Begging I Will Go’, described a more physical separation between rich and poor, but the psychological separation (between wealth and poverty), which is virtually reversed, is also described. The successful person always has to worry about losing everything and be guided by necessity. The beggar can simply sit down when he is tired and is convinced that his trade is the best in the world. Well, you can sugarcoat any situation :-). But if we consider of begging as a profession, then it is noticeable today that this profession can be carried out without the burden of paying tax and without the business costs (just imagine you put € 10 in a beggar's hat and the answer is not thank you, but ‘there is still € 1.90 VAT missing’) - but a street musician - must nowadays in most cases buy a licence in advance before practising his profession - in other words, pay the tax on his income before he has even earned it. And John also recited a poem on this subject (‘Buskers’), which he took from Alec Rapkin. John ended his introduction to the 150th Folk Club with the beautiful song ‘Beeswing’, by Richard Thompson, which is about the restlessness of a woman who breaks out of ‘orderly’ circumstances and shapes her future life as a roving woman.
John was followed by Thomas Monnerjahn
& Ismael de Barcelona, two exceptional musicians who we had been waiting to
see for a while, but whose tight schedule only made it possible now. A medical
question aside - do you know how many fingers are on a guitarist's hand?
There's no clear answer to this question with these two. Biologically there are
certainly four, but it sounds like several hundred. At the speed at which
virtuoso flamenco or tango runs were played, your eyes wouldn't be able to
count the fingers either. But that's not so important in music. It was much
more important that every single note could be heard, no matter how fast,
short, hard or soft - this is a great art that I greatly admire. With ‘Entre
dos Aguas’ by Paco de Lucia, the two cast a spell over the audience. With ‘Rio
Ancho’ by Paco de Lucia and Al di Meola, they brought the audience to musical
rapture, but also to the brink of despair by announcing that this would be the
last piece in their set. Fortunately, we live in a democracy (hopefully for a
long time to come) in which decisions can also be reversed through protests -
and so the vehement protest against them stopping – which indeed led to an encore
in the form of ‘Tango Nueve de Julio’ by José Luis Padula. I would really like
to write much more about this duo’s virtuosity and the enjoyment, they create but
I simply don't have the words. But you can experience it for yourselves,
because in January the Folk Club will welcome them as featured artists and then
we'll get to hear more.
Another great musician who has already delighted us a few times, now took to the stage in the shape of Shay McVeigh. Shay knows how to transform the most diverse musical genres into an audible acoustic version of the song with simple guitar accompaniment. He gave us his own beautiful acoustic version of the country song ‘I Dream Of Highways’ by Hoyt Axton. With ‘Carmelita’ by Fred Eaglesmith, he stayed true to the road and the road movie. With ‘Dust’ by The Dead Tongues, Shay wandered into ballad rock music, which he again transformed very well into a purely acoustic version. Overall, Shay's performance was a very worthy and good transition into the featured artist act of the evening.
As in the previous October, this was Johnny Campbell. A musician from the north of England who has dedicated himself to reviving traditional folk songs and writing his own pieces in this style. With very detailed explanations of the individual songs, he translated the evening's motto into musical poetry. He began with ‘The Derby Ram’, a song about a giant ram. Explaining that over the centuries, new (tall) tales about the Derby Ram have been made into ever new verses, Johnny joked that he would spend the next 45 minutes performing all 400 verses known to him. He didn't do that after all, but he performed a few selected verses a cappella with a powerful, expressive voice that emphasised the content. The romantic story of a young man who meets a broom seller on the street, "Lish Young Buy-a-Broom" was presented to us by Johnny with an expressive guitar accompaniment. Even though we probably all know the song Homeward Bound by Simon and Garfunkel, we should not confuse it with the ‘Homeward Bound’ sea shanty (Johnny pointed this out). The song describes how the sailors eagerly await the departure of their ship from the Blackwall Docks, only to land there again 10 months later and blow their wages with young girls who earn their living that way. Then the game starts all over again :-). With ‘Bonny At Morn’ Johnny entertained us with a song that I can't really say that I understood the meaning of. It's a lullaby, but not to lull babies to sleep, but rather to find an excuse for inactivity. At the same time, however, this inactivity describes the subversion of outlaws - in other words, a condemnation to inactivity rather than laziness. Yes, traditional songs often describe much more than the superficial lyrics suggest. Johnny sent us off into the interval with another song in this vein. ‘Here's The Tender Coming’ is a song about suffering after rash deeds - namely drinking too much at the expense of others. The navy needed seasoned sailors, and as the desire for war was not enough to recruit sufficient personnel, there were the so-called press gangs, who would buy young men rum and ale in the pubs in the harbours until they fell into a deep sleep - they woke up from this sleep as pressganged sailors on the Royal Navy's ships.
Let's stay with Johnny Campbell and report on the second half of his set at the end of the Folk Club. In the second half, Johnny concentrated on his self-penned songs, remaining true to the style as already described. ‘The Roving I Will Go’ already speaks for the content from the title. Travelling, living but also coping with adversity, that is the life of a travelling musician. Specifically, the song describes the accomplishment of a popular hiking trail in Scotland. ‘A Right To Roam’ is a protest song by Johnny, which denounces the fact that around 90% of the land in England is privately owned, is usually fenced off and cannot be entered at will. Recreation in the countryside is therefore not easy for the working class. ‘Travellers’, performed next, is a song that Johnny wrote during his first USA tour. He had a gig in Wilmington and was astounded at the high police presence, whereupon his host told him that Wilmington's main street had the highest murder rate and therefore the security measures were quite justified. Johnny then retreated to his hotel room for the three days of his stay and as he had nothing else to do, he wrote this song in memory of the “Travellers”, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and others. In ‘John Clare's Dream’, Johnny describes the poet John Clare's dream that the privatisation of land would be changed and free movement through the countryside in England would be possible again. His last song of the evening, ‘Winter Hill Trespass’, had a similar context. The march up Winter Hill, which ten thousand marchers took part in to protest for the use of land for recreation, ended on Winter Hill, with thirsty throats, and only two pubs! I don't even want to imagine how long I have to wait for a beer when five thousand people are standing in front of me at the bar :-).It remains to be said that I am curious to see whether Johnny Campbell will be back at the Folk Club next October and, after Simon Kempston, start another permanent guest tradition.
But back to the other artists of the evening. Gerd Schinkel, a musician often seen and heard at the Folk Club, did the honours on the occasion of Kris Kristofferson's death by presenting three of his songs with German lyrics. Not much needs to be said about the content because I think almost everyone knows both the melody and the content of the songs ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’, ‘To Beat The Devil’ and ‘Me and Bobby Mc Gee’. Gerd Schinkel has translated the content wonderfully into German, whereby translated here does not mean that a literal translation has taken place, but that a German text reflects the meaning and form of the song. Even though German songs have become common once more in recent years (in addition to pop songs), such challenging songs are rarely found in German. Gerd Schinkel is certainly one of those performers who are keeping this tradition alive.
Attracted by the motto ‘the true north’ and the opportunity to promote an Andy Irvine concert in Bad Honnef on 6th November, Jutta Mensing came to the Folk Club. Suffering from a slight cold and therefore with a somewhat scratchy voice, she sang the wonderful and atmospheric song by Knut Kiesewetter ‘Fresenhof’, which describes both the true north and the cosiness of a warm fireplace on an autumn day. This really matched the evening’s theme very well, like a hand in a warm glove. Your chronicler, me, was allowed to accompany Jutta on the guitar during this song. And once on stage, I took the opportunity to sing another song - from my own pen - about cosiness in the evenings. In this case about playing and romping around with my son before going to bed. Well, the song is already old and the focus will probably soon switch to this same ritual with the grandson.
Wolfgang Schriefer waited patiently for his turn at the last Folk Club and as it was very late that day, he waived his presentation. This kind of courtesy should be rewarded, which is why Wolfgang was given more and real time this time. He made good use of it. With his own poem, ‘Life in nuances’, he described the Folk Club as a constant feature in his retirement. With ‘Bahnfahren war einmal’ (Travelling by train used to be), set to a tune by Nirvana (About A Girl), he made fun of the current situation of train and tram cancellations, but in a grumpy tone - because he usually comes to the Folk Club from Cologne to Bonn by train. Let's see when Wolfgang Schriefer and Holger Riedel (Schrankenblues) get together to make a potpourri of their respective works. Wolfgang then sang excerpts of ‘I'm A Blind Man’ and ‘Father And Son’ in a narrative, before finishing with the melancholic song ‘Niemals geht man so ganz’ (You never really leave) by Trude Herr, together with audience participation.
Did I write at the end? No, of course not, because first Johnny Campbell came back on stage and then, at the end, all the artists came on stage to pay homage to the patron saint of the Folk Club together with the audience. Well, we now have 150 versions of ‘Jock Stewart’ in our collection.
Dream of the past Folk Club for a while longer but look forward to the next one - on 8th November 2024 with the Swiss virtuoso instrumental guitarist Attila Vural. Attention, dear people, I didn't make a mistake with the date. Due to the All-Saints' Day public holiday on Friday, 1st November, we have to postpone the Folk Club event by one week.
Out of the bedroom (and into the next folk club!)
Your Mario
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