Wednesday 14th December 2011
Next Blues at Green Note.
Acoustic blues jam.
106, Parkway, Camden, London NW1
8.30 -11.
£4 or £2 for musicians.
If you want to play, get there by 8.
Wednesday MAY 11th 2011
GREEN NOTE, 106 Parkway, Camden, London NW1
Special event as part of London Old-Time & Bluegrass Week
£6 8pm-11pm
Phone the venue to book a table or just turn up. http://www.greennote.co.uk/
Note: The monthly Blues at Green Note will return as usual on Wednesday 8th June.
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MARK HARRISON + Phil Hughes, Ryan Carr, & Will Greener
Old time/New Times – a unique evening of varied roots music, spanning blues, folk, gospel and bluegrass
Mark Harrison performs exclusively his own material, songs for the present that tip their hat to the past. They take as their starting point the pre-war acoustic blues greats but they are wholly individual. Some are firmly rooted in the present and some imagine the past.
Mark plays a 1934 National Trojan guitar with a very distinctive sound. His material incorporates elements of blues and folk to produce something brand new. His CD WATCHING THE PARADE is out now. It contains 14 original songs covering a variety of song styles and instrumental combinations.
Mark’s band consists of some of London’s finest roots musicians – Will Greener on harmonica, Charles Benfield on double bass and Ryan Carr on mandolin.
www.myspace.com/markharrison
Watching The Parade:
MARK HARRISON + Phil Hughes, Ryan Carr, & Will Greener
Old time/New Times – a unique evening of varied roots music, spanning blues, folk, gospel and bluegrass
Mark Harrison performs exclusively his own material, songs for the present that tip their hat to the past. They take as their starting point the pre-war acoustic blues greats but they are wholly individual. Some are firmly rooted in the present and some imagine the past.
Mark plays a 1934 National Trojan guitar with a very distinctive sound. His material incorporates elements of blues and folk to produce something brand new. His CD WATCHING THE PARADE is out now. It contains 14 original songs covering a variety of song styles and instrumental combinations.
Mark’s band consists of some of London’s finest roots musicians – Will Greener on harmonica, Charles Benfield on double bass and Ryan Carr on mandolin.
www.myspace.com/markharrison
Watching The Parade:
Enjoyable and impressive collection of 14 blues-based originals from UK slide guitarist who knows his way around a resonator. Red Lick
Harrison’s own description of the contents, ‘It’s got a foot in the past but it’s all brand new’, sums up the contents perfectly.... Blues Matters
... gets nice sounds from his 1934 National Trojan Resophonic, writes simple but effective songs in a contemporary folky bluesy vein, and has gathered a talented group of musicians to back him on his debut. The music is all performed and recorded to perfection. FRoots
The evening will also feature sets by Phil Hughes, Ryan Carr and Will Greener:
Phil Hughes’s extraordinary a cappella harmonica and vocal sets have audiences spellbound and have been described as ‘jaw-dropping’. He will be performing prewar blues and gospel numbers in his inimitable style.
Ryan Carr has been foot stomping and yelling ever since he crossed the pond. A jazz geek with a bluegrass obsession, Ryan serves up his own blend of roots music.
Will Greener will be playing traditional American folk music, drawing on the work of the pre- and postwar harmonica masters and performing pieces including blues, old time, medicine show songs and spirituals.
Harrison’s own description of the contents, ‘It’s got a foot in the past but it’s all brand new’, sums up the contents perfectly.... Blues Matters
... gets nice sounds from his 1934 National Trojan Resophonic, writes simple but effective songs in a contemporary folky bluesy vein, and has gathered a talented group of musicians to back him on his debut. The music is all performed and recorded to perfection. FRoots
The evening will also feature sets by Phil Hughes, Ryan Carr and Will Greener:
Phil Hughes’s extraordinary a cappella harmonica and vocal sets have audiences spellbound and have been described as ‘jaw-dropping’. He will be performing prewar blues and gospel numbers in his inimitable style.
Ryan Carr has been foot stomping and yelling ever since he crossed the pond. A jazz geek with a bluegrass obsession, Ryan serves up his own blend of roots music.
Will Greener will be playing traditional American folk music, drawing on the work of the pre- and postwar harmonica masters and performing pieces including blues, old time, medicine show songs and spirituals.
Mark Harrison
December 2010
For details of what I’m doing, tracks from the CD, photos, videos and the like, go to:
Myspace
Reverbnation
Facebook
Twitter
You can contact me at:
markharrisonmusic@live.co.uk
Charles Benfield: double bass
Charles produced the CD, meaning he did absolutely everything on it to make it as good as it is. He mixed it and mastered it, and as well as double bass and bass, he also played keyboards and percussion on it and sorted out some of the arrangements. He’s a terrific musician, who knows everything about everything I don’t know – a pretty broad field that appears to be getting bigger all the time.
Will Greener, aka Captain Bliss: harmonica
Will is an extraordinary harmonica player who is a complete individualist. He doesn’t just play brilliantly, he does things that are both unexpected and just right. He doesn’t just do his own thing, he does things that will lift all the rest of what’s going on. So he contributes both skill and thought, as well as a huge amount of energy. And a positive attitude that of course mirrors my own.
Ryan Carr: mandolin
Ryan is an amazing mandolin player and the instrument flies in his hands. He adds something to the mix that’s an integral part of the sound, and people stare in astonishment when he goes off on a mandolin break. He is also from Canada, leading to almost infinite comic possibilities based on linguistic differences, and our ribs tickle as we exploit these to the full.
And sometimes
David Atkinson: mandolin, dobro
David is a great musician, with top-notch guitar skills and a terrific understated style when playing mandolin and dobro. He played mandolin on the CD and made a major contribution to the tracks he appeared on.
CD - Watching The Parade
We recorded the CD in two days, an ambitious schedule that we managed to stick to, but which left Charles with a mammoth mixing task. He did it brilliantly.
Then Andy Hall and Rick Webb of wearefrank did me a simply brilliant cover and booklet containing the lyrics and photos. (Rick founded the Blues in London website and the Green Note jam, and so is responsible to a very large degree for the fact that I’m doing any of this music malarkey.)
In addition to the musicians mentioned above, Jim Ryan played drums and percussion and Beth Packer sang backing vocals.
The CD is called WATCHING THE PARADE. It’s got 14 tracks, all my own songs, and a variety of themes, styles and instrumentation. It’s way better than anything I could have hoped to produce and people seem to like it. I got it around the middle of the year and set about ‘launching’ myself and the band.
I’m trying to do something different and interesting within the general area of blues/folk/roots, and to write ‘proper’ songs that have something to say, away from standard fare. So, while the music has a firm foot in the past, it’s all brand new.
The CD is available at Amazon, CD Baby and Red Lick, its on all the download places (iTunes, Spotify, Amazon mp3, Last fm etc, etc). And you can get it from me if you email markharrisonmusic@live.co.uk , for £10 including postage.
Gigs
with The Holmes Brothers @ The Luminaire
When I got the CD, the first attempt I made to get a gig was to support the quite wonderful Holmes Brothers at The Luminaire in July. It was a great thrill to get the slot and do the gig. I did it in trio form, with Charles and Will.
Everything about it was just right. The venue had just the right attitude towards musicians and audiences, a combination of decency and professionalism, and the sound was great, with a no-fuss sound check (very sadly, it has now closed down). The audience listened, many of them coming to sit down at the front. Some good friends came along too,
much appreciated.
Folk in the Foyer @ The Artsdepot Finchley
Upstairs @ The Ritzy
I played here three times this year and really enjoyed each one. It’s an upstairs bar/cafe with balcony above the Ritzy Cinema, one of London’s oldest and recently done up. Brixton certainly appears to have changed since I lived there back in the riot days of the early 80s, when I rather liked it. Now it’s all Euro and piazzas, at least on the surface. There’s a really good atmosphere at the venue and we had appreciative audiences each time. Ryan arranged these gigs and we did the first two as a duo. The third time we played as a four-piece, with Charles and Will.
To bring up to date the school magazine type thing I was doing for this, last done in September:
The house band continues to include when available:
Ryan Carr - mandolin
Will ‘Captain Bliss’ Greener - harmonica
Dave Forristal - keyboards
The rhythm section is regularly provided by Massimo on bass and Martin on drum.
We’re doing this as ‘An Evening Of ...’ rather than a jam of any sort. We do a couple of sets in band form (me, Ryan, Will, Charles) and Ryan and Will do their own sets too, sometimes together. We also have guests doing sets from time to time, including Panama Dave, who comes and does his fine guitar instrumentals as well as playing bass.
This venue, and the event, both have great potential and it would be good to build it into something special too.
The Victoria
This is a very interesting and quite unique venue in Mile End, where Alfie and Ben are getting something very good going. As the name suggests, it’s a kind of recreation of a Victorian pub, and all kinds of things go on there aside from gigs – there are film nights, jumble sales and you can have your hair done there sometimes. We did the very busy and successful open mic as featured act there as a band in the summer and since then we’ve played the All-day Sunday Breakfast Blues event a couple of times.
We’ve done those gigs in four-piece band form and it’s a very enjoyable place to play. We’re now doing that on a regular basis, once a month on every third Sunday. We start at 6 and do two sets, finishing at 8.
Charlotte Street
During the first half of the year, I ran and played at the Charlotte Street Sunday Acoustic Night every other week, and also played at it on the alternate Sundays when Guy Bennett was running it. It was always a good night, though it would be fair to say that the place wasn’t usually exactly packed to the rafters. But it was a wonderful opportunity to play regular, long sets in a good venue and particularly with a fantastic sound system. When we were playing as a band, the music often took wings and flew, and the sum was much greater than the parts. For six months it was our regular fixture and we got something really good going there.
Other gigs
I’ve played a few times at Proud Camden, the photographer’s gallery at the top end of
Camden market. I’ve done the Sunday afternoons there, solo and in duos with Will and Charles (and once as a trio). I also did the support slot on two occasions on Sunday evenings, at the blues nights organised by Rob Fleming of Bluesmix. The first time, I supported Phil Hughes’s excellent band, 11 Foot Sack, (who sounded like a great, authentic record from the lat 50s/early 60s out of the speakers near the Gents) and the second time I opened for Paul Garner, who has something different, interesting and dynamic to offer. There were decent audiences for both gigs and they went well (despite the fire alarms going off the second I started playing on the second occasion; I soldiered on like the seasoned pro I’m not).
Rob Fleming then asked me and Will to do the opening slot at The Troubador, the legendary
venue in Earl’s Court, where all the great names played back in the 60s (Dylan, Paul Simon, etc, etc). We did that in October and thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a good crowd, the sound man did a fine job, and we went down well. Some weeks later I was back there doing the opening slot as accompanist to Phil Hughes, joining him on some of the terrific early blues and gospel numbers he does so well solo. Phil demonstrated an impressively cavalier approach to rehearsal and sound check. And so I was basically busking it, but we did a fine set and I hope I added something worthwhile to what he does.
One was at the Imperial, Leicester Square, an event run by Carl Chamberlain, who seems to know exactly how to run these things and make them into real events enjoyed by all. He does them with great gusto and good will, without ever straying into the area of tweeness. Will and I did a Sunday afternoon slot at the Imperial in October, and as we went along the set developed into a really feel-good one that brought the best out of the pair of us.
We also played one Sunday night at the Cross Kings, near King’s Cross station. This struck me as a truly extraordinary venue in the best possible sense. It had the air of friendly squat, and far from coming over as a commercial enterprise with an eye to the main chance, it was as if one was in a place just after some sort of polite revolution, the refuseniks having some downtime after their exertions. Outside on the summer night, a girl slept on a sofa as the cars went by. Will and I had a blast, the sound was great, and extraordinarily there was a terrific atmosphere, despite the fact that there were no more than about ten people in the whole place. The event was run by Simba, for whom the term ‘really good bloke’ could have been invented. The following week I went on the website, thinking of going back, to discover that the place had suddenly closed, courtesy of the bailiffs. Great shame, and a harsh reminder of the commercial imperative. Simba’s running a similar event upstairs at the Camden Head in Camden Town now, and we dropped in for a quick set there in October. Simba had the four of us mic’d up and ready to go in no time – he has a way with sound that also sets him apart, and we had a good time there.
On the other side of the coin, Will and I did another event, a sort of open mic, though the slots were pre-selected and pre-booked as if it was a sort of proper gig. I am ashamed to report that we giggled rather a lot during the event, like small boys at an elderly aunt’s funeral. Our two short sets were fine, but the individual running the thing had a routine of interviewing each act on stage after they had finished. His line of questioning amounted to the single entendre of asking them if they liked playing with themselves or preferred other people to play with them. This was meant to have a high snigger factor, though it was rather cringeworthy, especially as it got repeated for each act. We were last on, and as we came off, he approached me for the ‘interview’. Let’s just say that no interview took place.
Charlotte Street
Well, 2009 saw the sudden arrival on the London scene of three brand new blues venues (Charlotte Street, Round Midnight and Blues Kitchen), all opening up over a three-month period straddling summer and autumn. For those in the ‘blues world’, this was something of a sensation, blues perhaps appearing to jostle forward out of the musical crowd at least a bit (as it tends to do approximately once a decade). And the biggest and sparkliest of these new venues was Charlotte Street Blues.
It was the first of the new ones to open, and sadly but perhaps with some inevitability, less than 18 months later it closed. Indeed, it closed so suddenly that a band of waifs and strays carrying electric guitars were dispersed around the city gloomily that night, having turned up for the Wednesday jam to find that they weren’t going to be doing those eagerly anticipated solos there again.
I had a lot of contact with Charlotte Street – I played at and ran the Sunday Acoustic night every fortnight for 6 months, and I played quite a few times at Sam Hare’s jams on both Wednesdays and latterly Mondays too. I went to a few gigs there too, notably to see John Mayall, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Harry Manx. That short list of artists itself says rather a lot about the ambition and variety associated with the place.
Somebody had a real go at doing something different and something worthwhile there, but clearly the economics couldn’t work. As someone who can’t see how the economics work for just about anything, I wasn’t surprised by the demise of the place, but only a churl would knock the endeavour. My view, for what it’s worth, is that it was essentially a bar that tried to double as a gigs venue. People mostly weren’t coming for a gig, they were coming for a drink with some interesting background music. But many of the acts were getting hired and paid as if it was a gig that people bought tickets for and was the purpose of their visit. This could never work financially, especially with the high overheads of the location. The people running the place and working there were unfailingly nice but there always seemed to be an absence of proper business plan.
Whatever went on behind the scenes, I had some memorable times there and very much enjoyed being a regular. To sum up: it was good while it lasted.
Electric jams
Another good one that I’ve played at several times is the one The Blues Kitchen in Camden on Sunday evenings. This is run every other week by Guy Bennett, and it’s become established as a very good and popular night over the year or so it’s been running. Guy is also very good at running these things, and he’s also one of the more talented musicians and singers around. The jam (also fine on the other Sundays when he doesn’t run it) attracts a decent-size audience as well as a raft of players.
Guy Davis + Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan
Guy Davis is one of my absolute favourite contemporary blues artists and I have all his albums. I’ve seen him quite a few times too, and he never fails to deliver a riveting set, full of good
Eric Bibb is one of the reasons why I’m doing what I’m doing musically, not just because discovering him got me interested again, but also because the guitar I play was previously owned by him. His latest album was inspired by a similar guitar and I saw him playing tracks from it, together with the excellent harmonica player Grant Dermody, at The Bloomsbury. I’ve seen (and reviewed) Eric many times, and I think that at his finest there is simply nobody better. He was pretty near his finest at this gig, and afterwards I spoke to him. When I reminded him that I’d bought the guitar off him, he leant back in his chair, in front of a queue of CD purchasers, and declared ‘God has answered my prayer’. Not a reaction I often get. He’d apparently lost my address and had been waiting for some time for me to come up and speak to him. There was talk of getting together for a play. We’ll see.
Dr John
Right from the classic Gumbo many, many years ago, I’ve been a huge Dr John fan, and I’ve seen him numerous times. This year he made what I think is his best album for a long long time, Tribal, and I saw him touring that album at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. The great man seems to me to be in a golden period, and his band of crack New Orleans musicians bring out the very best in him. Though he’s in the very honourable tradition of New Orleans R & B, He’s a complete one-off, and anyone who isn’t familiar with him is really missing out.
For details of what I’m doing, tracks from the CD, photos, videos and the like, go to:
Myspace
Reverbnation
You can contact me at:
markharrisonmusic@live.co.uk
New type blog
Well, I think the time has come to change the nature of this blog. Instead of just doing the monthly ‘parish notes’ for the Green Note Blues Night, I’m going to widen it out to cover a variety of things.
One reason why I haven’t updated it for a few months is that two things have taken up the time that might have been allotted for it. One is the thorny business generally known as ‘earning a living’. Unless you make some key decisions at a very early age that are flukily proved to have been the right ones, the earning a living thing is likely to prove much harder and more relentless than you had been led to believe. Even if you like what you do (exit stage right a large proportion of the populace), mere survival at whatever level you find yourself is a hard slog. An awful lot of your time is spent running on the spot, while the wolves howl and whimper in the outlying forest.
The other reason why this blog has gone into abeyance is a much happier one: I’ve been spending far too much of my time playing music to leave much time for writing about other people playing music. I got my CD out at the beginning of the summer and since then have been doing quite a lot of gigs of one sort or another. All sorts of things have developed over the past year and, while they may be regarded as inhabiting the perfectly respectable area known as obscurity, they’ve put me in the category of someone who spends quite a bit of time as a musician.
So I’m going to cover a range of things in this blog, including what I’m doing musically and what’s going on in London, and in bite-sized chunks too. To kick things off, I’m going to get up to date with what happened in 2010, after which there will be much smaller postings from time to time.
Band
I’ve been playing this year with as fine a band of musicians as you could hope to find, and it’s great for me that they like playing my stuff. They are:
Well, I think the time has come to change the nature of this blog. Instead of just doing the monthly ‘parish notes’ for the Green Note Blues Night, I’m going to widen it out to cover a variety of things.
One reason why I haven’t updated it for a few months is that two things have taken up the time that might have been allotted for it. One is the thorny business generally known as ‘earning a living’. Unless you make some key decisions at a very early age that are flukily proved to have been the right ones, the earning a living thing is likely to prove much harder and more relentless than you had been led to believe. Even if you like what you do (exit stage right a large proportion of the populace), mere survival at whatever level you find yourself is a hard slog. An awful lot of your time is spent running on the spot, while the wolves howl and whimper in the outlying forest.
The other reason why this blog has gone into abeyance is a much happier one: I’ve been spending far too much of my time playing music to leave much time for writing about other people playing music. I got my CD out at the beginning of the summer and since then have been doing quite a lot of gigs of one sort or another. All sorts of things have developed over the past year and, while they may be regarded as inhabiting the perfectly respectable area known as obscurity, they’ve put me in the category of someone who spends quite a bit of time as a musician.
So I’m going to cover a range of things in this blog, including what I’m doing musically and what’s going on in London, and in bite-sized chunks too. To kick things off, I’m going to get up to date with what happened in 2010, after which there will be much smaller postings from time to time.
Band
I’ve been playing this year with as fine a band of musicians as you could hope to find, and it’s great for me that they like playing my stuff. They are:
Charles Benfield: double bassCharles produced the CD, meaning he did absolutely everything on it to make it as good as it is. He mixed it and mastered it, and as well as double bass and bass, he also played keyboards and percussion on it and sorted out some of the arrangements. He’s a terrific musician, who knows everything about everything I don’t know – a pretty broad field that appears to be getting bigger all the time.
Will Greener, aka Captain Bliss: harmonica
Will is an extraordinary harmonica player who is a complete individualist. He doesn’t just play brilliantly, he does things that are both unexpected and just right. He doesn’t just do his own thing, he does things that will lift all the rest of what’s going on. So he contributes both skill and thought, as well as a huge amount of energy. And a positive attitude that of course mirrors my own.
Ryan Carr: mandolinRyan is an amazing mandolin player and the instrument flies in his hands. He adds something to the mix that’s an integral part of the sound, and people stare in astonishment when he goes off on a mandolin break. He is also from Canada, leading to almost infinite comic possibilities based on linguistic differences, and our ribs tickle as we exploit these to the full.
And sometimes
David Atkinson: mandolin, dobro
David is a great musician, with top-notch guitar skills and a terrific understated style when playing mandolin and dobro. He played mandolin on the CD and made a major contribution to the tracks he appeared on.
At some of the events we play at, Ryan and Will also do their own sets. Ryan does material that includes murder ballads, his own songs, bluegrass tunes and the like, and he also does his legendary audience participation song Working on a Building – this often seems to me to be an act of reckless bravery but I have yet to see it die on its arse. Will does harmonica and a capella singing numbers, some drawn from the well of old blues and gospel, Both of them grab the audience’s attention and keep it.
We are therefore able between us to provide a whole evening of music, and a varied one at that.
We are therefore able between us to provide a whole evening of music, and a varied one at that.
CD - Watching The Parade
We recorded the CD in two days, an ambitious schedule that we managed to stick to, but which left Charles with a mammoth mixing task. He did it brilliantly.
Then Andy Hall and Rick Webb of wearefrank did me a simply brilliant cover and booklet containing the lyrics and photos. (Rick founded the Blues in London website and the Green Note jam, and so is responsible to a very large degree for the fact that I’m doing any of this music malarkey.)
In addition to the musicians mentioned above, Jim Ryan played drums and percussion and Beth Packer sang backing vocals.
The CD is called WATCHING THE PARADE. It’s got 14 tracks, all my own songs, and a variety of themes, styles and instrumentation. It’s way better than anything I could have hoped to produce and people seem to like it. I got it around the middle of the year and set about ‘launching’ myself and the band.
I’m trying to do something different and interesting within the general area of blues/folk/roots, and to write ‘proper’ songs that have something to say, away from standard fare. So, while the music has a firm foot in the past, it’s all brand new.
The CD is available at Amazon, CD Baby and Red Lick, its on all the download places (iTunes, Spotify, Amazon mp3, Last fm etc, etc). And you can get it from me if you email markharrisonmusic@live.co.uk , for £10 including postage.
Gigs
with The Holmes Brothers @ The Luminaire
When I got the CD, the first attempt I made to get a gig was to support the quite wonderful Holmes Brothers at The Luminaire in July. It was a great thrill to get the slot and do the gig. I did it in trio form, with Charles and Will.Everything about it was just right. The venue had just the right attitude towards musicians and audiences, a combination of decency and professionalism, and the sound was great, with a no-fuss sound check (very sadly, it has now closed down). The audience listened, many of them coming to sit down at the front. Some good friends came along too,
much appreciated. We got on great with the Holmes Brothers, who sat through our sound check and made very complimentary comments. They also came out front to listen to the set while we were on. They are one of my favourite acts, and if you don’t know about their unique blend of blues/gospel/roots, you need to check them out pdq. Now well into their 70s, they kick ass and spread joy around them. Bass player Sherman performed the extraordinary feat of being first to the bar during their break between sets, despite giving the entire audience a head start – it was as if Usain Bolt had put down his bass and sprinted there.
It was a wonderful gig, and a great start. It was ‘proper’ in the best possible way, and just the sort of thing we should be doing, in just the sort of world we should be doing it in.
It was a wonderful gig, and a great start. It was ‘proper’ in the best possible way, and just the sort of thing we should be doing, in just the sort of world we should be doing it in.
Folk in the Foyer @ The Artsdepot Finchley
We headlined at this excellent monthly event in September, and it was a fantastic evening. The sound was great, and oozed around the spaces of the venue. A good-sized audience came and a good time was had by all.
I did this in trio form, with Will on harp and David Atkinson making a welcome appearance on mandolin and dobro. He is a terrific, and subtle, musician, adding something special to all the songs.
Again, this was ‘proper’ in the best possible sense. Our set went down very well with an audience of all ages and we got a genuine encore. Afterwards, people asked me about the songs and said how much they liked them, which is very gratifying. J J Dunne, who puts the event on, deserves thanks for doing so. We’ll be back there soon, so please come along when we are.
with Doug MacLeod @ The Green Note
In November, in trio form (me, Will & Ryan), I supported the fantastic Doug MacLeod at the Green Note. Actually, a while back I gave Risa, one of the owners, a list of American acoustic blues acts I thought could (and should) play the venue and this was the first of those recommendations to turn into a date.
It was a tremendous success and a memorable night for all concerned. The place was packed, the audience lapped up Doug’s highly individualistic performance and we went down very well too. It was a great joy to meet him for us and in fact we kind of huddled together as a team for the evening. Doug is in the front rank of American acoustic blues artists, does just about all his own material and, in the best traditions of this kind of thing, isn’t like anyone else.
He was particularly pleased to play there, not just because it’s such a perfect place for that kind of thing, but because like many other terrific US artists, he never does a central London gig when touring Britain. Well, hopefully he’ll be back there on his annual trip, and it also seems possible that other US acoustic blues artists of his calibre will be playing there too.
I did this in trio form, with Will on harp and David Atkinson making a welcome appearance on mandolin and dobro. He is a terrific, and subtle, musician, adding something special to all the songs.
Again, this was ‘proper’ in the best possible sense. Our set went down very well with an audience of all ages and we got a genuine encore. Afterwards, people asked me about the songs and said how much they liked them, which is very gratifying. J J Dunne, who puts the event on, deserves thanks for doing so. We’ll be back there soon, so please come along when we are.
with Doug MacLeod @ The Green Note
In November, in trio form (me, Will & Ryan), I supported the fantastic Doug MacLeod at the Green Note. Actually, a while back I gave Risa, one of the owners, a list of American acoustic blues acts I thought could (and should) play the venue and this was the first of those recommendations to turn into a date.
It was a tremendous success and a memorable night for all concerned. The place was packed, the audience lapped up Doug’s highly individualistic performance and we went down very well too. It was a great joy to meet him for us and in fact we kind of huddled together as a team for the evening. Doug is in the front rank of American acoustic blues artists, does just about all his own material and, in the best traditions of this kind of thing, isn’t like anyone else.
He was particularly pleased to play there, not just because it’s such a perfect place for that kind of thing, but because like many other terrific US artists, he never does a central London gig when touring Britain. Well, hopefully he’ll be back there on his annual trip, and it also seems possible that other US acoustic blues artists of his calibre will be playing there too.
Upstairs @ The Ritzy
I played here three times this year and really enjoyed each one. It’s an upstairs bar/cafe with balcony above the Ritzy Cinema, one of London’s oldest and recently done up. Brixton certainly appears to have changed since I lived there back in the riot days of the early 80s, when I rather liked it. Now it’s all Euro and piazzas, at least on the surface. There’s a really good atmosphere at the venue and we had appreciative audiences each time. Ryan arranged these gigs and we did the first two as a duo. The third time we played as a four-piece, with Charles and Will.Regular events
Round Midnight 
In October, I started running and playing at the Round Midnight Acoustic Sessions every Monday, with Charles, Will and Ryan. The venue is a really good one, where I’ve been one of the regulars at the Tuesday night jam. Mike and Michelle Berk have done the heavy lifting at making this a place that’s both successful and pleasant – it’s one of the three shiny new blues venues that opened up in the second half of 2009. It’s a music pub that takes the music side of that seriously and that aims to get a good thing going for punters and musicians alike. It’s good to play there.
At the Monday event, the drill tends to be that we do a set or two in band form, and me, Will and Ryan often do solo sets too. There’s a jam element to it – if someone comes to sing, an ad hoc band is formed to accompany them, and any musician who comes just to play is accommodated too. Top-notch performers such as Phil Hughes and Barry Jackson often do their own sets too.
It’s a blues & roots night and anyone in that broad musical area can come down and play. Actually, what I’d really like there is to see more instrumentalists coming along to play such instruments as banjo, mandolin, fiddle/violin, brass and woodwind. It’d be great to try out all sorts of combinations.
Anyway, it’s a good event, and always a night of good music. We’ve had appreciative audiences (and not bad size-wise either, granted it’s on a Monday). It would be good to build it into something really special.
Green Note
There’s something magical about the Green Note and long may it continue. The monthly Blues at Green Note night (every second Wednesday) goes on being good, and audience members come up and tell me how much they’ve enjoyed it at the end of each one. Some events are busier than others but none of them is ever duff. Whether it’s packed or quieter, the same excellent atmosphere prevails, and it has the not inconsiderable advantage of being a place where the people who are there are actually there to listen.
In October, I started running and playing at the Round Midnight Acoustic Sessions every Monday, with Charles, Will and Ryan. The venue is a really good one, where I’ve been one of the regulars at the Tuesday night jam. Mike and Michelle Berk have done the heavy lifting at making this a place that’s both successful and pleasant – it’s one of the three shiny new blues venues that opened up in the second half of 2009. It’s a music pub that takes the music side of that seriously and that aims to get a good thing going for punters and musicians alike. It’s good to play there.
At the Monday event, the drill tends to be that we do a set or two in band form, and me, Will and Ryan often do solo sets too. There’s a jam element to it – if someone comes to sing, an ad hoc band is formed to accompany them, and any musician who comes just to play is accommodated too. Top-notch performers such as Phil Hughes and Barry Jackson often do their own sets too.
It’s a blues & roots night and anyone in that broad musical area can come down and play. Actually, what I’d really like there is to see more instrumentalists coming along to play such instruments as banjo, mandolin, fiddle/violin, brass and woodwind. It’d be great to try out all sorts of combinations.
Anyway, it’s a good event, and always a night of good music. We’ve had appreciative audiences (and not bad size-wise either, granted it’s on a Monday). It would be good to build it into something really special.
Green Note
There’s something magical about the Green Note and long may it continue. The monthly Blues at Green Note night (every second Wednesday) goes on being good, and audience members come up and tell me how much they’ve enjoyed it at the end of each one. Some events are busier than others but none of them is ever duff. Whether it’s packed or quieter, the same excellent atmosphere prevails, and it has the not inconsiderable advantage of being a place where the people who are there are actually there to listen.
To bring up to date the school magazine type thing I was doing for this, last done in September:The house band continues to include when available:
Ryan Carr - mandolin
Will ‘Captain Bliss’ Greener - harmonica
Dave Forristal - keyboards
The rhythm section is regularly provided by Massimo on bass and Martin on drum.
In October, November and December, regular performers (surnames where known) included:
Phil Hughes, whose solo vocals and harp renditions of mostly 1920s and 1930s blues and gospel numbers transfix the audience every time
Barry Jackson, who sings and plays a wide repertoire of blues and roots numbers with any and every combination of instruments
Rick Webb, who started the whole thing off in 2007, and made a very welcome appearance on harp in November, as well as kindly helping out with the running of what was the busiest night ever
Phil Thorne, doing acoustic blues classics by the greats, solo or with others
James Daniell, often bringing a welcome New Orleans slant, usually with Chris on guitar and Ian on drum
Simon, who grabs hold of audiences, almost literally, with a fair dose of showmanship
Julian, with his driftwood guitar and tales in the Manx language
David Guzman from Chile, sometimes with his Dad
and there were also sets by:
Ray Wallen, top-notch vocals and harp
Pete Vardigans, on an acoustic he acquired specifically for this mission
Harry, dressed like a 1930s pimp and doing an excellent reproduction of a Blind Blake song
Davide and Fabio, friends from the electric jams who fronted up to playing acoustic and did so very well indeed
Nunzio, also crossing the bridge to sing at an acoustic event
And Ryan and Will did their own high-quality sets too.
If I’ve forgotten anyone, well .... I’ve forgotten them.
Phil Hughes, whose solo vocals and harp renditions of mostly 1920s and 1930s blues and gospel numbers transfix the audience every time
Barry Jackson, who sings and plays a wide repertoire of blues and roots numbers with any and every combination of instruments
Rick Webb, who started the whole thing off in 2007, and made a very welcome appearance on harp in November, as well as kindly helping out with the running of what was the busiest night ever
Phil Thorne, doing acoustic blues classics by the greats, solo or with others
James Daniell, often bringing a welcome New Orleans slant, usually with Chris on guitar and Ian on drum
Simon, who grabs hold of audiences, almost literally, with a fair dose of showmanship
Julian, with his driftwood guitar and tales in the Manx language
David Guzman from Chile, sometimes with his Dad
and there were also sets by:
Ray Wallen, top-notch vocals and harp
Pete Vardigans, on an acoustic he acquired specifically for this mission
Harry, dressed like a 1930s pimp and doing an excellent reproduction of a Blind Blake song
Davide and Fabio, friends from the electric jams who fronted up to playing acoustic and did so very well indeed
Nunzio, also crossing the bridge to sing at an acoustic event
And Ryan and Will did their own high-quality sets too.
If I’ve forgotten anyone, well .... I’ve forgotten them. We had all sorts of combinations and all sorts of styles, and as usual there was much to enjoy each time. The November one was particularly packed, at least in part because it was the night that Charlotte Street closed down, of which more later.
The Queen’s Head
Also in October, we started a monthly blues & roots night at this really nice Victorian pub in King’s Cross. We’re doing it every third Thursday. It’s a place that’s how pubs really ought to be. Owned by Nigel Owens, it’s been up and running in its current form for a relatively short time. It’s a very atmospheric room and a very nice place to play.
Also in October, we started a monthly blues & roots night at this really nice Victorian pub in King’s Cross. We’re doing it every third Thursday. It’s a place that’s how pubs really ought to be. Owned by Nigel Owens, it’s been up and running in its current form for a relatively short time. It’s a very atmospheric room and a very nice place to play.
We’re doing this as ‘An Evening Of ...’ rather than a jam of any sort. We do a couple of sets in band form (me, Ryan, Will, Charles) and Ryan and Will do their own sets too, sometimes together. We also have guests doing sets from time to time, including Panama Dave, who comes and does his fine guitar instrumentals as well as playing bass.This venue, and the event, both have great potential and it would be good to build it into something special too.
The Victoria
This is a very interesting and quite unique venue in Mile End, where Alfie and Ben are getting something very good going. As the name suggests, it’s a kind of recreation of a Victorian pub, and all kinds of things go on there aside from gigs – there are film nights, jumble sales and you can have your hair done there sometimes. We did the very busy and successful open mic as featured act there as a band in the summer and since then we’ve played the All-day Sunday Breakfast Blues event a couple of times.
We’ve done those gigs in four-piece band form and it’s a very enjoyable place to play. We’re now doing that on a regular basis, once a month on every third Sunday. We start at 6 and do two sets, finishing at 8.
Charlotte Street
During the first half of the year, I ran and played at the Charlotte Street Sunday Acoustic Night every other week, and also played at it on the alternate Sundays when Guy Bennett was running it. It was always a good night, though it would be fair to say that the place wasn’t usually exactly packed to the rafters. But it was a wonderful opportunity to play regular, long sets in a good venue and particularly with a fantastic sound system. When we were playing as a band, the music often took wings and flew, and the sum was much greater than the parts. For six months it was our regular fixture and we got something really good going there.Other gigs
I’ve played a few times at Proud Camden, the photographer’s gallery at the top end of
Camden market. I’ve done the Sunday afternoons there, solo and in duos with Will and Charles (and once as a trio). I also did the support slot on two occasions on Sunday evenings, at the blues nights organised by Rob Fleming of Bluesmix. The first time, I supported Phil Hughes’s excellent band, 11 Foot Sack, (who sounded like a great, authentic record from the lat 50s/early 60s out of the speakers near the Gents) and the second time I opened for Paul Garner, who has something different, interesting and dynamic to offer. There were decent audiences for both gigs and they went well (despite the fire alarms going off the second I started playing on the second occasion; I soldiered on like the seasoned pro I’m not).Rob Fleming then asked me and Will to do the opening slot at The Troubador, the legendary
venue in Earl’s Court, where all the great names played back in the 60s (Dylan, Paul Simon, etc, etc). We did that in October and thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a good crowd, the sound man did a fine job, and we went down well. Some weeks later I was back there doing the opening slot as accompanist to Phil Hughes, joining him on some of the terrific early blues and gospel numbers he does so well solo. Phil demonstrated an impressively cavalier approach to rehearsal and sound check. And so I was basically busking it, but we did a fine set and I hope I added something worthwhile to what he does.On a wet night in the summer, Ryan and I played at The Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green, a pleasant little venue that’s a vegetarian cafe that puts on gigs as well as a range of other events. That was a very relaxed and enjoyable gig too, and we did some songs that don’t get an outing as often as others. Nobody would have guessed that Ryan hadn’t actually heard one or two of them before playing them.
The world of open mics isn’t absolutely my preferred stamping ground – to say the least they’re very variable, at least according to my limited experience of them, and some of what’s likely to be served up can require a very strong stomach indeed. There can be occasions when a person’s right to express themselves comes perilously close to breaching the human rights of the people listening to them. However, in the company of Will, I’ve had a couple of really good times at them.
The world of open mics isn’t absolutely my preferred stamping ground – to say the least they’re very variable, at least according to my limited experience of them, and some of what’s likely to be served up can require a very strong stomach indeed. There can be occasions when a person’s right to express themselves comes perilously close to breaching the human rights of the people listening to them. However, in the company of Will, I’ve had a couple of really good times at them.
One was at the Imperial, Leicester Square, an event run by Carl Chamberlain, who seems to know exactly how to run these things and make them into real events enjoyed by all. He does them with great gusto and good will, without ever straying into the area of tweeness. Will and I did a Sunday afternoon slot at the Imperial in October, and as we went along the set developed into a really feel-good one that brought the best out of the pair of us.
We also played one Sunday night at the Cross Kings, near King’s Cross station. This struck me as a truly extraordinary venue in the best possible sense. It had the air of friendly squat, and far from coming over as a commercial enterprise with an eye to the main chance, it was as if one was in a place just after some sort of polite revolution, the refuseniks having some downtime after their exertions. Outside on the summer night, a girl slept on a sofa as the cars went by. Will and I had a blast, the sound was great, and extraordinarily there was a terrific atmosphere, despite the fact that there were no more than about ten people in the whole place. The event was run by Simba, for whom the term ‘really good bloke’ could have been invented. The following week I went on the website, thinking of going back, to discover that the place had suddenly closed, courtesy of the bailiffs. Great shame, and a harsh reminder of the commercial imperative. Simba’s running a similar event upstairs at the Camden Head in Camden Town now, and we dropped in for a quick set there in October. Simba had the four of us mic’d up and ready to go in no time – he has a way with sound that also sets him apart, and we had a good time there.
On the other side of the coin, Will and I did another event, a sort of open mic, though the slots were pre-selected and pre-booked as if it was a sort of proper gig. I am ashamed to report that we giggled rather a lot during the event, like small boys at an elderly aunt’s funeral. Our two short sets were fine, but the individual running the thing had a routine of interviewing each act on stage after they had finished. His line of questioning amounted to the single entendre of asking them if they liked playing with themselves or preferred other people to play with them. This was meant to have a high snigger factor, though it was rather cringeworthy, especially as it got repeated for each act. We were last on, and as we came off, he approached me for the ‘interview’. Let’s just say that no interview took place.Charlotte Street
Well, 2009 saw the sudden arrival on the London scene of three brand new blues venues (Charlotte Street, Round Midnight and Blues Kitchen), all opening up over a three-month period straddling summer and autumn. For those in the ‘blues world’, this was something of a sensation, blues perhaps appearing to jostle forward out of the musical crowd at least a bit (as it tends to do approximately once a decade). And the biggest and sparkliest of these new venues was Charlotte Street Blues.
It was the first of the new ones to open, and sadly but perhaps with some inevitability, less than 18 months later it closed. Indeed, it closed so suddenly that a band of waifs and strays carrying electric guitars were dispersed around the city gloomily that night, having turned up for the Wednesday jam to find that they weren’t going to be doing those eagerly anticipated solos there again.
I had a lot of contact with Charlotte Street – I played at and ran the Sunday Acoustic night every fortnight for 6 months, and I played quite a few times at Sam Hare’s jams on both Wednesdays and latterly Mondays too. I went to a few gigs there too, notably to see John Mayall, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Harry Manx. That short list of artists itself says rather a lot about the ambition and variety associated with the place.Somebody had a real go at doing something different and something worthwhile there, but clearly the economics couldn’t work. As someone who can’t see how the economics work for just about anything, I wasn’t surprised by the demise of the place, but only a churl would knock the endeavour. My view, for what it’s worth, is that it was essentially a bar that tried to double as a gigs venue. People mostly weren’t coming for a gig, they were coming for a drink with some interesting background music. But many of the acts were getting hired and paid as if it was a gig that people bought tickets for and was the purpose of their visit. This could never work financially, especially with the high overheads of the location. The people running the place and working there were unfailingly nice but there always seemed to be an absence of proper business plan.
Whatever went on behind the scenes, I had some memorable times there and very much enjoyed being a regular. To sum up: it was good while it lasted.
Electric jams
The thing that first struck me when I started out playing again in 2007 was how high the standard of musicianship was at the jams I went to, and that first impression was an accurate one. OK, I’m not keen on the sort of volume that makes your teeth itch, and OK, I am not enthralled by an endless parade of guitar solos, however good they may be, but the fact is an awful lot of good music gets played at the jams I frequent. The people are good too, and I’ve met a large number of fine human beings through playing at jams.
The jam I’ve played most regularly at is the one at Round Midnight on Tuesdays. It’s run by the guvnor of jam hosts, Niall Kelly, who wrote the book on how to make these things good. As a result, he has a large core crowd of regulars, who are good musicians and friends. It’s friendly but non-cliquy, and there’s a zero tolerance policy for any asshole that might slip through the net. Niall makes his jams into real events that everyone enjoys, and makes it look effortless too, though as I know very well, it takes a very special kind of skill and personality to bring that off. As a result, he has loyal followers, of whom I’m one, and wherever he takes his jams (previously I was a regular at The Smithfield and before that the last days of The Adelaide, which he also ran), that group of people will go.
The jam I’ve played most regularly at is the one at Round Midnight on Tuesdays. It’s run by the guvnor of jam hosts, Niall Kelly, who wrote the book on how to make these things good. As a result, he has a large core crowd of regulars, who are good musicians and friends. It’s friendly but non-cliquy, and there’s a zero tolerance policy for any asshole that might slip through the net. Niall makes his jams into real events that everyone enjoys, and makes it look effortless too, though as I know very well, it takes a very special kind of skill and personality to bring that off. As a result, he has loyal followers, of whom I’m one, and wherever he takes his jams (previously I was a regular at The Smithfield and before that the last days of The Adelaide, which he also ran), that group of people will go.
Another good one that I’ve played at several times is the one The Blues Kitchen in Camden on Sunday evenings. This is run every other week by Guy Bennett, and it’s become established as a very good and popular night over the year or so it’s been running. Guy is also very good at running these things, and he’s also one of the more talented musicians and singers around. The jam (also fine on the other Sundays when he doesn’t run it) attracts a decent-size audience as well as a raft of players.
Many of the latter have drifted up from the Ain’t Nothin’ But bar (generally known as ‘the blues bar’), London’s longest-established blues venue and the place that seems to have really kicked off London’s blues scene. I’ve only played there a handful of times, but enjoyed it a great deal when I have, and its Saturday and Sunday afternoon and Monday evening jams are always good value.
A jam I’ve really enjoyed this year is on Thursdays at Moors Bar in Crouch End. It’s a very small bar, and it has a very fine house band, with an especially good rhythm section. When I’ve played there, it also hasn’t been simply a parade of lead guitarists; I’ve played with a number of very good sax players there, all of whom have focused on playing good notes rather than loads of notes, and had some interesting instrumental combinations that have included violin and flute. I’m particularly interested in that sort of thing, doing the songs with different instrumentation.
Before its demise, I played sometimes at the Charlotte Street jams on Wednesdays, and latterly on Mondays. The place was often rammed and I always enjoyed playing there, with its fantastic sound system. I did some good slots there and lots of people told me they liked what I did, or asked about the songs. Sam Hare also often put me with his own house band, or at least members of it, which meant I was playing with very good musicians. Volume was always an issue there, though, with everything mic’d up and that sound system being perhaps better suited to a 1,000-seater auditorium than a smallish club. Lead guitarists being what they are, amp volumes got surreptitiously cranked up and sometimes the noise emanating from the stage was enough to penetrate the central nervous system and cause the kind of discomfort the CIA might have been interested in. By jamming standards, I’m always at the quietist end of the spectrum, but I was pretty loud there too. Indeed, one time I came off after my slot and found that Charles had gone outside because I was ‘too loud’. And he quite likes what I do.
Gig reviews
A jam I’ve really enjoyed this year is on Thursdays at Moors Bar in Crouch End. It’s a very small bar, and it has a very fine house band, with an especially good rhythm section. When I’ve played there, it also hasn’t been simply a parade of lead guitarists; I’ve played with a number of very good sax players there, all of whom have focused on playing good notes rather than loads of notes, and had some interesting instrumental combinations that have included violin and flute. I’m particularly interested in that sort of thing, doing the songs with different instrumentation.
Before its demise, I played sometimes at the Charlotte Street jams on Wednesdays, and latterly on Mondays. The place was often rammed and I always enjoyed playing there, with its fantastic sound system. I did some good slots there and lots of people told me they liked what I did, or asked about the songs. Sam Hare also often put me with his own house band, or at least members of it, which meant I was playing with very good musicians. Volume was always an issue there, though, with everything mic’d up and that sound system being perhaps better suited to a 1,000-seater auditorium than a smallish club. Lead guitarists being what they are, amp volumes got surreptitiously cranked up and sometimes the noise emanating from the stage was enough to penetrate the central nervous system and cause the kind of discomfort the CIA might have been interested in. By jamming standards, I’m always at the quietist end of the spectrum, but I was pretty loud there too. Indeed, one time I came off after my slot and found that Charles had gone outside because I was ‘too loud’. And he quite likes what I do.
Gig reviews
Slim Chance
I guess The Faces were my last ‘favourite group’, as I got too old to have such a thing. Much as we all loved Rod-nee, at least before he went off into showbiz and celeb-land (and his early albums remain great, unique examples of roots music at its finest), it was Ronnie Lane who always seemed like the heartbeat of that band. Ronnie was wholly unpretentious, and in an era before it was de rigueur to affect or bang on about working class credentials as a kind of one-upmanship, he exemplified a genuine working class sensibility of a kind that no longer exists. The song Debris, that he wrote and sang on one of the Faces’ albums, remains a great portrayal of London working class life, minus the mawkish and bogus sentimentality that now accompanies such things.
After The Faces, Ronnie started an ambitious folk/roots/rock band called Slim Chance. It had quite a lot of members and lots of instruments, including mandolin, accordion, fiddle and sax. Ronnie wrote some excellent good-time and soulful songs for it, and they had a couple of hits as well as producing three terrific albums. I saw them once and loved them. By the end of the 70s, it was all over and sadly Ronnie got MS and died in the 90s.
In November, Slim Chance reformed with a whole lot of members of the original band present and intact, and did a killer show at the 100 Club. They delivered up the best bits of Ronnie’s back catalogue with total faithfulness to the originals, and the rollicking good-time feel of the band’s heyday. Central to this were two consummate musicians – Steve Simpson on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and vocals, and Charlie Hart on accordion, piano, fiddle and vocals. I doubt that there are two better musicians anywhere in the country, and it was a great joy to see them demonstrating just how good they are.
Ronnie’s brother, looking just like Ronnie probably would now, topped and tailed the evening with brief speeches, spending the rest of the time moist-eyed at the front of the stage. At the end, he pointed us all to his car boot sale in Romford. As the song goes, ‘all you gotta do is act naturally’.
Ian Hunter
It is my opinion that Ian Hunter is the coolest man on the planet. Now 70, he still looks the same as he did in the heyday of Mott The Hoople, the shades and curly mop still there. So is the attitude.
Lately, he’s been making totally brilliant albums, and Shrunken Heads is one of my favourites of the last few years. The songs are great and Hunter has lots of interesting things to say. Last year I saw the Mott The Hoople reunion gig, and it was an object lesson in just how good the first generation of rock musicians really were. They still take subsequent efforts to the cleaners.
I saw Hunter with his own band of wonderful musicians at The Barbican. It was a fantastic show, Hunter every bit as good a front man as he ever was. In truth, I wasn’t a massive Mott fan at the time, but I am for sure a massive Ian Hunter fan now.
I guess The Faces were my last ‘favourite group’, as I got too old to have such a thing. Much as we all loved Rod-nee, at least before he went off into showbiz and celeb-land (and his early albums remain great, unique examples of roots music at its finest), it was Ronnie Lane who always seemed like the heartbeat of that band. Ronnie was wholly unpretentious, and in an era before it was de rigueur to affect or bang on about working class credentials as a kind of one-upmanship, he exemplified a genuine working class sensibility of a kind that no longer exists. The song Debris, that he wrote and sang on one of the Faces’ albums, remains a great portrayal of London working class life, minus the mawkish and bogus sentimentality that now accompanies such things.After The Faces, Ronnie started an ambitious folk/roots/rock band called Slim Chance. It had quite a lot of members and lots of instruments, including mandolin, accordion, fiddle and sax. Ronnie wrote some excellent good-time and soulful songs for it, and they had a couple of hits as well as producing three terrific albums. I saw them once and loved them. By the end of the 70s, it was all over and sadly Ronnie got MS and died in the 90s.
In November, Slim Chance reformed with a whole lot of members of the original band present and intact, and did a killer show at the 100 Club. They delivered up the best bits of Ronnie’s back catalogue with total faithfulness to the originals, and the rollicking good-time feel of the band’s heyday. Central to this were two consummate musicians – Steve Simpson on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and vocals, and Charlie Hart on accordion, piano, fiddle and vocals. I doubt that there are two better musicians anywhere in the country, and it was a great joy to see them demonstrating just how good they are.
Ronnie’s brother, looking just like Ronnie probably would now, topped and tailed the evening with brief speeches, spending the rest of the time moist-eyed at the front of the stage. At the end, he pointed us all to his car boot sale in Romford. As the song goes, ‘all you gotta do is act naturally’.
Ian Hunter
It is my opinion that Ian Hunter is the coolest man on the planet. Now 70, he still looks the same as he did in the heyday of Mott The Hoople, the shades and curly mop still there. So is the attitude.
Lately, he’s been making totally brilliant albums, and Shrunken Heads is one of my favourites of the last few years. The songs are great and Hunter has lots of interesting things to say. Last year I saw the Mott The Hoople reunion gig, and it was an object lesson in just how good the first generation of rock musicians really were. They still take subsequent efforts to the cleaners.
I saw Hunter with his own band of wonderful musicians at The Barbican. It was a fantastic show, Hunter every bit as good a front man as he ever was. In truth, I wasn’t a massive Mott fan at the time, but I am for sure a massive Ian Hunter fan now.
Guy Davis + Tom Ball & Kenny SultanGuy Davis is one of my absolute favourite contemporary blues artists and I have all his albums. I’ve seen him quite a few times too, and he never fails to deliver a riveting set, full of good
humour and great musicianship. I went to see him this time at the Half Moon, Putney, a considerable schlep from where I live, but well worth it, despite the disappointingly low attendance for what was a top quality evening of acoustic blues. Guy, on vocals, 6 and 12 string guitar, rack harmonica and banjo was accompanied by Professor Louie on piano and accordion, and they kicked up a storm.
The evening was opened by a set from Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan, about the best acoustic blues duo you could ever hope to see. They focus on upbeat blues songs in the bawdy/hokum area, and they grab the attention from the first note to the last. Tom Ball is a brilliant harp player and Kenny Sultan an effortless purveyor of stunning finger-picking guitar. A lot of people missed a fantastic evening of blues that night, but the people who did show up were in no doubt as to what they were witnessing.
Tamikrest
I saw this young band of Toureg musicians from the Saharan regions of North Africa at The Borderline.
I heard about them via the publicist Ilka Shlockemann, who represents a number of ‘world music’ artists. Last year I reviewed the excellent Bassekou Kouyate at the Jazz Cafe through her (a gig disfigured by the smirking and disgraceful intrusions on to the stage of Damon Albarn, gatecrashing for his own gratification an event that belonged to a band of terrific, real musicians).
I saw this young band of Toureg musicians from the Saharan regions of North Africa at The Borderline.
I heard about them via the publicist Ilka Shlockemann, who represents a number of ‘world music’ artists. Last year I reviewed the excellent Bassekou Kouyate at the Jazz Cafe through her (a gig disfigured by the smirking and disgraceful intrusions on to the stage of Damon Albarn, gatecrashing for his own gratification an event that belonged to a band of terrific, real musicians). I think that Tamikrest have something different and exciting to offer, and they’re a band to watch out for. The rhythms they get going are a total joy and their material is strong. I hope they get to gig over here on their own, as they light up any place they play. The gig I saw was shared with some indie rockers, who played with them and on their own, and the spark that had been lit by Tamikrest came close to being extinguished whenever the indie folk were on. Oddly enough, it was instantly reignited when Tamikrest were on.
Let the Africans play, I say, without interference from people who should be buying their records, not playing with them.
Eric Bibb
Let the Africans play, I say, without interference from people who should be buying their records, not playing with them.
Eric Bibb
Eric Bibb is one of the reasons why I’m doing what I’m doing musically, not just because discovering him got me interested again, but also because the guitar I play was previously owned by him. His latest album was inspired by a similar guitar and I saw him playing tracks from it, together with the excellent harmonica player Grant Dermody, at The Bloomsbury. I’ve seen (and reviewed) Eric many times, and I think that at his finest there is simply nobody better. He was pretty near his finest at this gig, and afterwards I spoke to him. When I reminded him that I’d bought the guitar off him, he leant back in his chair, in front of a queue of CD purchasers, and declared ‘God has answered my prayer’. Not a reaction I often get. He’d apparently lost my address and had been waiting for some time for me to come up and speak to him. There was talk of getting together for a play. We’ll see.
Dr John
Right from the classic Gumbo many, many years ago, I’ve been a huge Dr John fan, and I’ve seen him numerous times. This year he made what I think is his best album for a long long time, Tribal, and I saw him touring that album at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. The great man seems to me to be in a golden period, and his band of crack New Orleans musicians bring out the very best in him. Though he’s in the very honourable tradition of New Orleans R & B, He’s a complete one-off, and anyone who isn’t familiar with him is really missing out.
I wrote reviews of some of these shows and they appeared in the magazine Blues Matters, with photos taken by Sally Evans and Benji Taylor.
Sally and Benji took some of the other photos here, and there are also photos by Andy Hall, John Little, Emma Harley, David Atkinson and Toby Pearce, as well as the excellent sketches by Barry Jackson. Big thanks to all of them.
And finally .....
What’s it all about?
At the very real risk of sounding pretentious .....
In a world where the system is more important than the outcome, and the system is at odds with what most people would like to have as an outcome, we are making music for the soul. What we are about is ideas and feelings, not management and accountancy. We don’t tick any boxes but our own. And we’re about craftsmanship, not charlatanry dressed up in the latest design of the Emperor’s new clothes.
What all of us involved in the areas of music I’m in are doing is trying to feed the soul. This we do through certain rhythms, sounds, combinations of notes and attitudes. We are about shared attitudes and an atmosphere that links people who have soul, regardless of their age or economic status.
Personally, I think it’s about being an individual as a musician, finding your own voice and using it. In a conformist age, it’s vital that there are non-conformists.
Well, something like that anyway ....
What’s it all about?
At the very real risk of sounding pretentious .....
In a world where the system is more important than the outcome, and the system is at odds with what most people would like to have as an outcome, we are making music for the soul. What we are about is ideas and feelings, not management and accountancy. We don’t tick any boxes but our own. And we’re about craftsmanship, not charlatanry dressed up in the latest design of the Emperor’s new clothes.
What all of us involved in the areas of music I’m in are doing is trying to feed the soul. This we do through certain rhythms, sounds, combinations of notes and attitudes. We are about shared attitudes and an atmosphere that links people who have soul, regardless of their age or economic status.
Personally, I think it’s about being an individual as a musician, finding your own voice and using it. In a conformist age, it’s vital that there are non-conformists.
Well, something like that anyway ....
Mark Harrison
August & September
I’m going to make a confession here, which is that I’m not totally nuts about every sort of blues music or every sort of acoustic music. A barrage of earnest, yet oddly loud, singer/songwriters pummelling scratchy-sounding electro-acoustic guitars in a strumfest is likely to find me shifting uneasily in my seat. A remorseless onslaught of loud lead guitar solos, however good they are, is likely after a while to present me with will to live issues. It’s the sort of situation where you like everything about the music except the music itself.
Some of this is about variety. At a multi-act event, and I guess a jam or an open mic should be considered that, variety can turn what might otherwise be background music or an ordeal into a memorable event. The performers in question have to be pretty good of course, or at the very least interesting, however you define those things. But if they’ve all got something just a little bit different to offer, that helps too.
This doesn’t mean that everyone has to be doing their own material. What is generally known as roots music tends to encourage variety, especially in the acoustic department, because it encourages individuality. That’s got a lot to do with the fact that most of it is about songs – songs with tunes and memorable hooks and the like. Coupled with the fact these songs are essentially pretty simple musically, the individual performer can put their own stamp on them, turning their version into something different from others.
Take a staple like ‘Stagger Lee’ or ‘John Henry’. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the number of versions of these I have in my collection is well into double figures, and then I’m probably just scratching the surface. I’ve got pre-war versions, 50s versions, Dr John’s in the 70s and Eric Bibb’s this decade. Each one is different from the other in a way that covers of pop or rock songs never could be. This is a measure of the variety possible with this kind of music.
We get a lot of variety at the Green Note. Maybe one time we should make everyone do the same standard in their set and see what that throws up. Maybe someone could suggest a song we all know or have access to and we could try that out to see if I’m right. Would, say, six or seven versions of the same song done by six or seven different singers and instrumental combinations get samey?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We had good audiences for both nights and the event continues in its rather special way. As people who turn up know, or find out, it’s a jam and it’s not a jam. It’s a jam because people play together in ad hoc instrumental combinations without prior rehearsal, so spontaneity is the key. But it’s not like other jams, because people do short sets that sound like ‘proper’ acts that have been more or less sorted out beforehand. So it’s a cross between a jam and a gig and might best be
described as ‘an evening of spontaneous blues/roots music’.
The ‘house band’ isn’t a clearly defined ensemble, again unlike at other jams. Instead, it’s a number of fine musicians who I invite along to play with me at the start and finish and to be available to play with whoever asks them during the course of the evening. The number of these musicians can vary according to availability, and often reaches the dizzying heights of being 8 in number. The whole evening is improvised – nothing’s sorted out until I see who’s shown up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In August, unsurprisingly, the number of ‘house’ musicians was reduced, mostly by holiday, but this had no impact on the quality of what was laid out. I kicked off with a few of my originals, aided by Dave Forristal on keyboards and Phil Hughes on harmonica. I kicked off solo, did a couple just with Phil and then a couple with both Phil and Dave. This trio format wasn’t one we’ve had before, I don’t think, but again it worked really well, proving yet again that you can cook up all sorts of interesting things with any combination of people who can really play, as of course those two can.
We again had a mixture of stalwarts and first-timers. Barry Jackson was next up, with another excellent set, and he was followed by Phil’s mesmerising solo vocal and harmonica numbers, that never fail to hook an audience. There are two reasons for that: one, it’s highly unusual to see such a thing and two, it’s of the very highest class.
Next was Mark (failure to note surnames is another thing I need to address), a first-timer at the event. He provided yet another first in the history of the event – ukulele, which went down very well. He was followed by another ‘plough your own furrow’ merchant, Julian, whose set included an original that drew on the to most of us hitherto unknown dialect of the Isle of Man. Neither of the above sets is the sort of thing you tend to see very often but happily it’s what you get at Blues at Green Note.
Two more first-timers at the event, the guitar/harmonica duo of Ed Hopwood and Murray Hunter were next up, with their gentle and atmospheric takes on standards such as ‘Make me a pallet on your floor’ and ‘Sitting on top of the world’. Barry got up again then, with Stephen on harmonica and Mark on ukulele for a fun set and I then rounded things off with Barry on guitar and Phil on harp.
It was another excellent evening, a pretty packed house enjoying the typically varied fare, and this was followed by another fine, but again very different night last week.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m going to make a confession here, which is that I’m not totally nuts about every sort of blues music or every sort of acoustic music. A barrage of earnest, yet oddly loud, singer/songwriters pummelling scratchy-sounding electro-acoustic guitars in a strumfest is likely to find me shifting uneasily in my seat. A remorseless onslaught of loud lead guitar solos, however good they are, is likely after a while to present me with will to live issues. It’s the sort of situation where you like everything about the music except the music itself.
Some of this is about variety. At a multi-act event, and I guess a jam or an open mic should be considered that, variety can turn what might otherwise be background music or an ordeal into a memorable event. The performers in question have to be pretty good of course, or at the very least interesting, however you define those things. But if they’ve all got something just a little bit different to offer, that helps too.
This doesn’t mean that everyone has to be doing their own material. What is generally known as roots music tends to encourage variety, especially in the acoustic department, because it encourages individuality. That’s got a lot to do with the fact that most of it is about songs – songs with tunes and memorable hooks and the like. Coupled with the fact these songs are essentially pretty simple musically, the individual performer can put their own stamp on them, turning their version into something different from others.
Take a staple like ‘Stagger Lee’ or ‘John Henry’. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the number of versions of these I have in my collection is well into double figures, and then I’m probably just scratching the surface. I’ve got pre-war versions, 50s versions, Dr John’s in the 70s and Eric Bibb’s this decade. Each one is different from the other in a way that covers of pop or rock songs never could be. This is a measure of the variety possible with this kind of music.
We get a lot of variety at the Green Note. Maybe one time we should make everyone do the same standard in their set and see what that throws up. Maybe someone could suggest a song we all know or have access to and we could try that out to see if I’m right. Would, say, six or seven versions of the same song done by six or seven different singers and instrumental combinations get samey?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We had good audiences for both nights and the event continues in its rather special way. As people who turn up know, or find out, it’s a jam and it’s not a jam. It’s a jam because people play together in ad hoc instrumental combinations without prior rehearsal, so spontaneity is the key. But it’s not like other jams, because people do short sets that sound like ‘proper’ acts that have been more or less sorted out beforehand. So it’s a cross between a jam and a gig and might best be
described as ‘an evening of spontaneous blues/roots music’.The ‘house band’ isn’t a clearly defined ensemble, again unlike at other jams. Instead, it’s a number of fine musicians who I invite along to play with me at the start and finish and to be available to play with whoever asks them during the course of the evening. The number of these musicians can vary according to availability, and often reaches the dizzying heights of being 8 in number. The whole evening is improvised – nothing’s sorted out until I see who’s shown up.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In August, unsurprisingly, the number of ‘house’ musicians was reduced, mostly by holiday, but this had no impact on the quality of what was laid out. I kicked off with a few of my originals, aided by Dave Forristal on keyboards and Phil Hughes on harmonica. I kicked off solo, did a couple just with Phil and then a couple with both Phil and Dave. This trio format wasn’t one we’ve had before, I don’t think, but again it worked really well, proving yet again that you can cook up all sorts of interesting things with any combination of people who can really play, as of course those two can.
We again had a mixture of stalwarts and first-timers. Barry Jackson was next up, with another excellent set, and he was followed by Phil’s mesmerising solo vocal and harmonica numbers, that never fail to hook an audience. There are two reasons for that: one, it’s highly unusual to see such a thing and two, it’s of the very highest class.
Next was Mark (failure to note surnames is another thing I need to address), a first-timer at the event. He provided yet another first in the history of the event – ukulele, which went down very well. He was followed by another ‘plough your own furrow’ merchant, Julian, whose set included an original that drew on the to most of us hitherto unknown dialect of the Isle of Man. Neither of the above sets is the sort of thing you tend to see very often but happily it’s what you get at Blues at Green Note.
Two more first-timers at the event, the guitar/harmonica duo of Ed Hopwood and Murray Hunter were next up, with their gentle and atmospheric takes on standards such as ‘Make me a pallet on your floor’ and ‘Sitting on top of the world’. Barry got up again then, with Stephen on harmonica and Mark on ukulele for a fun set and I then rounded things off with Barry on guitar and Phil on harp.
It was another excellent evening, a pretty packed house enjoying the typically varied fare, and this was followed by another fine, but again very different night last week.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In September, the house musicians included David Atkinson on mandolin, and it was a very welcome reappearance from him. He got to do a lot of playing, and very good it was too. Mandolin has become one of the distinctive features of the night since we started and David’s really the reason why that started to be the case. He’s got a terrific style, sitting in behind to complement what’s going on up front when that’s required, and taking the lead in the most effective ways too.
Aside from David’s playing, there was another major highlight too. Phil Hughes and Will Greener got up for a harmonica and vocal duet, a quite breathtaking ver
sion of Jaybird Coleman’s ‘I’mgonna cross the river of Jordan some of these days’.
This is not to detract from the rest of what we had that night, in what was a very nicely varied evening’s entertainment. Barry Jackson kept the bar high with a set that included a solo number and two with mandolin and Dave Forristal’s constantly excellent keyboard playing. Graham Hinton kicked off with a Keb Mo number on his own and then numbers with Phil on harp, David on mandolin and Dave on piano. Graham’s set included an ambitious number of chord changes, which were professionally dealt with by the house musicians, ie they got most of them and ignored the others.
Peter Vardigans made a welcome return, again first number solo, then two with the ‘band’, playing a Kay that would romp home with the ‘oldest guitar’ in the room title at most jams, but may not have got on the podium at this one. Phil Hughes did his unique set next, including the aforementioned duet with Will, and then James Daniel and Chris, regulars at the event, put in another of their rousing appearances. Joined by David and Dave, they once again chose excellent, non-standard numbers to cover and covered them really well.
Will did a solo number and then I got up with him, David and Dave to round the evening off with ‘Hard Work’, which it hadn’t been. I’d also kicked things off, solo and with David, Dave and Phil with a few originals, including a duet with David on ‘Big Mary’s House’, where the National and mandolin combination sounded pretty damn good from where I was sitting.
Another fine evening, good audience, everyone listening and a serene atmosphere for this one. As in calm and enjoyable, that is .......
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next one’s on Wednesday October 13th.
Musicians show up by 8 please.
Bring your friends, everyone.
Mark Harrison
This is not to detract from the rest of what we had that night, in what was a very nicely varied evening’s entertainment. Barry Jackson kept the bar high with a set that included a solo number and two with mandolin and Dave Forristal’s constantly excellent keyboard playing. Graham Hinton kicked off with a Keb Mo number on his own and then numbers with Phil on harp, David on mandolin and Dave on piano. Graham’s set included an ambitious number of chord changes, which were professionally dealt with by the house musicians, ie they got most of them and ignored the others.
Peter Vardigans made a welcome return, again first number solo, then two with the ‘band’, playing a Kay that would romp home with the ‘oldest guitar’ in the room title at most jams, but may not have got on the podium at this one. Phil Hughes did his unique set next, including the aforementioned duet with Will, and then James Daniel and Chris, regulars at the event, put in another of their rousing appearances. Joined by David and Dave, they once again chose excellent, non-standard numbers to cover and covered them really well.
Will did a solo number and then I got up with him, David and Dave to round the evening off with ‘Hard Work’, which it hadn’t been. I’d also kicked things off, solo and with David, Dave and Phil with a few originals, including a duet with David on ‘Big Mary’s House’, where the National and mandolin combination sounded pretty damn good from where I was sitting.
Another fine evening, good audience, everyone listening and a serene atmosphere for this one. As in calm and enjoyable, that is .......
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next one’s on Wednesday October 13th.
Musicians show up by 8 please.
Bring your friends, everyone.
Mark Harrison
Wednesday July 14th 2010
A very good crowd indeed showed up for this, the first anniversary event. The fact that it was the first anniversary was among a raft of things I forgot to mention on the night, not that anybody’s life is the poorer for that. The truth is that I’m not only no good at so-called multi-tasking, I am also bitterly resentful of the existence of it. I happen to know that there is compelling research evidence that multi-tasking greatly reduces the efficiency with which you do any of the multi tasks.
In this case, the multi-tasking involves working out what I’m going to play, who’s going to play it with me and how that’s going to work, watching Charles set up all the mics and sort out the sound, sorting out who’s come to do sets, when they’re going to do them and who they’re going to do them with, being on or making sure someone’s on the door, and dealing with anything else that may come up, such as people who’ve shown up to play but mysteriously not brought an instrument. There was, unusually, a fair bit of the latter on this occasion.
It isn’t a big deal in itself but it gets to be a thorny issue when the people in question can’t seem to deal with the response. In essence, they appear to expect you to magic an instrument out of your ear and the information that they will have to ask someone if they can borrow theirs is often hard to get through. This seems to strike them as a very confusing response and they look at you as if you have told them to build one themselves.
What made it even harder to solve on this occasion was the fact that there wasn’t one single ‘normal’ guitar in the room, by which I mean a six-string steel-strung acoustic. There were numerous other kinds of guitar, but not one of those. And, curiously enough, the offer to play washboard instead wasn’t taken up by any of the instrumentless musicians.
Lots of multi-tasking then, right up until the end, when I was being followed around by a bassless bassist who’d shown up at 10.30 expecting somehow to be accommodated. As I was at that point dealing with a broken string prior to doing the evening’s closing set, some of my politeness systems may have broken down at that point.
Anyway, among the things that I failed to mention while doing my compere impersonation was this very blog, thereby ensuring that its readership does not expand beyond the smallish inner circle that (I’m guessing this) scrolls down to see their names mentioned and then heads off elsewhere. And I didn’t mention that it’s OK to talk at a normal volume but not to bellow and shriek – not a major problem by any means, but some people were getting annoyed with others on that front early on and then I had to try and deal with it without being rude. Multi-tasking? Not a box I can tick.
Anyway, it was great to have such a large audience (i.e., people who’d come to listen not play) and that’s what we need every time. So the instruction to musicians to bring at least two people with them each time stands – add them to the people who come anyway and you’ve got a full room and a great atmosphere. And while you’re about it, if any of them want to play but don’t have an instrument, under no circumstances say ‘Mark’ll sort you out’.
I did the first set as usual, starting off with the 12-string for a couple of numbers and then onto the National for a couple more. After the first one, I was joined by David Atkinson on mandolin (he walked in the door and within a minute was on stage just about being told what key we were in) and it was a welcome return for his fine playing. I was also joined by Charles Benfield on double bass, Dave Forristal on keys, Mick Paley and Dave Johnson on various percussion, and Martin Holloway on drum. Among the evening’s highlights was Dave Forristal’s playing, this time on a smaller keyboard than his usual one – not only did this sound great, particularly the organ, but it also allowed on-stage musicians to be a whole lot less intimate with each other than they care to be.
Dave and Mick then did a fine duo set, Dave on a nylon-strung guitar and Mick on harp. They’re really good musicians and performers, with great non-standard repertoire and they’re a boon to any event they play at.
Next up was Graham Hine, playing at the event for the first time. Now Graham Hine’s a notable name in the blues world, as he is the main man in the legendary Brett Marvin And The Thunderbolts. For those of you who don’t know, this band was (and indeed still is from time to time) one of the more individualistic bands on the late 60s/early 70s British blues scene, with a wholly distinctive sound based to some degree on a pogo-stick sort of device that provided a unique percussive sound. Graham is a fine solo act in his own right and he proceeded to demonstrate that to an appreciative audience, who stayed quiet and attentive throughout. He did a couple on his own on a battered resonator and was then joined by Dave Johnson on washboard and Rick Webb (also making a welcome return) on harp. This was a fine combo. Hard to imagine too many other places where a kind of impromptu Brett Marvin And The Thunderbolts could be formed and it was a pleasure to hear it.
Simon was on next for another of his quiet and reflective sets. An assortment of house band musicians joined him during the course of this, and Danno Sheehan was on harp. His typically animated set went down well, grabbing the audience’s attention, at least partly by the simple expedient of shouting at them. There’s always something happening when Simon’s on and afterwards people feel like they need a bit of a lie-down.
Phil Thorne was next up, for another set of typically excellent country blues, this time on a 12-string. He played solo to start with and then with various house band personnel. It was good stuff and much enjoyed.
Graham Hinton did the next set, joined by various band members and I think on Goodnight Irene by Guy Bennett, former host of Blues at Green Note, on piano. Nice to see him back for a visit. Danno played on this, and David, getting plenty of mando action. I’m not 100% sure of the line-up as I was out back attending to my string and the bassless bassist.
To round things off I got up again, and here my maths fail me. How come, with two regulars missing, I ended up part of an 8-piece band? Double bass, mandolin, drum, two percussionists, organ and harp, plus me. Pretty damn good sound it all made, to my ears anyway. The harp was played by a visiting American called Harry, who slotted right in. And in the final number, I managed to remember my gravest omission from earlier, .......
..... jug. Yep, Dave Johnson, having introduced the washboard last month, followed it up with jug. I threw it a solo in the last number and it acquitted itself very well. Now this is what should be regarded as experimental music, not some twee poser fiddling about on a synth.
So, a good time was had by all.
Next one: Wednesday 11th August.
Mark Harrison
In this case, the multi-tasking involves working out what I’m going to play, who’s going to play it with me and how that’s going to work, watching Charles set up all the mics and sort out the sound, sorting out who’s come to do sets, when they’re going to do them and who they’re going to do them with, being on or making sure someone’s on the door, and dealing with anything else that may come up, such as people who’ve shown up to play but mysteriously not brought an instrument. There was, unusually, a fair bit of the latter on this occasion.
It isn’t a big deal in itself but it gets to be a thorny issue when the people in question can’t seem to deal with the response. In essence, they appear to expect you to magic an instrument out of your ear and the information that they will have to ask someone if they can borrow theirs is often hard to get through. This seems to strike them as a very confusing response and they look at you as if you have told them to build one themselves.
What made it even harder to solve on this occasion was the fact that there wasn’t one single ‘normal’ guitar in the room, by which I mean a six-string steel-strung acoustic. There were numerous other kinds of guitar, but not one of those. And, curiously enough, the offer to play washboard instead wasn’t taken up by any of the instrumentless musicians.
Lots of multi-tasking then, right up until the end, when I was being followed around by a bassless bassist who’d shown up at 10.30 expecting somehow to be accommodated. As I was at that point dealing with a broken string prior to doing the evening’s closing set, some of my politeness systems may have broken down at that point.
Anyway, among the things that I failed to mention while doing my compere impersonation was this very blog, thereby ensuring that its readership does not expand beyond the smallish inner circle that (I’m guessing this) scrolls down to see their names mentioned and then heads off elsewhere. And I didn’t mention that it’s OK to talk at a normal volume but not to bellow and shriek – not a major problem by any means, but some people were getting annoyed with others on that front early on and then I had to try and deal with it without being rude. Multi-tasking? Not a box I can tick.
Anyway, it was great to have such a large audience (i.e., people who’d come to listen not play) and that’s what we need every time. So the instruction to musicians to bring at least two people with them each time stands – add them to the people who come anyway and you’ve got a full room and a great atmosphere. And while you’re about it, if any of them want to play but don’t have an instrument, under no circumstances say ‘Mark’ll sort you out’.
I did the first set as usual, starting off with the 12-string for a couple of numbers and then onto the National for a couple more. After the first one, I was joined by David Atkinson on mandolin (he walked in the door and within a minute was on stage just about being told what key we were in) and it was a welcome return for his fine playing. I was also joined by Charles Benfield on double bass, Dave Forristal on keys, Mick Paley and Dave Johnson on various percussion, and Martin Holloway on drum. Among the evening’s highlights was Dave Forristal’s playing, this time on a smaller keyboard than his usual one – not only did this sound great, particularly the organ, but it also allowed on-stage musicians to be a whole lot less intimate with each other than they care to be.
Dave and Mick then did a fine duo set, Dave on a nylon-strung guitar and Mick on harp. They’re really good musicians and performers, with great non-standard repertoire and they’re a boon to any event they play at.
Next up was Graham Hine, playing at the event for the first time. Now Graham Hine’s a notable name in the blues world, as he is the main man in the legendary Brett Marvin And The Thunderbolts. For those of you who don’t know, this band was (and indeed still is from time to time) one of the more individualistic bands on the late 60s/early 70s British blues scene, with a wholly distinctive sound based to some degree on a pogo-stick sort of device that provided a unique percussive sound. Graham is a fine solo act in his own right and he proceeded to demonstrate that to an appreciative audience, who stayed quiet and attentive throughout. He did a couple on his own on a battered resonator and was then joined by Dave Johnson on washboard and Rick Webb (also making a welcome return) on harp. This was a fine combo. Hard to imagine too many other places where a kind of impromptu Brett Marvin And The Thunderbolts could be formed and it was a pleasure to hear it.
Simon was on next for another of his quiet and reflective sets. An assortment of house band musicians joined him during the course of this, and Danno Sheehan was on harp. His typically animated set went down well, grabbing the audience’s attention, at least partly by the simple expedient of shouting at them. There’s always something happening when Simon’s on and afterwards people feel like they need a bit of a lie-down.
Phil Thorne was next up, for another set of typically excellent country blues, this time on a 12-string. He played solo to start with and then with various house band personnel. It was good stuff and much enjoyed.
Graham Hinton did the next set, joined by various band members and I think on Goodnight Irene by Guy Bennett, former host of Blues at Green Note, on piano. Nice to see him back for a visit. Danno played on this, and David, getting plenty of mando action. I’m not 100% sure of the line-up as I was out back attending to my string and the bassless bassist.
To round things off I got up again, and here my maths fail me. How come, with two regulars missing, I ended up part of an 8-piece band? Double bass, mandolin, drum, two percussionists, organ and harp, plus me. Pretty damn good sound it all made, to my ears anyway. The harp was played by a visiting American called Harry, who slotted right in. And in the final number, I managed to remember my gravest omission from earlier, .......
..... jug. Yep, Dave Johnson, having introduced the washboard last month, followed it up with jug. I threw it a solo in the last number and it acquitted itself very well. Now this is what should be regarded as experimental music, not some twee poser fiddling about on a synth.
So, a good time was had by all.
Next one: Wednesday 11th August.
Mark Harrison
NEXT EVENT: WEDNESDAY 14TH JULY
FIRST ANNIVERSARY
The next one will be the anniversary of the Green Note all-acoustic jam. Let's try to pack the place out for this. If you're coming to play, bring at least two people with you.
Remember, one of the exceptional aspects of this is that, unlike at other jams, you aren't likely to get put on stage at no minute's notice with a bunch of unknown quantities that could lead to humiliation in front of people you know. Not only are all the musicians excellent, but as far as possible, you get to choose the combination you fancy. Who knows, if you bring people along, they may even get to see you in a whole new light!
It was in February 2007 that Rick Webb announced on his Blues in London website that a new jam was to start under the 'Blues in London presents ...' banner, at the Green Note. Rick ran it with his excellent band The Velours until Autumn 2008, and there were many great nights during that period. Guy Bennett then took over with his fine Vulnerable Things band until last summer. At that point, David Atkinson and I stepped up, and we decided to make it all-acoustic. We kicked off in some style, the idea of an all-acoustic jam being vindicated from the start with some great evenings of music.
Prior to that, it had been a mostly electric jam, with an acoustic slot somewhere in the middle. Often that slot was just me, though David and Graham were regulars too. On a personal note, it was Rick starting this event with the specific aim of including an acoustic slot that got me started after a very long period of doing nothing musically. Indeed, on the very first night, a nervous lead guitar player told me as he waited to go on that he was apprehensive because he hadn't played for five years. 'I'll see your five years,' I said, 'and raise you twenty'.
From the very first one, it was clear that the event attracted some excellent musicians and fine human beings. I was struck from the off by how good people were, and I suspect a part of this was down to Rick's clear stipulation that the jam was not to be like other electric jams, in that people who played 'sports guitar' were not encouraged.
For quite some time, the monthly Green Note was the only playing I did, and it was a pretty special event each month for me. I started to go out and about a bit more after a year or so, but the Green Note has always been the one to really look forward to. When I started co-running it, I recruited people to be in the house band that I thought would make for the best kind of acoustic night, and I think everyone would agree that you couldn't beat them. It would be good to build on it, and make sure the place is packed for every one.
Well, I went in a couple of years from doing my acoustic bit on my own in a state of great nervous tension to making an album. Andy and Rick did the totally brilliant cover. Charles produced it, engineered it, mixed it, mastered it and played on it. Other people I met at the Green Note, such as Will and David, play on it. Most of the songs first saw the light of day at the Green Note.
So there you go. We've got something very good going at this thing, and Risa and Immy at the Green Note are very supportive of it too. Let's make sure we can keep it going and the best way of doing that is to make sure there's a good turnout every time. So tell everyone you know and get them to come along. One very noticeable thing about this is how many people who don't have great interest in all this before they come end up saying what a great time they had and how much they enjoyed the music. Spread the word.
And now, a report on the last one .....
Mark
The next one will be the anniversary of the Green Note all-acoustic jam. Let's try to pack the place out for this. If you're coming to play, bring at least two people with you.
Remember, one of the exceptional aspects of this is that, unlike at other jams, you aren't likely to get put on stage at no minute's notice with a bunch of unknown quantities that could lead to humiliation in front of people you know. Not only are all the musicians excellent, but as far as possible, you get to choose the combination you fancy. Who knows, if you bring people along, they may even get to see you in a whole new light!
It was in February 2007 that Rick Webb announced on his Blues in London website that a new jam was to start under the 'Blues in London presents ...' banner, at the Green Note. Rick ran it with his excellent band The Velours until Autumn 2008, and there were many great nights during that period. Guy Bennett then took over with his fine Vulnerable Things band until last summer. At that point, David Atkinson and I stepped up, and we decided to make it all-acoustic. We kicked off in some style, the idea of an all-acoustic jam being vindicated from the start with some great evenings of music.
Prior to that, it had been a mostly electric jam, with an acoustic slot somewhere in the middle. Often that slot was just me, though David and Graham were regulars too. On a personal note, it was Rick starting this event with the specific aim of including an acoustic slot that got me started after a very long period of doing nothing musically. Indeed, on the very first night, a nervous lead guitar player told me as he waited to go on that he was apprehensive because he hadn't played for five years. 'I'll see your five years,' I said, 'and raise you twenty'.
From the very first one, it was clear that the event attracted some excellent musicians and fine human beings. I was struck from the off by how good people were, and I suspect a part of this was down to Rick's clear stipulation that the jam was not to be like other electric jams, in that people who played 'sports guitar' were not encouraged.
For quite some time, the monthly Green Note was the only playing I did, and it was a pretty special event each month for me. I started to go out and about a bit more after a year or so, but the Green Note has always been the one to really look forward to. When I started co-running it, I recruited people to be in the house band that I thought would make for the best kind of acoustic night, and I think everyone would agree that you couldn't beat them. It would be good to build on it, and make sure the place is packed for every one.
Well, I went in a couple of years from doing my acoustic bit on my own in a state of great nervous tension to making an album. Andy and Rick did the totally brilliant cover. Charles produced it, engineered it, mixed it, mastered it and played on it. Other people I met at the Green Note, such as Will and David, play on it. Most of the songs first saw the light of day at the Green Note.
So there you go. We've got something very good going at this thing, and Risa and Immy at the Green Note are very supportive of it too. Let's make sure we can keep it going and the best way of doing that is to make sure there's a good turnout every time. So tell everyone you know and get them to come along. One very noticeable thing about this is how many people who don't have great interest in all this before they come end up saying what a great time they had and how much they enjoyed the music. Spread the word.
And now, a report on the last one .....
Mark
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