Acoustic Jam

Wednesday June 9th 2010

Should anyone be in any doubt about the rather special nature of Blues at Green Note, and certainly its differentness from other musical events, there’s just one word that needs to be said to them: washboard. Yep, Dave Johnson, getting right under the skin of the event, showed up with one and it got a good outing throughout the evening. It was in pristine nick, suggesting that they are made and sold as musical instruments, which I guess I hadn’t known. Well, they’d hardly be sold as domestic products, I suppose.

Dave got right on with playing it in my opening set, as well as playing conga with me and the rest of the house band – Charles on double bass, Ryan on mandolin, Will on harmonica, Martin on drum and Dave Forristal on keyboards. Yes, that makes 7 people and some largish musical instruments all crammed more or less on the Green Note stage, which is approximately the size of the balcony of a studio flat. This, it must be assumed, is testimony to the svelte nature of said musicians, a result obviously of the peak physical fitness they maintain and their constant workouts. If there were just one or two beer guts among them, the whole evening would be torpedoed.

Well, this did answer a question I’d pondered before – what would happen if all band members showed up on the one night? Well, now we know. Magically, they are all able to play together. Charles may have had to get a bit too close for comfort to his bass, Ryan may have had one knee in his ear, and the washboard may have put itself in places it shouldn’t, but we managed. And managed to kick off what was generally regarded as possibly the best night musically so far.

About the right number of people showed up to do sets and there was a decent, and as usual, receptive audience. I started off, with this extraordinary seven-piece band, and did a few songs, mostly from the CD I’ve just put out. If there is actually anywhere else at all on the planet where that particular line-up can be seen, let alone joined, then I would be very surprised.

Owen Houlston was up next, with selected band members, and he kicked up quite a storm with what was a very popular set. Dave was giving that washboard some serious gyp at this point, and there was a moment in the last number when the ensemble was doing a pretty surreal kind of skiffle. Personally, I’ve always felt that skiffle was better as an idea than as a reality, but this wasn’t really skiffle as we know it. It was more like what Captain Beefheart might have come up with if only he’d done a washboard album, which is to say it was the kind of skiffle that would be considered good therapy for the patients on a psychiatric ward.

Phil Hughes got up and did his stunning solo thing next, the room totally silent as he did his a cappella and harp numbers, including a version of Skip James’ Hard Time Killing Floor Blues, a song so great that a thousand totally different versions of it could be done. No nattering while Phil was on.

Barry Jackson followed him, again with various band members for a set so laid-back it should be in the training video for Laid-Back Music-Making. Barry was playing a rather nice Guild, and some of us are now getting so old that we’ve seen Barry play some of his extensive collection of guitars at least twice.

Dave Johnson did his own set next, accompanied on slide by Barry Jackson, and the two of them gelled really well, very firmly in the category of ‘it sounds like they must have rehearsed this quite a lot’ – we like to think just about everything we do on these nights is in that category.

Then it was Graham Hinton, with selected band members for another fine set of his now familiar numbers, delivered with the usual polish. The washboard was now taking a well-earned rest, having made its point, but another first for the event was about to be unleashed, in the shape of a baritone sax, played by Robert.

The arrival of this monster created something of a stir, especially as it looked as if it could only be played by means of a complex pulley system. There was also discussion of which keys it would be prepared to co-operate with, as if it needed to be pacified. Having settled that issue, Robert got up with me and the vast majority of the band for a couple more of my numbers. The baritone fitted right in, and yet another interesting combination of instruments was formed – this of course is one of the main points and great joys of the event.

Another impromptu combo was then formed for the evening’s final set – Ryan on guitar and vocal, Will on harp and Robert on baritone sax. A whole new set of moods was established, from the atmospheric slow opener, with Ryan’s sweet (in the best sense of the word) vocal sound complemented wonderfully by the harp and sax, to the final audience-participation song, which drew even more enthusiastic than usual participation from the audience. With this, the entertainment ended on a high.

A washboard and a baritone sax? A six-piece house band for people to choose from? An array of musical combinations and styles? Top-class musicians in a terrific venue? A listening audience? As the Cockney comedian Tommy Trinder’s catchphrase went: ‘You lucky people!’

Next time: Wednesday 14th July

Mark Harrison