Reviews

Artist: Craig and Willoughby with Benny Gallagher
Venue: Ram Club
Town: Thames DItton
Date: 08/05/09
Website: http://www.craigandwilloghby.com

In 2007, Radio 2 awarded the Ram Club in Claygate Best Folk Club of the Year. They held their meetings in a back room in a pub (Foley Arms) and attracted so many punters that the pub decided it needed to expand. They therefore took over the room and kicked the Ram Club out.

Undaunted, the Ram Club have found a new site in Thames Ditton at the Old Cranleighan Sports Club. The advantage of their new site is that the nearest local resident is a football pitch, so there is no-one to complain if the evening runs late. On Friday it was well past 11:30 when proceedings concluded, far later than they would have been permitted if they were still at the Foley Arms.

Maggie Wood, the MC, has a fabulous dry wit. She introduced the first act, her husband, by saying, "Bob Marley said then when music hits you, you feel no pain. Bob Marley was probably aware that there is an exception to every rule. Ladies and Gentlemen, Bob Wood."

Bob started with a song inspired by the commercial ships used for fighting during the Falklands' war. "You Can't Weld a Body". The ships can be repaired but lives that were lost can't be replaced. His second song "The Presence" was a touching story of someone who had had just one night of love, but that happiness was enough to last them a life-time.

Next up was Steve Poole and Sue Graves. You may know them as two thirds of a band called Soiree. They opened with one of my favorite Joan Baez songs, "Diamonds and Rust", followed by a cover of Julie Matthews' "Blue Songs on a Red Guitar". (Sue apologised for not having her red guitar with her). She has an amazing voice, more of which later. Hope to catch a full Soiree gig sooner or later so will try and give a review when that happens.

Good as the floor spots were, everyone was there for the main act, Brian Willoughby and Cathryn Craig.

As well as being one of the best singer-songwriters, Cathryn is also a very skilled raconteuse. She introduces each song with witty and detailed insights that make the job of a reporter easy. You can sound quite knowledgeable, simply by being a parrot.

They opened with their signature song "That Ol' Guitar". Unlike most of their other material, this is unusual in that it was neither written by them, nor is it a traditional song arranged by them. Due to Cathryn's links with Nashville, it was written for Cathryn by Shel Silverstein, (he also wrote "Ballad of Lucy Jordan", and "A Boy Named Sue" amongst others).

The traditional songs they play (e.g. "Dixie", date back to Cathryn's childhood when her family would gather on the porch of an evening and sing (tantamount to child abuse). Singing is in her genes as testified by the fact that Cecil Sharp recorded her great grandfather during his travels through the Appalachian mountains.

One such song that Sharp recorded her great grandfather singing was "The Rejected Lover", a beautiful version of which appears on the new album, featuring a duet with Mary Hopkin. Happy to report that this was played during the first set, (though sadly without Mary).

As they have recently released their second album, "Calling All Angels", as you'd expected, most of the songs they played are from there, including the stunning "Accanoe", which ended the first set. This a song about the girl known as Pocahontas, who came from the area where Cathryn grew up.

Record sales seemed to be going well during the interval, which was followed by another floor spot, this time from a guy called Peter Whitehead.

He played two songs, "Passing Through", and an acoustic version of Rihanna's hit "Umbrella". The latter he selected particularly to embarass his daughter, who was there with friends. Personally, although not a fan of the original, I loved his version. Suspect it achieved it's aim of causing maximum embarrasment, though.

Then, after the ubiquitous raffle, the second set opened with a solo performance from Brian, who demonstrated not only his guitar virtuosity, but also his skill as a raconteur as well. He played the instrumental "Fingers Crossed", title track on his recent solo album This was a piece of music he wrote when he was eighteen, and when Mary Hopkin heard it, Brian was offered the job as her guitarist.

Cathryn then joined him for the remainder of the set, which continued with their song "Two Hearts". Audience participation is often encouraged at folk clubs, and Brian and Cathryn have played at the Ram Club several times before, so many of their songs are well known. Several members of the audience sung along during Two Hearts, but most remarkable was Sue Graves (Soiree) who could be heard singing harmonies.

The main surprise of the evening came for the encore. Cathryn announced that Benny Gallagher was in the audience and invited both him and Sue Graves up on the stage to sing with them. Back in the 70's Gallagher and Lyle wrote several of Mary Hopkin's songs, so when Benny found that Brian was playing at the Ram Club he came along to see him. I don't think he expected to have to sing. The audience loved it.

First Set
That Ol' Guitar
Alice's Song
Calling All Angels
The Rejected Lover
Mr. Jefferson
Accanoe

Second Set
Fingers Crossed
Two Hearts
These Dreams
Dixie
I Will
River Deep, Mountain High/ Cotton Fields/ My Window Faces South

Encore
Will The Circle Be Unbroken

Pete Bradley