Reviews
Artist:Kate Burke & Ruth Hazleton + Support
Venue:Bournemouth Folk Club
Town:Bournemouth
Date:31/08/08
Website:http://www.bournemouthfolkclub.com/
There was a sort of a back to school feel about my first club gig in over a month. August and the holidays coming to a close, another poor Summer to lament. Time for the folk world to pick up the damp and weary and lift them for the Autumn to come.
Bournemouth had had four days of air displays, two of them with sun. I briefly wondered if that would have an impact on the folk crowd? I needn't have worried. The tables inside the club were pretty full for the start and there was a steady trickle of new arrivals during the early part of the evening.
Some of them missed the opening act of the evening, Steve Skaith and Catherine Burke, which is a shame because they missed a good set and the duo deserved a bigger audience.
The duo started off in guitar and mandolin configuration, Steve doing the guitar work, Catherine is a multi-instrumentalist and by the end of their short set, had already added whistle and clarinet to the instruments played. The duo announced they would be heading to Germany for a couple of sets, but there was definitely no feel that this was a warm up, it was a set full of passion.
Normally the opening set is about three tracks long, but Paul, the club host, waved them on for another. The song chosen was "Radio Africa". Steve has added new words since it was a hit for Latin Quarter back in the eighties, the song now reflecting the devastation caused by aids on sub-Saharan Africa. There's a verse that tells of the choir that gave some of the Bhundu Boys their start. There was fifty in the choir back then. Only three are still alive today.
I've never heard "Radio Africa" performed live before, let alone in a folk club, but with just guitar and clarinet to back it, it becomes a very haunting and poignant refrain. If you think Steve was taking a liberty re-writing it, it's his song.
Tinderbox were up next, it's been a good year for them, new album, "Golden" and a busy Summer of live dates. They were also part of the Fatea Showcase Sessions release Duos with their song "Travellin'". Like Catherine and Steve before them, they got an extra song at the end of the set and I was really pleased when that was the one they chose.
If I were to be honest, it took most of the first song for Dan and Monique to get into their stride. It was good, but you felt there were cobwebs being blown out of the system, then part way through the opener, "Orange Juice In The Morning", the sparkle returned to Monique's voice and the performance moved up a gear.
The between song banter revealed the reason for it. Tinderbox had been playing at a festival the evening before and spent a cold, damp night under canvas.
It was good to catch up with Tinderbox again, I hadn't realised how long it had been since I'd seen them last. They understand the live medium really well. They brought up the hard working Catherine Burke to play on the second number, it helps to provide additional variety.
They tried to persuade Catherine's brother Bob to join them for part of the set, but unfortunately he'd left his guitar at home.
Final act in the session part of the night was a local solo performer, Les Wild, he managed to break his thumb pick just before going on and hadn't quite got the replacement worked in. Paul had given him a good build up, which seemed to jinx the start of the set. Slightly frustrated he looked towards Andy at the sound desk and asked "Can you put some more talent in this guitar?" It broke the ice. You could see him relax at that point and the hex seemed to be broken.
The set was predominantly traditional in style, a couple if the songs may have been written far more recently, but had drawn their influence from folk's long and vast heritage. The songs were well chosen with opportunities for a sing-a-long in the chorus and a solid way to end the first part of the evening. I'd not seen Les Wild before, but hope to see him again in the not too distant.
Aussie duo, Kate Burke and Ruth Hazleton were playing the final gig of their six week UK tour. Bournemouth had put on an airshow for the event to ensure they had something to do during the day. The girls would be flying off in separate directions once this gig was completed, Kate heading to some solo dates in Ireland, Ruth to North Carolina to spend some time with another band.
To lighten the load, they had provided a bag of goodies for the raffle. The bag included a box of soap powder, to which one member of the audience quipped "Is it unopened?" Politely nobody mentioned the Olympic medal count, neither golds nor volume.
The girls had been on a mammoth tour of the UK, travel being a focal point of their music. The song and tune selection take in many parts of the colonies, Australia, Canada and the US and a lot of it reflects the changes songs undertake as they move with the singers, with new variants springing up many miles from home. Predominantly, the set focused on songs from Australia, though with a weird Appalachian twist, predominantly brought about by Ruth's banjo.
They are a duo that banter well with the audience, telling the history of the songs and the stories about how they found them, at least the stories more extensive than, 'this was in the national library'.
One of the things it did bring home was the variety of minerals that are mined in Australia and how the various miners have developed songs about the parts of the industry they work in. An early song in the girls set had been about the gold mining industry and the murder of one of the people that had taken part in the Australian gold rush.
For the most powerful song of the evening, "Blue Murder", they were joined on stage by Adrian Barker, an Australian singer and fiddle player. "Blue Murder" was a vocal only song about the asbestos miners, the dangers they faced and the lies that got them to the mine in the first place. Really emotive and highlighting the injustices that are regularly meted out to the poor.
Adrian joined Kate for a short instrumental interlude. Ruth took the opportunity to head off to the bar to restock the girls' onstage drinks, Australian to the core.
Before resuming as just a duo, Ruth also took the opportunity in enquire about a good source of bubblewrap locally, one of the most bizarre requests I've heard from a stage, although logical when you think about it.
I do have one quibble with Ruth and Kate's set. They spend a lot of time tuning or retuning, as they point out, budget precludes rows of pre-tuned instruments and whilst it's appreciated that the songs must sound right, it's frustrating over the course of a relatively short set. Kate managed to break a string, but fortunately, Ruth was ensconced in her banjo playing by this point and her guitar was available.
That aside it was a highly original and entertaining set. The songs found a natural place in the order and both girls have great voices that really compliment each other. Needless to say there is a cd to accompany the tour, but this was only mentioned at the end, rather than constantly plugged during the set. It left you free to enjoy the banter and the music.
All in all yet another good evening at Bournemouth Folk Club.