Reviews
Friday
The first of the five concert sessions during the weekend got underway on Friday night with appearances by Ray Hearne, Bob Fox and the popular duo John Tams and Barry Coope, which turned out to be quite an inspired bit of programming. Ray Hearne has always been a popular voice in South Yorkshire and easily fits the dual role of both consummate entertainer and festival champion, a good figurehead who believes in this festival and the good it brings. John Tams later referred to Ray as a great poet and a personal hero, which coming from an artist of John's stature is no mean accolade indeed. If Ray's job was to warm up the audience, then by the time Bob Fox was ready to take over, that audience was sizzling in anticipation.
Now this year, Bob Fox and Stu Luckley will be celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the release of their first LP, 'Nowt So Good'll Pass', which features many of the songs that Bob is still singing today; songs which have subsequently become pretty much standard folk club fare, songs like "Sally Wheatley" and "The Bonnie Gateshead Lass" both of which Bob performed in his Friday night set. The distinctive voice on the record and the voice heard at the Wath Festival has changed very little in the subsequent years, if at all. Considered one of this countries' best folk singers, Bob Fox could quite easily have walked away with the 2003 Best Singer Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards had Eliza Carthy not also been nominated that particular year. Still, as John Tams was to remind us later in the evening, Bob Fox possesses the greatest voice in the English folk movement, and a voice we shall not hear again. A voice that comes from 'hard graft'.
Ray Hearne compared the job of introducing John Tams and Barry Coope with that of introducing members of his own family. He went on to point out that the current political climate has brought about a consensus of opinion that if nothing else 'we'll get some good songs out of it - and who better to write 'em but John Tams and who better to play 'em but Barry Coope'. A perfect set-up for the perfect set that followed.
Anyone who has witnessed a John Tams and Barry Coope performance knows full well that nothing unites a room full of people better. The songs weave through themes of hardship, love and loss with no small measure of astute 
observation and social commentary. Whilst "Amelia", "Harry Stone" and "Lay Me Low" tug at the heartstrings and settle us deep into our seats, "Vulcan and Lucifer" and "Steelos" from the Radio Ballads series, and incidentally, from the Radio Ballad that is closest to our hearts, particularly in this neck of the woods, 'The Song of Steel', increases the speed of the heartbeat and beckons us all to unite in communal singing. It's good for the soul.