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Cara Luft with Scott Poley

Venue: The Atkinson
Town: Southport
Date: 14th June
Website: http://www.caraluft.com/

Tonight in Southport it was a case of "Welcome Back" to two special friends, the first being a person and the second being a place. The person was none other than the wonderful Canadian folksinger/songwriter/guitarist/clawhammer banjo-player Cara Luft, who was playing her fourth concert in Southport and the place was the superb Atkinson Cultural Centre [previously known and loved as Southport Arts Centre] which has recently re-opened following a lengthy period of refurbishment. To both Cara and The Atkinson, it's great to have you back !

Cara should need no introduction to readers of this magazine. She was of, of course, one of the three founding members of The Wailin' Jennys but since leaving the band in 2004 she has pursued her own successful solo career.

Since 2010 Cara's sideman on her European tours has been talented multi-instrumentalist Scott Poley who hails from just down the road in Lydiate. Tonight Scott accompanied Cara on guitar, dobro and harmony vocals. To demonstrate Scott's versatility, he has just completed a tour with Kevin Montgomery and The Endangered Livers during which he played pedal steel, lap steel and electric guitar. He is also currently recording a solo album with various special guests, so watch this space.

The story of how Cara and Scott came to meet each other is worth telling. About fifteen years ago, Cara was invited to play at the Wirral Guitar Festival. Scott, an aspiring eleven year-old guitarist saw her play and was greatly impressed. He bought her EP and taught himself to play the songs. He started corresponding with Cara and they became friends. When Cara was looking for an accompanist for her European tours, Scott was the obvious choice as he already knew the songs.

Cara's latest album is "Darlingford", which has received many favourable reviews [see David Kidman's review in this very magazine]. Songs from "Darlingford" featured prominently in tonight's concert, with some old favourites added for good measure.

Cara is a brave songwriter who is not afraid to describe her personal feelings and experiences [good or bad] in her lyrics. Several of the songs on "Darlingford" deal with a series of personal misfortunes that befell her. For example, "Idaho" tells of a time when her "life was in pieces" and she had "fallen in a great big hole". Cara "needed somewhere to go", so she went to visit her "right wing, fundamentalist" Aunt in Idaho to recover. Another difficult time is described in "House On Fire", when her "house was burning", so she went to stay with her friend Miriam, with just her banjo.

Another traumatic event in Cara's life is described, with great humour, in the song "Charged". This tells of the time when Cara was taking a short cut by crossing over into the United States from Canada. When she innocently described her occupation as "folksinger", the US Customs searched her car and found a "stash of contraband" under the seat that had been [allegedly] left there by a passenger. She was, of course, arrested and charged with possession, although she protested that "It was his, It's not mine"! Fortunately, this story has a happy ending as Cara wrote the song "Charged" and sent it to the District Attorney who was dealing with her case. Luckily, he had a sense of humour and was amused by the song. So much so that the charge was eventually dropped and he actually voted for the song in a songwriting competition that Cara had entered. Tonight's performance of "Charged" elicited a good deal of pantomime-type audience participation and was followed by, appropriately, "You're No Friend Of Mine", which was dedicated to the owner of the previously mentioned illegal substance. This song featured a superb solo by Scott.

As well as being a superb guitar player, Cara is also an expert claw-hammer banjoist, as she amply demonstrated on "Portland Town" by Derroll Adams, which is on "Darlingford", as is another [rare for Cara] cover version, namely Mike Scott's "Bring 'Em All In", as originally performed by The Waterboys. Tonight's version also got the audience joining in on the choruses.

As a result of requests, Cara resurrected one of her older songs "Down To The River", a lovely gospel-flavoured song, which featured some wonderfully atmospheric dobro playing from Scott.

Cara was brought up listening to her parents' record collection, which included classic folk-rock albums by the likes of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and Pentangle, so she has a great love of traditional folk song. Tonight she performed "The Ploughboy and the Cockney" [which she learned from a recording by Tim Hart and Maddy Prior] as well as a stunning version of "Blackwaterside" [as originally arranged by the late, great Bert Jansch]. Another guitar player who influenced Cara was Davey Graham and she played her arrangement of the traditional melody "He Moved Through The Fair" which Davey adapted to DADGAD guitar tuning in the early 1960's.

Cara and Scott then proceeded to blow the audience away with a dazzling rendition of one of Cara's best-known songs, "Come All You Sailors", which fans of The Jenny's will know from the "40 Days" album. The audience were suitably moved and demanded more.

As an encore, Cara and Scott performed, in unplugged mode, two banjo tunes, "Shady Grove " and "Cluck Old Hen".

If you have not seen Cara play live before, you have missed a treat because, as well as being a superb lyricist, singer and musician, she really engages with the audience in a warm and personal way. Her humorous introductions to her songs are legendary and are almost as popular as the songs themselves. It was great to have Cara back in Southport, at The Atkinson.

Peter Cowley