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Ewan McLennan

Venue: Grayshott Folk Club
Town: Grayshott
Date: 9/11/13
Website: http://www.ewanmclennan.co.uk

With his smooth baritone voice McLennan sang as though speaking. In jeans and a shirt he could be accused of informality and his performance was laced with humour. Speaking of his move down to the south west of England McLennan noted early on that, "the second half will contain some of my new Wurzels material". Not short of Scottish repertoire McLennan opened with a setting of Robert Burns poem 'A Man's A Man'. Thus we were introduced to Ewan McLennan's calmly confident style of performance.

McLennan made the guitar sing. A gentle player he did not use a plectrum or a pick allowing the sound of his nails to be audible on the strings whether picking or strumming. Using an external pickup gave the natural sound of the guitar a central role in his performance and McLennan demonstrated his love of the instrument with a scattering of instrumental pieces throughout the evening.

McLennan's set explored a variety of perspectives. 'Lichtbob's Lassie' evoked empathetically the story of women who choose to follow their men around the country with their work and McLennan contrasted this with a song he described as the 'bad man blues'. As well as the inclusion of a Child ballad, songs from the travelling people featured heavily in McLennan's repertoire and it was clear the efforts the singer had made to research this traditional material.

The evening was certainly enhanced by McLennan's offering of original material which included 'Whistling the Esperanza' about the Chilean miners' disaster of 2010 and 'Joe Glenton' about an ex-British soldier who was sentenced for "refusing to fight and to kill." Equally admirable was McLennan's fearlessness in approaching the hallowed turf of well known songs the 'Bob Dylan's Blues' and the traditional Gaelic song 'The Parting Glass'.

I was among a significant number who heard Ewan McLennan for the first time at Grayshott Folk Club. I take my hat off to Des for organising these monthly performances with the simple aim to "put on quality live music at affordable prices" and I thank him for introducing me to Ewan McLennan and his unique, gentle brand of folk music.

Louise Jordan
Photocredit Neil King (Not taken at gig)