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Chris Wood + Ian Wallace

Venue: Fraser Theatre
Town: Knaresborough
Date: 08/02/14
Website: http://www.kula-productions.com

This was yet another superb evening at the Fraser in Knaresborough courtesy of Kula Productions. This small production company is run by a friend of mine so I always try to support the events. The venue is a small theatre, capacity of 120, in the North Yorkshire market town that I live in. Despite its size, the artist list is pretty impressive. In the past we have had Kiki Dee, Beverley Craven, Neil Innes, Richard Digance, Martin Simpson and too many others to mention here. The latest "big name" being Radio 2 Folk Singer Award Winner, Chris Wood!

Okay, so I will hold my hand up now and admit that I had never heard of Chris Wood before the publicity and the purchase on our tickets. I have heard of him now.

Before reviewing Chris's performance, I would like to write a bit about the support act, Ian Wallace. Ian is a local man although he is a New Zealander by birth. He is an accomplished guitarist and singer with a really nice voice and excellent stage presence. A very self-deprecatory and humorous man! He sang mainly his own self-penned music which is very listenable. Some of this is quite funny and quirky especially the song about the wrong telephone number. He also played a bit of Rossini. That was unexpected and I have never heard the William Tell Overture played on the guitar before but I have now. Very good it was too! His final song Swim Over Me was beautiful. If you get the chance to see him, take it, or check him out on https://soundcloud.com/ianwallace1.

The headline act was Chris Wood, a BBC Folk Awards winner. A self-confessed grump, not unlike Victor Meldrew, he is a wonderful guitarist and very clever lyricist. Once again, some lyrics being amusing whilst others are truly heartfelt. He is also very self-indulgent and overdoes, at least for me, his political views which I do not believe should be used in the name of entertainment. If they are used it should be sparingly, not a down your throat ramming exercise. I spoke to him at the break and he told me that when he was supporting Joan Armatrading someone complained to him that he was too political. No surprise there then. I understand that many singers use music as a way of ranting or rebelling but it is not really for me. He closed the first set with a song about the murder by the Met police of the Brazilian terror suspect, Jean Charles de Menezes, in London. A real happy song that is! The second set followed the same pattern as the first with some wonderful guitar work and some further political observations. http://chriswoodmusic.co.uk/

I always want to leave a show with a song in my heart and a smile. I am not sure that happened after this gig and both my wife and I would both have willingly swapped the running order. Oh well, the price of fame!

Rory Stanbridge