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Dave Swarbrick + Said The Maiden + Ninebarrow

Venue: The Exchange
Town: Sturminster Newton
Date: 3/5/14
Website: http://www.folkicons.co.uk/swarb.htm

It's been a while since I'd seen/met up with Dave Swarbrick and to my recollection this was the first time I'd seen him perform solo. It has been a lot longer since I last found myself in the mid/North Dorset market town of Sturminster Newton, simply known as Stur to the locals, imagine a rolling r at the end of that, a dialect corruption of Stour, the local river. I digress, it was definitely my first time at the Exchange and I have to say it's a nice venue with good sound.

This was one of those gigs that I simply couldn't turn down, not only is Swarb a Fatea Lifetime Achievement Award holder, both of the support acts, Said The Maiden and Ninebarrow have appeared on the Fatea Showcase Sessions, but more on them later.

Following a short break to recharge glasses, Dave Swarbrick took to the stage to deliver a highly entertaining evening of tunes and anecdotes, together with one song, a cover of "The Quiet Joys which Sandy Denny used to sing in her Fairport Days, performed with aforementioned Said The Maiden and it has to be said absolutely stunning.

With Swarbs connections to Fairport, amongst so many others, it's easy enough to forget that he really started his public performances in dance bands, something he reminded us of with both a great set of tunes and a reminiscence about how you moved closer to the microphone in a dance band the better your playing got, gradually progressing away from the drums.

Over the course of about an hour, we were led through a variety of tempos and styles as well as a number of well delivered tales, either stories associated with his discovery of the tunes or the history of the tunes and how they came to survive. I don't know about anyone else, but I was quite surprised to discover how many tunes that are perceived as fiddle tunes began life on other instruments such as harp and pipes.

Poor health has taken its toll on Dave Swarbrick over the years, when he's talking there is a fragile quality to his voice, but not enough to distract you from wanting to hear every tale, every anecdote. That said it really is the fiddle that does his speaking, it's almost like when he's got it under his chin, he's being transported to another place and whilst it is like his own little world, it's a world that he opens a window onto so that you can hear the passion with which he plays. Dave Swarbrick is still Iove with the fiddle and seems to want to shout it to the world.

Swarbs is also passionate about bringing forward the next generation of musicians so as well has having Said The Maiden along on the main tour, he has also had a number of local acts performing at the various dates and Stur was lucky to have had Poole's Ninebarrow making the same journey.

It was Ninebarrow that opened the proceedings with their version of the traditional song, "The Dark Eyed Sailor", sailors as it turned out were to become a bit of a theme for the subsequent set. Ninebarrow concentrated very much on songs from their recently released "While The Balckthorn Burns", which is strongly inspired by history and the landscape, though with less of a body count than you might imagine, which in its self makes a refreshing change. Jon and Jay have really strong harmonies which give their songs a real edge a real dynamic, particularly when bouncing against the, on the surface, simple instrument lines. The set was short, but made quite an impression.

The second act of the opening half was Said The Maiden, who started up full accapella style with "The Derby Ram" that had, according to the girls, had a bit of a mixed reception in Derby, where they also managed to get a photo taken with a smaller statue of the ram than the one in the song. Whilst harmonies are where Said The Maiden is at, it's always good to be reminded that the trio also play instruments as well as sing and did so for a surprisingly large number of their songs.

There is a free an easy nature about the band and both their songs and banter, a significant amount of which seems to rotate about sailors and fishermen. They have quite a witty nature to them, one that creates a delightful counter balance to the often darker nature of their material. The went down well to set things up nicely for Dave, once glasses had been refilled.

Neil King