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Rita Hosking and Sean Feder + Garron Frith

Venue: Grateful Fred's At The Atkinson
Town: Southport
Date: 2/4/14
Website: http://www.ritahosking.com

Tonight saw the most welcome return of Rita Hosking to Grateful Fred's, accompanied by her husband Sean Feder on dobro on banjo. Not only were we treated to Rita's unique blend of old-time,folk and country music but we were also greatly entertained by that highly original singer /songwriter Garron Frith.

As is traditional at Grateful Fred's, the evening began with a curtain-raising set from the Grateful Fred's House Band who keep on getting better and better. Particularly strong are their vocal harmonies on songs such as "Lady of the Harbour", "I Can't Get Over You" and "Hole in the Centre of Me", not to mention the sinuous guitar of Fretful Ged. The closing number "He'll Have to Go" harked back to their earlier Tox-Mex style but with the added bonus of Ged's flamenco-style guitar.

One of my colleagues, Simon Ridley, writing in this magazine, described Garron Frith's second album "Away From The Bright Lights" as "quite simply a bluesy /folk rock marvel" and I certainly would not disagree. Garron hails from just up the M62 in Manchester [Mossley, to be precise]. Not only is Garron a superb songwriter, he is also, as Simon put it, "an exceptional guitar player". As if those qualities were not enough, he has a most appealing, soulful yet bluesy voice, not a million miles away from that of Ray Lamontagne [as one of my companions helpfully pointed out]. And by the way, he plays a mean blues harmonica ,just for good measure.

I really enjoyed Garron's set, which included several tracks from "Bright Lights", namely "Good Thing" and "Old Habits".

One of the outstanding tracks on "Bright Lights" is the hugely atmospheric "Black Widow", which begins with a flamenco flourish which leads into a "soundtrack to a movie that hasn't been made yet",as Garron put it. This is a wonderfully cinematic song which would indeed make a great film noir soundtrack. In total contrast, Garron then took us to the Manchester Delta for a bottleneck blues excursion, which led into a fine gospel reading of "Jesus On The Mainline", as popularised by Ry Cooder. More bottleneck followed on a cover of Lowell George's classic truck driving song "Willin'", as recorded by his band, the great Little Feat, a later line-up of which Garron has opened for. Garron ended his all-too short set with another sterling track from "Bright Lights", "Not The Man" , which recalls such great folk/blues artists as the late Bert Jansch and John Martyn. All in all, this was a most impressive performance from Garron and I would certainly go and see him again.

After the traditional raffle break [the prize for which was a ukulele, incidentally], Rita Hosking and Sean Feder took to the stage. Rita and Sean hail from North Eastern California and purvey a most engaging blend of old-time, country and folk styles. Rita's voice has an authentic country inflection which, for reference purposes, lies somewhere in between those of Gillian Welch and Iris Dement, which is fine by me.

Rita was formerly a history teacher and her highly individual songs cover a range of unusual subjects, including a cross-dressing buckaroo [Little Joe];the American Civil War [Tall White Horse]; a forest fire where the only article saved was a kitchen table ; domestic cleaners [Merry Maids] ;demolition derbies [where the highlight is cars crashing and catching fire] and living in a haunted house where a woman shot herself.

Rita's songs are beautifully observed and she captivates her audience with her warmth and humanity. Most touching of all is her lovely song "Come Sunrise" which she wrote for her daughters. Sean is a fine dobro and banjo player and he provides the perfect musical foil to Rita's distinctive voice and guitar.

As well as her own superb songs, Rita sang some choice covers by two artists [both deceased ] who have influenced her. First she sang "The Lilac and The Apple" by the late, great Northern Californian songwriter Kate Wolf and, secondly, "The River Bend" by West Virginian Hazel Dickens, who died in 2011. The latter featured Sean on Scruggs-type bluegrass banjo to great effect.

Rita and Sean returned for a well-earned encore with a song about "Dirty Dishes" [of course!] and so ended another great night at Grateful Fred's at The Atkinson.

Peter Cowley