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Sean Taylor

Venue: The Square And Compass
Town: Worth Matravers
Date: 28/03/14
Website: http://www.seantaylorsongs.com/

The Square And Compass is a pub of almost legendary status in Dorset and beyond. Rightly famed for its selection of beers, ciders and pies, its fossil museum, all gathered from local environs and it's support to the sculpting community. It has become a regular haunt of the walking and climbing community as well as, more and more music fans.

As well as hosting a number of festivals during the year, The Square And Compass plays host to regular gigs, attracting an incredible range of artists to it's almost unique, fire lit, bar venue. I can think of no other location that has a paper place in front of a large stone proudly proclaiming, "We have a band tonight, please let the fire die down". It's also a room with fantastic acoustics, matched by the atmosphere.

I've been fortunate enough to see Sean Taylor perform here before, so when I heard he was coming back, a place was clearly marked in the calendar.

Most Fatea readers know that I'm a huge Sean Taylor fan and that I've pretty much seen him play venues and festivals of all sizes up and down the country, but there's something about watching an artist in an intimate and packed venue that brings out the real performer. In front of a crowded room with the remains of a fire burning your behind, there is nowhere to hide, you have to relate to your audience.

With just voice, guitar, occasional harmonica and a great selection of songs over two sets, Sean proceeded to do just that. Throughout he was at his most fluid, sharing occasional banter with the audience, but it was the way he brought his songs out that made this such a stand out gig for me. The area is known for its quarrying, so his cover of "Sixteen Tons", though about coal, rather than stone, just seemed a natural one to pull out.

Sean's material harvested from a number of his albums and covering topics from personal relationships to more political songs and a hark back to gigs he's played at Tolpuddle, it was one of those nights which make you realise why music has such power to move. At the end of the second set pretty much the whole room found time to say a personal goodnight.

Sean would be off to play a gig with Eric Bibb and Danny Thompson as part of the latter's birthday gigs. That would also be an exceptional night reuniting Sean & Danny, who played on Sean's last album, but on a Spring evening in Dorset, we saw something really special.

Neil King
words and pictures