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1
Tony Hamblin got the night off
to a great start with 2 songs. The first showed his impressive banjo
picking speed, the second was an equally good unaccompanied version of
Cyril Tawney's 'Chicken On A Raft'. |
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2
Next up was
Alan Bailey,
a welcome regular performer at Ashington, who delighted us with 2
lovely Irish tunes on his Northumbrian pipes.
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3
First time visit for Cramlington
Folk Club residents, Dave & John.
We enjoyed their 'Dumbarton Drums' and the gentle Artisan song 'You
Are There'. |
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4
Ann Lunam-Cowan
recited her poem 'Womans Weekly'. As
usual she had us chuckling with her low down on how she crams so much
living into each 7 days. |
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5
More unaccompanied singing from Pat
Yeowart who gave classy performances of 'Bernadette'
by Leonard Cohen and Marilyn Monroe's 'Little Girl From Little Rock'
(without the boop-oop-ee-doo). |
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6
This week we were fortunate to have 2 songs from
Ben Yeowart - his own
composition, 'Hello John (Long Long Time)' followed by a strange song
centred around clothes and laundry etc. |
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7
Another first time visitor was local singer / songwriter
Nicola Dodds whom we first met at
West Sleekburn Farm
Community Music. She played two songs, 'Found Out' and 'Imaginary
Things' from her CD 'Paint By Numbers'. |
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8
Al & Pete closed the first half in
fine voice and rousing fashion with 'Labouring Men' and a medley of 3
sea shanties. |
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9
Classical guitarist Alex played
his own beautiful and gentle arrangements of 'La Paloma' and 'Romanza'
- an awesome start to the second half. |
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10
Hylton got us all singing again
with 'Keep Your Feet Still Geordie Hinny'. |
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11
Our second regular Northumbrian piper is
Ann Sessoms. She gave us an excellent 2-tune set, followed
by a triple set of fife and jig tunes. |
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12
Jack
has an
infectious blend of Country & Western singing and yodelling. Tonight
we loved 'I'm A Fool' by Slim Whitman and Frank Ifield's famous 'She
Taught Me How To Yodel'.
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13
More banjo playing - this time from Doug
Wood who sang Woody Guthrie's 'Sour Wood Mountain'
followed by 'When The Train Comes Along', a great gospel song. |
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14
Jimmy & Carol, also from
Cramlington Folk Club
surprised us by bringing on the 6 foot Ivy Benson double bass that
Carol's been learning for a few weeks. They sang 'Rose In A Spanish
Garden' and 'Palomino Pony' - super! |
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15
By now time was running short, so we only had one song from
Jim
who is becoming a regular visitor. His self-penned 'Dilemma' song is a
humorous look at retirement age. Let's hope we hear more from Jim next
time. |
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16
George Rosenthal is another friend
from West Sleekburn that
we'd like to see more often. He gave a polished performance of a
gentle song about a lock-keeper, following it up with the Paul Simon
classic 'Slip Sliding Away'. |
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17
To help us beat the clock, our favourite bluesman, club resident
John Campbell cut his set to 1
song, a great rendition of 'Little Red Rooster' using his resonator
guitar. We promise more from John in future. |
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18
Peter Murphy finished the night
in great folk style. He sang an unaccompanied version of 'The
Portuguese' especially for his mother who, until tonight, had never
seen Peter perform in 30 years!. His closing song was 'Mountains Of
Mourne' by Percy French, performed with a beautiful and delicate
acoustic guitar accompaniment. |
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| What a night!
Packed to bursting point... 18 acts, 31
songs, tune sets and a poem. And it's still free. A magnificent evening's
entertainment, marred only by the fact that there aren't enough hours to
hear enough of everyone. Be sure to come along and experience the
friendly atmosphere, attentive audience, and great performances at Ashington Folk Club... first
and third Thursday of every month. |
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Thanks
to audience and performers
for an amazing night. |
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