9th February 2006 - Allan Taylor in Concert

'Dream On'....... to....... 'Some Dreams'

A review of Allan Taylor with jiva, at Ashington Folk Club, 9th February 2006.

Having agreed to help Jimmy and Val on the door we arrived early for the gig. Funniest early memory of a wonderful night was hosts discussion at the door: Val: “Should I go and put my clothes on now?” Jimmy: “Mmmm, maybe a good idea” Val: "You can put yours on later" The Bothal Suite was filling up nicely as Allan relaxed by the stage playing jiva's collection of Taylor guitars. He's pictured left enjoying the 855 12-string.

At 8:30 prompt jiva took the stage in their traditional purple and black beatnik sartorialness to kick off with an unannounced 'Dream On' - some fine bass runs and lovely harmonies evident throughout. The pro-peace song 'The Cause' came next before a song inspired by Val's colleague's search for marital bliss - 'Different Dreams' - lovely fingerpicking here from a relaxed Val now bobbing from side to side. Now with the house full, they launched into the first song that Allan Taylor had ever heard of theirs and - on capo 4 together - for 'One More Song' with a lovely build up, mellowed vocals and confident happy delivery. Sadly it was to be their last song of the night but the anticipation of the genius of Taylor was evident everywhere.

With reverb knob up, fine resonance and brave words, Allan Taylor developed a lovely instrumental start into the vocal “Does he call you through the darkness...?” to deliver an old favourite 'Like I Used To Do'. Taylor by name but Martin guitar by nature, this sounded excellent - and moved next into 'The Stranger', a song inspired by picking up the banjo of the late Derroll Adams at his home in Antwerp... lovely lilting pick reminiscent of Knopfler's solo work. Retuning both E Strings for an evocative request gave us 'Wheel of Fortune' with such reminiscent poetic wit including “Sharon sings for Wayne in a Karaoke bar” !!

Allan Taylor has a wonderful attentive manner of explaining his songs before playing them, explaining that many were the result of seemingly “idle observation” - we received magnificent 5 fret finger stretches with such clarity next in the chorused song, 'The Merlin Cafe' from Germany. Next came another popular choice, 'The Mission Hotel' from Allan's latest CD 'Hotels and Dreamers'. This one, written for a waitress at the hotel, lightly rocks and saw both Jimmy and Val nodding in unison and several further back singing along. Moving forward, very close to the stage, I was able to witness at close hand Allan’s dexterous displays with a beautiful request for host Jimmy that moved him immensely - 'Standing At The Door' - rightly described as a song about a universal shared experience... exquisite stuff that had tears welling in Jimmy's eyes. The first half ended with 'Kerouac's Dream' - “ I play this at every gig” he announced, recalling teenage ambitions and giving plenty of bass beat and pounding rhythm.

The second half saw Allan Taylor jokingly recalling a previous experience of Geordie folk in a Folk Club Raffle before playing 'Back Home To You' - a relatively new song. Then he re-tuned for two songs in ¾ time - the Hispanic feeling evident in 'Los Companeros' - and a brand new song 'Lay Soft On Your Pillow' with the haunting anticipatory ending “...bid farewell to the man”.

'Banjo Man' - the accompanying Derroll Adams tale from earlier - was another request, well met with many amply singing along, a bluesy riff with a ragtime feel, three fun demonstrations of the fine middle pick and run, and lovely slide notes over the strings. Accepting several requests for 1978’s 'Roll On The Day' he had the whole house singing as well as appreciative of the revelation that this song was recorded with Rubber Records in Wallsend with Irene Hume (of Prelude) providing vocal harmonies. In this song only, I recognised 'normal' first position C and G chords used briefly... the rest of the night was a blur of intriguing shapes I'd never seen before! Moving from fingers to plectrum now and tales of his night with Maxi & Mitch for the Guide Dogs charity, we had 'It's Good To See You' with Dave and friends in the room waving white sticks aloft!

Called back to encore, someone shouted for - and got - 'Some Dreams', a Taylor classic written for his daughter, a haunting and mellow ending with superb dropping bass lines and stretches, coupled with melodic trebles.

Now at 11:00 pm it just left lovely MC Val to say thanks and announce “Tonight was absolutely magnificent”. I completely agree... a great night, packed house, superb sound, poetic content and atmosphere - without doubt, one of Ashington's finest.

Mike & Hazel Jessop

Note from Jimmy & Val (jiva): Thanks to Mike & Hazel for sterling help on the door and for the above review. We had a truly memorable night - thank you to everyone for your support... it was wonderful to see so many friends and new faces. Please feel free to add your comments below, or in our Guestbook.

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