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ELIZA CARTHY & JIM MORAY The Wayward Tour Union Chapel, London
Jim Moray’s reputation as a wilful polariser is too often overstated, both by those wanting to prove that English folk isn’t a spent-force or those who preface positive reviews with versions of “He might not be everyone’s cup of tea but…” As if they’ve accidentally taken a group of nuns to see Eminem.
After ten years of doing what he does, Jim Moray should only really be described as a standard-bearer for the continued rude health of English traditional music. For his part in this joint-anniversary road trip, Jim plays a nine song, career-spanning set of which only one song doesn’t have a trad arr badge. He really is as folk as folk can be.
While the thrilling rush of William Taylor
and the tear-inducing elevation of Seven Long Years are swept into the rafters by the Union Chapel’s complicated acoustics, a quick aural recce finds that at the front, at the back and in the corners of the balcony they sound- ed superb. So that’s a tip for you. Jim returns to the Union Chapel on November 9th to commemorate the birth of his first album. It’s not to be missed.
Despite the double billing, The Way-
ward Tour is chiefly about Eliza Carthy. Because we’ve not had as much Eliza Carthy recently as we should have. Even without her medically enforced silence it’s seemed of late that audiences might have, if not quite overlooked then certainly taken her musical powers for granted. These concerts feel like those advertising campaigns for household brands that say, “Have you forgotten how good they are?”
And how
good is she? How about the single most important musician of the English folk revival in the last 21 years? Without her… well there wouldn’t be noth- ing. There’d be something. But it’s near impossible to imagine what that something might sound like if it had- n’t been for Norma and Martin’s
teenage daughter waving her bow in the air and saying, “Yes, we can do it like that. But we
Jim Moray with Barn Stradling
can also do it like this,” – inspiring a genera- tion to play traditional music that belongs to them, in their own way.
One such inspiree is the aforementioned Jim Moray who, in the mid-’90s at Sidmouth Folk Festival, had a road to Damascus moment (or more accurately a Station Road moment) when he saw The Kings Of Calicutt play a set at the Bedford Hotel.
We can’t imagine how it must feel for Jim now to be also playing alongside Eliza, Barn Stradling and Saul Rose from that short- lived but vital band. They’re joined in a Bellow head-beating line-up that boasts Sam Sweeney and Lucy Farrell on fiddles, Beth Porter on cello, Mawkin’s David Delarre on guitar, Willie Molleson on drums, Laurence Hunt on percussion, Nick Malcolm and Adrien Toulouse on brass, and Andrew Waite from
Tyde on box and keys. It’s a lot of people making a terrific noise. But also knowing when not to make a terrific noise.
There’s so much musical intelligence at play in the arrangements of these greatest hits. And so her uncle Mike Waterson’s Jack Frost is as stark and mournful as it should be, just as the Widows Wedding section of Billy Boy is as crazed and bow-shredding as you could ever wish. Sam Sweeney’s joy at playing these tunes manifests as tiny excited pogos.
The audience don’t want it to end. And
it shouldn’t end. This should be a show we can always have – ripping the roof off a mar- quee at the end of festivals. Because when Eliza Carthy is at her best there’s no one bet- ter. And this is Eliza Carthy at her best.
Tim Chipping
Photo: Judith Burrows
Photo: Judith Burrows
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