If you are brave enough to go to see One Direction at Wembley, or the X-Factor Finals, you’re likely to spend your evening either straining your eyes to catch a glimpse of the ‘musicians’, or staring at a big screen to the side of the stage… you may as well have stayed at home and watched it on the telly.
But at Downend Folk Club, as well as many other venues across the thriving UK folk-scene, you have the chance to get up-close-and-personal with some superbly-talented people... and last Friday evening was the perfect example.
Kicking off the evening in superb style, Chipping Sodbury-based singer and guitarist NOEY McELWEE’s resonant, sweet-as-honey voice weaved its way through well-known songs like Ralph McTell’s ‘First Song’, appropriately her opening number, 'Feels Like Home' and 'The Birthday Song', as well as welcoming her friend Mary Williams on vocals and flute for 'Run' and the other three members of her quartet BS4 for a close-harmony rendition of 'Ebb Tide', before finishing off with a version of 'Pour Me A Drink' that had the audience humming happily along. A smashing start to the evening.
And then the main event. CHRIS CLEVERLEY may not be the biggest household name that we’ve featured at the club, but he is without doubt amongst the most talented, and surely it’s only a matter of time until his name is at the top of festival bills across the country.
Photo: Chris Dobson
Starting off in unashamed folky style with an unaccompanied rendition of the traditional ‘Jolly Bold Robber’, Chris showcased his pitch perfect-singing voice… soft and relaxed, at times almost whispered, but with a firm underlying confidence. Singing a capella is always a brave thing to do, even more so at the very start of a set, but every member of the audience was hooked straight away.
Then he picked up his guitar and we saw exactly what Chris Cleverley is all about. This guy is a serious talent. Fingers stretching to almost impossible positions on his fretboard, the notes filled the intimate space at Frenchay Village Hall, and imprinted themselves forever in the hearts and minds of every single member of the one-hundred-plus strong audience.
During two sets of impeccable quality, Chris treated to his version of ‘O Shenandoah’, as well as self-penned tracks from his soon-to-be-released debut album, ‘Apparitions’, including ‘She Would Say A Lot Of Things’, which drew the now customary sigh of satisfaction from the audience, and ‘Missing Persons’, during which Chris explores the sensation of feeling stifled in a place. He lives in Birmingham which, he claims, is a “land of rainbows and unicorns”, but reveals that he often escapes to the West Country for some time to himself (“mostly drinking beer”). Indeed, Bristol has become an important place in the life of this affable West-Midlander… he scooped the Isambard Award at 2014’s Bristol Folk Festival which, he tells us, really changed everything and transformed his musical career and persuaded him to keep going.
And were we glad it did, as Chris concluded the first-half by transporting us to America, first to the 1950s for ‘Stables’, before switching to the banjo (his second instrument, and played in a clawhammer-style) and taking us further back to the 1930s for ‘I’m Not Long For This World’.
During the evening, Chris name-checks a number of guitarists that have influenced him to leave behind the classical guitar of his childhood and heavy metal phase of his teens and focus on the English folk tradition; names like Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Nic Jones and Martin Simpson. Their influence is obvious, and whilst Chris himself would no doubt baulk at the suggestion, his playing is right up there with these folk icons. But Chris Cleverley is very much his own man. Blues-tinged guitar solos (no doubt influenced by his father, a well-known act on the Birmingham blues-scene), mingle effortlessly with the folk finger-guitar style, and Chris cleverly (ha!) uses excellent percussive strokes to punctuate his songs and keep the audience on their toes.
Chris treats us to a version of the bawdy ‘Barrack Street’ in homage to Nic Jones, before showing us just how good a song-writer and lyricist he is with ‘The Dawn Before The Day’, the stand-out track on the album and certainly one of the highlights of the evening. This is a song that deals with the end of a relationship, but Chris handles it with a lightness of touch that make it an absolute winner… if Simon Cowell got his hands on it, it would certainly be a hit record!
We finish as we started as, for a well-deserved encore, Chris puts down his guitar and sings a beautiful unaccompanied version of ‘The Parting Glass’. It’s a fitting end to a perfect evening.
So you haven’t heard of Chris Cleverley? Oh, you will…
- Ant Miles, Chairman
We're pleased welcome CHRIS CLEVERLEY, one of the finest up-and-coming names on the new UK folk scene, for a relaxed, intimate show as our mid-Summer event.
Bimingham-based Chris will be our guest on Friday 21st August, and will deliver his range of traditional and original songs, accompanying himself on guitar and banjo. A relaxed and confident singer and player, his sound ranges from the individual, to a 'big band' level, demonstrating time and again just why he was selected as the winner of the Isambard Award at the 2014 Bristol Folk Festival.
Describing himself as a singer of “haunting tales of ghost women, lonesome clock towers, lovelorn mariners and hospital beds”, Chris delivers a range of songs, taking in different moods, influences and styles. He's toured with Spiers & Boden, Martha Tilston and Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman, and we can't wait to see him at Downend.
“Wonderful stuff” – Steve Tilston
Despite the reputation which has built up around Chris, he remains resolutely in touch with his audience, with a rapport which is both tender and humorous. It’s bound to be quite a show, so, after last month’s sold-out Jackie Oates gig, we recommend you get your tickets quickly.
Chris will be supported by local performer NOEY McELWEE. Noey's been singing and playing guitar since childhood, playing in many different bands and now as a soloist. She also performs as a support act to Black Sheep Harmony, a vocal group she helped to establish in Bristol. She's a familiar face at Downend Folk Club, having taken to the stage with Black Sheep Harmony as well as taking part in the local showcase in March.
The proceeds from our ever-popular raffle will be donated to local charity CHRISTIANS AGAINST POVERTY. CAP do great work in the local community, including organising a food bank. Those attending the gig are encouraged to bring an item for a food bank collection.
The event will be held at Frenchay Village Hall on Friday 21st August 2015. Doors open at 7.30pm and there will be a full bar serving GWB real ale, cider, wine and a range of soft drinks. As mentioned last month, please do consider bringing your own glass/mug/tankard/sheepskin, to enable to club to cut down on waste at the bar.
Tickets are £8 in advance, £10 on the door, and are available from Melanie’s Kitchen, Bristol Ticket Shop and online here. Members tickets are £7 and are available from the Members Only area of the website, or direct from Ant Miles.
We'll now be adding a review to the website a few days after each gig. In the first of these, GAVIN McNAMARA takes a look back at July's event.
Earlier this year the decidedly un-Folk folk at Classic FM voted The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams as their favourite piece of classical music. Its heart-stopping violin line echoing the sound and flight of a lark, it never fails to bring a tear to the flintiest of eyes. It also conjures a particular Englishness. One that is forever green and pleasant. One that is calm and beautiful. One where every sadness in the world can be washed away with a soft rain and birdsong.
JACKIE OATES perfectly understands this type of Englishness. Where other folk singers might throw in a bit of American folk song or the odd country tinge Jackie Oates is English Folk. With a capital E and a capital F. Over the course of a delightful evening at the Downend Folk Club she lead us down English country by-ways and onto wave washed beaches, a gentle rain and birdsong washing away every care.
With a voice as crisp and clean as a cider apple she tells us stories that are, in that great folk tradition, often sad and filled with longing. The title track of the new album, “The Spyglass and the Herringbone”, is a song about the Foundling Hospital. It is a delicate, poignant tale of lost children and regret set to a beautiful piano and violin refrain. Oates is joined by Mike Cosgrave throughout the set. He adds piano, guitar and a wry sense of humour to proceedings and under-cuts some of the gentle melancholy with a sideways glance and baffled smile. Together they make an utterly lovely sound.
Just after “The Miller and his Three Sons” we hear the first example of the Downend Folk Club Sigh of the evening. Does this happen at every folk club? Who knows? But here, after a song of particular beauty, the audience give a little moan. A collective breath, as much to say “Ahh, that was lovely”. Jackie Oates gets to hear The Sigh a lot this evening.
While her set, generally, settles for the hushed and the sad two moments stand out. A set of Cornish barn dance tunes bring to mind wood smoke, the wide open sea and clattering feet while the best song of the evening is a song written by her brother. Jackie Oates’ brother is Jim Moray. He, surely, needs no introduction. “The Wishfulness Waltz” was written by him, for her during a time of heartbreak. It is snow covered and sparkly. Not in keeping with a humid July evening but entirely transporting. We sighed as it finished.
Starting the evening were the best support band that the Folk Club has seen so far. KIM LOWINGS & THE GREENWOOD were bewitching. Bouzouki, double bass and percussion box humming and thrumming around another crystal clear, female vocal. Songs were of witches and labouring boys and one about a supermarket self-scanning machine that was more beautiful than the subject matter gave it any right to be. Folk songs can get a bit bogged down in wronged maidens and drowned sailors; these made you want to drum your heels and swirl through very English fields.
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