The BBMA AGM Concert 2001
 By Jean Brandon
Photos copyright (c) NWBN 2001 St Patrick's Day, Saturday 17th March, saw us in Kenilworth for another excellent BBMA Concert following the AGM. Kevin Garrett had organised an excellent programme with three top British Bluegrass Bands: Blackjack, Bluegrass Experience and The Bluegrass Brothers. Blackjack background | Blackjack in Holland The concert kicked off at 8pm with the venue not seeming as full as last year but as the evening progressed it filled to capacity. As usual silver-lamé-waistcoated Ron Stevens MC'd the proceedings with verve and style. Blackjack opened up looking very gay (proper use of the word) in their navy and white flowery shirts. The line-up was Gary Payne (guitar), Gary's wife Sherryl Payne (bass), Rod Jackson (banjo) and Stevie Mansell (mandolin). They provided a nice mixture of material and cracking vocal harmonies, each member singing lead on some of the numbers.
Blackjack finished with mandolinist Stevie doing a rip-roaring impression of Elvis singing That's Alright Mama. Bluegrass Experience followed with Rick Townend (fiddle / vocals), Rosie Davis (bass / autoharp / vocals), Tim Davis (banjo / vocals) and Adrian Farmer (guitar / vocals). Ron Stevens' introduction was immediately followed by Rick's powerful, incisive fiddle intro to Don't Say Goodbye, setting the tone for a superb set of Bluegrass songs and tunes played with great style and feeling. I for one was bowled over by this band. I've seen Rosie and Rick as a duo but the band was new to me. Adrian Farmer's great beefy guitar playing with clean and punchy picking underpinned a great driving sound, while Tim Davies, who picked his arch-top banjo with eyes closed, managed to sing lead and play at the same time without looking at his hands, amazing!
The reason for the steel tipped shoes became evident with the next tune: It was for Rosie to step dance to on her portable board with Tim playing slap bass (still with eyes closed). It had a really nifty 'shave and a hair cut' ending. Humour was also present in their terrific performance of The Old Chittingstone Cider Song. Then a version of John Hardy (which Rosie forgot the title of, but oh, how sweetly she apologised!) with two banjo's finished a storming set by a very professional band. The crowd wouldn't let them go without an encore, a great banjo pick-off. This was a real Bluegrass experience from Bluegrass Experience! Ron hosted the usual raffle with seven prizes (Tom Travis won a bottle of wine!) before announcing the final band of the evening, The Bluegrass Brothers. Leo and Ray Duffey (fiddle / guitar / vocals), Peter and Alan West-Robinson (banjo / bass / vocals) and Jill Barham (vocals / percussion (of sorts) … a brother). The first number had a great sound with superb 'moaning' fiddle from Leo Duffey and cool (or should we say hot?) an up the neck Scruggs-style break on banjo. This is a very talented bunch playing mostly contemporary material with the odd traditional bluegrass tune played in contemporary style. After an a-cappella Gospel song (Teach Me), they welcomed Jill Barham to sing Alan West Robinson's Darlin'.
After several more numbers, including Daisy May in Texas Swing style, they brought their set to a close with Fire On The Mountain, played in a very contemporary style featuring two banjo's both playing harmony lines and no instrument playing the melody. I have to say that their performance was superb with everything played with great expertise. It would've knocked a Folk audience for six but Bluegrass it ain't! I must admit to being disappointed that this very talented band of musicians who I've heard play superb Bluegrass chose not to do it on this occasion, particularly being the headline band at the British Bluegrass Music Association's Annual Concert!
Having got that off my chest I'll say it was a superb evening.
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They
gave us a good set with lots of Bluegrassy numbers including You're My
Baby, Sitting Alone In The Moonlight and There Won't Be No
More Paintin' Up This Town. Sherryl did a great job on the vocals of
the Nancy Griffith's song Trouble In The Fields and considering that
the sound caused some problems in the beginning they took it all in their
stride, keeping their sense of humour (someone quipped "The banjo player
used Viagra eye drops before he came on because he wanted to look hard!)
and Rod announced "Sherryl will buy a pint for the first person to name of
the next tune," which started and finished slow with 'hell for leather' in
between! I'd never heard it before and it appeared no one else had either,
so Sherryl's money was safe!
The
varied programme included some of Rosie's lovely self-penned songs in bluegrass
style and a couple of Rick's own tunes including Rest Awhile (suggested
to Rosie by a dedication on a bench in Wadhurst Churchyard) plus How Will
I Know You Still Love Me. Rick played a tune he claimed came to him while
"fiddling around on the banjo", plus some old favourites including Bill
Cheatham (with a superb bit of guitar picking from Adrian). Tim's rip-roaring
version of Bugle Call Rag on banjo, with Adrian on Dobro, was a killer.
In fact each member of the band played a different instrument at least once
during their set. At one point they announced that as it was St. Patrick's
Day they felt that they should at least include one Irish tune which prompted
Rosie to bring out the dreaded Autoharp (Your Editor, upon noticing Rosie's
steel tipped shoes, declined to make a comment..) Rick sang it really well.
Her
contributions included the Beatles' I Will with a nice intro on banjo
and guitar, joined by mandolin with the bass coming in very effectively after
the first vocal line; all very beautiful but not Bluegrass. Then Who Will
Watch The Home Place (from the singing of Laurie Lewis). This was dedicated
to the 
Organiser Kevin garratt