The Prospect Inn is a little old fashioned pub with lots of dark wood and glass and a cosy, intimate atmosphere. We were advised to arrive early as the two small connecting rooms fill up quickly The room was empty when we arrived but sure enough people began to trickle in steadily until it was packed. Bryn Williams arrived and proceeded to set up the single mike and sound system for the guests.

The guy who runs the club doesn't perform himself but acts as facilitator to the regular singers and players who support the club. It's a regular folk audience and the first half had two or three floor singers in a variety of styles. We had New York Girls and Ferry Over The Tyne from two ladies then two traditional unaccompanied songs from Fred (very well sung) then two Dobro players who I felt were very brave considering that Rob Ickes is the world's foremost Bluegrass Dobro player! One of them, Colin Blackburn, is an American living in England and he played Farewell to Tarawathie then a slow air. The second guy played Brownsville Blues (where's my jug?!) on a real Dobro, plus a couple of other instrumentals which paved the way for the guests, Rob Ickes and Tim Stafford of Blue Highway. They introduced themselves by apologising as they both were recovering from bad colds so were going to give us some pickin', coughin' and sneezin'.

They started the set with a song for Bill Monroe, Monrobro (because he was reputed to hate Dobros!) followed by some great flat picking and lead vocals from Tim on Wild Bill Jones. The next tune featured Rob on Lost Indian, with a great dobro solo in high gear and superb supporting guitar from Tim.  Having set the standard with some world class picking and singing they continued with a mixture of material including Woody Guthrie's Pretty Boy Floyd (great dobro on this, clean and crisp clear note picking) Lester Flatt's Lonesome Blues, Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Back Step (this translated well to Dobro solo impeccably played by Rob, who also played great back-up) and one of Tim's own songs Find Me Air On The Mountain Top Rob finished the first set with a superb solo performance of a great old English hymn Be Thou My Vision

The second half commenced with more floor singers before the guests treated us to another very varied set of superbly played mixed material which included Wheel Hoss by Bill Monroe, a Clyde Moody song made famous by Flatt and Scruggs, Six White Horses with a real bluesy guitar break from Tim. The audience was very sedate being mostly folk people; the Bluegrassers would've been whooping and hollering as the boys played their socks off! The small number of bluegrass fans were foot-tapping away to the lively music, but the folk fans... It was wierd not to see their feet moving... 

Like the pro's they are the duo worked the single mike, getting the most out of the sound system. The second half numbers included the fiddle tune Angelina Baker with a really sassy dobro break from Rob. Tim included some of his own songs again, one of which was based on a moving story of a member of his wife's family during the depression, of two young men who moved away from home, something not many of them did. One of them died away and the parents sold the farm to bring his body back for burial, the song was called Clay and Audie with Tim demonstrating the great control he had when picking with his little finger resting on the pick guard.

A Merle Travis song, I Am A Pilgrim, preceded Blue Ridge Mountain Home and Rueben's Train -(on which they were joined by Russell Williams on mandolin and Jon Hulme on banjo). By now the audience had really warmed up as these two leading musicians from the cutting edge of Bluegrass finished and encored with Wayfaring Stranger! The landlord was heard to say "How can we top tonight" "We can't" replied the organiser!

Jean Brandon, Chester.

1st July 2001