By Jean Brandon

Bryn Williams booked the band to play at the Horse and Jockey, Helsby, on 27th January. There was a good audience composed largely of ordinary punters - there was a noticeable absence of pickers - why? What disappointed me was that after Bryn had gone to the trouble to put on this American band he didn’t get the support he could have expected from the Bluegrass fraternity. Both we and Bryn were surprised, though we find the same thing happens at Chester. But there was a spread of “outsiders” present, including Simon Duncan (White Lightning), Dave ‘Frets’, John Les (Highly Strung), David Brightmore and us, as well as some of Stuart Williams’ pupils and friends, plus Bakers Fabulous Boys.

The venue was in the open-entry Main Lounge of the pub and I wondered how Bryn was going to fund it, though I never doubted that he would! Bryn (being Bryn) went round with a bucket and told everyone they had to put money in it. The alternative was he’d play fiddle in your ear - it was easy to pay up! And he made sure that once the money was in it stayed in - as Lynne Crowley found out when she tried to count it - Bryn had found the bucket in the toilet and not checked what was in it ...

We’d arrived in good time to find Bakers fabulous Boys in full swing, doing a great opening spot for the guests. They really were on form, with solid singing and great instrumental breaks sounding very Bluegrassy, and some original songs by Russell. The guest trio consisted of Tony Furtado (banjo, resophonic guitar, slide guitar) Dave Watts (percussion) and Eric Thorin (electric bass)

   Eric Thorin, Dave Watts and Tony FurtadoPhoto by D.Brandon copyright © NWBN

Tony started the evening in good style with a self-penned tune Waterslide on slide guitar followed by Raleigh and Spencer Are Burning Down (a song from the prohibition era about two South Carolina towns) followed by Crazy Creek on the banjo. His two supporting musicians were amazing! Dave Watts the percussionist really enhanced the performance by his imaginative and creative backing using all kinds of ‘noise makers’! In the next tune, written by Tony as a tribute to Blind Willie Johnson (a definitive old Blues and Slide Guitar player) Dave used a bunch of nut-shells and a drumstick grating on a cymbal giving a real eerie feel to the tune The Ghost of Blind Willie Johnson. Eric Thorin’s bass playing was - well, lets say many flatpickers would give their right arm to play like it...

They played the first set out with another of Tony’s own tunes called Bolinas, which is named after a beautiful sleepy coastal village near San Francisco. The residents try to keep it that way by taking down the road signs so that visitors have a hard time finding it - I know this is true because Derek and I went there and only found it the first time because our daughter had been before - you just have to know where it is!!!

The second half began with Cypress Grove, an old ‘bluesy’ tune into which Tony incorporated a tune which sounded like Clinch Mountain Backstep and Shady Grove rolled into one. The whole thing reminded me of The Grateful Dead’s rendition of You Know You Riders- this was very powerful playing on slide guitar with the tubular steel on his little finger. This was followed by a Flatt and Scruggs number Foggy Mountain Special played, as Tony said, through a New Orleans filter! They finished this short second half with a banjo medley incorporating Willow John - a good progressive Bluegrass tune - and Drakes Bay, a kind of jazzy Scottish-style reel but continuing the Bluegrass theme.

It was a cracking performance by a trio of superb musicians who were obviously relaxed and enjoying every minute. Tony was obviously playing what he loved along with like-minded people, who were interacting dynamically with each other (lot’s of ‘Blue Petering’; lots of smiling play-offs) with tremendous energy.

Obviously the audience weren’t going to let them get away without an encore so Tony chose a song he had written for his best friend’s little girl (called Early because she came late!). He played A Song For Earlysolo on acoustic guitar without amplification. You could have heard a pin drop in the room - the only noise was the distant sound of the hooligans in the next bar. This received rapturous applause and was the perfect end to a superb performance and evening!

At the end I elicited several comments from various people, but Jonny Hulme was knocked out and said it all, simply, and in one word - “WICKED!!!”  Write to Jonny

Though the musicianship was outstanding this was not an evening for single-interest ’grassers - Tony said “We’re not playing bluegrass”. And they didn’t. We had seen their show at the Heart of England Bluegrass venue at Warwick the Friday before. The HOEBV is very large, so it was interesting to see how the performance compared with Helsby. At HOEBV they had a big stage and big sound with more room to move, but a distant spread-out audience. The show was excellent, but I feel that at Helsby the smaller room led to a more “immediate” atmosphere and a more pleasurable result for us.

Congratulations to Bryn for putting on another free-entry (?) event and to Carmen Turner for organising the tour.

Jean Brandon, Chester

Blue-Petering:
We call it this after a form of attention-diversion practiced by the three presenters of a British childrens' TV program "Blue Peter". The two presenters not speaking to the camera at the time concentrate on turning  towards and looking at the one who is. Thus only the speaker ever looks at the camera. If the viewer tries to look at either of the others his attention is immediately diverted back to the speaker - it's hard to avoid!

This is a technique that Bluegrass Bands would do well to adopt and apply - always look at the "star of the moment" - the singer or the soloist! Don't even glance at the audience!!!!
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Updated 23rd Jan 1999