Tuesday the 21st April saw the welcome return of Pete and Shirley Ainsworth of Stained glass bluegrass. The room began to fill right from the start at 8 p.m. and by the time we’d finished our beginners session, ably supported by Percy, Ron and Barry from Llangollen, the room was full of pickers making for a great session to lead into the Showcase.

It was a great turnout with John Prytherch (Idle Frets), Pete Mackie, Barry Flynn and Pat Lindon (The Britannia Band) Dave Hytch (dobro), Jean and Derek Brandon and faithful regulars Fred Allot, David Brightmore and his wife, Geoff Blythin and his wife Sandra who Geoff said he’d brought instead of his guitar (He said that he couldn’t handle both at the same time!) plus the usual suspects (Hotel regulars) standing in the corridor. Barry had brought along a friend who turned out to be a well-known local (Liverpool) country singer Hank Walters, of the Dusty Road Ramblers. When it was Barry’s turn to sing he almost precipitated an international incident when he asked “Is it OK if Hank accompanies me on accordion?” on a Tex-Mex song!! Derek asked “How many strings has it got?” The Committee consulted the rule-book (well, not really!) and referred them to the one which states “Nothing that is pushed, pulled, struck, strummed or blown is allowed” (really!) so Barry did a different song! It was a good job they’d stuck to their guns - who should walk in just as the song was ending but the chief local accordion player. He’d wanted to bring his accordion on another occasion and was dischuffed when the same rules had been applied to him! Hank turned out to be very understanding of the reasons for doing this and sang a couple of songs in the second pick. The organisers were very gratified at the support they got from other pickers who said that they agreed with the rule and understood the reasons which prompted it! One regular, a good singer and flatpicker, said “I come here for a good pick - I’d stop if they let things like that in!” Then a pinnacle of the local Folk Music scene said “Look at the quality of players and singers here - they here come because things are as they are!”

Pete and Shirley, more than ably supported by Paul Duffy of Rainford on electric bass gave the sort of polished very “Bluegrassy” performance that we’ve come to expect from this well-known duo. They started off with It Won’t Work This Timeand Too Late To Cry, both AKUS favourites, and a Randall Hylton number Will You Be Faithful. They’d added quite a bit of new material to their repertoire, some great new songs amongst their list of favourites. These included two gospel songs, I’ll follow Jesus and I’ll Bear My Cross from the singing of The New Ashville Grass Band, USA

The next, an instrumental, was a real surprise, a “grassed up” version of an excerpt from Tchaichovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 which was very well received! This was followed by Mandolin Man written by Harley Allen about his father, I Just Wanna Hold You and It Seems There’s Nothing I Can Do, by Kathy Kallick (Good Old Persons).

Before the next song Raleigh and Spencer are burning down Pete paid tribute to Shirley thanking her for singing with him for all these years. “Oh I wished I’d brought my diary” she joked “That needs writing down”

They finished their spot with Cold Sheets of Rain (Lou Reid) which was highly appropriate as their home town of Leamington Spa had been flooded by the freak weather we’d had last week and the journey from work to home had taken her 10 hours instead of the usual 30mins!!

We couldn’t let them go without an encore so they finished with Buddy Holly’s Raining In My Heart. After a short break (The Bar won the raffle, again!) They joined us and we finished the evening with a great jam session. Fred Allot took good care of our no smoking sign as usual.

I almost forgot to mention that Jean Brandon was handicapped by a plaster cast due to the fact that she’d broken her arm a week earlier, but still managed to pick a little guitar and got a blister for her trouble!

(Them fibry glass casts is real tough!)

Peter Massey, Chester

Updated 23rd Jan 1999