Acoustic Magazine
Gig of the Month
Oxford Folk Festival
When Fay Hield’s four-piece a cappella group, The Witches of Elswick, disbanded in 2007 following much success many were disappointed. Two years later, her debut solo performance at Oxford Folk Festival, accompanied by Sam Sweeney and Jon Boden, was worth the wait. Her strong voice with soft, comforting northern tones, delivered songs from the length and breadth of the country in what felt like a relaxed, confident performance, even taking the audience with her during a brief moment of indecision regarding the tune of her next song.
Simple uncluttered instrumentation, mainly fiddle and concertina, was provided by Boden and Sweeney and even by Hield herself, albeit with an added disclaimer that she could “only play the one note on the concertina so don’t be sitting there waiting for me to get flash”. The arrangements complimented both Hield’s voice and her choice of songs, some of which were playfully upbeat, describing the mad man and his equally mad wife and family, and the more serious numbers, giving an overall sound somewhat reminiscent of the performances of a previous generation of folk artists.
Following the set, Hield’s performance made up much of the audience chatter, but there was a significant debate about what sort of instrument Sweeney was playing. Which I can now reveal was a Swedish nyckelharpa. No, I’ve never heard of it either, but it makes a wonderfully delicate sound. Contained within a festival bursting at the seams with talent this performance really stood out as one of the highlights and it was a pleasure to attend the first solo performance of an artist who should become a strong influence on the folk world, through a career that will be followed with keen interest.
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Stirrings (Mike Wild)
The Boardwalk, Sheffield
I’ve enjoyed Fay’s voice as part of the The Witches of Elswick, the woman’s a cappella group, and her solo performance was strong and feisty and she has a (“Nice to hear a lass with some ‘bollix’ to her voice for a change,” was my partner Linda’s comment.) It was a well researched and individual repertoire with a good number of long and dramatic ballads. But not all was “wuthering” (to quote Gav Davenport’s interview with Fay in Stirrings 141). The Mad Family, Peter Bellamy’s Fox Jumped Over the Parson’s Gate, and Yellow Roses were just a few of a varied and representative set. Trio members Sam Sweeney on fiddle and nyckelharpa and Rob Harbron on English concertina, both superb musicians, provided a sensitive accompaniment and all three bounced off each other nicely. Invited onto the stage were Jess Arrowsmith, another young mum, on vocal harmonies and Hannah Jams who gave a clog dance.
It was a pity the CD wasn’t available (Fay’s facebook site says she received her copies on April 21). It will be out in summer, but it left us waning more and it will be great to see Topic signing new artists in its 70th year. If the night was anything to go by there will be lots of albums for the next wave of young enthusiasm to be inspired by. It’s in good hands.
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www.brumlive.com
The Red Lion, Birmingham
Fay and her music were an absolute joy. She sang predominantly traditional songs — gruesome murder ballads, sea shanties, love songs, millworkers’ satirical songs. There was a delightfully awful lullaby from the early nineteenth century which warns the child that if it doesn’t go to sleep instantly Napoleon will come and eat him up, bit by bit. The traditional material was interspersed with other relatively more recent material, including a number of poems set to music by Peter Bellamy and some songs collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams in the early nineteenth century. Her own enthusiasm for the songs and the stories they tell was obvious and added to the pleasure.
She was accompanied by two equally fine musicians. Sam Sweeney (also of Bellowhead) played the fiddle and the Swedish nyckelharpe, a keyed bowed instrument that looked a bit like a psaltery with knobs! It was certainly the first time I had come across one and it has a lovely delicate sound. Rob Harbron (of the English Acoustic Collective) played fiddle and guitar but most of all English concertina. He was definitely impressive — his solo bits during ‘Harris Mill’ had me holding my breath with delight and the instrumental ‘White Joak, Black Joak’ was great.
The set was well-paced and varied. Fay was comfortable chatting with the crowd who responded appreciatively. It was a pity, however, that the audience wasn’t bigger. The room was only half-full. With such substantial performers at a bargain price (less than half of what you’d have to pay at a town centre venue), I was surprised that they hadn’t managed to fill the entire pub!
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