sunday: no more water

horsemouth does so hope not. he’s a little hung over (he blames the post-gig pint in the wetherspoons).

stick in the wheel upstairs at the garage - on second thoughts that is more the right size - downstairs might have been a little empty. (that didn’t stop horsemouth and myk and the congregation from queuing at the wrong door for ages though).


first on gwenifer raymond banjo and guitar (some retuning) - myk got the last of her CDs - once again excellent (‘john fahey has returned - and this time she’s welsh’). almost polysyllabic this time - we’re probably into double figures for words in the stage patter (but only just).


young waters - excellent harmonies, not horsemouth’s thing though, guitar, two violins, double bass. singer-songwriterly - probably a little more variation would be good (horsemouth always says this) but conversely the straight ahead folk at the end is probably too crowd pleasing to be necessary. they sang an acapella - that was good (which one was it? they caimed it was irish? horsemouth’s memory fails him).

pleasantly minimal - a little too much good taste (for horsemouth’s taste) of which, to paraphrase oscar wilde, ‘too much can be fatal’.

chris wood - myk was keen to see. again singer-songwritery (but more in an observational, social commentary kind of way). two songs - a good arrangement of blake’s jerusalem, and a social commentary song about modern life. here the bar is set high - can you rage against modern life more effectively that elvis costello or graham parker (or dylan for that matter)? still - well played and interesting.



stick in the wheel - a great set, great opening, particularly the new material from follow them true which is properly cinematic - the abbots bromley horn dance in particular, welcome returns for the london riots song and champion at keeping’em rolling, ending out with a sing along on poor old horse. nicola seemingly grumpy about going of on tour ‘it’s a bother’.

if horsemouth has a criticism it’s that the set is a bit bitty (being made up of too many short songs that don’t outstay their welcome), there’s little development, there’s little extension, there’s little experiment. there is variation (instrumentals, acapellas, sea-shanties) but there’s not quite enough variation. still it’s early days yet. they're off on tour so you can judge for yourselves.