After finishing up at the songwriting retreat, I headed South to Hartlepool. As ex-exiled smoggie from Teesside, I can’t explain how weird the concept of “heading south to Hartlepool” sounds. How can you head South to the North? Answer: by being more northerly than the North. I pitched up at the campsite after a 7hr 20min drive from Scotland for the Hartlepool Folk Festival. It was my very first event, and rather than kip with my mum on her sofa bed, I opted for the full “festival” experience by spending two nights in a campervan in October without any heating. Keeping it real, man, keeping it real.
So I saw loads of people and picked up a truckload of new music:
Some of what I acquired before going to the festival. I had the very nice experience of meeting the Netherlands’s musician “Jos Aniz Geeter”. Jos is based out of Rotterdam. He builds his instruments and has been singing and playing for decades. He is also a massive John Martyn fan. The Katie Spencer LP isn’t new – but somehow had slipped me by – had Katie’s debut EP after seeing her at Exile Festival, Matlock pre-pandemonium, and wonderful “Edge of the Land”, – but somehow I missed the debut LP.
The new Frankie Archer EP was waiting for me on the doorstep when I got home, and Frankie very kindly noticed I had double-ordered her EP by mistake. It’s not my first time on Bandcamp – is it me, or is that a bug? Anyway, after meeting her after the gig, she subbed me £10 rather than fannying around with PayPal refunds. I’ve mainly been hearing Frankie’s EP via social media platforms, as I find it here. She’s a reworking of Barbera Allen (as does Maddie Morris on her EP Upstream). I was joking with someone I need to do a version – perhaps calling it Barry Allen. I’m not sure what my angle is – perhaps Barry Allen goes to the hospital believing he’s going die, slips into a coma where they perform an unexpected sex change, and becomes Barbara Allen. Incidentally, I am joking – but how far, I’m not sure. It’s a song I first encountered state-side. I love the different versions – but I’m unsure about the well-known ‘canon’ of folks’ songs that form the bedrock of the recognised repertoire. Frankie is doing really innovative work with a master of digital stuff and re-writes from a distinctly modern feminist perspective – but I’m not sure what I could bring to the party. Despite being an aspiring folk musician, there’s a comparatively small number of songs that I think I could do something “different” with them. Part of me thinks to do that I need to a “Angeline Morrison” and start diligently working my way through Roud & Co, looking for stuff that speaks to me a personal level.
I’m pretty attracted to the idea queer re-working of Sovay (https://mainlynorfolk.info/martin.carthy/songs/thefemalehighwayman.html). When I first listened to this song about the lover who dresses as a highwayman – I couldn’t help but get the image of Gentleman Jack out of my head. You know the TV series about Anne Lister, played by Suranne Jones (sigh!). In the series (closely based on a true story) Anne falls in love with Ann Walker. Sadly, Anne (with an E) has often been unlucky in love – with often the women of her affections deciding they aren’t a lesbian at all and running scurrying back to the arms of their pestilent husbands. So, in my mind – Gentleman Jack cross-dresses as a highwayman to “test” her new love, to see whether she is committed to a love which lies outside of society’s acceptable bounds. So it’s a gender-bending cross-dressing tale of uncertain lesbian love, which I’m sure happened all the time in the Olde World days.
There’s another song that I’m really interested in – although I don’t have an angle is “The Two Magicians” (“The Twa Magicians”, “The Two Magicians”, “The Lady and the Blacksmith”, or “The Coal Black Smith” (Roud 1350, Child 44). At the time of listening to the song a couple of years ago, I was interested in the concept of the witch – and finally got round to visiting Old Mother Shiptons Cave – and, of course, the stories around Pendle and Salem. There are a couple of reasons why I’m interested in the witch. In some respect, I feel that trans people, especially trans-women, are the new modern witches. Demonised by the mainstream, they are regarded as dangerous creatures to be excluded from society. But also, the process of becoming a trans-witch is eerily familiar to how they used to decide if a woman was a witch enough. The ducking stool. Transition works like this in the UK. You take the trans-person and submerge them in water for about 7-10 years, and if after that time you are not dead – this must mean you are a genuine trans person and you qualify for treatment under our beloved NHS. I first heard the song on ‘Songs of Witchcraft and Magic” by Bob Fox & Stu Luckley.
The powerful modern image that came into my mind – was of the black smith with a hammer in his hand. As a child of the 70’s I just couldn’t get the image of Peter Sutcliffe out my head. So the song become less jaunty tale of a male/female jousting of magical skills. But one where the woman is attempting to escape male violence – and in the end she is successful. Her magic proves more powerful.
So anyway. There are lots of new performances and music to walk away with – probably the most intriguing is “The Beath”, which I’d never seen before. The Breath is Manchester-based guitarist Stuart McCallum and singer/flautist Ríoghnach Connolly. Ríoghnach has great stage presence and a laugh to die for – quite in contrast with the haunting, ethereal vocal (gawd, why do we always reach for the H and E word in music reviews – and yes I’ve been described in H and E terms so I know how fecking lazy it is such words). I think they maybe playing at Sam’s in Sheffield soon.
Other people who stood out for me were Lisa Knapp and The Rose Hood band.
I can see folks festivals are going to be come an expensive affair – what with the ticket, campervan plot, beer, food and buying a CD from nearly every musician I see. Buy hey, its keeps me off the streets and out of mischief…