John Doyle may be an in-demand session player, integral
member of the Transatlantic Sessions team and virtuoso guitar-playing
singer-songwriter, but this evening at the Kitchen Garden Café he proved to be
a very entertaining solo performer in his own right. Matching impish wit with
the aforementioned skills was a winning formula for John who failed to not move
any of this considerably healthy Birmingham audience turnout. The alternative attraction
of Richard Thompson at the city’s Symphony Hall and a vibrant street festival
right outside the venue’s door seemed to not impact upon the evening, give or
take a slightly delayed start to the proceedings. This sensible policy to wait
for a significant alleviation in the adjacent outdoor activity only had a marginal
effect on the evening which still panned out to John charming the attendees for
nearly two hours.
Striking a balance between traditional and contemporary is a
usual safe haven for folk artists alongside being able to deliver an
autobiographical flow of original material. John Doyle comfortably falls into this
category and threads many an entertaining yarn based on events from his beloved
Ireland. Not surprisingly travel and emigration from the Emerald Isle features
prominently in his writing with a pair of tracks from his most recent album in ‘The Arabic’ and ‘Clear the Way’ rich in this subject.
The album in question, SHADOW AND LIGHT, came out in 2011
suggesting John is far from an exhaustive music maker, although checking out
his extensive work with other artists is far more indicative of his hectic work
schedule. Recently John has teamed up with Kate Rusby on her latest record,
previously worked with Heidi Talbot and his association with Scottish folk
icons Mike McGoldrick and John McCusker is legendary. The evidence witnessed
this evening via John’s skills on his guitar-bouzouki hybrid, known effectively
as a guizouki, gave full credence to these collaborations and you only have to
go back a decade to uncover a Grammy winning project with Tim O’Brien.
Returning to proceedings this evening revealed yet another
gig which blossomed and bloomed more intensely with each song. Apart from ‘The Arabic’, which is a true tale of a
family member literally coming back to life after a deadly boat attack, the
other highlight of the first set was the ever perpetual folk singalong ,with ‘Liberty’s Sweet Shore’ providing the
memorable chorus on this occasion. This song married the theme of the evening
with its subject content based on the endemic hardship of nineteenth century
Irish emigrants making their way to Canada. A similar topic was the inspiration
of the evening’s final song in ‘Clear the
Way’ which tells the tale of the song’s inhabitants entering different
parts of America from the old world and
thus becoming enemies on the battlefield of a nation embroiled in civil war.
In fact the measurably increased in length second set was
packed full of smart songs ranging from the singalong sea shanty ‘Fall Down Billy O’Shea’ to the
intrinsically captivating song ‘Path of
Stones’. The latter is the result of a commissioned project to produce a
piece of song writing inspired by the great Irish poet W.B.Yeats and this yet to be
recorded track ticked many boxes on first listen. Traditional songs poured out
in the guise of ‘False Lady’ and a
re-working into ‘Valentine O’Hara’,
while many in the audience were given a educative lesson of the origin and
meaning of the word selkie via a song of the same name. The take on the Dick
Gaughan made famous song ‘Pound a Week
Rise’ was another entertaining high spot of the show, with John also demonstrating
his adeptness at delivering a love song in ‘I
Never Let You Know’.
Richard Thompson may have pulled in more punters for his
show, but those who chose this appealing intimate offering from John Doyle had
few complaints. The whole package was in place plus much more and when John
hopefully returns to the city next year with the Transatlantic Sessions annual
tour reunion, thoughts will go back to when he delivered a thoroughly
entertaining, enlightening and engaging show at the Kitchen Garden Café on a Sunday night in
September.
www.johndoylemusic.com