Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow are a successful and
popular duo on the folk circuit, accruing multi-layers of acclaim, whilst
rarely failing to entertain an audience. The vocal blend, honing in on
individual skills and possessing a keen ear to the borrowed and self-composed
song has fermented their stage presence to the extent of adapting to a variety
of live formats. This evening’s setting in the intimate surroundings of Kings
Heath’s premier listening venue fell into the duo’s lap, though they did
provide their own sound set up that gave the sonic environment a richer
texture.
This latest run of O’Hooley and Tidow dates is billed as
their Winterfolk Tour, aligned to the album of the same name released last year.
Thus a seasonal theme threaded through the brace of sets that the pair played
to a near full house.
Despite festive tracks like the familiar ‘River’ and ‘Fairytale of New York’ to close the evening (both standards given
a personal twist) and picks off their WINTERFOLK , VOL 1 record such as ‘One More Xmas’ (possibly the song of the
night) and ‘The Last Polar Bear’, the
soundtrack forayed into many other subjects that have inspired the duo’s song
choice.
Therefore jolly singalongs in ‘Gentleman Jack’ (based on the infamous 19th century
diarist Anne Lister) and ‘Summat’s
Brewin’ (celebrating the triumph of the small in a real ale context) kept
the tempo up as the pair switched between piano, accordion, guitar and both, on
and off mic. Throw in an instrumental piano solo from Belinda and a poetry
reading from Heidi, and you can increasingly visualise the artistic diversity
that flowed.
When seeking the most moving moment of the show, you needed
to look no further than ‘Whitethorn’,
with its homage to Ireland’s lost rural children, blending into Heidi’s German
version of ‘Stille Nacht’, followed
by an opportunity for us all to join in on the English translation. Wonderful
music theatre.
Outside of these main points, many concurred with Heidi’s
political outpouring on food banks, austerity and LGBT rights We were all a
little more informed of the duo’s proud Huddersfield heritage (or at least
present home). Other songs to grace this stirring evening were versions of
Richard Thompson’s ‘We Sing Hallelujah’
and Louden Wainwright III’s ‘White Winos’
, along with other O’Hooley and Tidow recorded songs like ‘Fire and Wine’, ‘Wexford
Lullaby’ and ‘Little Boy Blue’.
At the end of a year where so much music has been explored
from countries like Canada, America, Sweden and Australia to name a few, it is
sometimes warm and reassuring to savour some home comforts as we head into a
few weeks break from the live music circuit. Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow
gracefully saw the year out and will be more than welcome again to share their
engaging and rather splendid take on the wide and eclectic world of folk music.
