Just when the outdoor gig wear was about to be packed away a tip off came to check out a fabulous finale in the grounds of Moseley Park. Two weeks on from that location throbbing to the diverse sounds of the folk festival, a lower key gathering bade farewell to music under the skies for 2022 in the finest folk tradition - a 14 piece ensemble of top performers assembling under the name Filkin.
Sunset Folk Farewell was an apt name for this set (part of a wider arts weekend event known as Little But Live) as it began at 6 pm before ending literally as 7:30 beckoned the sunset. The ensemble was largely made up of local Midlands-based musicians. Four known names to enhance the tip off were duo Thorpe and Morrison, solo artist Ellie Gowers and Bonfire Radicals front person Michelle Holloway. All appeared at the festival a fortnight ago and played significant parts in this fun foray into collective folk.
Prior to the mass assembly, Thorpe and Morrison played a forty five minute set of mainly instrumental material made up of classy guitar merging with finesse fiddle. For the solitary song they introduced Michelle Holloway to sing a piece adopting an alternate view on traditional folk's somewhat often skewed take on gender balance.
Following a hastily rebooted ten minute sound check, the ensemble were ready to go and warm up a cooling air with top notch music encompassing strings, horns and percussion.Up front on vocals for most of the songs was Ellie Gowers. A real treat for this rising Warwickshire-based folk star was singing a track from her upcoming album with such a backing. 'Women of the Waterways' will be played many times, but few can match this version.
A healthy gathering of colleagues and more curious onlookers snapped up this bonus offering before most of the artists parted ways for their own individual autumn projects. Perhaps the biggest bonus of this Sunday teatime was another gig to go to literally ten minutes up the road as the ensemble rolled to a conclusion. Double Sunday joy.