We Sing the blues ‘because we love it’
By Mary Duncan
Those who were there will agree, the line-up was terrific at this year’s Orkney Blues Weekend. Organiser Walter Gorman, said: “The blues committee is really thrilled – we all do it because we love it, so when we see the public enjoying it too, it’s just brilliant for us.”
The Fastliners: Pete Thomas, Kenny Pirie, Don Holdernesse, Kevin Coffee and Mike Fairbairn.
Friday night’s gig in the Stromness Hotel was a first for a new line-up of well-known local musicians joining together as The Fastliners, who could just as well have been called The Multinational Local Band – Texan Kevin Coffee was on lead vocals, Ozzie Don Holdernesse on guitar, Canadian Mike Fairburn on harmonica and homemade slide guitar, Sussex- man Pete Thomas on bass and true local Kenny Pirie beating the drums. Kevin gave vigorous performances of Southern States bluely numbers and Don pulled off a great version of Gary Moore’s Walking by Myself. It was a set best described as “Orkney blues” and a great start to the Orkney Blues Weekend.
Roy Mette and his band played heavy blues, which got people up and boogieing.
The Essex-based Roy Mette Band which followed separated the easy listeners from the harder- core. Lights dimmed and Roy got wired on his electric guitar, mixing blues and rock, with Wayne Bronze bashing the bins and Andy Bostock low down on bass. Roy described their music as “power trio” British type of blues, which is characteristically relentless and intense, and inspired by the likes of Cream and Rory Gallagher. The band played original numbers from Roy’s latest album Three and Five Live, hot-wiring its electric energy through to those up and boogieing on the dance floor.
Songwriter, singer and guitarist with Perthshire blues band Wang Dang Delta, Ian McLaren.
Of equal intensity was Perthshire band Wang Dang Delta, playing a different, more funky, jazzier kind of blues with maybe a touch of soul. Vocalist and songwriter, Ian McLaren, said what inspires the band most is that all six of its members are coming from different angles, contributing a mix of jazz, Scottish, country, funk, blues and rock to the sound: “The band has had exactly the same line-up since it started playing six years ago, and I think we’ve stayed together because of our musical differences!”
Jim Harcus of Wang Dang Delta on blues harp.
Joining Ian McLaren was Pete Nicol on bass guitar, Alan Sutherland on keyboards, Jim Harcus on blues harp, Pete Caban on lead guitar and Pim Pirnie on drums. Ian’s lyrics are thought-provoking and inspired by “the day-to-day things [they] encounter.” The band members said they loved being in Orkney and were thrilled by the great audiences in the Royal Hotel and at the grand finale, when people got up to boogie.
Glasgow songwriter and guitarist John Alexander.
At the gentler end of the blues spectrum was Glasgow song-writer John Alexander with his sets in the Gable End Theatre in Hoy, upstairs in the Royal Hotel and at the grand finale. The quieter venues suited his soulful songs, which you wanted to hear every word of, and the finer acoustics of these venues amplified his clever chords, strong voice and brilliant picking.
John was the only visiting artiste to play on the Isle of Hoy, which he ferried to in howling wind. With song-titles such as Making Waves and When the Wind Blows the large audience at the Gable End might have thought he had penned the songs on the ferry-voyage across. But it turns out that weather is a recurring theme in John’s work – his current album is called Rain For Sale. He also writes about mountains and nature, and about people going places: “I like the stories of upping sticks and living somewhere else, but missing your homeland.” John’s own story saw him living in New Zealand for many years and it was there that his musical career took off. He played mostly original songs, but added a couple of songs by other artists whose lyrics are along the lines of his own, like Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues and Jeffrey Foucault’s Don’t Look For Me (over the mountains). Rather than being straight 12-bar blues, his tunes wove country ideas with threads of Scottish and Glasgow influence.
Miss Noma & Mr Ree doing the Delta blues.
Also on at the Gable End gig, was singer and guitarist duo Miss Noma & Mr Ree, aka Catherine Grivas and Michael Moldau, on home turf, doing a dozen or so Delta blues numbers. At their Stromness Hotel gig, Emma Thomas of Blueberry Jam joined them on fiddle for Little Feat’s Willin as did Mark Shiner for the American folk- song St James Infirmary Blues, with Mike Fairburn from The Fastliners on harmonica too. For the hotel diners, it was soft and sophisticated accompaniment and a tranquil prelude to the heaving throng which the bar-venue became as the evening wore on.
Blueberry Jam sisters Emma and Katie Thomas, with their dad Pete Thomas, from The Fastliners, on bass.
For sisters Emma and Katie Thomas, in the two-piece Blueberry Jam, it was their first public appearance as a blues outfit. The talented young girls collectively played fiddle, guitar and keyboards, and sung mostly self-penned songs as well as John Martyn’s I Don’t Wanna Know, in the Cafe Bar and for diners at the Stromness Hotel leading up to the grand finale.
The Bad Liars diva, Lorraine McBrearty, with Mike Henderson on lead guitar.
Secretary of the blues weekend committee, Mike Henderson, said one of the best things about the weekend, for him, was seeing how many young musicians are playing the blues. Mike himself appeared as lead-guitarist in local band The Bad Liars, a five-piecer including Dave Stevenson on drums, Dan Rhodes on upright bass, Andrew Want on rhythm guitar, harmonica and vocals, and bright star Lorraine McBrearty on lead vocals. Along with guest artiste Dougie Stevenson on pedal steel guitar, The Bad Liars can best be described as a crowd-pleasing show-band who looked like they were enjoying themselves as much as those up and dancing.
Bad Business: Walter Gorman, Kennie Swinney, Marcus Cordock, Dylan Pepper and John Pettigrew.
Dylan Pepper drumming for Bad Business.
Another local band, Bad Business, came together specially for the 2009 blues weekend as a celebration of lead guitarist John Pettigrew’s 60th birthday this year. All of its members have played in several bands over the years and performed in various guises at blues weekends. This year’s one-off line-up included Walter Gorman on vocals, Kenny Swinney on keyboards, Dylan Pepper on drums and Marcus Cordock on bass. Their focus was a rocky kind of blues, and they performed plenty of classics by the likes of Popa Chubby, Dave Hole and Blues Company, with loads of energy and enjoyment.
Bad Taste's Marcus Cordock, Dylan Pepper, Ian Craigie and Andrew Taylor (Max Inkster out of photo).
Since last year’s appearance, Bad Taste have added a new member to the band – Max Inkster on rhythm guitar joins Dylan Pepper on drums, Marcus Cordock on bass, Andrew Taylor on guitar and Ian Craigie on vocals. They are an excellent act, playing tight “Orcadian blues rock” and influenced by Jo Bonmassa, Walter Trout, Robert Cray and Rory Gallagher. But why then call yourself Bad Taste? Dylan explained: “We’ll never be as good as Gallagher’s band, Taste, so we may as well do a Bad version!”
Dylan confirmed that “despite rumours in the press and on TV,” Bad Taste isn’t splitting up: “We’ll be taking a break while everyone does their own thing around the country and at various colleges for a while, but we’ll be back again.”
The Edinburgh blues band Missing Cat got feet tapping in the Ferry Inn on Sunday, playing blues standards by John Lee Hooker, Elmore James and Muddy Waters, amongst others. Paul Montague was on vocals, Gavin Jack on guitar, Keith Scott on bass and Kenny Miller on drums.
Naomi Mather from Liverpool, wowed the audience with her funky blues arrangements.
Naomi Mather opened the grand finale event in the Stromness Hotel, wowing a full-house with her super-funky blues. She is full of surprises, from the sounds she gets from her slide guitar to her lively expressions, engaging lyrics and left-foot stomping on the footboard. For Naomi, the “whole motivation is in the song-writing” she said, continuing that she learnt to play guitar just to be able to accompany the songs she writes.
Her work is inspired by “life” and most of her songs are “digs at men”, which is a brave move when you’re the only solo female artiste on a male-dominated blues weekend far away from home (Liverpool). She explained that she likes the way you can be forthright in putting your opinions across with blues music: “You don’t need to flower things up, but just say it as it is.”
Naomi Mather opening the grand finale gig.
During the weekend, she said she had a couple of guys come up to her saying of her lyrics: “I think you’re a bit harsh!” which is maybe why she ended her set at the grand finale with an actually-blokes-aren’t-so-bad kind of song called Can’t Do Nothing, saying with a smile that the song was “a big up to men”. At the end of her set she was called for an encore, singing an audience request Green Man.
So there were all kinds of contributions to this year’s blues weekend, from the gentle to the harsh to the heavy, with the full spectrum of blues going down. All in all, “the atmosphere in the hotels was fantastic,” Walter said, and although everyone was slightly exhausted by the end of it, the parting words were “Roll on Orkney Blues Weekend 2010″.
Grateful thanks go to the sponsors of the Orkney Blues Weekend: Adam Black Guitar Company, SAS Business Supplies, Herd Law Practice, K2, The Highland Brewing Company, Orkney Brewery, Lone Turtle Web Design, Rails Bookmakers, The Orkney Advertiser, NorthLink Ferries, the Stromness Hotel, the Ferry Inn, the Royal Hotel and the Gable End Theatre.
Tags: Review