NORTHUMBRIAN MUSIC
NIGHTS
What we said
about Artisan
Artisan embrace the 'Dale in collective
enchantment
These days, when you go out to a live show, you expect to see a range of instruments arrayed on stage, a sophisticated sound system, maybe a bank of lights, in a convivial atmosphere.
At Allendale's Village Hall last Saturday, the audience walked into a convivial room all right, but the stage was, well, empty. There was more than a little trepidation, one felt, and some concern whether the promoters, Northumbrian Music Nights, had actually lived up to their side of the bargain.
Until Artisan, who are Hilary Spencer, Jacey and Brian Bedford, clambered up, and placed a single white sheet of paper comprising the set list, on the floor in front of them.
Then the whole hall was filled with music. It was nothing short of magical. As the twenty or so local singers had appreciated at a vocal workshop that afternoon, projection can be uncanny, and so it proved.
'Come all you maids' from the traditional song The Constant Lover, flowed up and over and throughout the room, seeking out hidden corners and illuminating them in exquisite harmony.
Many of the songs were Brian's own compositions, and the group's other concession to the traditional folk idiom, Mabel, was received with great good humour. Then there was the song Vin Garbutt has made famous, If I had wings, so that was really pretty folky too.
But this was startling, unique music with an upfront showmanship that nearly defies description. Talk to me started off with a hook seemingly borrowed from The Eurythmics, but the patter on the bridge, and the wry twists in the humour, meant that it was Artisan's own. Or the tea-bag gospel choir I ain't goin' down which went some way to eliciting harmonies from everyone in the room. The cynical feeling Snakes and Ladders must have been written on a bad hair day, but it'd be a willfully naive so-and-so who thought life was always roses and no thorns.
Or again, the melancholic but ever-so-enchanting rendition of Holly and Mistletoe, which had the feeling of a timeless winter carol. Steam-huddled ponies indeed. Pictures seemed to spring effortlessly in one's mind as the words tumbled forth. And how they poured out! As Brian remarked, 'When you have three minds to remember, it's rare to forget the words.'
Nostalgia set the first tone after the break, with Walking down the Alleys ('Do you remember -- do you recall?') and it was apposite to think of sepia faces and the innocence of childhood remembered in old photographs, as the Village Hall will host an exhibition of Allendale photographs later this year. But Breathing Space brought some tears to quite a few eyes, with the hard reality of contemporary loves and lives.
'What am I bid for a bell with no sound in a carpet of blue by a stream?' was a sparkling contrast to the Lottery Song -- 'I wanna be one of the few -- I wanna be known by the things that I own'. Then Fear (of fear itself, inevitably), and A Habit I'll have to Kick before the compelling NIMBY.
A Stan Rogers song, from Canada, The Raising of the Mary Ellen Carter with its rousing chorus 'Rise again!' meant that the ensemble, who gave the evening their emotional all, could not easily leave the stage, but with the humanist benediction of David Roth, 'Here's to loving friends and family' as an encore, the evening finally had to end.
'Unique', 'indescribable', 'brilliant', 'exqusite': these are some of the terms that have been used to describe Artisan. All are true, as those who were there, on chancing to read this review, will know.
