NORTHUMBRIAN MUSIC
NIGHTS
What we said
about
Terry &
Liz
Terry Conway & Liz Law are sweet and gentle
in Allendale
Sweet and gentle was promised, and, except for the odd drowning, murder, bloodlust and mayhem that traditional music indulges in, sweet and gentle it was.
Warming up after a ballad to the original 'Norma Major', Terry Conway neatly showed how his own song-writing skill encompasses the traditional genre, with his sad lament for Virginia Woolf, who filled her pockets with stones and walked into the river. Terry may be one of the few today who read Woolf even when they don't have to, but his skill with words shows that he's learned a great deal by perusing some of the twentieth century's greatest novels.
Then there was the 'Sons of Liberty', an old Redcoat perspective on America's war of independence -- 'for we're off to fight the Sons of Liberty, and fare thee well to the old countrie'. The song made quite a reflective point; there are always two sides to any conflict, and each side's soldiers are human too.
Liz Law, exquisite accompanist on hammered and Appalachian dulcimers, lightened the mood with an instrumental that owed its origins to an ancient Scottish battle in which both sides lost, and then Terry sang of St. Helena in 'Napoleon's Farewell'. Nobody on this isle, I'm sure, ever felt remotely sorry for Napoleon in his exile, but the feelings of isolation, and removal from home, are universal, after all. Lots more drownings featured in a lament for 'The Granite', which ran aground while it was homeward bound, but when these tragedies have achieved a patina that removes them from harsh daily reality, still the elemental feeling remains.
After the break, Terry brought his own song back home, as 'The East of Allen' warmed hearts throughout the room. It's a nostalgic song that should be required learning for every resident of the Dale, as it's certain to be one of those traditional works that lives forever. And then a ghost song, about Mrs. Annie Prine, hostess of the bombed-out Premiere Hotel in Hartlepool, and the hymn to 'A Workin' Man'. A lively instrumental number presaged a unique mandolin sound from Liz's instrument during 'Isle de France'. More sweetness and light.
Terry let his voice loose on the 'Quayside Shaver' and then there were numerous jokes on 'The Kangaroo', before it was time for the long boring ballad. Folkies revel in these, of course, and Terry did not disappoint, but the set finally closed on the intimate refrain, 'but that peace and love go with you, away from Hexhamshire'.
The encore, 'The Lights of Shilinn' had everybody harmonising along, and the evening ended as it had begun, in sweet and gentle mode. And considering there's not that much of it about these days, it was a lovely respite from the incessant pace of modern life.
