Jim Moray with Nick Cooke + Cole Stacey with Terry Stacey @ Red Lion Folk Club, Kings Heath, 20th February 2010
It’s been a few years since I heard Jim Moray live so I’m really looking forward to this evening. Jim Moray, of course, is the singer who burst on to the folk scene back in 2003 with his debut album, Sweet England winning the BBC2 Horizon award for most prestigious album of the year and winning him the accolade of best newcomer. I still remember my first hearing of his reinterpretation of the traditional song ‘Early One Morning’ and my incredulity at discovering that there were so many things still to discover in such a well-worn song.
The Red Lion folk club filled up well before 8 pm, with a couple of dozen people standing at the back and sides. The crowd was an all-age one and the atmosphere was relaxed and informal.
The evening kicked off with the support act Cole Stacey. Stacey is a promising young singer-songwriter from Devon. Although he often appears with multi-instrumentalist Scott Ward, he is accompanied tonight by his father on the drums, playing guitar and keyboards himself.
Many of tonight’s songs come from his new (and first) album, ‘Changing Faces’. Most were intense slow ballads, although there were a few up-tempo numbers which had the crowd — or some of it at least — swaying and tapping their feet. ‘Coconut Skins’, accompanied by guitar, mouth organ and shakers is a definite favourite with the group of students in front of me. He has a pleasant, husky voice — made a bit huskier, I suspect, by a cold! It’s difficult to hear the lyrics which I think is a shame, but as far as I can tell, most of the songs are about love. I’m less certain about ‘Talking Old Soldiers’, a song about growing old — I’m not sure he’s convinced me that he really knows what growing old is all about, but I’ll have to read the lyrics/listen to it again to be positive.
Cole is comfortable with the audience and chats easily. He finishes his first half with a nice rendition of Paul Simon’s ‘Me and Julio down by the Schoolyard’. He asks the audience to sing along but gets little response. Undaunted, he gets them going during the chorus and ends his set with a flourish.
Although Jim Moray has been billed as ‘The Jim Moray Trio’, there are only two of them tonight — Jim and Nick Cooke, a melodeon player. The fiddle player James Delarre is missing tonight — no idea of why.
Jim launches into ‘The Rufford Park Poachers’, a lively traditional ballad from Lincolnshire, accompanied by guitar and melodeon. As is usual with Moray, he has reinterpreted the song, making the rendition an interesting blend of old and new. You can hear every word clearly which is a pleasure — folk song is very much about storytelling and there’s not a lot of point in telling a story if the audience miss most of the words! There’s a nice instrumental interlude in the middle and I am struck already with how well the two musicians work together.
The evening moved through a mixture of old and new material, some traditional, some more recently composed. The Bella Hardy night-visiting song, ‘Three Black Feathers’, telling the story of a young woman visited by the ghost of her dead lover was striking, as was ‘Long Lamkin’, a story of a stonemason who kills the child of his employer in revenge for unpaid wages. As Moray joked, some of his songs are depressing, some are more depressing! It was clear throughout the evening that he has a genuine love for the material he sings and the stories that lay behind it. That’s underpinned by good musicianship — his guitar playing is, in my opinion, particularly strong although he’s comfortable on a range of instruments.
‘Dives and Lazarus’, a ballad originally collected in the field by Ralph Vaughan Williams, is complex and interesting, both musically and lyrically. Moray’s version of ‘Poverty Knock’ is much more downbeat than many versions I have heard over the years — given that it’s a song about the oppressive working conditions in the Northern mills, that seems fitting. Although often thought to be a traditional song, Jim told the story — new to me — of how it was written, a verse at a time, by Tom Daniels, who would show up at the local pub each week having ‘remembered’ another verse of the song.
Jim Moray has matured and mellowed since I saw him last. I’m pleased — he could either have developed as he has or could have been a brief shooting star. I’m glad it’s the former. He’s also more comfortable chatting with the audience than I remember from the previous occasion.
There’s an interval, with the usual weekly raffle, and then Cole Stacey returns for the second half. His second set seems to me stronger than his first. Again, it’s a mixture of slow ballads and a few more upbeat songs — the upbeat ones get the better response from the audience. At the request of an audience member, he sings Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Boxer’, calling Jennifer Clark, a friend of his, up from the audience to sing it with him. He moves on to the powerful Van Morrison song, ‘Rough God Goes Riding’. He sings other people’s material well, and I think it’s a good thing that he mixes the set.
Jim Moray and Nick Cooke come back on and we have another solid performance from both musicians, with Jim variously on guitar, keyboards and Anglo concertina and Nick on melodeons. A song written by Moray, ‘Adam Ant in his Padded Cell’, about heroes and discovering their feet of clay, is odd but interesting. A solo set of three instrument tunes by Nick Cooke — one he wrote himself, a traditional one and the wonderful John Kirkpatrick tune ‘Jump at the Sun’ is frankly stunning. I wish we had had at least one slot by him on his own in each half of the evening. I’m not usually a great fan of jigs and reels as performance items, but this guy is really good.
The set ends, the audience call for more and Jim and Nick finish with ‘Valentine’, described as ‘a gentle Morris dance lullaby waltz’. I can’t see the back of the room from where I’m sitting, but I think some people were dancing!
In my view, Jim Moray has moved twenty-first century folk music in interesting ways while not losing touch with the traditions that underpin it. I look forward to future developments!
Set Lists
Cole Stacey
1st half
Just a Little Deeper
If You
Coconut Skins
Talking Old Soldiers
Traditional Lies
(Paul Simon song) Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
2nd half
Sometimes It’s Love
Changing Faces
(Simon and Garfunkel) The Boxer (with Jennifer Clark)
(Van Morrison) Rough God Goes Riding
Something Ahead Worth Looking For
Walk to Midnight
Jim Moray
1st half
The Rufford Park Poachers
Sweet England
Three Black Feathers
Long Lamkin
The Lowlands of Holland
Dives and Lazarus
Poverty Knock
Young Collins + a Bleddington Morris tune
Early One Morning
2nd half
Billy, Don’t You Weep for Me
Lord Bateman
Gilderoy
Adam Ant Alone in his Padded Cell
The Wild Boar
(solos by Nick Cooke) Gerry the Frog + Three Firs + Jump at the Sun
Henry’s Downfall + Nonesuch Jig
April Morning
I’ll Go List for a Sailor
Valentine
Review and photos Betty Hagglund