The evening’s entertainment began with opening words from Martin Edwards reminding us of the increasing scarcity of live musical events and venues such as this. It needs to be said and it needs to be repeated. Music will always find a way but it is such a struggle and we are so fortunate to have a welcoming venue, a comfortable, hospitable place with good ale, for singer-songwriters and other musicians and their audiences. In times when authoritarianism is on the march the creative arts get squeezed because they are not utilitarian and worse than that, they are perceived as an anarchic threat to the repressive energy of conformity and control. Such is the current paranoia.
Cocoh Music, a singer-song-writer from Stoke-on -Trent was first on. What a voice! Sweetness and strength and a good vocal range with moments of effectively restrained emotion. Contained power is always the most potent. Her songs have hypnotic repetition and her plaintiff melodies conjure up the emotional landscape of fragile suffering. By contrast, we have the rhythmic, picaresque feel of her travels in Ireland in the summer rain.
Nixon Tate, also from Stoke-on-Trent, brings a confident drama to his songs both in their clarity of content and delivery but also in his demeanour. Here is someone of experience. He is usually in a band but there was no fear in him of solo exposure. He has appeared on BBC radio 2. In spite of the epic feeling of dramatic intensity that permeates his performance there are balancing contrasts where Nixon Tate sings almost a cappella and his final song has such tender poignancy.
Tiny Pioneers (Jim Farmer) is a local performer of the Crewe/Nantwich area. His set offers a range of moods: the heart-breaking lyrical poignancy of childhood; the visceral anger of a man who has endured bad places; the lustful landscape of earthiness; the pain of goodbye. All accompanied by masterly guitar work at once melodic and rhythmic; strident when needed and subtle when needed.
So – a great show of confident individual talent and musical prowess. They’ll all be under house arrest in no time. Thanks, as always, to the hinterland of people who make such events a success and to the generosity of the audience.
© Sandra Gibson 2024, Photos by James Farmer
