FATO January '16

Folk at The Oak – January 2016

I approached the first Folk at The Oak of 2016 a bit tentatively

Mike and John require careful handling.

having spent the previous few days feeling very sorry for myself and complaining about 'man-flu'. The effort of lugging my guitar to the van and wrestling it into the pub was too great, so I resigned myself to audience participation only, and decided that I would only stay for the first half; but what a first half.

For some inexplicable reason, after a couple of years bumbling along FATO has really taken off. Perhaps it isn't so inexplicable after all; a great atmosphere, a variety of performers and a selection of well kept beers has meant that audience and participator numbers have steadily grown. So full was the room that there was standing room only by the bar and John, whose turn it was to m/c, had to limit performances so that only those that arrived at 8pm got to play the second half.

John and Mike Newhouse started the proceedings with their covers of 

The Travelling Wilburys 'Handle Me With Care' and Credence Clearwater Revival's 'Proud Mary'.

No Strings Attached made a far better fist of their Waterloo than they did at Kilsby before Christmas.

Captain Smooth was amazed.

There was a real pace to the piece and their complementary picking sounded fantastic. Their second piece, the title of which escaped me, had something to do with commemorating the death of a second wife (his fiddle).

Prize for the most romantic gesture of the year (so far, but willtake some beating) had to go to Derrick Meyer who took advantage of the situation to tweak the lyrics of 'Amazed By You' to publicly announce his and Tracey's engagement. The women sighed, and the accompanied men

scowled as their wives elbowed their ribs saying 'Why do you never do anything romantic like that?' Of course we were all delighted for them, wish them well and look forward to the wedding party.

Tony brought his whistle with him but left his hat at home this evening, resulting in a new soubriquet, 'The Cat Without a Hat'. It remains to be seen if the name sticks, or if the hat makes a return. His playing was as good as ever though, and he treated us to a couple of lovely Irish tunes, Last Rose of Summer and then 'Come to The Fair'.

The second Credence tune came from Bongo The Weasel and 'Bad Moon Rising' this was followed by 'A Smuggler's Life for Me'.

Then it was blues time as
Andrew Wenham stepped up
and treated us to a bit of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, with
a perfectly paced 'Need Your Love So Bad followed by Neil
Young's Harvest Moon. 

Torgul, Sandi, Sue and Paul made up 'the band with no name'
gave an accomplished rendition of Harry Nilsson's
'Everybody's Talking At Me', but there was real feeling
evident in their cover of Johnny Cash and June Carter's
'Jackson'.

Feet were tapping when Graham and Theresa, accompanied
by John on the banjo, were joined by improvised cajon
drumming and spoons for 'I'll Tell Me Ma' and 'This Little
Light of Mine'.  The little light was kindly provided by Derrick.

Off duty, Paddy was able to

relax and enjoy himself, and
his 'Rock a bye Sweet Baby Jane' and his increasingly famous Gilbert and Sullivan parody 'I am the Very Model of an Education Secretary.

After a brief and enlightening anecdote about Steve's erection, Steve and Carolyn brought an end to the hilarity with a mournful 'January Man' before Steve provided a lovely tribute to the recently deceased David Bowie with his own moving composition, 'Let's Dance The Blues'. I wish I'd recorded it, and would certainly be glad to hear it again.

The floor was then offered to a new face to FATO. Mark played a self-

Move along Mark.

penned number, the title of which escaped me, but his dropped D tuning gave the song a very gritty and dark feel; and it suited his second song too, Ewan MacColl's 'The Moving On Song'. A moving account of the lives of traveling people.

An almost complete MDF, their line up is almost as large as Fairport Convention's these days, had the benefit of Brian on the tea chest and John on the banjo. Billy Joel's 'Piano Man' had everyone joining in, though Andy Wenham wondered where the piano was; an opportunity for a pianist there, I think. With their second song, Ross, becoming more adventurous, introduced our Monica to their crowd pleasing standard Johnny Be Good.

I've seen Crow's Feet at FATO a couple of times, but tonight we heard the full ensemble. Tobacco Road with the mandolin, and Brian on the tea chest, was awesome, but it didn't prepare us for their next. I didn't catch the name of the song but it seemed to be about uncontrolled, psychotic, dancing, possibly the best performance of the night, certainly of the first half.

The end of the session was on a lighter note as Jim and Jan gave us 'The Morpeth Rant' and the delightful 'Ardvark Song'. Jim's face glows with glee when he sings Aardvark and it is very contagious.

If it gets around what a top night it is, Baggy is going to need a bigger pub.