The old love and the new

The Crane flies again

For the past year I've spent almost all my time on Bluegrass/Old Time music and playing the mandolin, and the  prospect of returning to my traditional English folk repertoire and playing the concertina was becoming more and more remote. However, I no longer have access to a regular Bluegrass session, and my recent attendance at this year's Tenterden Folk Festival - which is overwhelmingly devoted to English traditional music - made me feel that I should he more realistic about what kind of music is most appropriate to the opportunities I now actually have.

I therefore decided to revive my old repertoire alongside the new one. This does put some pressure on my 'psychological focus' - which I was trying to avoid - but it shouldn't put too much pressure on my time as I still seem to remember most of the lyrics of the circa 60 songs I was singing when I left the old repertoire behind. About 40 of these are acapella and it's just a case of refreshing the words.

The 20 or so songs accompanied on my Crane duet concertina are more problematical as I want to develop a style that is less melodic and more appropriate to accompaniment. This is partly to make performing easier and partly because that is the style I've always really wanted to achieve but didn't know how to. For that I need to go back to square one and start experimenting, i.e. have fun rather than pursuing some rigorous schedule. My hope is that if I can develop a general approach, I can then apply it without having to spend too much time arranging individual songs.

As hoped for, my concertina playing (in the old style) has become a little more relaxed and confident. This can hardly be down to the hiatus, but is presumably down to my experience with the mandolin which has been easier, helped me to become a more relaxed performer, and has hopefully improved my sense of timing. But one can't be complacent. All these things are fragile and need to be kept up.

OF&BC Annual Summer Festival

The Orpington Folk & Blues Club holds an Annual Summer Festival on the August Bank Holiday weekend at which I was invited to perform. The ticketed event combines music with a beer festival and BBQ open to the public, and raises money for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

This was effectively my first 'booking' for a public event, but not the first time I've been paid in beer! It was a very enjoyable day despite a little rain and a great privilege to share the billing with such talented artists.

Busking at Broadstairs (sort of)

I've been going to Broadstairs Folk Week since sometime in the 90s. As a former singer of mostly unaccompanied English folk songs, I'd always made for the singalongs, sessions and singarounds. This year was different because of my change in direction and I took in a lot more pub and concert acts, particularly if they were doing Americana. I enjoyed the upbeat music and lively atmosphere, but I was also interested to see what material they did and how acts presented themselves.

At festivals I usually spend the mornings keeping up my daily practice in some out-of-the-way corner. This year I practised by singing in front of passers-by, i.e. as if I was busking. I wasn't actually collecting money, but next year I'm thinking of registering as an official busker with a collection tin for contributions to the festival - if I get any! Busking is a great way to face your fears and get used to a public audience, and it gives you a lot more opportunity to develop your experience.

Taking it back to Weymouth...

Taking part in an American Roots/Bluegrass session
during the Wessex Folk Festival 2015

Weymouth in Dorset has a thriving folk scene with a strong emphasis on Americana. It centres on a Wednesday night session in the Sailor's Return pub and the annual Wessex Folk Festival on Weymouth quayside. There is also a monthly folk club in Hope Square and an American Roots/Bluegrass session on the coast road to Bridport. Since discovering the Sailors Return session by chance six years ago, the festival has been an annual fixture.

A predominance of Americana was not something I'd previously experienced. While it took a few years for the penny to drop, Weymouth was the main inspiration for my conversion from English to American roots music. Since my 'switch-over' last August and the invaluable experience I've since gained at the Orpington Folk & Blues Club's Grand Ole Orpy sessions, this May's WFF was my first opportunity to attend the festival as a singer/player of Americana.

I was able to join a number of sessions. Judged subjectively, it seemed to go well and I certainly enjoyed it.

Grand Ole Orpy

Grand Ole Orpy (a skit on the Grand Ole Opry) is a training-orientated session for upbeat Bluegrass and Skiffle style music sponsored by the Orpington Folk & Blues Club, which has a strong culture of encouragement. Orpy provides a great opportunity for collaboration, bringing together those seeking improvement with expertise and experience.

When I first learnt about it I was just moving to Americana, and it's greatly influenced that move with its strongly upbeat approach. It has also exposed me to a wealth of songs and tunes which I might otherwise have taken a long time to discover. All in all it has greatly accelerated my progress and has now become the main focus of my musical development.

The clip shows me leading a rendition of Worried Man Blues from, I think, late 2014. I hadn't realised this was being filmed! AFAIK this constitutes my YouTube début...

Less is more

Doc Watson

When I was focusing on English traditional material, my repertoire of songs once bloated to nearly 200. This is not a boast but a warning. Trying to remember them all was like herding cats, and many songs were hardly performed and never perfected.

I get the impression that many professionals seem to be ready to sing songs only from their current album, so maybe 20-30 odd. Folk singers might need a few more to avoid too much repetition. At a festival I used to avoid singing the same song twice or even a song that I'd heard someone else sing. At clubs and sessions I didn't repeat a song in the same venue for at least a year. To keep that up I probably needed only about 50 songs, but I found it very hard to abandon songs that I had learnt. Anyway, I did manage to jettison more than half of them, cutting my English repertoire to about 70.

For my new interest in Americana, I have a current repertoire of just 24, most of which are now performable (on a good day). This number should be far more sustainable and, ultimately, provide a better performance level. Rather than adding more songs, I'm going to concentrate on improving these by developing melodic intros, turnarounds and breaks. I think that will be challenge enough.

The Mandolin and solo song accompaniment

Using a mandolin for solo song accompaniment seems to raise eyebrows if not comments, especially from guitarists. But I think it's perfectly acceptable. Indeed, I like the sound and at the very least I find it a refreshing change from the ubiquity of the guitar. In particular, it facilitates melodic interludes which can be much louder and more effective than on the guitar.

Here are some examples from YouTube of mandolin use in solo song performances which speak for themselves. Readers will appreciate that I don't control the continued availability of these videos.

Bill Monroe - 'The Wayfaring Stranger':



Maunus (Mandolin Cafe) - 'John Hardy':



Steve Earle - 'Copperhead Road':

The Mandolin, Americana and noisy pubs

Banjo, Mandolin & Guitar Club at Washington
& Jefferson College in the 1890s.

I haven't completely given up on English folk music and playing the concertina, but I'm currently hooked on the mandolin and Americana.

I was first attracted to the mandolin because of its logic - four courses (pairs of strings) for four fingers, each course ascending in fifths. It's also playable largely in first position, and you can begin with just two-finger chords.

I originally wanted it for English folk, but it got diverted to my growing interest in Americana. While many people my age and a little older started with Americana, I came into folk with English folk rock and then went for the very trad stuff, so Americana is a new experience for me, and I'm enjoying it.

A third element of my interest in the mandolin is the occasional need to sing in public bars as well as backroom folkclubs. Sometimes this has even been to a predominantly pub audience rather than a folkie one. Few people want to hear unaccompanied ballads even in the quite traditional folk circles in which I circulate, and while the concertina has curiosity value, I find it hard work to sing and play it in a noisy environment. The English public are much more open to American (or Irish) material than to their own heritage which is largely unknown and unappreciated. Sad but true.

Although my mandolin playing is very basic and glitchy, the rate of progress from zero to being able to perform after a fashion has been supersonic in comparison with the concertina. I have felt far more relaxed while performing, and quite a few people have told me that the mandolin and Americana suit my voice better.

Change and chop

The Monroe Brothers

No sooner had I begun to get my head around the alternating bass and strum style, when the penny dropped and I realised that what I should really be attempting for use in sessions and group situations were classic Bluegrass chop chords! And so I found myself relearning everything once again.

Now, at my time in life, I may not develop the agility to play full-on four-finger chops, but three-finger chops, avoiding the open string, should be doable. Fingering apart, making the percussive chop on the offbeat seems relatively straightforward.

Coincidentally I was privileged to chat to an experienced player about styles to use when playing solo, and he suggested playing a bass note on the first beat of the bar and then brushing the rest. This is good news as it essentially combines the two approaches I've already covered. Although it will be the fourth style I've attempted, it should allow me to recover my modest repertoire with a minimal amount of time and effort.

Adapting to boom-chick

My Eastman MD504. It was heavily
discounted by the Acoustic Music
Company, Brighton, when they
were discontinuing mid-range
models, and made me an offer
I couldn't refuse.

The mandolin was previously just a side project and I spent very little time on it. Over the course of a couple of years I built up a small repertoire of songs that I eventually felt confident to perform in public. But hot on the heels of this début, I started attending the Bluegrass workshops run by the Orpington Folk & Blues Club, and I now find I have to adapt my style to a more upbeat 'boom-chick' approach.

From what I can gather the classic Bluegrass mandolin method is to play a light chord (or nothing) on the downbeat and a chop chord on the upbeat. Chop chords are a bit of a stretch, so for the moment I'm compromising on a guitar-style approach - a bass note on the downbeat and an open chord on the upbeat. I think I'm going to need a variety of styles for different situations and types of song.

It's straightforward, but it will take time to get used to the correct succession of bass notes for each chord, to sustain the rhythm across chord changes, and, ultimately, to regain the same smoothness I had achieved with 'brushing' the chords. For now it's one step back, but I'll hopefully take two steps forward in the foreseeable future.