Salut! Live

SEE ALSO:

* Cara Dillon - the big interview

** Potted Cara: quickfire questions, sharp answers

*** Apologies for the earlier absence of the video of the concert. Now rectified

When it comes to the Irish singer Cara Dillon and her husband Sam Lakeman, I have interests to declare.

Sam is the middle of three sons of Geoff Lakeman, a good friend, fine reporter and talented musician I have known since meeting him and his wife, Joy, at the Herga folk club in Wealdstone, north-west London all of 47 years ago.

I have met, lunched with and interviewed Cara and Sam and found them lively and engaging company. And I have great respect and affection for their music, as I do for the efforts of Sam's gifted siblings Seth and Sean (not to mention Sean's wife Kathryn Roberts).

Like all in the performing arts, they have been hit hard by the impact of Covid-19 and what Odhran Mullan, the creative director for a special event involving the couple. rightly calls the "horrible vacuum of live music" it has inflicted.

To compensate a little for careers on hold, Cara and Sam hired Cooper Hall, a venue within the grounds of Selwood Manor not far from their own home in Frome, Somerset to recreate the concert experience with expert staging, sound and lighting. But, sadly, with no audience.

As Salut! Live's little world knows full well, I adore Kate Rusby, her songwriting and singing and even the "natteriness" as she once described the garrulous ways she'd acquired from life as a Yorkshirewoman.

Interest to declare: I worked for her once - a short biography for her website, much improved since by others.

Out of the loop these days, I relied on my elder daughter Christelle, not a folkie at all but open to different sounds especially when selected by Jo Wiley for BBC Radio 2, for an alert to this enchanting version of the Bangles' hit Manic Monday, a home-made product of lockdown.

Image: Simone J Rudolphi 

 

MUSIC TO HELP US THROUGH LOCKDOWN

I am not sure whether Nick Hornby had the same problem when he wrote High Fidelity. For me, no sooner is a list created - favourite this, favourite that - than glaring omissions begin to glare. When posting my top 10s for male and female singers, live bands, acoustic bands and duos in my Lockdown sounds series, I did take care to explain how changeable my selections were.

You'd find competing lists if you had the time and inclination to trawl through the Salut! Live archive ...

A photograph I have hanging on the wall in France. It shows my reflection in the mirror as I interview Altan's Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh one night in Donegal

MUSIC TO HELP US THROUGH LOCKDOWN

I am grateful to everyone who has taken the trouble to respond to my series of Lockdown sounds, artists male and female, duos, bands seen live and so on .. with singer-songwriters to come.

Those responses have come directly to Salut! Live and at Twitter or Facebook. From Jon Marks came a quite exceptional effort.

He's lovely bloke I've met all of once (drinks before a Portsmouth-Sunderland match; I support Sunderland, he supports Spurs but lives in Pompey after which the detail of connections loses relevance to a folk music site).

But he has gone to the bother of replicating my device of listing top 10s in each category (when not inventing his own). His follow:

Paul Brady performs Arthur McBride. Image reproduced from Flickr with kind consent of David Sutherland

MUSIC TO HELP US THROUGH LOCKDOWN

Not even the readers of Salut! Live are wholly on my side. My folk tastes are unusual and I cannot be surprised that few share them. Kate Rusby once told me she was quite pleased this type of music wasn't for everyone (though, logically, it should be).

But I persevere. So far, we've had favourite male and females singers and favourite bands. I am delighted that so many people have bothered to offer their responses and make own suggestions.

Now it's time for duos and acoustic bands and I will not, for the purposes of this exercise, restrict my choices to those seen live. I'll add an asterisk to each selection where I have seen them up close and personal, or from row Z in the gods. And I have used a little licence, leaving out some of those mentioned in other categories even though they might fit again.

First duos. And this, 100 per cent, is folk and blues so avert your eyes if not for you...

When I bumped into Richard Thompson relaxing at Cropredy before the Liege and Lief line-up, minus Sandy, took stage

MUSIC TO HELP US THROUGH LOCKDOWN

Move on to bands, the man said, so we shall. If a top 10 of male or female singers, from a lifetime of listening to music, is hard enough, limiting a line-up of bands to 10 is frankly impossible.

I love folk music and folk-rock but what about all the blues, rock, pop and even country groups I've thoroughly enjoyed, not to mention classical ensembles?

For the purposes of this little list, then, I shall exclude classical music altogether and restrict my choice to bands I have seen live. And even then its tough.

This is my selection. I have listed them in order of how much pleasure each has given me, not because I necessarily believe them to be the best band in bather world, second best and so on