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Thomas
Jefferson, the third president of the
USA
, was
controversially cited as fathering children by one of his slaves Sally
Hemins at the same time that he was in favour of abolishing slavery.
What, you may ask, has this got to do with Cathryn Craig and Brian
Willoughby? Well it’s the
introduction to one of their famous songs, "Mr. Jefferson", and
what a brilliant song it is. It
was the fifth song in their first set, prior to that we had enjoyed "That
Ol’ Guitar" with some superb guitar work from Brian as the opener.
Following this was "
Alice
’s Song", a search into the mind of Alice,
Brian’s autistic niece. A beautiful song, sensitively and beautifully
sung. Cathryn captures the
audience with her stories and alluring voice, soon we were totally
engrossed, enjoying the evening. We
were treated to "Calling All Angels", another song that is
thought provoking and one I particularly like. "Rejected
Lover", taken
from Cathryn's great-grandfather's version in Cecil Sharp's book
"English Folksongs from The Southern Appalachians” was superb. Ending the first half with "Accanoe", a tribute to Pocahontas,
Cathryn gave it her all giving us a resounding finish before the break.
At the
start of the evening, Ian, Bryn and finally Sue and Nick as evanStevens
set the mood - all well received. Bryn
did his Credit Squeeze song, "Dark Cloud Rising" and sought
Cathryn’s approval on his
Pennsylvania
accent.
I’m not sure if either of them knew what a
Pennsylvania
accent sounded like but both
the song and the accent got a seal of approval.
The
second session got off to a good start with Brian’s instrumental "Finger’s
Crossed", one he wrote when he was eighteen, in the distant days of
the early Strawbs. And then
that heart warming, evocative song, "Two Hearts", followed by
"
Dixie"
and "This Night, These
Dreams and You" dedicated to Bob and Lou.
Their final song was the powerful, "I Will".
But we would not let them end it there and Cathryn and Brian
encored with "Cotton Fields/My Window Faces South".
A
superb, tuneful and thoroughly enjoyable evening from one of the
UK
’s leading duos.
I’m looking forward to their return.
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