| Reviews 2016 | |||
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Woodman Folk Club - Reviews |
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| Gary Edward Jones |
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| Les Jones | 14 October 2016 |
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I began my review two weeks ago by saying: “I cannot believe it has been
nearly 18 months since we last saw”. Insert Gary Edward Jones and it’s
still true. We last saw him on 17 April 2015. How time flies. As was
said before it’s difficult unless you know to say if GEJ is a man or a
band or indeed both. He is in fact more than these he is also a composer
who writes the vast majority of his own material plus songs for others
as he demonstrated to us in the second set. Hailing from Liverpool he is
of course a natural comedian who has an engaging personality. The
ensemble (see how I got out of that one?), very much changed since the
last visit, consisted Gary on guitar and lead and backing vocals;
Elizabeth Jones (now Mrs Gary rather than fiancée and an act in her own
right as Elfin Bow) on Fiddle, Mandolin, Banjo, Guitar and lead and
backing vocals; Skeet Williams on guitar, banjo, very bad jokes and
Welsh pronunciation of Rhyl (Rule sic. which will help when or if we go
there next) and finally James (Jay) Christian who I have to mention
didn’t say much if anything but provided beautiful support on Bodhran
and Cajon. Each beat was understated and fitted exactly into place on
each song. Whilst electrics were being rearranged Skeet treated us to his wind joke. Don’t get me wrong here it was ecologically sound and since he gave us more later, I think it turned out to be his best of the evening. There were nine songs in the first half. That’s All segued into Bang Bang Bang so subtly that if you didn’t know you would have never noticed. The next song titled Half to Death was particularly memorable for the brilliant percussion at the beginning. Elizabeth gave us her beautiful rendition of the traditional, Black Is the Colour which preceded, Dreaming and a superb Skeet Williams guitar solo. Oceans was inspired by the death of Aylan Kurdi and was written from his mother’s perspective. Mr Lonely Times was followed by Vampires (no I am not going to rephrase it) and the set concluded with Real Life Paradise. Throughout we had been entertained by stories and song background, Skeet’s cock eyed joke (no, you don’t want to know); The desert island golf clubs joke and a very interesting talk on the pros and cons of real nails against false ones which was much appreciated by the guitarists present. It might be interesting to bring Skeet back to give us a more in depth insight into the subject on another occasion. The second half began with Elizabeth’s setting of the Sandy Denny Who Knows Where the Time Goes followed by my personal favourite song Is This Real – which is track 5 on the Cabinet Maker cd. There followed the haunting Free Falling; The Wisdom from Elizabeth in her Elfin Bow guise – an online version of which is to be found on You Tube - The Narrow Boat Sessions. With time running out before the witching hour they gave us All I Want Is You; Walk You Home and the last official song a Richard Shindell/Gary Edward Jones version of the Pete Seeger classic Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. Despite the late hour it was impossible for them to leave without an encore – Summer Wind. Thank you guys it was great. Roll on the next 18 months. Support was provided by club stalwarts (I hope I have the definition right); Barry and Corinne and Dick Woodhouse and in the second half Bryn Phillips. A wonderful time was had by all. |
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