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The night was started with a small selection of the great talent we have at the Woodman, namely Paul, Dick and finally Bryn who eased us into the main act by singing his own penned
tribute to Robert Johnson.
Then we were ready for Rag Mama Rag; this was their third visit to the Woodman, the first of which I was unfortunate to miss, the second we managed to see and the third visit we made absolutely sure we were there. Ashley and Debbie Dow describe
their act as Country Blues and they can certainly make it rock.
Their armoury consists of the compulsory Henderson Guitar, the big shiny guitar which I was quickly corrected is a
National, a Dobro Resonator, a Weissenborn Acoustic Lap Steel and a Ukulele, all of which were expertly played by Ashley.
Deborah’s weapons of choice were a set of 10 harmonicas, which she played with great soul, a washboard with various percussion bits attached to it, a nifty combination of African drum and Tambourine and finally your Granddads favourite musical instrument
- the spoons.
Right from the first number "That’ll Never Happen No More" to
their encore "Going Down to The Crossroads" the whole room rocked. There wasn’t a bad number the entire night and no matter what mood you were in when you arrived, you left the club with a smile from ear to ear.
It was interesting when I glanced across to our own performers Paul and Dick were intensely staring at Ashley and obviously trying to see how he achieves that sound, Bryn was confident he had mastered the technique and was practising using his hands with great gusto, on the rocking table and Ian was just sitting there in Heaven with a big grin on his face.
This was Ashley and Deborah’s penultimate gig before they drove down to there home in the South of France and unfortunately they were having to pay premium prices for Jerry cans to over come the French petrol strike. I hope they made it home safely and I am already looking forward to their next visit to the club.
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