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I‘d
remembered Roger Wilson from the Houseband, and I’d heard of Karen
Tweed, although I hadn’t seen her before. I seem to have remembered
something about an accordion book, or a video. Not quite sure. So, what I
was expecting was an evening of competently played folk music, jigs, reels
and all the rest, maybe with a couple of songs thrown in. What we got was
something quite special – a spectrum of musical styles from two
incredibly talented musicians.
They started off with a John Kirkpatrick tune with
Roger Wilson on fiddle and Karen Tweed on Accordion, which confirmed my
initial thoughts … but it was pretty good. Then we had a western swing
song – Sleepy Eyed John. That was followed by another couple of
accordion tunes, which really held us in awe of Karen’s amazing
accordion playing and then …. (does anyone like Hank Williams?) a Hank
Williams Song. This was followed by an unusual but very effective Appalachian Mountain
version of “The Two Sisters”, and the tone was set for the evening. An
excellent mix of brilliant guitar and fiddle playing from Roger Wilson,
and amazing accordion playing from Karen Tweed. As well as the traditional
tunes, folk songs, Norwegian tunes, and western swing, they put in some
self penned numbers and even a Big Bill Broonzy blues – John Henry. The
vocals and guitar on this song were superb, but it was the accordion
accompaniment which really hit me. Karen managed to make the accordion
sound like a blues harp, playing train blues style. Amazing. The audience
got involved as well. On a couple of songs we were encouraged to provide a
whistling accompaniment – a brave move – and in “Hey Good Looking”
the “Naughty Corner” were cajoled (didn’t need
much cajoling!) into providing a percussion break.
The encore was a rousing chorus song - “Bob’s Building a
Boat”. A
great end to a great evening.
Support was provided by Ian Munro, Bryn Phillips, and
Barry Priest
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