Bournemouth Folk Club

ALLISON WILLIAMS & CHANCE McCOY

The Centre Stage, Bournemouth

May 27, 2010

Nearing the end of a short UK tour, clawhammer banjo virtuoso Allison Williams and West Virginia fiddle champion Chance McCoy dropped in to headline at the Bournemouth Folk Club to enthral a sizeable audience with some superb old timey picking and singing. Originally from the Arkansas Ozarks and now in Knoxville, Tennessee, Allison cut her musical teeth in punk music before rediscovering her musical roots and in 2005 formed the Forge Mountain Diggers. They toured extensively, sharing the stage with the likes of Uncle Earl and Rhonda Vincent before she released her superb solo album GIVE ME THE ROSES in 2008. Chance McCoy hails from Greenville, West Virginia and learnt his trade by travelling around and visiting old fiddle players. They taught him well!

With Allison swapping between banjo and guitar and Chance also playing occasional banjo, the duo shared lead vocals and threw in some great traditional instrumentals as well. They kicked off with the classic foot tapper Cotton Eye Joe before Chance took vocal lead on Walking in the Parlor, a real West Virginia tongue twister. More great highlights from an excellent opening set included Long Gone, Lost John, the terrific escaped convict song nostalgically remembered here for the version by 1950s skiffle king Lonnie Donegan; Gospel Plow, from Chance McCoy’s album DEBUT with the Appalachian String Band and Almeda Riddle’s Down In Arkansas, sung a cappella by Allison. After the beautiful Pine Floor Waltz from GIVE ME THE ROSES, they went into the break with a great version of Danville Girl, the Woody Guthrie favourite.
Highlights again abounded in the second set. Chance taking the lead on Waterbound with Allison really shining on the self penned Anything, another stand out track from GIVE ME THE ROSES. Chance showed off his vocal talents with the traditional Wind and the Rain and not to be outdone by Allison, he sang this one a cappella. Wild Bill Jones, which they performed on BBCs ‘Folk America’ was followed by the instrumental Washington’s March before Allison delivered a stunning version of Old Paint, or to give it its correct original title, Leaving Cheyenne.

With Allison dressed demurely in a green and yellow floral summer dress and Chance in typical check shirt and baseball cap, one could imagine them picking and singing on the front porch at home, especially when Chance took the occasional swig of whisky from a bottle strategically placed next to his chair! This was a faultless performance from two extremely talented musicians with a wonderfully relaxed stage presence who love the music they play.

This was a great evening that kicked off in fine style with a short set from Bridport’s Stompin’ Dave Allen.

John Roffey