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24 - 26 August 2012
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THE MORROWS
The Centre Stage, Bournemouth
29 May 2011

There was another bumper turn-out to support multi-talented husband and wife duo Patrick and Wendy Morrow making a welcome return to headline at Bournemouth Folk Club’s superb venue, The Centre Stage. Their popularity continues to grow and this was highlighted by the numbers travelling from Ringwood where the couple delivered a stunning headline set at the Elm Tree just under a year ago. With Patrick switching effortlessly between guitar, mandolin and violin with Wendy excelling on harp and flute, the duo were quickly into their stride with Blue Skies, the opening track from their most recent offering ONLY TIME. An exquisite rendering of Steal Away followed. This is a most beautiful love song the couple wrote many years ago and which usually serves as their encore. ‘Why leave the best until last’ was Patrick’s view as they launched into some traditional folk with Fairest Flower and The Pedlar of Swaffham, a fifteenth century Norfolk tale of John Chapman who dreamt of standing on London Bridge to hear good news and when there, a shopkeeper told him to return home and dig under his apple tree. Here he found many gold coins with which he paid for the north aisle of the local church to be rebuilt.

A new song England, to be featured on their forthcoming album, was followed by another traditional folkie I Live Not Where I Love. Wendy had taken the liberty of meddling with the tune although it would have been nice to hear the original where perhaps she could have come close to emulating the likes of Linda Thompson or Maddy Prior. Birds, a tale of a wren becoming ‘king of the birds’ was followed by yet another traditional folk song The Fisherman’s Wife, the story of Isabella who could have any wish granted but was never satisfied. The Morrows have aspirations to inject more instrumentals into their programme and with their extraordinary talents, who could blame them. Tonight they included two separate medleys of firstly flute and then fiddle tunes.

With the Sunday evening clock ticking by at much too fast a pace, they closed with the gorgeous Snow Falls on Cedars before encoring with Things We Do for Love another terrific love song which they’ve included in their programme for many years and which never fails to please. Whether it’s Patrick’s powerful vocals supported by Wendy’s haunting harmonies, or Wendy taking the lead, The Morrows always provide excellent entertainment and their instrumental work is quite staggering.

The evening got underway with a short set from local singer/songwriter Ben Dalby followed by ace bottleneck blues man Axel, ably supported by Brett Nevill on double bass before young duo Katie & Jasmine took us into the break with their dulcet harmonies.

This was yet another superb evening’s entertainment at the BFC.

John Roffey