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24 - 26 August 2012
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NANCY KERR & JAMES FAGAN

The Centre Stage, Bournemouth

9 May 2010

Making their first appearance since the birth of their baby Hamish, the award winning Anglo/Australian duo Nancy Kerr and James Fagan headlined at the Bournemouth Folk Club with a scintillating mix of traditional and contemporary acoustic music drawn largely from English and Australian traditions. Their strong harmony singing, beautiful and sometimes breathtaking instrumental work made for an excellent evening and captivated the folk club devotees.

Kicking off with a trio of instrumentals from their excellent album STRANDS OF GOLD, Nancy soon showed her virtuosity on the fiddle with the Northumbrian Sir John Fenwick, Pearl Wedding and Nancy Taylors. A new song, Queen of Waters was followed by the gorgeous Farewell to the Gold with James taking over lead vocals from Nancy. Three Australian waltzes, Spanish Fandangle, Sloane’s Varsovienna and Ti Tree Waltz; all from their latest offering STATION HOUSE, were followed by Keep Hauling On, a new sea shanty with James again taking the lead. A highlight from the first set was Nancy’s Thaxted – Leaving Old England with I Vow to Thee My Country (the well known hymn taken from Jupiter in Holst’s Planets) as the intro. Another Nancy penned song I Am the Fox was followed by a trio of tunes to bring a superb first set to a close; Favourite Duet, a Somerset processional tune included on STATION HOUSE, the Northumbrian pipe tune Meggy’s Foot and Coates Hall, both from BETWEEN THE DARK AND LIGHT.

The second set opened with the Queen Caroline Hughes’ version of Barbara Allen, again from STRANDS OF GOLD, which was closely followed by three Irish/Scottish jigs; The Smiling Bride, Drummond Castle and Holly’s Jig, all from STATION HOUSE. Next came The Drover’s Boy, a poignant story of Aborigine girls taken and disguised as boys, written by Ted Egan, the Australian musician, composer and one time governor of Northern Territory. A new song, Dolerite Skies, which was written and beautifully sung by Nancy (and is to be included in their forthcoming album TWICE REFLECTED SUN) was followed by Sweet Peace, a tribute to Pete Seeger. Already way past curfew time, the duo were obviously relishing the opportunity to be playing live again and had no intention of having an early night. The instrumental Glen Road to Carrick was followed by a family request, Peter the Cabby with James once again taking the lead. As the second set drew towards a close with Jack O’Ryan and a terrific rendition of The Outside Track, written by Australian composer Henry Lawson, they finished with a medley of Elsie Marley and My Laddie Sits Ower Late Up, two songs from the North East which had Nancy in fine voice. Prolonged and loud applause persuaded this lovely couple to return to deliver another Nancy penned new song Round Earth, commemorating Charles Darwin’s 150^th anniversary.

Although seemingly working without a set list, the duo enthralled the audience with their beautiful harmonies. Both are extremely talented musicians, Nancy playing fiddle with James on acoustic guitar and bouzouki. Nancy particularly, has that unusual talent of being able to adapt her voice to match the mood and content of songs. Despite the performance being rather unstructured this was entertainment of the highest quality and the couple were not even fazed by the occasional backing vocals from baby Hamish who should have been asleep in the dressing room area.

John Roffey