Back in June 2013, we had the pleasure of supporting Bob Fox at the Great kNight Folk Club in Northampton and were delighted shortly afterwards to receive an invitation from club organiser Andrew Wintersgill to return to the club as the featured artist.
The original invitation to support Bob Fox had come through fellow club committee member, Kevin T Ward who had seen us play previously at Rugby Roots. So, it was great news to hear that he was going to be our MC for the evening. Not only is Kevin a very busy musician these days but also, given our interests and his compendious knowledge of Breton and other Celtic based music, he is always a joy to talk to.
Support act for the evening were The Doughboys Three – three members of the well-known and well-regarded Northamptonshire Cajun/Zydeco band, Ock ‘n Dough. With fiddle, guitar and an intriguing array of percussion (including a wearable washboard resembling a suit of armour) The Doughboys Three gave everyone an excellent half hour of Cajun and self-penned, traditional-style, folk music. Good playing and, in the final number particularly, some great vocal harmonies got the evening off to an excellent start.
This was followed by Kevin giving the audience a very lovely, thoughtful and well-informed introduction to na-mara. The Great kNight audience is an excellent listening audience, discerning and very attentive. They were also very willing to get involved in singing along with any choruses in our material.
We brought ‘When I Took My Horse to Water’ back into the set that evening and it was clear that many were greatly moved by it and it is pleasing to report that the new muñeiras in the set are bedding down well. We are also currently playing both ‘Only for Three Months’ and ‘The Silver Duro’ in the set. This allows audiences to get insight into both the parting of the Basque children from their parents in 1937 and their subsequent reunion. Following comments after the show, it was clear that understanding of the final resolution of the story was greatly appreciated by many. Before concluding with our encore, Kevin finished the evening’s formal proceedings with some very kind words indeed about our music.
Many thanks to Andrew, Kevin and all those who came along to see us on the evening and we can’t wait to return for another Great kNight in the future.