By Delia Pemberton.
It was a sell-out concert at the Harbour Hotel, and those of us lucky enough to get a seat on Wednesday evening were treated to a fine spread of offerings from three acts who've made it their mission to take folk music back to its traditional roots and reinvigorate it for a new generation.
It seems like no time at all since Granny’s Attic were the new kids on the folk block, so it came as a surprise to discover that they've now been together for 15 years. The stratospherically talented trio, comprising Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne (melodeon, concertina, vocals), George Sansome (guitar, vocals) and Lewis Wood (violin, vocals), are busy with individual projects these days, but still make time to play together and their joy in each other's company is evident. There may be a shade less altitude in the onstage pogoing, but their performance (now featuring twerking) is just as energetic, and their musical virtuosity improves year on year. Yet despite their stellar reputation, they express genuine amazement at getting paid for “just dicking around”.
For their 15th anniversary, the band had been rummaging through their back catalogue, and tonight's set included a mix of traditional pieces and their own compositions. All three have superb voices, throwing the lead vocal around and showing off their rich harmonies in songs like “The Ship in Distress”, “The Wheels Of The World” and “Away To The South'ard”. Instrumentals included Wood's composition “Royal Oak”, Sansome's “Queen's Wood”, and their arrangement of “Odd Thoughts/James' Maggot”, featuring Wood's blistering fiddle, frenetic concertina playing from Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and Sansome's energetic guitar.
Opening for Granny's Attic were two up-and-coming young acts. Vocal trio Culverake (Seb Stone, Matt Quinn and Lizzy Hardingham) only formed last year, so they can be forgiven for being a little rough round the edges, but their close-harmony renditions of traditional songs are simply spine-tingling, and it's a certainty we'll be hearing more of them. As we surely will of prize-winning duo Che Bradley (guitar) and vocalist Rhiannon Kenny (vocals), aka Wychbury. The future of folk is in safe hands.
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