10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION WEEKEND
FRIDAY 19TH-SUNDAY 21ST JULY 2024
In a time when live music venues are struggling, when any number of festivals have packed it all in, when musicians are finding it hard to make a living, this is something to celebrate.
Downend Folk & Roots (formerly Downend Folk Club) is ten years old and they’re throwing a party. Three days of music, dancing, community action, three days of friendship, of laughter, of beautiful revelry.
Friday starts with a ceilidh, and it is an absolutely glorious thing. Young dance with old, pink mohicans dance with sensible cardigans, everybody smiles and laughs and smiles again. As The Molecatchers provide the square dances, so hands and feet twirl around in intricate little knots, up and back and back again, dancers weaving and spinning. Some of them do it right nearly all of the time. This is exactly what Downend has always been about; a sense of community and fun, an overwhelming love of the music but a refusal to take it all too seriously. By the end of the evening the party is well and truly underway, ready for a whole day of music on Saturday.
One of the more recent innovations at Downend has been the Saturday afternoon Family concert. A space where everyone is welcome, where the noise from little ones is celebrated and everyone is allowed to have a good time. Katie Grace Harris, a singer songwriter from Oxfordshire, fits the bill perfectly. Switching effortlessly between piano, accordion and dulcimer, as well as between trad and her own songs, Harris is never anything other than full of joy.
It just wouldn’t have been right to throw this party and not invite Road Not Taken. If this folk club has a house band, then they are probably it, although they have been on a self-imposed hiatus for the last few years. Formed in the club and featuring Ant Miles, Downend’s founder, Road Not Taken are fantastic. Anita Dobson’s voice has always been their focal point and, on I’ll Weave My Love A Garland and Suzanne Vega’s The Queen and The Soldier, it is as high, pure and expressive as ever. They take these wonderful, familiar, traditional songs and remind us just why we love them.
Janice Burns & Jon Doran also cast a hazy warmth over the Saturday afternoon. Burns’ voice is a fabulous thing, giving a sense of defiant beauty to the Song of the Fishgutters, it is upbeat and pacey. As Doran lends her his harmony, the two voices blend seamlessly. Georgie and Love You No More are sublime.
Saturday afternoon ends with a Downend Folk & Roots favourite. Jim Moray has been the club’s patron since the very beginning and has played here twice before. To help with the celebrations he plays a set that is, more or less, one that he would have played in 2014. Even after 20 odd years of making music, folk is still startling in Moray’s hands. He doesn’t try to make things beautiful or nice, instead you feel the anger, the pain, the desperation when he sings. The storytelling on Lord Douglas and Jenny of the Moor is extraordinary, the simple electronics on Lemady still thrilling, the ferocity of Jim Jones in Botany Bay breathtaking. It is, however, Sounds of Earth that continues to be Moray’s greatest (should have been a) hit. It is the best song that anyone plays all day, probably the best song that Downend Folk & Roots has ever heard. There are tears being shed at the back, the fact that he follows it with a version of Roy Orbison’s Crying makes it even better. Touchingly Moray dedicates two Morris tunes to the much missed Downend stalwart Cliff Wooley, and in doing so he emphasises everything wonderful about this place.
After Moray’s inventiveness, Saturday evening carries with it echoes of a more traditional Folk Club. It turns out that this is a brilliant thing. Gavin Osborn & The Comment Section are delightfully funny, a throwback to those days of old when Billy Connolly and Jasper Carrott played folk music. The Comment Section is just one man, John Hare, but he adds keyboards, accordion and, best of all, trumpet. With his musical nouse and Osborn’s clever songwriting they are gloriously entertaining. Bath Not Bristol is wry and knowing, What Kind of Thing endearingly self-deprecating and Albert Went Out to See Rock Bands is as intimate, heartwarming and delightfully observed as Victoria Wood or Alan Bennett. After their set, Downend whispered to itself, “How good were they?”. The answer, simply, is that they were so good.
Equally good were Bryony Griffith & Alice Jones. Unlike every other act over the weekend, they haven’t played Downend before, but they were welcomed like homecoming heroes anyway. As Yorkshire as a good strong cup of tea, Griffiths and Jones proved to be exceptional company.
Lady Maisery have a similar relationship with Downend. Over the years Hannah James, Hazel Askew and Rowan Rheingans have played here in so many different iterations that they were, really, the only band that could possibly bring the day to a close. True to form, they were exactly what was required. Mainly playing songs from their most recent album, Tender, Lady Maisery were as glorious as ever. Although their own songs are lovely – Birdsongbeing a glorious evocation of freedom and song – it is three cover versions that tie the whole of their set together. Lal Waterson’s Child Among the Weeds is brim-full with delicious harmonies, Tracy Chapman’s 3000 Miles has an intensity built around a banjo and Rheingans’ incredible voice but Bjork’s Hyperballadis jaw dropping. It is a cover that easily eclipses the original as James replaces Icelandic quirk with wide-eyed wonder. It is a song that makes your heart feel good.
Those hearts continued to feel good for the final day. Sunday was a little more relaxed, starting with some local community action, taking in the very first band that ever played Downend Folk Club, continuing with Bristol’s finest folk choir and ending with Morris Dancing in the sunshine.
The first band that ever played Downend were Bright Season, the trio led by Michael J Tinker. They haven’t really existed as a band for years, so this represented something pretty special. Tinker, Ella Sprung and Simon Dumpleton are consummate musicians, weaving traditional songs and sea shanties around folk tunes from around the world. Sprung’s nyckelharpa beautifully jaunty on a Danish Jig, Tinker heart-wrenching on a darkly haunting version of Strange Fruit and Dumpleton helping bring something almost Lau-like to Arrival. The unbridled pleasure that they, clearly, got from being back in Downend was infectious, it was, after all, them that started this whole thing. They seemed to radiate a pride that we were all still here.
Finally, the celebration was brought to a close by Heartwood Chorus, a choir that is becoming synonymous with celebration at Downend Folk & Roots. They have sung at a couple of Christmases so it was a pleasure to see them do a full set. Christ Church Downend is the perfect venue for rejoicing with thirty voices, the perfect venue to worship at the temple of song, and Heartwood were more than ready to play their part. From traditional songs to contemporary folk classics, the choir raised the roof, voices in glorious harmony, a dynamic, overwhelming experience. The traditional Byker Hill sits comfortably next to Bjork’s Cosmogony, Heartwood showing that a great song is a great song regardless of where it comes from.
At a time when things can sometimes feel uncertain and unfriendly, Downend Folk & Roots has embodied everything that is good in the world over the last ten years. A welcoming community, a friendly face, a brilliant song, a wonderful singer, Downend gives us all of these things. As I walked away on Sunday afternoon, the sun on my face, the sound on Morris bells still in the air, I realised that Downend Folk & Roots is one of my favourite places in the world. This weekend was the perfect celebration.
Words: Gavin McNamara
Photos: Barry Save