Spiers And Boden
Venue: The TheatreTown: Chipping Norton
Date: 10-10-2021
Website: https://www.spiersandboden.com
One of the more positive outcomes of the lockdown periods is that it gave Jon Boden and John Spiers the opportunity to reunite and to make a fantastic new duo album "Fallow Ground" , their first since "The Works" of 2011. In fact, they had not worked as a duo since 2014 and the term "Fallow Ground" refers to the time that they had put Spiers and Boden on hold, as well as the effect of the pandemic on musicians generally.
Following the release of "Fallow Ground" in September 2021 , they set off on an autumn tour, arriving here tonight in Chipping Norton.
After a short but thoughtful set from support artist Lady Nade , Spiers and Boden opened with the humorous , jaunty "Butter & Cheese & All" from the repertoire of such legendary figures as Harry Cox, Sam Larner and Peter Bellamy. Also from the singing of Peter Bellamy came a rip-roaring Australian song "Bluey Brink" which recounts the tale of a sheep shearer who could "shear five hundred a day without fear" and could " drink without flinching twelve gallons of beer". This was the duo's first foray into Australian folk song and they did it full justice .
Digging deep into their own discography, Jon and John gave us a dramatic reading of the whaling song "Old Maui" with great , intuitive interplay between John's melodeon and Jon's fiddle. Jon also did a great solo version of this rousing song in January when he gave a "Live To Your Living Room" concert back in the bad old days of lockdown.
Next up was a trio of tracks from "Fallow Ground" , beginning with the traditional Child Ballad "Hind Horn" in which the king's daughter's lover disguises himself as a beggar and wins her love. This was followed by "The Fog" which was written by John Spiers after experiencing a winter day when the sun was obscured by fog all day and he felt "closed in" , as many people also felt during lockdown. The melody reflects the swirling action of the fog. The third piece from "Fallow Ground" was the set of tunes "Cuckoo's Nest / Saltash /William Irwin's Modal Hornpipe". John Spiers announced the first of these as an "orphaned Cotswold Morris Tune from Filkins" which drew a big cheer from the Oxfordshire crowd.
Also from "Fallow Ground" came another set of original tunes , "Giant's Waltz/ The Ironing Board Hornpipe". Jon Boden was inspired to write the former after visiting the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland and this beautifully evocative melody segued nicely into John's jaunty hornpipe which was named after his rarely used ironing board !
Spiers and Boden revisited their back catalogue with superb versions of two old favourites "Tom Padget" from their 2008 album "Vagabonds" and the classic "The Prickleye Bush" from 2006's "Bellow". Great stuff.
The title track of "Fallow Ground" is a traditional night-visiting love song which , unusually, has a happy ending where all parties have a good time and nobody dies. Jon joked that this absence of death might get them expelled from the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
In stark contrast was "Bold Sir Rylas" which Jon [ now playing guitar rather than fiddle] described as being about a psychopath and a witch , where the former kills a monster pig.
The final set of tunes , energetically played, was inspired by two hills "Bailey Hill" and "Wittenham Clumps". The former tune was written by Jon about a hill in Sheffield and John composed the second about the iron-age earthworks which are known as "Oxfordshire's Twin Peaks".
Rounding out what was a fabulous performance were two sea shanties which were Bellowhead favourites , "Haul Away For Rosie" and , of course , the mighty "New York Girls" , a real crowd-pleaser.
John Spiers told me afterwards that it was "fantastic to be playing in person again" . All I can add is that it is equally fantastic that Spiers and Boden are back together again and playing for us.
Peter Cowley
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