Well, this is just joyous. This is music to make you smile, to make you want to sing along and to make you feel part of the fun. There are eleven men and their guitars having a fabulous time. Simple as that. Their musicianship is also excellent, of course – fast fingers, intricate playing and a soaring collective vocal. Members of The White Horse Guitar Club come from all sorts of backgrounds: there’s a stonemason, an engineer, a photographer and a teacher. However, they share a love for music and performing and that love is evident in this video. It’s wonderful to see the pleasure they take in playing together, lifting the spirits as we watch.
This song was a hit for The Louvin Brothers back in the 1950s and has been covered many times since, including by the likes of Amanda Shires and Gram Parsons. Joe Philpott of the group explains their approach to exploring music from the past: “We feel we are carriers of song. Digging up treasures, some of which are 100 years old but feel as new as the day they were written. From the field recordings of Alan Lomax to the Appalachian mountains, every song has its own journey and we try to tell that story and evoke the feeling within the song through our own unique interpretations.”
Following a sold-out tour in early 2023, the band have more dates across Ireland this autumn – details here. Joe Carey from the group says: “The band is very much based around camaraderie, friendship and joy, sometimes a missing facet of bands, it’s one we hold very dear. Musically we would have been considered a choral band, voices are central to what we do, all 11 of us sing in unison, harmony and melody.” This is all about great connections within the band and with an audience, promising to be a magical live experience. Check it out. And wouldn’t it be amazing for The White Horse Guitar Club to inspire others to do the same, groups of musicians coming together and playing for the simple joy of it. We want to see guitar clubs appearing all over.
