Well, what pleasant surprises – to find that there are Americana fans in Hertford was one, and that one such fan had created a House Concert venue just a couple of miles away. And then there was the surprise that Catherine MacLellan would be performing with Lucy Farrell in just a few days.
MacLellan has been one of my favourite Canadian singer-songwriters for many years. Not only does she have one of the sweetest, loveliest voices around, she writes great songs about life and love, the passing of time, wildlife and nature, forgiveness, family and mental health, amongst other subjects. She is a multi-award winner, including a Juno (Canadian Grammy) for Best Roots Album. Not surprisingly, she hails from Prince Edward Island (PEI) on Canada’s eastern seaboard (a veritable hotbed of musical talent), and you can feel her songs connecting with her surroundings.
Lucy Farrell, on the other hand, is English, from Maidstone, and has been a feature on the English contemporary folk scene for many years as a duo partner to Johnny Kearney and then as a member of the Anglo-Scottish band Furrow Collective. She is also an award winner like MacLellan, whom she met when alighting on Prince Edward Island on a visit with her Canadian musician husband, Jake Charron. They gelled emotionally and musically and embarked on some smaller dates before recording a delightful EP that was available at, and only at, their gigs and embarking on a UK tour.
While Farrell has a more unconventional writing style than MacLellan, and her voice is rather higher than her sweeter-voiced partner, together they make musical magic, and the evening in Hertford was a relaxed delight. Between songs, their repartee and interaction with the small audience were warm and friendly and highly amusing with anecdotes about selkies, oysters and sisters, and they happily engaged more during the short break in proceedings and afterwards.
Farrell kicked off proceedings with ‘Never Enough’ and then ‘Lullaby for Edwyn‘ a dedication to her son, both on her debut album “We Are Only Sound” before MacLellan introduced herself with a tribute to her father Gene, who wrote the glorious hit song ‘Snowbird’ that had a quiet intensity in MacLellan’s handling. Farrell had switched from acoustic guitar to viola for this beautiful interpretation. Other glorys followed, some new, some taken from each of their latest releases. ‘Can We Start from Here’ was a very personal and lovely ballad by MacLellan, a desire to patch up old distances from her sister. On a couple of songs, the audience was exhorted to join in the chorus (which they did enthusiastically on Farrell’s album title track).
‘Come Back In’ (from MacLellan’s “Coyote”) was delightful with fine guitar playing and harmonies and was described by MacLellan as “kind of a trying not to break up song’” but “we broke up anyway”, while Farrell contributed ‘Cabin for Winter‘, a song she wrote while trying to navigate her first winter on Prince Edward Island, not an easy conversion from Maidstone. Both this song and ‘Agnes‘ also featured from the EP, so it was not surprising to see members of the audience queuing up to buy it. ‘Night Crossing‘, ‘Emmett’s Song‘ (an affecting song about MacLellan’s nephew and his issues) and ‘The Tempest‘ all came from “Coyote”, while Farrell included the beautiful ‘But For You‘ (a song about the afore-mentioned selkies – go look it up!).
The evening ended with a sole encore, an absolutely bewitching version of The McGarrigle Sisters’ vivid road trip experience, ‘Talk to Me of Mendocino’.
Backroads House Concerts, who held the concert, is the brainchild of Naomi Koppel (a journalist and big fan of Americana and house concerts), who purchased a house in Hertford with an old carpenter’s shed in the back garden. Over a six-month period, she renovated the shed (cleared out mice and spiders and webs, etc, and painted the inside, then decorated it with Americana memorabilia). Their first concert was late last summer, and it’s Koppel’s intention to try and attract Americana artists to her neck of the woods – the artists already booked for later in the year are real quality, including Two Crows for Comfort (Canada), Karen Jonas Duo (USA) and the outstanding Rod Picott (USA). It’s a very small venue, so get in quick.
In the meantime, this reviewer will dwell on the memories of a magical and intimate concert experience provided by Farrell and MacLellan, a partnership made in heaven.
I caught them at their Rosslyn Court, Margate gig a couple of weeks back, Fred, both new to me, loved them–and have their three albums to enjoy!