On the last count, the population of Barton-Upon-Humber, nestled on the south side of the Humber estuary was approximately 12,000, but when it comes to live music this small North Lincolnshire Town punches well above its weight. The reason for that lies in no small part to the Ropery Hall, a community venue with a seated capacity of around 120 that offers an eclectic mix of theatre, comedy and music of all genres almost ever night of the week.
Tonight everyone of those 120 seats were taken up as the venue welcomed back, after a break of a couple of years, one of the best bands, regardless of genre, to come out of these shores for a very long time. If that wasn’t enough, they are supported by an artist who could almost be described as a godfather of the UK Americana music scene, with his work initially with the iconic band The Long Ryders and latterly with The Coal Porters. It was little wonder that the pre-gig excitement was almost tangible, the chatter more akin to teenagers rather than, well let’s not get bogged down by specifics.
Since the release of their debut album “Over The Silvery Lake” in 2016, The Hanging Stars have carved out a strong following amongst the UK Americana fraternity, including us here at AUK who, have raved enthusiastically about their following four albums with 2022’s “Hollow Heart” receiving a much deserved 9/10 from our esteemed scribe Paul Kerr. Earlier this year they released their much anticipated fifth album “On A Golden Shore”, again to high praise, and recent months has seen them out on the road to promote this new offering.
Taking to the relatively small stage, one immediately noticed that the band were reduced to just a four piece, with regular pedal steel player Joe Harvey-Whyte nowhere to be seen. Starting their set with two songs from their most recent album, the show began with ‘Let Me Dream Of You’ followed by ‘Happiness Is A Bird’. The sound at first, at least for those at the front, appeared a little muddy, the challenges a rock band creates for the sound men of small venues. By the third number, the upbeat ‘Radio On’, the gremlins in the sound appeared to be cured, only for lead singer and guitarist Richard Olson’s monitor to fall from the stage landing at the feet of those at the front. Thankfully nobody was hurt, though it did take a few minutes to rectify, the problem probably caused by so much equipment packed onto the small stage requiring the monitor to be perched a little too precariously, not allowing for the vibration caused by the four musicians.
Things resumed with the band delving into their back catalogue, firstly to their 2018 album “Songs For Somewhere Else” for a glorious rendition of the beautiful ‘For You (My Blue Eyed Son)’. That was matched by the fabulous ‘Heavy Blue’, that first appeared on the 2020 album “A New Kind Of Sky”. Here, with the previous sound problems a thing of the past (or so we thought), the band’s vocals shone, Olson on great form wonderfully assisted by bass player Sam Herman, Paulie Cobra on drums, and newest recruit, relatively speaking, guitarist and keyboard player Patrick Ralla. Their harmonies are one of the band’s strongest assets, but so is the musicianship, apply proved by another song from their second album, this time ‘Honeywater’, which was followed by a run of songs from the new album, including ‘Washing Line’ and the exquisite ‘Sweet Light’, complete with some fabulous lead lines from Ralla’s guitar.
Up to this point ‘Radio On’ had been the only song on the set list from their outstanding fourth album “Hollow Heart”. Thankfully that was rectified during the second half of the show, initially with the sublime ‘Ava’ that billows effortlessly from the stage transporting the audience back to the late 1960’s with Ralla’s guitar conjuring up memories of The Byrds at their most adventurist. This retro sound was continued with the energetic ‘I Don’t Want To Feel So Bad Anymore’, the delightful harmonies once again excelling on a song that acts like a musical link through the decades, from the aforementioned Byrds right through to the LA’s, and The Coral, and yet still, just like the band, retaining its own identity.
There’s still time for the band to include one song from their debut album with an enjoyable rendition of ‘The House On The Hill’ before closing the show with the title track from their 2022 album ‘Hollow Eyes, Hollow Heart’ with it’s atmospheric opening bars, before bursting into a kaleidoscope of sound that sees Ralla pick up his Rickenbacker for the first time this evening, while Olson descends to his knees, adjusting his effect pedals to distort the sound during the extended instrumental passage. The band leave the stage to a tumultuous reception and after a few minutes they return, carefully taking their positions, without tripping or knocking anything over. Once in place they treat the audience, who by now have discarded their seats, arms aloft, by returning, for only the second time tonight, to their 2020 album and the infectious ‘I Will Please You’. Here Ralla plays the keyboards as Olson leads the congregation in the chorus and enthusiastic handclapping, and just when you think the sound gremlins that beset the early part of the show are nothing but a distant memory, Olson’s monitor once again comes loose and falls at the feet of those closest to the stage. By now though, nobody cared, not the band, not the audience, nor it would appear did the sound man, who to be fair was probably blissfully unaware, his view blocked by the exhilarated crowd on what was truly a memorable show.
As mentioned earlier, tonight’s show could almost have been advertised as a double-header, with founding member and frontman for The Long Ryders and Coal Porters, Sid Griffin opening the evening’s proceedings. A winner of an AMAUK International Trailblazer Award, Griffin finally got round to releasing his fifth solo album, “The Journey From Grape To Raisin”, last month, just the ten years on from his fourth. To be fair Griffin has been anything but idle during this period, what with the relaunching of The Long Ryders after close on a 30 year hiatus while still touring and recording with The Coal Porters. On top of this Griffin has been putting his Bachelor’s degree in journalism that he gained in 1977 to good use, both as an author as well as extensive freelance writing. And if that wasn’t enough, he has also become a renowned producer of both radio and television shows. You’d almost think there was no end to the man’s talents, though being the modest soul he is, he tells it somewhat differently during his onstage rapport with the audience.
Griffin’s role as opening act for this run of shows could be viewed as returning a favour as The Hanging Stars had the honour of playing support on The Long Ryders tour back in April 2019. At the time Griffin waxed lyrically about the London based outfit and clearly a mutual appreciation has developed.
Griffin navigated his way to his seat on stage where a musical stand supported a multiple collection of laminated lyric sheets which, one by one, would be discarded to the floor once they had served their purpose. Griffin informed the audience that these days, with so many songs written, he struggles to remember the third verse, something that the younger generation of musicians struggle to comprehend, but one feels that tonight’s congregation could fully empathise with. Opening with the lead track from his new, Thomm Jutz produced album, ‘The Last Ten Seconds Of Life’ is a true story of a late night car trip that almost ends in disaster when a deer appears on the road. This song, like many of the songs on the album deals with mortality and Griffin’s between track banter with the audience is full of anecdotes on the passing of time and the onset of old age. That said, the second number of the night, another from the new album entitled ‘When I’m Drinking I Think In Spanish’, covers the more familiar territory of deceit, delivered with a dark comedic narrative.
A rendition of The Byrds take on the traditional song ‘John Riley’ precedes a couple of numbers from The Cole Porters’ repertoire, including the fabulous ‘The Day The Last Ramone Died’ that allows Griffin the opportunity to swap acoustic guitar for mandolin. There’s also time to throw in a couple of songs from The Long Ryders back catalogue, starting with ‘Final Wild Son’, followed by ‘Molly Somebody’, a song that appeared on their comeback album “Psychedelic Country Soul” in 2019. Griffin then returned to his new album for the last two numbers of his forty minute set. First there was a little levity with the hilariously titled ‘I Want To Be The Man (My Dog Thinks I Am)‘, dedicated to his dog Jessie, a springer spaniel, which like so many of his songs embodies a subtle, sagacious narrative. The final track ‘Why I Play Guitar’, already feels like a Griffin classic as it tells the true story of busking at 7.00am, at the request of Channel 4 for a television programme they were recording but then never used. The irony is not lost on Griffin, while the narrative name-checks many of his musical heroes as he dreams of playing at Carnegie Hall. For the time being at least, dreams of that particular hall might still be a little out of reach, but for tonight’s congregation, The Ropery Hall, is where dreams really do come true.
