J R Harbidge Band/Fargo Railroad Co

J R HARBIDGE BAND/FARGO RAILROAD CO

Musician Pub 27th February 27/02/2024

Back at The Musician Pub for an evening of americana/rock'n'roll.

I have no idea how i would define americana, but the The Fargo Railroad Co. are surely it!. They stepped up and after a greeting ripped into the first song... and had the audience with them from the off. The band were so positive... performed with great confidence, assurance authority and spirit, and a great deal of ability.

Singer/acoustic guitar player Jody appears as a larger than life character, has a terrific strong voice and delivers the songs with great authority and clarity while guitarist AndyP plays great guitar throughout. The songs themselves are all originals, all great and have a great deal of humour and fun in them. Andy sings back-up and plays powerful bass and helps drive the beat along with the drummer, Smack.

These are four fine musicians who deliver a really top-notch set of americana/southern rock music. Whatever the genre, it is damn good and hugely entertaining. At the interval the discussion was about what unseen quality it is that a band has that raises them above to a higher level... i cant define it, but whatever it is this band has and some to spare.. .absolutely terrific... a real breath of fresh air

After minimal change over delay on came the headliner, J R Harbridge with his full band playing americana influenced by the golden period of the 60's/70's and by the likes of Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, CSN and others...

The band is very. much about JR and his songs/vocals and guitar playing and assisted by fine accompaniement from guitar, keyboards, bass and drums. The songs are predominantly originals and pretty good, along with a couple of covers... The Eagles "Take it Easy" and Dylan's "New Morning"

The addition of keyboards in the band adds layers of texture which give the music its rich quality.

However, sadly their were moments of carelessness, maybe unprofessionalism, such as playing a song without plugging the guitar in.

We were discussing at the interval what unseen ingredient raises a band through levels... at the end we were asking what unseen quality a band lacks to prevent it... for me, although I enjoyed the band, i felt there was something missing.. and found them slightly underwhelming... shame, it was not for the want of musical ability

Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues

Magpie Arc

MAGPIE ARC

Musician Pub 25th February 2024

This gig seemed a long time coming.. but tonight at The Musician Pub we saw MAGPIE ARC, folk rock supergroup featuring five outstanding musicians with enviable CV's... Martin Simpson (electric guitar/vocals) Nancy Kerr (fiddle/vocals/guitar) Findley Napier (guitar/vocals) Tom Wright (Drums) and Alex Hunter (bass)

The sell out crowd were in place early for this one, with virtually every seat and standing place occupied some 10 minutes before the doors were due to open and were buzzing with anticipation!!

We were promised a performance of something new updating the earlier folk/rock scene and that is about right... This band is magnificent, playing some traditional ballads in purely folky style, some new original songs were pure rock'n'roll and the rest were an exciting hybrid of the two.

The set is a mixture of traditional ballads, original material written by the band, primarily i think Nancy and Findley as well as some more familiar work by writers such as Townes Van Zandt & Mike Waterson (any band covering songs by these two cant be bad!!) and, for me a special word for Martin's performance of Leon Rossellsons "Palaces of Gold" which he introduced as a "song that still needs to be sung". This was Martin's solo piece, accompanying himself with some beautiful slide guitar work.

Findley solo'd with a lovely original song for his daughter and Nancy excelled with a child ballad accompanied by her fiddle.

The band are a real powerhouse driven by the superb rhythm section of Tom and Alex... both played superbly throughout the set.

Up front both Nancy and Findley are fine singers and Nancy is a terrific fiddle player. Findley plays a driving rhythm guitar and Martin's guitar playing is rightly revered.

We went along with high expectations and the band delivered and lived up to it and then some... a wonderful evening... a terrific band delivering a terrific set over the best part of 2 hours.

keep music live... keep music real... support your local venue

Unravelling Wilburys

UNRAVELLING WILBURYS

Musician Pub 15th February 2024

Thursday night at The Musician Pub brough a real treat... the return of the fabulous The Unravelling Wilburys.

Dont be fooled... this is no simple tribute band... these guys are the real deal... a group of brothers born and raised in a shack in the Appalacians who played music for the locals... one night two superstars saw the band, called their three friends who went along... the five loved what they heard then disappeared, to reappear a few years later ripping off the bands name by calling themselves the Travelling Wilburys and ripping off the music... and consequently getting all the credit, so the Brothers, Sticky Willy, Walter, Thumper, Blind Melon & Honky Tonk were left behind while the superstars took all the credit and money (sounds familiar!)

However, the brothers have come to the UK to play their original music for the discerning audiences...

The band mix outstanding versions of the songs with great humour and deliver a massively entertaining wonderful 2 hours performance.

The set list includes songs by the Wilburys, as well as Harrison, Dylan, Petty, Orbison and Lynn in equal measure.

They started off with some banter explaining the origins of the music before cracking into "Devils Been Busy" which got the large audience going from the off... and followed with one of the Wilbury classics, "Handle With Care" (Wilburys) which went down a storm... as did every song in the set... The first half ripped along with classic after classic, including among many others "Only the Lonely" (Orbison), "Refugee" (Petty) and an ingenious original song "There Would Be No Spring" which took countless song titles by the band and welded them into a new song...

The second half started solo with Sticky Willy performing "Like a Rolling Stone" (Dylan) while the band came on to join in as the song progressed... from there to "End of the Line" (Wilburys) which had the audience singing along...

The band then introduced Eric Clapton to play on "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" (Harrison)... sadly Eric had not turned up again... so many classics!!... next up was Tom Petty's song "Learning to Fly" which somehow escaped the attention of the censors...

The set carried on beautifully climaxing with "Oh Pretty Woman" (Orbison) before the well merited encores of "Wilbury Twist" and finally ELO's "Mr Blue Sky"

The Unravelling Wilburys are far more than a tribute band... they cover Travelling Wilbury songs as well as pieces by all five members of that band. Musically this band is outstanding, great individual musicians who blend together perfectly into a really great band.

It is wonderful to see a band bring so much humour and good fun to the stage, which blends beautifully with the quality of the music... as well as the humour and superb interpretation of great songs this band truly rocks... This is a really great, hugely entertaining and talented band... love them... loved the gig... it was a real gem... as always with these guys

Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues *** Sadly i was unable to get any pictures with Honky Tonk Wilbury... but he played a major role in the performance