Memories of the
Jazz Café as it was were tangible this evening as Gipsy Dave Smith kicked the
evening off with Careless Love,
followed by I’m The Whining Boy, and if I closed my eyes I would have believed that
there really was a trombone introduction as the skill of this great performer
excelled as he mimicked the sound of a trombone to open the number… Just
wow!
Kathryn Lowdon
then joined Gypsy Dave for a Willy Johnson Number, Nobody’s Fault but Mine, and then the ‘little bitty mamma’ carried
on with a grand tune - Skinny Leg Blues. Mary Don’t
You Weep, Get Away Jordan and the
Claude Ely gospel number - Ain't No Grave (Gonna Hold This Body Down) followed on and the first set ended on a Gypsy Dave
Smith original - Blue World.
The
second set was a marathon of tunes from this superb unique duo commencing with
another original by Gypsy Dave, written in the winter of 86/87 in the cold hard
snows called Dead End Street . Ida Cox’s
Four Day Creep and Looky Looky Yonder were wilder and
lively but the next number Nobody Knows
You When You’re Down and Out was a little more subdued and led nicely into
a sensitive and sentimental song that would bring a tear to your eye, What
Are They Doing There Now.
The sentimental theme continued with the
Kris Kristofferson number,
Help Me Make It Through the Night and
then a song first recorded by Huddie 'Lead Belly' Ledbetter in 1933 – Irene
Goodnight, punctuated by sound
effects from the entertaining humour of Gypsy Dave.
The pace picked up for a delightful
Black Betty and a well-known rugby song, Swing
Low Sweet Chariot which seamlessly joined with Lord Wont You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz, before flipping back to the
original tune.
Kathryn Lowdon showed her versatility as
a gifted singer on Evil Girl Blues.
The final number of the night was an animated Skillet Lickers gospel tune – Don’t You Hear Jerusalem Moan, what an
unforgettable end to the evening … and Holy Moly did they Roll!
Kath
J.
No comments :
Post a comment