Roly Veitch (vocals,
guitar, banjo, ukulele)
(Review by Ann Alex)
Have
you finished your Christmas shopping? No? You’d do well to buy this lovely CD
for someone. Here we have many typical Geordie songs such as The Keel Row and The Water Of Tyne, but what struck me is that we don’t listen
carefully enough to these lyrics: for instance, the title track, Wherever Ye Gan You’re Sure To Find A
Geordie, suggests that you’ll meet a Geordie even in the afterlife! How
many of us could tell the story of the Lambton Worm in detail, or draw a
timeline of the Blaydon Races journey? Roly gives us a gentle, homely take on
these songs that we think we know, presented with excellent musicianship and
touches of sly humour. The much-maligned
banjo and ukulele come across as serious instruments in Roly’s hands, and the
guitar fares well.
Jazz
and folk influences abound in the music.
There’s 1 instrumental track, Morpeth
Rant/Hesleyside Reel, so well played and arranged that I’d have welcomed
more tunes. Cullercoats Bay is sung
with gentle sincerity; Wor Nanny’s A
Mazer, a sort-of love song, has jazzy guitar and train sounds to represent
the journey which was prevented by drunkenness; Alang The Roman Wall is accompanied by a marching rhythm; the lullaby
Bonny At Morn is done to slow steady
guitar riffs; The Pitman’s Lament
(new to me) isn’t about a mining disaster as you’d perhaps expect, but it’s a
father’s lament that his grammar school son has become posh. The other tracks
are: Wor Geordie’s Lost His Plenker; Ma
Bonny Lad; I’ve got A Little Whippet; Keep Your Feet Still Geordie Hinny; Bobby
Shafto and the CD is well rounded off with a tribute to God’s own country, Canny Tyneside, followed by a few bars
of There’s No Place Like Home on the
ukulele.
The
CD was available from December, on the GJF label GJFCD008. More details of how to purchase the CD are
online at www.rolyveitch.20m.com
Ann Alex
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