CD Review: Roly Veitch - A Canny Tale Crowley's Crew.

Roly Veitch (vocal/guitar/banjo/uke) + Stewart Hardy (fiddle on 6 tracks)
(Review by Lance).

By the time the final track ended I felt as though I'd lived in Blaydon all my life even though, apart from the various pubs and clubs where Blaydon Jazz Club has, over the years, nested and passing through the town en route elsewhere I'd had little or no connection to the place.

Admittedly, I'd had a pint or two in the Crowley Hotel but had had no idea as to the origins of its name.

Until now.

Roly Veitch has removed his jazz hat and replaced it with a cloth cap and muffler (or whatever the working man wore in Blaydon long long ago) to tell us in song and story of his hometown's industrial past.

He does it with so much feeling that I imagined I was on backshift down the pit at Winlaton, working in Crowley's Ironworks or his Brickworks. Maybe smelting lead, having fun at the Winlaton Hoppings, going to the races on Blaydon Island - yes there was an island in the Tyne - fighting the Scots at Stella Haugh, meeting Coffee Johnny who wore a white top hat, shopping at 'The Store' (Coop) or maybe working as a keelman. I have cycled along the Keelman's Way past George Stephenson's Cottage across the river from Blaydon and my own hometown, Hebburn, actually has a Keelman's Way School...

Most of the songs are composed by Roly who sings then with the same laidback, wistful sound he applies to his jazz vocals. Close your eyes and you'd think Chet Baker lived in Blaydon - if he had a Geordie accent that is!

No doubting Roly's accent and yet it's not so pronounced as to be incomprehensible in other parts of the country or, indeed, the English speaking world. Nor is it the pseudo-Geordie accent beloved of TV.

As Roly says, "I'm a Tynesider and proudly must say 'Give me the language that's spoken my way.'

Blaydon has a population of 15,155 which should take care of the first pressing.

Lance.

Special mention of Neil Harland's mixing, Dave Kerr's artwork and (on 6 tracks) Stuart Hardy's fiddle playing.

Amazon link.