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Karine Polwart at Chequer Mead - pic 2 Karine Polwart at Chequer Mead - pic3
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I must declare my ignorance of Karine Polwart and admit that I had only known of her for about six months when I caught her on TV one night and immediately liked what I saw. Appearing as Chequer Mead as a trio, the band consisted of Karine on lead acoustic guitar and lead harmony vocal, Steven Polwart (Karine's younger brother) on acoustic and electric guitar and harmony and backup vocals and Inge Thompson on accordion, acoustic triangle and harmony vocals. Inge, apart from being a virtuoso triangle player used her accordion to great effect, especially for the eerie sound effects on Azalea Flower. The vocal harmonies were exquisitely melodious and at times subtle and the crowning glory of the harmonies for me was at the end of The Good Years when the instruments has finished and the trio were carrying on in accappella style with voice of each singer in sequence making a sound like the chiming of sweet bells! This was the climax at the end of the first set and the songs and their delivery had been getting constantly stronger throughout the set, and would get even stronger as the evening slipped by. Back on stage for the second set, they sang charming songs covering the advantages of marrying a gas fitter through to sad songs about witch burning. The performance included: Four Strong Walls, Only One Way, Daisy, Take Its Own Time, Waterlily, The Good Years, The Dreadful End Of Marianna, John C Clarke (the gas fitter song!), The Sun's Coming Over The Hill and Follow The Heron. A stunning performance. I can't wait for Karine and company to come back to Sussex. Review courtesy of Bob Preece |
The
evening kicked off with an impressive set by Steve Winchester &
Johnny Wigg. Based in West Sussex - the close proximity of them to the
sea became obvious once the set had got going because most of the songs
had a maritime theme in some way or other. Steve taking the lead on
acoustic guitar and lead vocal with Johnny playing various instruments;
acoustic guitar, viola, low whistle and mandolin. Steve's guitar work
was extremely competent with a crisp, clean sound with some delightful
picking. Johnny added some nice layers of acoustic guitar over Steve's
playing with harmony vocal and occasionally giving the music an
additional sound quality on mandolin.