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The
Basement of Big Star records is very small, it can only accommodate
100 people at the most, but it was only half full to welcome Eliza
Carthy and her accompanist Saul Rose . A poor showing , given
there had been a great show in town the night before , with around
120 people present at the Governor Hindmarsh to see the full Waterson
Carthy band . Still that's Adelaide for you , people will go to see
second rate local talent who they know, yet ignore the real McCoy
. And by all that's good in music, this IS the real McCoy. Eliza has
blossomed into a great performer, and is carrying on in her parents
traditions of carrying the torch for traditional English music , as
well as taking it into new places, as evinced on her great Cd Red
Rice, which you must check out if you have not yet heard it . |
These pages will give
you an idea of what went down on the evening , along with links to
other Waterson Carthy sites on the net and particular emphasis on
the recent Australian tour.
Eliza Carthy.
Big
Star show.
Waterson
Carthy |
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Set
list.
Picking Up sticks >
Felton Longing ? >
Kingston Girls.
The Americans Have Stolen My True Love Away.
Miller on the ?
Saulís Morris Tunes.
Air Jig.
Tuesday Morning.
Instrumental . |
The Fuze .
Seventeen.
Bonny Light Horseman.
Herring Song .
Walk Away.
Mr Walker.
Encores.
Zachinthos Jig>
Mr Tommyís Foot >
Quebecois
The Bonny Fisherboy. |
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We arrived early , wishing to get good seats, and
it was fortunate that we did , as there are only a few seats in the
Basement and these are simply stone shelves alongside each of the
sides of the room. They were almost full , so we parked ourselves
right next to the PA ( that's my profile in the far left corner of
the photo at the top of the page) . We bumped into Paul Challen who
we had not seen since the Widespread Panic show last year which was
nice, as we had lost touch with him, he'd seen the Waterson Carthy
show the previous night and was raving about how good it was.
We told him that Eliza was already here, as we had seen her talking
to Vic the promoter , upstairs in the shop itself. Martin Carthy was
also in attendance, lurking patriarchally at the back of the room,
but he did not venture down to the stage .
A
violin and accordion duo did a short warm up set and then
eventually Eliza got up and did some tuning up and a basic sound
check before being joined by Saul Rose who was to play melodeon
and accordion . They were just about to start when the mobile phone
of the soundman started bleating its stupid little tune and we all
had to wait until the guy had finished his conversation, seemingly
oblivious to the fact that the performers were hanging around tapping
their feet.
I'll
post the full set list here later, but some of the highlights
of the set were 'Herring Song ' which has such a catchy tune and
some seemingly endless jamming. Saul's morris solo was great and
he dedicated it to the Morris men at the gig .
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"Mr Walker " shone, as did the wonderful solo version
of 'Fisher Boy ", which reminded us
all of Sandy Denny, such was the purity and feeling Eliza put into the
delivery. She also did a couple of her own numbers, including ' The Fuse
" on keyboard, which was initially hard to get used to, but grows on you
with repeated listenings. The quality of the instrumental work by both players
was also as good as I've heard in this idiom and despite the small
audience, both artists put everything they had into this show.
There
were some spirited encores, which prompted prolonged applause, after which
Saul said ' you clap any more and I kill you ' . A lovely version of "Fisherboy
"and they were gone. We'd been treated to 110 minutes of truly great music
,whilst upstairs the goons on Rundle Street had been sipping their cafe
au lait , inhaling exhaust fumes and listening to the latest chic crap.
I know who
had the better deal .
Thanks have to go to Vic Flierl for organising the gig . A real labour
of love for him I know , but he would have lost money on this show for
sure . Even so , the small audience created a warm atmosphere, the performers
seemed to love every minute of it and I know most of us would have paid
ten times the cover charge to see this show , a classic in every way !
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