Edwina Hayes and Steve Moonshine provide the headline at April’s OHFC.

There will be many artist who reading a review of their performance, could probably accuse the evil reviewer, after unfair comments, of lacking the full power of their hearing. Before I start I would like to apologise to Steve and Edwina, who provided a super evening of entertainment, as this reviewer’s ears were suffering severe impairment ( I’ll spare you the medical detail) but not enough to not appreciate the quality of country/folk tunes we heard tonight.

There have always been strong links between country/Americana and traditional English folk and both our artistes proved that point this evening.

STEVE MOONSHINE

Steve’s set was totally focussed on cover versions played with subtle finger picking and adroit harmonica work, beginning with a Gordon Lightfoot type song then in the more traditional Riddle Song (He Gave My Love A Cherry). The blend of modern country genre and trad folk worked nicely especially under Steve’s hat. Indeed it was his literal hat that was a feature of his act as he swapped his folky hat for a cowboy hat during The Last Cowboy, sung with a Willie Nelson country swing style.

A ZITHER?!

His instrumental prowess was then further displayed by playing a zither during a Dolly Medley of Joleen, Love Is Like A Butterfly and Coat Of Many Colours, which ended by neatly segueing No Place Like Home on harmonica. Re-donning his folk hat he went ‘sing a long’ with a rousing Drunken Sailor, exchanging zither for mandolin. Then we had an Celtic connection as he sung an Irish ballad about a young girl who had joined the many looking for a better life in the US. Tariffs were of little concern then when 17 million had passed through immigration controls by the time Ellis Island was closed down. Many of whom, as in the song, looked forward to the promised land of a wealthy USA but still missed their homeland,

Nobody tonight would have been expecting to hear the William Tell Overture but his entertaining version completed his set with as many Lone Ranger connotations he could throw at it. When he appropriately raised his cowboy hat at its conclusion, it should have been us raising our hats to him as we had witnessed a wonderful performance. One which deserved the accolades from Corrie, Edwina and the OHFC faithful and the prospect of a return in the future.

EDWINA HAYES

Edwina returned after a two year gap to give us a flawless singing performance. Many might try to liken her to many of the melancholic folk singers old and contemporary British and American but she has a unique voice and delivery.

She summed up a typical OHFC welcome with her opening number It’s All About Love. She followed this with one of her many covers of the evening with a tune from the TVseries Nashville, Life Is That Good. A Bend in The Road expressed her feeling that troubled times are just a blip in life’s journey . From previous performances we all know the strong family links Edwina has . Tonight she focussed on her Rod Stewart adoring auntie with the song She’s A Lady.

Edwina’s songs are clearly very personal to her and the passion and emotion exudes every song particularly in I Don’t Know Why, a song of lost love. The measure of any good song is that it can be be performed in different genres of music. Her first set ended with Springsteen’s I’m On Fire but with Edwina’s indelible touch.

THE GOOD AND THE GREAT

This was a prelude to the second half of the evening almost totally dedicated to splendid renditions of songs referenced to the good and the great but in in her own style. Joan Baez’s I Shall Be Released, John Denver’s Annie’s song, Nanci Griffiths’ I Wish It Would Rain and Donovan’s Catch The Wind all received the Edwina treatment.

There were brief moments of her links to Australia, performing folk legend Eric Bogle’s When The Band Played Waltzing Matilda and her own song Sailing To Botany Bay, which locals know we can every day by barging down the Leeds /Liverpool canal!!

Humour ran through much of the evening as Edwina charmed us with amusing anecdotes of her life. This comedic side also seeped into her song Waiting For The Man To Die and in the song about Kris Kristofferson trying to grab the attention of Johnny Cash by landing a helicopter on his land.

Edwina claimed that she was one of those people who has periods in her life when nothing goes right either being accident or incident prone. But tonight was not one of them.

There seem to be some adjustments to the OHFC diary for a detailed update visit the OHFC website but next month Mark Dowding appears followed by The Hayes Sisters in June before the summer break.Concert nights are first Wednesday in the month and Sing Arounds third Wednesday.

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