Sam Kelly and Jamie Francis / Alan Hedley- Over Hulton Folk Club – Wednesday 5th November 2025

Many folk audiences and renowned artists in the folk world have endorsed this talented duo, tonight it was their first visit to OHFC and we were not left disappointed .

MELODIOUS TUNES

The evening opened with a selection of songs with a North East England focus from Eric Hedley who had made a good impression at the singalong sessions. The warm appreciation of his support spot was much deserved with his melodious tunes, each one telling a story.

No folk song set from that region is complete without a song penned by Graeme Miles to celebrate the rural beauty of the NE and one of them opened the set. Festive wintry scenes and a tribute to lakeland chronicler Wainwright also showed his love of countryside settings. Local folk have a great affinity with mining, so his self penned song Deputy Miner, dedicated to his grandfather. An Irish lovelorn tale preceded his final song.

Although most songs were melancholic in flavour accompanied by some delightful acoustic finger picking the parody of Swing On A Star, bemoaning the plight of a guitarist troubadour, that gave a more humorous tone to his enjoyable set.

APPALACHIAN BANJO

Now a regular member of the Kate Rusby band and with his own Lost Boys team at a pause point, Sam Kelly (his own Dreamer’s Dawn album released earlier this year and long term buddy Jamie immediately warmed themselves to the audience, which for a pleasant change was more varied in age range. Sam was clearly impressed by one of the best loos on the folk scene and showed his jocular side musically too with The Wishing Tree in which he reminisced his young outdoor late night escapades. It began with a melodic instrumental opening before we heard Sam’s gentle easy on the ear vocals which set the tone for the evening.

Their long relationship which began at college in Brighton, shone through musically too. There was an Appalachian feel to much of Jamie’s banjo playing especially in songs like his Six Miners. This told us that the evening was not going to be all about award winning vocalist Sam, which added strength to their performance.

We were invited to interpret at our will the lyrics to the love song Guiding Light . As well as providing us with their modern outlook on folk music they paid homage to folk roots too with Gallows Pole originating from USA, they cracked along at an lively pace. This was followed by the lilting Scottish tune, The Bonnie Lass of Fyvie (ask Findlay Napier, or the Grateful Dead, about Pretty Peggy…) which had a Robbie Burns feel to it.

ACCOMPLISHED PARTNERSHIP

Sam and Jamie have been writing and performing for quite a while and since they wrote Eyes Of Men, which Sam called their most depressing song. Melancholic it may be but Jamie ’s acoustic opening was delightful and developed into some smart licks especially in their cover of blues standard Crossroads.

Their changes in pace and subject matter provided another high quality evening and I hope Corrie and her team felt they deserved to go way with more that the £10 plus a pint they used to get when starting out, especially as they managed to avoid canine interruptions when they played G sharp chords…

As the year draws to a close there is only one performance night left, which is in December when Claire and Chris Rogan return. It has been an extremely successful year for OHFC with many top quality acts filling the room and many new discoveries too. Also ,as referred to briefly, some acts are attracting younger audiences. There has been a healthy blend of traditional artists and more contemporary ones. It is hoped this continues in the line up for next year to reflect the variety of acts on the folk circuit.

Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys online: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

Keep up with At The Barrier: Facebook / X / Instagram / Spotify / YouTube