In loving memory of our co-founder, Darren Beech (4/08/1967 to 25/03/2021)

Tag: Jonathan Pearson

JONATHAN PEARSON AND ALEX BARRASS – A Trip To Stocksfield (own label)

A Trip To StocksfieldJonathan and Alex are award-winning exponents of the Northumbrian small pipes. Jonathan also plays mandocello and melodeon and, remarkably, only took up the pipes three years ago. The material on A Trip To Stocksfield is a mixture of traditional with the composer listed as unknown, original compositions and one or two from the greats of Northumbrian music. So you’ll find such names as Billy Pigg, Tom Clough, Will Atkinson and even James Scott Skinner amongst the credits.

The album opens with a lively set comprising an old tune by Donald Ridley, an even older one popularised by Pigg and one by Jonathan. The twelve tracks all follow this pattern (more or less) and many have local names applied to hybrid sets: ‘Back To Kirkwhelpington’, ‘Cheviot Set’, ‘Coquet Set’ and ‘Kielder Castle’ for example. The title tune is by Jonathan and closes a set of four compositions. The one exception to the pat ‘tern is the lovely, lilting ‘14th April’ written by Margaret Watcham for her husband in a reversal of the usual way of things. Another slightly unusual feature of their arrangements is that they don’t match time signatures or tempos across a set. Typically, a set may start slowly as if the chaps were warming up before pitching in with a fast tune. ‘A Trip To Stocksfield’. the longest track on the record, begins with a 20th century lament, ‘Spirit Of The Border’, before sliding into ‘The Gilsland Hornpipe’ and ‘Keelman Brown Of Newburn’ before Jonathan’s title tune wraps up the set.

I’ve heard a lot of pipers over the years, several now gone before sadly, but I’m no expert, finding the chanter counter-intuitive to the point of bafflement. I can, I hope, appreciate the musicianship and imagination that has gone into putting this album together and not least the sensitivity that has gone into the sequencing it. A Trip To Stocksfield closes with ‘The Morpeth Rant’ and what could be more right and proper than that?

Dai Jeffries

Artists’ website: https://alexbarrassjonathanpearson.bandcamp.com/album/a-trip-to-stocksfield

‘A Trip To Stocksfield’: