Tag: Rory Butler

I hadn’t heard Southern Tenant Folk Union live before and I’ve a feeling that the majority of the audience were in the same position. There was sense of slight bemusement as they came on stage to play a pure bluegrass instrumental before launching into the first song, ‘To The War’ which opens their new album, Join Forces. The second song (‘Men In Robes’) went unannounced before they settled into material from the new record.

Pat McGarvey’s introductions tended to be a bit political, as is the new album, and only one member of the audience was brave enough to proclaim himself a Corbyn supporter in what is logically a Tory stronghold. They played three of my favourite tracks from the new album: ‘Media Attack’, ‘What Would You Give For A Leader With Soul?’ and ‘My Grandfather’s Father’. At this point I wished that they would turn the volume up – but more of that later. Four more new songs followed and the first half closed with ‘Slaughter In San Francisco’ from their previous album, The Chuck Norris Project. If you’ve not heard the album that will be rather puzzling – it’s on my Christmas list!

The second set began as did the first with an instrumental and ‘Sweeter Times’ from their first album before my favourite song of the evening, ‘Days At The Seaside With Ice Cream’. If you like the mordant humour of the late Michael Marra, you’ll love this. The remainder of the half was old favourites including ‘Her Love’s Gone Cold’ and ‘Let Me Wipe The Tears From Your Eyes’, plus a couple more from Join Forces, notably ‘What Kind Of Worker Do You Want To Be?’.

They stepped down from the stage to play the encore acoustically – Bill Munroe’s ‘Crying Holy’ and ‘Happy As We Both Can Be’ – and I suddenly realised why there weren’t enough wires. They use one microphone for Steve Fivey’s percussion, a DI for Craig Macfadyen’s double bass and one microphone for the fiddle, guitar, banjo and three voices shared by Katherine Stewart, Rory Butler and McGarvey. It’s a superb microphone but it does account for the generally low volume. The sound is as pure as you can get with a PA but if you go to see Southern Tenant Folk Union live, and you should, make sure it’s in a quiet venue.

Dai Jeffries

Artist’s website: http://www.southerntenantfolkunion.com/