Thursday, June 13, 2013

Here's An Offer You Can't Refuse. Vote Now...Or..

  
Vote Now - Or I'll Kum Round And Sing Yer Winders In!

When The Hat was a small boy – yes, I know that is a difficult concept for you my friends, but bear with me, think Precocious, a Bad Haircut and Grandma's hand-knitted pullover – he used to sing, in exchange for a silver coin, all eight verses of 'The Runaway Train'. Later this changed to 'Last Train to San Fernando' with its great chorus of bee-dee bee-dee bom bom which changed, inevitably, to a shouty dodgy biggy biggy bum bum. Then Girls appeared and The Hat very quickly dumped Shouty and exchanged it for Cminor, Dminor and Eminor, Subtle, Sensitive and Shades. I am not telling you this because it is my infallible secret formula for a successful life of adoring bliss, but simply because it is something every musician learns very early in his career....Everything does not have to be at Eleven on the dial.

The Hebden Bridge Blues Festival this year, as is right and proper, had many shouty, whoop-whoop moments. Punching the air, embracing that well upholstered bloke next to you and braying joyfully at the top of your voice are pre-requisites at any blues festival worth its salt....and the Hebfest had them in truck-loads. Northsyde, The Detroit Breakdown and John Crampton seriously rattled the rafters; Aynsley Lister had wild deadly guitar duels with the two roaring Jules, Carter and Fothergill and peppered the plaster; The Mentulls blew the mains with their mighty power surge and Simon Peat's saxophone shattered the silence as it chased young Alex McKown's riffs around the room. And then, of course, Paddy Maguire's Midnight Wrecking Ball took out anything still standing. Oh Yeah Baby, Oh Yeah! Hit me with those Rhythm Sticks! Hit Me, Hit Me, Hit Me!

But Wait. At the same time as the Richter Scale was rocking, you could find quiet – even intense, silence – in many other corners of the weekend. As a young feller, years ago listening to the Mercury (MG 20662 on Youtube) recording of Errol Garner playing 'Misty' - where he actually stops playing to leave space - it was a simple matter for The Hat to get an appreciation of the skill of breathing space and timed silence. I have often talked before of the continuing respect for the power of those musicians who have that gift of Absolute Subtlety leaving gentle spaces and silences in a number that effortlessly draws you in almost as if they are doing nothing. Once again, those experiences were everywhere in Hebden - and not just those soulful, soaring electric guitar solos. Lucy Zirins sang songs that, oh so quietly and stealthily, shredded your heart, Wooden Horse stilled a packed room with sweet harmonies and subtle soft slide and there were times when Kyla Brox was giving her powerful Master Class in the Baptist Chapel that, so fragile was the air in the room, even a delighted sigh might have seemed out of place. Wait till the last note dies away and then whoop-whoop...

So there you have it. A rainbow of every hue arching right across Hebden in front of us. We have to thank the Blues for providing us with this broad church full of every genre, style and feeling of music, dishing out Darkness here and Delight there, so that we can Shed a Tear, Hug Our Neighbour and Dance a Daft Dance. But, let me remind you, we must thank The Festival for somehow rounding up and herding all these musicians into one place over one weekend....

Last year the Hebden Bridge Blue Festival won the British Blues Award for the Best UK Blues Festival. This year's Festival was even better, so much so that it is rumoured that The Hat momentarily broke cover and burst into print to tell the world on the Festival's own Facebook page. If you were there in Hebden, you will know how good it was. If you weren't you will have read the reviews, watched the videos and maybe bought the CDs. Now there is one more thing You Have To Do. The voting for the Blues Awards is taking place now. The Hebden Festival is once again nominated as Best UK Festival. You can vote here...pop this in your browser... http://britishbluesawards.com/

One final word. If you don't vote do consider the possibility of The Hat coming round to your house with a megaphone and singing all eight verses of The Runaway Train. Trust me, there will be no Subtle Silences.....

Pip Pip Voters!

The Man in The Hat