The Green Man Thurs 12 & 19 Oct 06 and

"Really enjoyed being with you all last night, really good thing happening down there. Hope to be across lots more in the future" Phil & Bethan (The Harbour Lights)

"A really mellow evening" Neil Dalton

"I've had a bad day so I've come along to chat with some good people and listen to some good music"Lucy Ward

My Highlights (sorry if I've got the titles wrong)

Pete Banister- "Moon Over Bourbon Street" by Sting

Dez Preston - "Can't Hold On" by The Blues Band & "A Million Things" by Derek Preston

Graham Hodgkinson -"Where are you going to" by Graham Hodgkinson & "Young Love" by Tab Hunter

Neil Dalton -  "When You Say Nothing At All" made famous by Ronan Keating but written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz originally for late country singer Keith Whitley.

Julian Clarke - "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by Jagger/Richards

Chris Moore - "Time for Heroes" by The Libertines & "Computer People" by Chris Moore

Mick Moore - "Magnolia" by JJ Cale

Bethan Court & Phil Baggerley of Harbour Lights - "Born to Spread Your Wings" by The Harbour Lights (Well the song about the mayday call in the ionosphere actually but I can't remember the name of that one)

Keyna Larvin - "No Telling" by Linda Thompson

Stuart Davis -  "Fragments" by Stuart Davis

Kris Spencer - "Vincent" by Don McLean

Rob Henry - "The Door" a poem by Rob Henry

Richard Stevenson - Playing the Uke and hearing the name Roaring Jelly after all these years

Dave Smith - "Cocaine Blues" by almost everyone including The Rolling Stones, Jackson Browne & Bob Dylan but accredited to Rev. "Blind" Gary Davis, or was it Luke Jordon?

Highlight of the highlights? For me, on the night...

Keyna singing Linda Thompson's beautiful song "No Telling"

The Green Man 4th May 2006

"What can I say ... we were really lucky to stumble into your club on just the right night. Sam Misner and Megan Smith ... two of the most talented folk we've seen in a long long time.

We clicked with them almost immediately and felt at home with their bluegrass/country style. Invitations to visit and do some gigs with them in San Francisco has been dutifully logged .... and as soon as we can get some cheap flights ... we'll be over there.

Your club is very encouraging in a world where live music seems to be frowned upon ...... or is classified under one label or another. As we have a very eclectic mix of influences, we have struggled in finding a label to suit us. Musical labels seem to be an issue with some clubs, but we were pleasantly surprised at the mix of genres at your place.

We'd love to have the chance to play a set or two for you and your listeners, and so we hope you can get the venue you are looking for (you mentioned a sort of showcase evening).

Please keep in touch and let us know if there's anything coming up we could fit into. No doubt we'll be popping along to the club again soon anyway ... so, see you then.

All our best wishes and thanks again for a wonderful evening."

Graham and Toby www.breezeandwilson.com

Review by Neil Dalton

If you were lucky on the evening of Thursday 4th May then you weren't at work but relaxing somewhere. If you were really lucky then you were probably sitting somewhere pleasant, with a drink in your hand, contemplating how summer had come early in the form of a balmy, hot sunny day. However, if you had also found two four leaf clovers, if you were somehow related to the seventh son of a seventh son, if you were the sort of person who always won the lottery, if you were just born with a lucky streak then you would almost certainly have been at The Real-Music Club session at the Green Man in Willington, to hear the best line-up of "come all ye" music assembled anywhere, and I mean anywhere.

The sessions at the Real-Music Club are simple enough: if you want to come along and play or sing or just be part of an audience then you are welcome. All performers get at least ten minutes each to perform in a style of acoustic music of their choice. Sometimes there are ten people, sometimes there are thirty or more, the music is always good and the line-up is a pleasure to behold as everyone usually has something interesting and worthwhile to contribute. Once in a while, terrific players will drop by to sing and play just because they want to. Occasionally, just very occasionally, something wonderful happens and this Thursday it did.

The line-up of guests who had dropped in was impressive enough; Terry Woods, Mary De Ville, Ed Hulse, Robert Scott, Kris Spencer, Graham Hodgkinson, Michael Gregory, Chris Moore, Mick Moore and hosting the night yours truly, Neil Dalton. But we also had Graham Breeze and Toby Wilson from North Staffordshire and to crown it all, a special session from Sam Misner and Megan Smith all the way from North California.

Sam and Megan treated us to a scintillating set of bluegrass, Americana, American traditional and self-penned contemporary acoustic roots music - a set of sheer musical brilliance. Even Rob Henry, the man of a thousands quips and the man who makes it all happen, was standing at the back, lost for words, open mouthed in admiration.

Terry Woods, organiser at the Vernon Arms Club, Spondon, unselfishly put himself on first: he's a seasoned player, and a smashing bloke. He knows from experience how important it is to have someone start things well, settling things before other, not necessarily as assured, players come on.

He's an excellent songwriter with a confident style but he chose to cover songs by Martyn Joseph and Damien Rice. It's the mark of the man that he chose to play in the spot that he did but it's a mark of his talent that it makes no difference where in the line-up he comes; he always makes his spot memorable.

Robert Scott, someone who can write irresistibly infectious modern songs and play most of us off the stage, chose to cover the only two songwriters who come near to his own ability - Lennon and McCartney; two stonking Beatles' numbers, hammered out, in style on the keyboards: all that talent and only twenty-two!

Kris Spencer manages to hold your attention whatever she sings and plays. She proceeded to kill us all softly before taking us to the limit, stylishly accompanying herself on a lovely semi-acoustic nylon stringed guitar. She managed the seemingly impossible task of singing a quiet song while three trains rushed past going nowhere from somewhere else and no one noticed, even though the windows were open to try and cool the evening warmth.

Graham Hodgkinson slipped on, quietly, with his easy self-deprecating manner and sardonic sense of humour. He sang two delightful songs, to his own simple guitar accompaniment and didn't even bother to tell anyone that he had written them both. He makes it all seem easy, so much so that sometimes we under-estimate him.

Mick Moore, hypnotic, a mesmeric guitar and vocal style, echoes of American performers, echoes of the desert, touches of the garage, undertones of esoteric singer-songwriters, unmistakeably Mick. He is becoming an accomplished and original stylist.

Chris Moore, already writing songs that us older guys would love to have written at any age never mind when we were still looking ahead to being eighteen. He is working his way to confidence in front of an audience and he has a terrific, low toned, moody voice that commands attention and can only get better.

Graham Breeze and Toby Wilson are an acoustic duo that favours the roots end of American Country music alongside their own compositions. They play guitar, mandolin and dobro and sing in harmony with a sublime sense of taste and discrimination. These guys are real players: they have touch; they have judgement; they have talent. Anyone who can do a Lyle Lovett song and make you sit up with attention has to be good. Lyle Lovett, a Texan who epitomises style and sophistication in country music, is an impossible act to emulate; Graham and Toby did the song proud. They are deft of touch, with a wonderful sense of timing, their voices beautifully blended. If there is a better duo doing this sort of roots country music in the Midlands then I haven't heard it: exquisite music, exquisitely played.

Anne Winter, a new face and voice to me, took on the near impossible task of following Graham and Toby. She gave us two songs, unaccompanied and left us all wondering when she will come again.

Michael Gregory made a hugely popular return visit to the Real-Music Club sessions. He seems to have a bag full of self-penned, wry, sharply observed, humorous, satirical songs; his take on the absurdities of the world. Unlike lesser writers, his comic songs don't lose their mystery or appeal after one hearing but grow and develop as you realise how cleverly he has layered his choruses and shaped his theme; everything is done with wit and intelligence as well as a sharply comic turn of mind.

Ed Hulse had sliipped in late from Belper but we managed to get him to do a song for us nonetheless - sometimes Belper can seem like the other side of the moon rather than being just up the A38. He knew we were running short for time, he could see we were heading for the break so the professional club organiser in him saw that we needed a 'sing-along' chorus song to round things down and that's exactly what he did: Dublin In The Rare Old Times. Ed's a gentleman as well as an accomplished player.

Sam Misner and Megan Smith were over from California. Megan knows England, her family came from Ireland sometime way back, and she and Sam were staying in Lincoln to celebrate a great aunt's ninetieth birthday. They had agreed to play a special one hour session for us and everyone there was so glad they had. They gave a sumptuous display of beautifully judged American music using guitar, mandolin double bass (I kid you not) and two fabulously matched voices. As they said themselves, they were actors first who played music second - not a fall back career designed to please anyone's parents. They had an easy self assurance, professional to their finger tips, displaying an awesome command of Americana music, especially bluegrass music: they just nailed that "high lonesome" sound in their exquisite harmonies. The thing about blue grass is that one voice, as long as it is true enough, can sound engaging, dry, like white wine, but when that high, second harmony voice kicks in, something greater than the sum of the parts starts happening; there is something eerie, ghostly, something beautiful and ultimately both disturbing and strangely satisfying going on. Sam and Megan can do it! The only time Sam's musical judgement let him down was when he said he didn't consider himself much of a guitar player, which only proved how little he knew!

He arrived with a double bass under his arm, as if coming from California wasn't exotic enough of an entrance in Willington; we don't get too many players dropping in from California and no one comes in with a double bass under their arm. He was going to make certain we would remember him. He needn't have worried: once he started to play we were going to remember both him and Megan. Mind you, it was Megan who played the double bass and you could see the smiles on everyone's faces as she thrummed a bass line through the instrument itself, then into the floorboards and then into all our musical spirits.

This duo seemed at home in any number of styles, never mind giving Bill Munroe a run for his money, dropping in several self-penned songs that deserved a wider audience. You couldn't help but like them, they made friends instantly with everyone who was there and left experienced musicians and players lost in admiration and pleasure. They can come back anytime, they will always be welcome at the Real-Music Club and only two words will come anywhere close to describing how much we appreciated their singing and playing; thank you!

Neil Dalton

Real-Music Club, 5th May, 2006

Rob Henry writes ... "And there is one contribution that should not be forgotten. That of our Host for the evening, Neil Dalton. Neil has a remarkable musical knowledge, truly global and unfettered by the confines of genre. If pressed he swings towards the Country tradition and the ballad, and believes that a song should enrich as well as entertain. But he truly appreciates a good song, a catchy tune, an addictive melody, a cool riff, an unresistable lyric, a comic twist, a clever rhyme, a legitimate protest, an historical record, or a song that simply hits the listener in that vunerable tender spot. Neil serves us all this in his own songs or in those he carefully selects from his encyclopaedic repertoire.

As a Host he is an excellent gardener. He prepares the ground with care and skill, he sows the seeds and, in the full understanding of what creates the perfect conditions, he sits back with confidence, allowing the tender shoots to grow and to bloom.

We had a great night, full of wonderful performers, all allowed and encouraged to produce their best. Something special indeed.

Real-Music Session Green Man 6 April 2006

Does anybody out there know a way of predicting how many people will turn up to a Real-Music Session?

After a few quiet nights in January, February & March it seems that the new tax year inspired everyone to sing.

14 Acts, 17 performers in all, plumped our Session into full ripeness. And don't think that quantity means a drop in quality. Absolutely not.

Quotes

"Went there was really cool! Everyone was friendly and supportive. I'm defo gonna go again, next time I'll play another one of my songs. I performed: "Pain killer" -Turin brakes, "Cannonball" -Damien rice, and an old song from Fatestream (my old band) called "Ode to the heartless". Next time I'm gonna play "Alone".

"thank you for a really kool night at the open mic night"

"brilliant night"

"great evening last night, really heart-warming to see so many young people"

"the best session since before Christmas"

"a cracker!"

"great evening last night, really heartwarming to see so many young people - I mean people even younger than Robert. Stuart Davis looked like the old man of the company. Actually, no that's not true - I look like the old man of the company - admittedly you would too but you stay in the dark."