There was a different, but exceptional show at The Water Rats for Women Of Folk. Already described as a “supergroup”; Linda Moylan (vocals) , Lizzie Hardingham (vocals and guitar), Louise Hatch (vocals), Rebecca Mileham (vocals, piano and violin) and certainly not forgetting Ian Montague (guitar), are respected musicians in their own right.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect in advance. Would it be a kind of singer’s circle? What we got was five excellent musicians working in various combinations to present songs from some of the great female songwriters, ranging from Joni Mitchell, Sandy Denny and Joan Byez to the vastly underrated Chris While and Julie Matthews. Carly Simon and Carole King were also in the mix.
What impressed me was that these weren’t just “covers” but each had an arrangement and presentation that made them the performer’s own. A lot of hard work has gone into making familiar songs different.
The Water Rats is another iconic venue, the first London show by Oasis is just one of their claims to fame, but waiting to go in there was already a buzz amongst the sell out crowd. The advantage of a group like this is they have a wide audience base. Some were there to see their favourite, others had already heard of the reputation the group have already garnered. None of us could wait for it to start.
The four are also people who write their own music as well, and they included some of their own work, justifiably. The combinations shifted continually giving a very dynamic stage but so well managed everything went smoothly and ran to clockwork timing. Special mention has to go to Ian Montague here who was on stage for most of them and had to play in all these different styles, which he did so well. Given the writers the range of songs was vast, from some “traditional folk” to chart songs with each performer bringing their own style.
All five were on stage for the first song, “Bunch Of Thyme” but then swapped around. Linda gave a wonderful version of While & Matthew’s “Blue Songs On A Red Guitar”, Rebecca played her own song “Holloway”, suitable for where we were but this is a holloway sunken road, backed by Louise, Lizzie and Ian. Lizzie stayed on stage for her “Singing Together” which now got the audience involved with gusto.
There were so many songs to choose from to describe the evening, I certainly can’t list them all, but I enjoyed every one. One stand out was Louise Hatch’s version of “Diamonds and Rust”. It’s one of those songs that’s so well known but Lousie made it her own. The singing was more conversational in tone with a real sense of regret combined with longing for what could have been. Marvellous.
This isn’t just a project, there are already future shows planned for 2026 and I’d image the set list will evolve as well because we know what a great body of work female writers have produced when allowed to do their own thing. They would also be very well received at festivals, across the board.
Final mention, almost in folk club style, has to go to the “floorspots”. There were two good guests; Georgie Sullivan who gave a fine rendition of Suzanne Vega’s Luca, and Sally Vinson with Sandy Denny’s “I’m A Dreamer”.
All seven artists were on stage for the well deserved encore of “Wild Mountain Thyme”, the group’s first release and available on Bandcamp.
Congratulations have to go to Green Note, absolute heroes at supporting live music, for putting on this show and to Ali who did a great job on sound, making everyone stand out.
Tony Birch
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