Tucked away under the train tracks at Old Street, Cargo offered an invitingly intimate yet spacious venue for Pull Up the Roots’ most recent offering, Jim Moray.
Taking to the stage to the sound of cheers from the crowd, the new four-piece band started as they meant to go on, beginning with two tracks from the new album in quick succession, namely ’William Taylor’ and the hurdy-gurdy masterpiece ’Cold Stone’. Sounding exceedingly tight, full use was made of the whole band as they cranked up the volume to block out the sound of the trains rumbling overhead.
Last time I saw Jim Moray perform it was with Transglobal Underground and UNITE, and then I was impressed by the multimedia & video displays. But with this solo tour Jim has taken the video screen one step further - using it to ’Skype’ the various artists who have guested on his recent releases.
With Hannah Peel in support at Cargo, she was able to lend her vocals to Henry Hammond’s broken token ballad ’Jenny of the Moor’ without the need of video technology. But for visual effect both were called into action, and as if by magic two Hannah Peel’s arrived on stage. With both these ’Skype’ calls the ease with which both the band and guest artist incorporated the live and pre-recorded material into the set was impressive.
For ’Lucy Wan’, however, no stone had been left unturned as the video screen behind the band became a full on news report - featuring Bubbz as the number one suspect in the case of the missing schoolgirl. Introduced as ’proper folk’, however, the track elicited the sole heckle of the night.
But while some of those present may have had a narrow definition of the genre, there were also those whose appreciation of the work of collector Cecil Sharpe led them to vocally applaud his name whenever mentioned. A rare occurrence perhaps, but it then gave Jim a chance to hint at future projects, namely a project for the Shrewsbury Folk Festival based on Cecil Sharpe’s Appalachian diaries.
If we are to believe Mr Moray, English folk songs in the Appalachians get to the point quicker, so along with the new, more-up-to-date chorus, Jim has also had to “reinstate some of the waffle” back into his telling of ’Silver Dagger’.
With so much talk about death and betrayal, “light relief” came in the form of ’Poverty Knock’, a “happy song about oppressive working conditions in Victorian London” - party time indeed! Sat solo at the piano, Jim encouraged the audience to sing along to the “upbeat” chorus - and many felt they were up to the challenge.
As always, the evening ended with a little advice dispensed from the stage: if you come across an old woman in the woods, don’t touch her pig. And if the events of ’The Wild Boar’ are to be taken as true, it’s sound advice. By this time, both the audience and the band were in a dancing mood, and while no one took advantage of the small pockets of space left in the Cargo’s back room for an impromptu spot of Morris dancing, there was pogoing a-plenty! And Saul Rose was more than happy to show of his own bouncing abilities
Cries of “more, more” brought the four-piece back to the stage for a final encore of ’All You Pretty Girls’, which elicited more singing from the assembled crowd. The elation drew big smiles from the stage - especially from new drummer Dave Burbridge, who seemingly hadn’t stopped smiting all night! A slight musical diversion into the Sailor’s Hornpipe didn’t quite work, but in the end it didn’t matter. And as Saul and James demonstrated their impressive falsetto skills, the band attempted to raise the roof for the final flourish.
An absolutely storming set from start to finish, the band was on top form switching effortlessly between new tracks from the album as well as various old favourites.
