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Review: Holly Clarke, Downend Folk and Roots – ‘A vital force’
The best thing about the Folk world, right now, is its diversity.
Not only are there a dizzying array of musical styles – in Bristol in the last fortnight you could have seen an awesome folk choir, EDM Folk bangers, trad tunes, brilliant contemporary singers, harp serenades, kora wizards, political revolutionaries and at least one guitar genius – but it’s so welcoming to everyone, regardless of gender, creed, orientation or neurology.
Holly Clarke fits right in.
is needed now More than ever
Holly Clarke: a “forthright and honest take on trad folk singing”
This is the second time Clarke has visited Downend but the first time that she’s bought a band with her.
And what a band it is; Amy Thatcher (the Shee, Kathryn Tickell) on accordion, John Pope on double bass and Anna Hughes (Salt House) on fiddle, are all superb and, very subtly, add layers to Clarke’s forthright and honest take on trad folk singing.
Her set leans heavily on the tradition, but when you have a voice like Clarke’s every old story springs back to life.
There are as many versions of John Barleycorn as there are folk singers but this one is great – it has depth and heart. A plucked violin lends an edge of menace but Thatcher’s accordion sweeps the whole thing along until, ultimately, it becomes a celebration.
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Bonny Woodhall is slow and contemplative – entirely fitting for a song about the horrors of war – with Hughes’ fiddle casting mist across the battlefield.
Thatcher’s spectral synth washes sit just under Clarke’s voice which is equal parts heartbreak and defiance. The pace suits her, allowing her to wring every last drop of emotion from the song.
The Bonny Girl has a similar intensity and, with a change of pronouns here and there, becomes a “big lesbian break-up song”. Much of the best, and most interesting, folk music around just now comes from the Queer Folk world and Clarke puts herself right at the heart of it.
She does so again with Wild, Feral and Fierce where she leaves us in no doubt as to her Trans-allyship, her support for those with autism, the queer community and, indeed, anyone who goes through difficult transitions only to find acceptance on the other side.
It is one of a handful of her own songs this evening but it has serious power, serious heft.
The truly remarkable thing about Holly Clarke is her voice and it is when she sings unaccompanied that she becomes incredibly special.
Strawberry Town, a murder ballad that she learned from Nancy Kerr, is spine-tingling while a version of The Watersons’ Prickle Holly Bush inspires an audience of foot-stomping.
She fills the church with almost no effort at all, as though there’s a vital force simply sitting inside of her, waiting to be unleashed.
Clarke completed a degree in Folk music in Newcastle before embarking on her touring career
If Holly Clarke displays strength, then her support act casts a different type of spell altogether.
Löre and Lament are a duo from Cornwall, drawing on Celtic traditions. They float through Christ Church, ghostlike, like sea mist.
Holly Anne Coles is a west country Enya, ethereal and magical. Mitch Cartwright’s guitar chopping through the fairytale forests that seem to spring up on Coles’ command.
Well Below the Valley and the Unquiet Grave could drift in the air around Tintagel while their own songs, particularly Solastalgia, are suffused with simple sorcery.
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There are plenty of things from the tradition on offer this evening but there’s a sense of moving forward too, a sense of the progressive.
There’s the warmest of welcomes to all comers, a celebration of Folk music in all of its forms.
Read more of Gavin’s writing at tallfolk.substack.com
All images: Barry Savell
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