Music / Reviews
Review: Sam Kelly, Thekla – ‘Huge-hearted euphoria’
If we all wished really hard, do you think things might be better? Could we live in a world of kindness? Could we banish borders and tyrants and idiots? Could we all take Folk music to our hearts and cherish it?
In this room, right now, there must be some serious wishing going on because Sam Kelly, a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winning singer songwriter, is being engulfed with great waves of adoration.
As much as the Folk world is full of amazing bands, brilliant singers, plenty of stuff that the whole world could love, there aren’t too many like Kelly.
Tonight, he’s with his full band, the Lost Boys, and they have it all. There are manic foot-tappers, tunes for whirling, gorgeous ballads, old favourites, songs of abandon and songs of love.
Sam Kelly with his Lost Boys – photo: Sam Kelly
The Lincolnshire Poacher, taken from new album Dreamers Dawn, is a trad song with rocket-boosters, Evan Carson’s great splashy drums and Toby Shaer’s whistle providing the fuel as Kelly strums away with a huge grin on his face.
His voice sits perfectly between Folk and Pop; authentic enough for the old fellas standing around the edges, clean enough for the young ‘uns dancing at the front.
Old songs are greeted like best friends. There’s whooping for Bluebird, a heart-swell of a song about following your dreams. It glows with a feel-good gleam, Shear’s insistent fiddle and the banjo of Jamie Francis causing some early jigging in the crowd.
There are handclaps and a huge audience sing-along for The Bonny Lass of Fyvie too. By the time Archie Churchill-Moss and his accordion, leads us into a trad tune the dancing and the grinning have spread to all corners.
Kelly’s music encourages dancing, thinking, caring and protest
Tinker’s Potcheen is a drunken hoe-down, a surge of words harnessed to a runaway fiddle, while Angeline the Baker is an Appalachian-tinged stomper. It has a chorus made for singing along to and joy flickering at the edges.
It’s not all frenzied energy though. Til Sleep Comes Calling slows, pauses, thinks. Kelly talks of mental health and of caring, he urges kindness. His voice becomes the raft on which to sit, the place of safety. His guitar and Shear’s fiddle guiding us home, Graham Coe’s cello warming and comforting.
Then there’s a simmering fury to The Old Deceiver, a political song that starts with bewildered detachment before coalescing into crunchy anger. Kelly leaves us in no doubt who he thinks are to blame for our imperfect world.
View this post on Instagram
It’s in the moments of huge-hearted euphoria that Sam Kelly and his Lost Boys bring everyone together though.
A set of Polkas – Damien Mullane’s Pop Polkas – are absolutely festival-ready; accordion, fiddle and guitar kicking up heels while the drums compel wild abandon.
The title track of Dreamers Dawn is about that feeling of giddy acceptance that you have at those festivals. It’s just glorious. “Before we all must part,” Kelly sings, “just give your heart to this place”. Well, quite.
Close your eyes, wish really hard. In this place Sam Kelly is a huge pop star, Folk music is in everyone’s heart and the world is a better place. Even if only for a short while.
Read more of Gavin’s writing at tallfolk.substack.com
Image: Gavin McNamara
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
