Review: Spiers And Boden, Pocklington Arts Centre

11:19am Monday 12th May 2008

LIFE as an itinerant folk musician can be tough. Squeeze-box maestro John Spiers did a gig in East Yorkshire barely 12 hours after his second child, a lad called Robin, had been born in Oxfordshire.

However, in old showbiz parlance, the show must go on. Pocklington was the first date of a national tour to promote Vagabond, the duo's latest album. Copies fairly flew off the table during the interval as fans queued to buy the album.

Spiers and Boden are wonderful musicians with an easy-going stage persona who have a deep enthusiasm for traditional songs and tunes.

Vagabond explores characters on the fringe of society, such as the outlaw Robin Hood, the beggar Tom Padget and the pirate Captain Ward. All three stirring ballads were sung at Pocklington, along with medleys of some fine tunes, including some 3/2 hornpipes and waltzes.

Jon Boden played fiddle and acoustic guitar, stamped out a driving beat on his "stomp box" and sang lead vocals. Spiers added harmony vocals to the vibrant musical mix and switched between melodeon and concertina. His heart-warming bass notes complemented Boden's aural filigree.

They used various sound textures to create an Arctic seascape when singing Old Maui, a whaling song.

Further highlights were a version of The Rain It Rains, sung by Feste, the itinerant jester in Twelfth Night, and Innocent When You Dream, written by Tom Waits for the musical play Frank's Wild Years, which the duo treat as a great Victorian parlour-ballad.

Editor's choice