'Lonesome tears' from Texas

Words and pictures: Susan Cane

The Comedy Box, which is a room above the Bristol Flyer (a big pub on the city's Gloucester Road) is usually the haunt of visiting stand-up comedians. Now and then, though, it's the place to go for those who want to hear live music by visiting American musicians.

On this particular cold, early December evening, those visiting Americans were Carolyn Hester and her husband, David Blume. As I made my way into the pub, well before the music was due to start, I passed them as they went out in search of food - so I could then rest assured that they had managed to find the venue and were in the neighbourhood!

I, meanwhile, made my way upstairs to the darkened room that is the Comedy Box (well, I've only once seen it when it was anything other than dark!). With a stage at one end, a small bar set into a side wall, and various chairs and small, round tables arranged around the room, it's a nice place to visit and listen to music. I've been there when it's been packed to the gills and I've been there at other times when the audiences were much, much smaller. Unlike many venues it seems to be a nice place to listen, regardless of the the number of people that are there. Occasional sounds from the traffic outside can sometimes seep through the closed windows, but they are rarely loud enough to be noticed above the music. Anyway, when I'm listening to music, it takes a lot more than a few traffic noises, to distract me.

Carolyn Hester at the Bristol Flyer

By the time Carolyn and David were in their places on the stage - Carolyn holding her acoustic guitar and David standing behind his keyboard - the audience was still a lot smaller than expected. This seemed to be one of those occasions when the people in the pub downstairs, and those passing by outside, were completely oblivious to what was going on upstairs... Those people who had come to the gig, though, appeared to know exactly who they had come to see and they were very familiar with a lot of the songs they heard.

Soon after reaching the stage, Carolyn realised that she had left her capo in another room; so she chatted for a minute or so, while it was being collected. This also gave David an opportunity to comment on the unusual stage lighting, which had resulted in a spotlight shining directly on his belly. I don't suppose it was intentional, but that was where it was aimed!

Most of the time, though, it was Carolyn who did the talking... During the show we heard songs written by Carolyn and/or David, but they didn't just use the evening as a way to show off their own compositions. There were also songs written by several other people, covering a lot of different styles and a long period of time. The show began with Pack Up Your Sorrows, written by Carolyn's first husband, Richard Farina. Then came Flatlands Of Texas, a favourite of mine, written by Carolyn. It's an incredibly 'visual' song, telling the story a trip through Texas, when she was a child.

You Never Break Even In Love, we were told, came about because Carolyn overheard David using those words when he was "commiserating with a friend with a broken heart", on the phone. She wrote the phrase on a piece of paper, which was subsequently lost - but she discovered the paper later and thought that the expression still sounded good.

I Have A Dream, a simple but very powerful song by David Blume and Jerry Keller, was written on the night of Martin Luther King's murder.

Carolyn explained that Kingdom For A Kiss, a very romantic account of the abdication of King Edward VIII, was written from her point of view as "a displaced Texan living in California", to whom Edward VIII seemed like "the most romantic man in the world". A few days earlier, during Nanci Griffith's Other Voices, Too dates in the UK and Ireland, Nanci had asked Carolyn to sing the same song. It was also Nanci who brought Carolyn back to the UK (for her first visit in many years) in 1993, to take part in the shows to promote the original Other Voices, Other Rooms album - and she has often spoken of being influenced by Carolyn. Not surprising, then, that tonight Nanci was spoken of with a lot of affection.

The first set ended with Tom Paxton's Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound, which Carolyn introduced with the story of Tom teaching her to sing Turn Around. The song was to be used for a Polaroid commercial, and they needed a woman's voice - and she and Tom were the only folk singers who would do commercials!

After the interval, during which David chatted with members of the audience, came songs from a diverse selection of writers. I'll Fly Away, Albert E Brumley's song from the 1930s, gave us a taste of gospel. This was the song which was recorded by Carolyn in 1961, and for which she decided a harmonica player was needed. She also knew the right man for the job - an unknown songwriter by the name of Bob Dylan... Tonight, though, Dylan's place was taken by David. The harmonica that he played was, I believe, a Hohner melodica - consisting of a small, handheld keyboard, with a mouthpiece at one end.

We heard Buddy Holly's (described as "a great roots artist") Lonesome Tears, though Carolyn warned us beforehand that " I don't hiccup. Hope you can forgive that."

Another of Tom Paxton's classics, The Last Thing On My Mind, was introduced with the news that Carolyn and David were working on a project, recording Tom Paxton's songs. This song resulted in probably the biggest sing along of the night. It seemed that earlier on, everybody had been a bit reluctant to join in quite so wholeheartedly.

It's probably an example of English audiences' tendency to need a lot of time to warm up, before they will join in - especially if there aren't a lot of other voices for theirs to be hidden amongst! Maybe it just took a while, to find a song that everybody was really familiar with and that was right for singing along!

Of course, the second set didn't consist entirely of other people's songs. Amongst others there were Carolyn's The Fiercest Freedom Fighter, about Geronimo - and Ascending Woman, another of my favourites, which she wrote after being visited, in a dream, by an Indian woman. The woman started ascending a staircase and Carolyn wanted to follow her, but she couldn't see the steps:
"Dismounting she came close to me
I could barely breathe
And turning, she climbed up a stair
It was a stair I could not see
Up and up and up she rose
On the stairway to the sky
And then she left me there to ponder
If I, myself, could try"

After the first song of the encore, Carolyn asked if anybody wanted to hear anything in particular. Somebody shouted a request for The Ballad Of Three Young Men (which was answered with "Oh God, I wish I could!") and then there was a call for "anything by Doc Watson" (which led to Carolyn's comment that it was a great compliment to her, that the requester should even think she could do that!). The two decided, instead, to finish with a song called Guess I'm Getting Older - and then it was all over.

This was another of those gigs where it was a privilege to be one of the few who decided to go and listen. I often feel that I'm getting really special treatment, when I'm part of a small turnout at a gig. Special treatment aside, though, it's a complete mystery why there weren't many more people at the show. My main worry in situations like this, is always that the musicians will decide not to bother to come back again!
Susan Cane