These Things Too
In Belgium Coomans and Hoessen play 'folk' clubs to audiences of two or three hundred people. At such gigs they use a PA to boost the volume over the chatter. Tonight on their first visit to an English folk club, they, like all the rest of the floorspots are truly 'unplugged'.
Mojo magazine hails Cooman's as 'a revelation as a modern day Dietrich'. Tonight in Woolston she earns the accolade. Cool as the menthol in a French cigarette evoking a sidewalk cafe bar. Painted an after hours scene from a Truffaut film. Hoessen's accordian completed the picture. Underpinned Cooman's haunted vocals with gorgeous chords and vamps. Swung like hell when it was needed. Took the backdrop down to whisper as subtle as a silk veil when it was called for.
Not only did the duo have a cache of their own songs but did some distinctive covers. Gems from Randy Newman Leonard Cohen and a Dylan song turned into a carnival of vocal dramatics. There were two songs by English artist Maggie Holland. Cooman's had met the singer at a gig in Belgium, bought two CDs and was captivated. The Holland songs had the spiritual strength of John Coltrane solo about them with a dash of Billie Holiday.
The cover that nearly made me fall over was one that Cooman's first heard on Norma Waterstone's solo CD. Vic had been listening to one Angelina Grimshaw sing this song in an Isle of Wight pub which has been enough for him to put a double vodka into his orange. Cooman's asked the crowd if they knew of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter? A lone voice at the back spoke up. Then sat back like a contented pig as Coomans and Hoessen's weaved some magic over Black Muddy River. Brilliant.
The evening was packed with floor spots too. A few acapella, traditional spots, plus a couple of local singers who sang in traditional 'folk' mode. Not all my cup of tea but better than the noise permeating through the floor from downstairs. Unusually downstairs had been turned into a trashy 80s disco for some golf tournament.
I was surprised upstairs that Chris Whitfield didn't get up to play. His acoustic guitar playing is something else. Tonight he just came to listen. Andy Comley brought his guitar though and was well received for his couple of songs. He might have done with a pa because his voice didn't carry well to the back of the room but that said it he managed the dynamics on his final song well. It was a reflective ballad. The kind he is becoming renowned for. After hours stuff.
Woolston's invited guests, Coomans and Hoessen are channel hopping over the next month between Belgium and England. Next weekend they play two venues, Fareham and the Wedgewood Rooms performing Robb Johnson's 'family history of the First World War' Gentle Men. One of the floor spot singers had done a war song. Coomans and Hoessen featured a few pieces from the Gentle Men. I was thinking of coming home and putting on Country Joe McDonald's Robert Service classic The Man From Aphabaska. Another song stopped me. Sent me in a totally different direction.
The song didn't occur at the Folk Club. It was the after hours coffee at Sam and Sandys, anyone at Woolston Folk Club is invited to go along. I'm glad I did.
Philip Hoessen is sipping from a large glass of Bell's Scotch whiskey. Vera Coomans is nursing a full bodied glass of red wine. She's discussing audiences with a small gathering of performers and friends. I catch a phrase of her conversation. In broken English/Flemish she says: "Pearls Before Swine . . ." "Ah Tom Rapp and the Pearls Before Swine, now there was a band," says I.
Coomans looks up startled. "You know of Tom Rapp?" Instant rapport and she tops it all by saying "We do a Tom Rapp song, we didn't do it tonight because we thought it might not fit a folk club." "If you had sung a Tom Rapp song tonight I would have got straight up and brought you both a drink . . ."
Coomans looks at Hoessen. "We'll play it now." They put down their glasses, Hoessen fetches his accordian. They are still both sat around the gathering. There in a semi detached house in the suburbs of Woolston, well after midnight Philip's Hoessen's accordian rips through the front room like a twister. Cooman's closes her eyes, gesticulates her arms into every syllable of the first song on the Pearls Before Swines first album, One Nation Underground:
"Where have you been to?
Where did you go to?
Did you follow the Summer out
When the winter pushed its face
In the snow?
Or have you come again
To die again?
Try again another time
Did you follow the Crystal Swan?
Did you see yourself
Deep inside the Velvet Pond?
Or have you come by again
To die again?
Try again another time
When you set to shape the world
Was the shape the shape of You?
Or did you cast enchanting glance
Tru the Eye that all men use?
Or have you come by again
To die again?
Try again another time
Did you find that the Universe
Doesn't care at all?
Did you find that if you don't care
This whole wrong world will fail?
Or have you come by again
To die again?
Try again another time
Did you capture
All those jewels in the sky?
Did you find that the world outside
Is all inside your mind?
Or have you come by again
To die again
Try again another time
Another Time ŠTom Rapp
Me, I am, in the words of Lord Buckley 'God's own drunk'. And there's a lawyer in Minnesota who would have been chuffed to hear it too.
Mike Plumbley