Kate Rusby + Paul Armfield and Adam Kirk Medina Theatre, Newport, Sunday, February 20th, 2000

Picture soon from the Medina gig but for now 'borrowed' this from Sleepless

The Bronte Sister

BBC Folk artist of the year Kate Rusby supported by the Island's very own Paul Armfield and Adam Kirk last Sunday gave a packed audience plenty to be pleased about. It was a perfect double bill.

'Welcome to the Isle of Wight Folk club' introduced promoter Pete Turner welcoming Paul Armfield and Adam Kirk to the stage. They mesmerised the audience with ten songs, eleven if you count the touching Happy Birthday from Paul to his wife Gina in the audience.

Adam Kirk and Paul Armfield (picture Margaret thanks!!!)

The four covers were all magnificent, from Jacques Brel (See A Friend In Tears), Gillian Welch (Annabelle), Ron Sexsmith (Thinking Out Loud) and Robert Earl Keen Jr (No Kinda Dancer). The originals were the kind of hidden gems that this diamond Wight Island is brimming with. The combination of Paul's soul soaked vocals complimented by Adam's, nothing short of magnificent guitar style. The harmonies were gorgeous.

'Adam and I wrote these songs over a four year period when he was coming back from tours to the Island, we drank lots of tea and wrote lots of songs,' explained Paul to the audience. The sheer class of Now Is The Silence, Unfound God, Slaves spoke volumes for this partnership. A song about the River Medina Vapour Trails was haunting. You might have heard a pin drop when Paul sang A Little Something, soft and delicate as Adam's gentle eddies of guitar work that ran like a stream through it.

The duo ended with a rousing Trigonometry and took the very deserved roars of approval from the audience. Next week Adam Kirk will start another American tour with Joan Baez. Let's hope he comes back to make more music with Paul very, very soon.

Kate Rusby

Kate Rusby completed the evening in fine style. Leaving no doubt why she is receiving accolades for her solo albums. Her performamces contrast between her infectious lass from Barnsley wit and her melancholic English folk songs.

'I want to apologise to anyone on the Lymington to Yarmouth ferry at 3.45 this afternoon, me and my brother Joe up there on sound fell asleep and when we woke up everyone had gone and we were the first car . . . so we apologise to anyone that was behind us ' she told her audience.

Kate Rusby sings beautiful haunting love songs that evoke the loss and loneliness found in one of the Bronte's sisters Yorkshire novels. She captivated her audience with just that telling voice and her guitar or piano acompaniment.

All the songs were culled from a clutch of Kate Rusby's independently released albums of which Sleepless, the latest is receiving major airplay and awards. Songs of love, loss and skullduggery are her foundations. She draws her inspiration from the folk tradition and then adds a twist of her Barnsley roots to make her performances magical.

The ability of Kate Rusby not to take herself seriously was evident tonight. She also poked fun at the 'folk police' that mythical band of fundamentalist purists. But when it came to her songs they came, even the happy ones with an aching plaintive call that was beguiling.

There were two 45 minute plus sets. Not being over familiar with the albums I cannot give a song by song account only to say that Kate Rusby on stage with just a guitar or piano to accompany her northern soul is something to be savoured. Hear the sparse accompaniment of Sleepless and you'll hear what I heard on Sunday night.

Iris Dement's Our Town as a very appropriate encore. 'I went with me mum to see her and I after every song I'd say that was the best song she's ever written and then she'd sing another one and I'd say it again and again.' Dement might have envisioned a Kansas town but Kate Rusby made the song sound very much as though it came straight out of her native Barnsley.

Tonight's concert, like an enlarged folk club proved the old maxim 'less is more'. She and her audience enjoyed every single minute of it. It was Kate Rusby's first visit to the Island, after the concert she would express her wish to return, not only with her band to provide us with more of her magical songs and style but also to explore the Island which captured her heart.

'What a perfect place for a folk festival,' she suggested.

Mike Plumbley

Kate Rusby's website is at: http://www.purerecords.demon.co.uk

Paul Armfield and Adam Kirk's setlist . . .