It's a long time since I've interested myself in folk music. Perhaps when I attended some Irish jams in pubs in Adelaide yonks back. Or when I played in White Cockatoo (bush band with rock rhythm section) around the Bicentennial. Since then, I've had this idea it's all strummy guitars and singer songwriters. But I can be wrong and it was proven to me by Veronica Milroy and Rowan Phemister at Wesley. Now these are capable and well-trained musicians: Veronica sings in Luminescence Chamber Choir and Rowan in the CSO. They presented what is essentially Irish folk, but it was far more than three chords. This was complex, written stuff. My Lagan love was traditional but it was gloriously beautiful and presented with immense capability and interpretation with depth. They did two tunes by Loreena McKennitt, both musically complex and touching stories and four tone poems from Mirian Hyde in a series on the sea in which you could just feel the lapping of water in the melody overlaid on the lyrics. It's another of those times that lyrics determine melody. I've felt this before with Beatles, Bacharach and clearly here, and it just empowers the story and enlivens the melody. And an amusing thing called Shipping song by Lisa Knapp dedicated to the much loved BBC Shipping forecast, now well past its 150th anniversary. It was just the last tune, Don McLean Vincent, that fitted my strummy simple folk impression, but it's a great enough tune anyway and beautifully presented by this pair. None-the-less, it's that early, busy, complex folk that will remain for me from this concert and reinvigourate my interest in (some) folk music.
Veronica Milroy (soprano) sang Irish folk with accompaniment by Rowan Phemister (harp) at Wesley.
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