Feestje van Edinburgh Folk Club met Pete Morton
Pete Morton gaf onlangs een mooi concert tijdens het Folkfestival Zwolle. De zaal waarin hij speelde zat mud en mudvol, zodat we toen niet in de gelegenheid waren hem te recenseren. Nu maken we alsnog een inhaalslag. Morton gaf een paar weken later een optreden in de prachtige Edinburgh Folk Club. Deze club viert haar dertig jarig bestaan en is de eerste niet-Engelse folkclub die door de BBC Radio 2 werd onderscheiden als "Folk Club of the Year". Op de site van de BBC Radio Scotland schreef Frank Bechhofer een recensie over het concert dat Morton gaf in Edinburgh. Hier enkele citaten:
…You've got to warm to a man who opens his set with a song called "Six Million Eccentrics". Pete Morton is an engaging performer, a master of his craft who builds a close relationship with his audience. If you go to a gig to sit back and let the music wash over you in comfortable waves of beautiful sound, best to give him a miss. If it's a storyteller you're after, a communicator with a unique and gripping singing style, then next time he plays one of his all too rare gigs north of the border, it's worth travelling a long way to hear…
…The Israel-Palestine conflict seen as a parental rebuke to two quarrelling children ('I don't care who started it …'); St George slaying the dragon but 'dragons don't really exist'; the line 'a journey to the centre of the heart' mingle with the well known and uplifting 'There's another train, There always is' and a memorable opening line to a new song in country style 'The cowboy in the White House'…
…There's more. Whenever he sings a ballad like "Little Musgrave" you sense the audience steadily drawn in from normal listening to that concentrated silence where one can hear a pin drop. His phrasing, variation of tone and pace in a performance of "Tam Lin", honed over the years into an experience worth the price of the ticket on its own, created an intensity of audience involvement and a near-rapturous reception rarely given to long wordy ballads…