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The Arrows at the Garden
Sessions
Review by Jack Foster
Adam Bradshaw, Bob Boardman and Stuart Akroyd were drawn
together by one thing, a sense of comradeship gleaned from
their service together as barmen of Edinburgh's Grand Ole'
Opry Of Folk - 'The Royal Oak'. Well, that's not entirely
true - Adam and Bob did know one another back in their Sheffield
Days.
They've been performing regularly at local old town watering
hole 'DropKick Murphys' for the last 3 months but this was
their first gig on home turf as it were. As a part of the
Royal Oak Folk Festival, Martin Boland presented 'The Arrows'...
One could be duped into imagining the Arrows as an Irish
Pub Band when you consider their set list covers such ground
as 'Black Is The Colour', 'Rare Ole Times' and 'Fields Of
Athenrye', but the Arrows have so much more beneath the
glossy sheen of the Irish "themed" bar. The first
(and most strikingly) bold move is the Pink Floyd-esque
electric guitar of Stuart Akroyd which glides effortlessly
throughout Bradshaw and Boardman's musical yarns weaving
a heady tapestry of folk phsychadelia. Akroyd raises the
bar and the guitar is simply an extension of his voice -
he doesn't seem to know how to play a bum note.
On top of the Irish Classics, there are some well crafted
songs; 'Steelmelters Son' tells of the harsh reality of
life in the Sheffield Steel Industry, and the collaborative
work 'Fifteen' was definately the the epic ballad of the
evening. Emotive and poignent lyrics intertwined with Boardman's
effortless yet tender mandolin licks. The lead singer Adam
Bradshaw's honest delivery is refreshing and endearing,
though if I could change one thing - it would be for Bradshaw
to sing in his own accent - he is masking a fine folkie
voice beneath a transatlantic style without which the more
traditional elements of the band would be better portrayed
(but there you go, that's the purist in me I suppose). You
can't help but feel a certain degree of excitement in the
room at an Arrows gig, if nothing else - for the fact that
you can't ever be sure what's going to happen next.
The combination of Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin and Electric
Guitar is more than a gimmick it is a genuine fusion of
two sounds; Folk and Prog-Rock - strangely enough though,
those just happen to be this reviewer's 2 favourite musical
genres. And whilst they couldn't hold a candle to the 'Dark
Side Of The Moon' just yet - time is required to fuse 2
very different styles of music together.
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