|
 Concert
at the Royal Oak, Edinburgh (May 2007)
See royal-oak-folk.com
See martincurtis.co.nz
Review by Tom Harland
Sunday the 13th May saw the Wee folk club
take a trip to the land of the long white cloud with an
entertaining performance from Martin Curtis. Cobbled together
support was provided by half-inebriated and and slightly
out of tune Lords of the Bothy (on a borrowed guitar - Ed.)
and the more finessed fiddle of Kirsty Linguard.
If you've ever wondered how appropriating
the flatulence of livestock could prove to be a solution
to climate change (hook up your local sheep's anus to your
barbeque); what New Zealanders think of Aussies (they seem
to hate them!); what antics the native Kia bird of New Zealand
get up to (more irritating than a monkey in a Safari Park);
the noise beach-loving yellow-eyed penguins make (the audience
were roped into repeatedly singing "Ohoyo"); or
just about anything rustic, rural or environmental about
New Zealand, then Martin's your man.
Hailing from Cardrona in the majestic South
Island of New Zealand Curtis describes himself as a "singer,
songwriter, bush poet, mountaineer and barn dance caller"
(I'm assuming that barn dance calling is just a side-line
to pay the rent!). His finger-picking guitar style was mature
yet the set would have benefitted from varying the style
of playing (only once did he use the plectrum to provide
a more percussive sound). His voice is probably best described
as gentle and homely and you could not help but warm to
him (despite my personal disturbing mental interjections
of Rolf Harris, luckily I could remind myself that Curtis
was, in fact, a New Zealander).
Nevertheless, the show was stolen for the
reviewer by the lengthly and often comic introductions to
the songs and the hilarious poems which added an entirley
different genre of performance to the traditional folk music
we have come to expect from the Wee Folk Club. Covering
a range of wildlife antics, nature nostalgia, Maori lore,
mountain pranks, bothy japes and historical reflection of
gold prospecting, each intro was like having a wonderfully
crafted bed-time story which placed the song in such an
authentic context which meant that you could not help but
listen to the atmospheric lyrics when the song eventually
got started.
Knowledgeable and funny, (did you know
that New Zealand was once populated only by birds until
Westerners screwed with the ecosystem?), Curtis is the kind
of salt of the earth bloke that I would like to go up a
mountain and down a beer with, and who knows? Maybe one
day I'll have the chance.
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