Seth Lakeman Tickets

York Fibbers
York
24th February 2012

The Barrelhouse Tour...

by wendavey on 6th March 2013 14:23

Seth Lakeman is one of music's hardest touring musicians and he has just kicked off yet another round-England jaunt with the second show of the latest tour finding him performing in Fibbers at York - a tiny, 300 capacity club that was sold out and packed to the rafters. The 'Barrelhouse' tour is named for last years, self released and self promoted (very successfully, too) 'Tales From The Barrelhouse' album, which was very much a return to basics for Lakeman. Freed from the constraints of a record label Lakeman was artistically liberated and performs all the instruments on the album and was responsible for producing and mixing the release.

The songs on the album tended to focused on artisans and crafts and the opening two songs of the night's set were typical examples, 'More Than Money' (inspired by the miners who broke granite to get the minerals) and 'Blacksmith's Prayer'. Quite a low key start to the show but 'The Hurlers' livened everyone up, before 'The Sender' saw a return to the 'Barrelhouse' material. Two songs from the breakthrough 'Kitty Jay' album followed, 'John Lomas' and 'Bold Knight'. ''Bold Knight' in particular was a high spot performed by Lakeman and the talented Cormac Byrne.

It's worth mentioning just what a great band Lakeman tours with. Brother Sean on guitar, Bellowhead's Benji Kirkpatrick on a variety of instruments from bazouki and banjo to harmonica, the aforementioned Cormac Bryne on percussion and the astonishingly talented Ben Nicholls on double bass.

The remainder of the set consisted largely of crowd pleasing favourites such as 'Solomon Browne', 'Take No Rogues', 'Blood Upon Copper', 'Lady Of The Sea', 'Setting Of The Sun' and of course a mercurial version of his signature tune, 'Kitty Jay' to end the set. Performed solo with just fiddle and stomp board, Lakeman's performance of this song has to be seen, and heard, to be believed. A genuine tour-de-force.