I was meaning to blog about the folk night at The Grove in Leeds Friday before last, because it was pretty good. I had enough beer that I don't remember everything with crystal clarity, but's some notes.
Robin Laing
The main singer was Robin Laing, a Scottish folk singer who writes his own songs in a traditional style. Before he sang he got a bottle of whiskey passed round and everyone had a glass. Well, Dave didn't want his, so I had two. Whisky is Robin's favourite subject to sing about, it seems. His album (which I somehow won in a raffle, although I think Dave bought the tickets) is called The Water of Life. He has great songs for drinking whiskey and making merry to, mostly with lots of Scotts dialect in, to varying levels of incomprehensibiliy.
Joni Tuson
The only floor singer I remember the name of was Joni Tuson, a very bluesy singer. She played one of her own songs, Littlehands, with her brother Joe Tuson. From that BBC page about her it seems she's local, so hopefully I'll catch her again.
I seem to remember drunkenly complimenting them on the song, and they pressed a demo CD into my hands, which is very good. It's very moody but also very smooth and with interesting lyrics.