The Once St Bonaventure's 8/10
DESPITE Bristol's strong historic links with Newfoundland, we rarely hear much of the music of the island over here.
But if their bands are as good as this trio of Geraldine Hollett, Phil Churchill and Andrew Dale then we are definitely missing out.
Making their first visit to Bristol, The Once treated us to a mix of traditional songs and contemporary songs given such a strong folky twist that they could have also been centuries old.
Inevitably from a place where fishing is the main occupation there were a lot of songs of the sea like the traditional Jack The Sailor, Al Pittman's Nell's Song and a delightful setting of Charles Kingsley's poem Three Fishers. Their own song Charlie was even more poignant by being about the near death of Geraldine Hollett's fisherman father.
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Maid On The Shore was a Newfoundland song very close to one in our own tradition, as was My Husband's Got No Courage In Him.
And then there were some very unusual folky versions of modern songs. Who'd have thought that Queen's You're My Best Friend or Leonard Cohen's Coming Back To You, performed unaccompanied, would sound so good sung as folk songs? 1962, written by another Canadian legend, Ron Hynes, and again performed a capella, also sounded like an age old song despite being about a love affair to the background of Del Shannon records.
Their version of Wince Coles' By The Glow Of The Kerosene Lamp was a real standout and the audience singing was beautiful, as indeed it was in Row Upon Row Of The People They Know.
Geraldine Hollett has a stunning, clear voice, despite suffering from an obvious cold, and her two multi-instrumentalist band mates added excellent close harmonies as well as providing sensitive musical accompaniment – and together they had charm by the bucketload.
Initially they looked a little tentative but by the end of the show they were obviously enjoying themselves, the introductions became longer and there was a lot of banter between the stage and the crowd.
"We'd like to come back, can we come back?" they asked. There probably wasn't a single person who didn't shout out "yes".
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