The Coal Porters at All Saints Church, Pocklington. Picture: Paul Rhodes
THE evening after the night before, plus a bad head cold. On the face of it, the signs weren’t encouraging for The Coal Porters’ Pocklington show, (hardly) fresh from Sid Griffin’s 70th birthday concert bash at The Water Rats, in King’s Cross, London – a show Griffin himself put in his top three.
We need not have worried, thanks to the power of bluegrass and Griffin’s ‘the-show-must- go-on’ attitude. A double whisky whisked in and down at the interval certainly helped as well.
Griffin assembled The Coal Porters, billed as alt. bluegrass, primarily to entertain. There is something life affirming about the way banjo and fiddle sound together, with double bass and mandolin floating over the top on a round of harmonies.
Griffin is a musician and writer, one of the founding fathers of today’s alt. country genre with The Long Ryders. Like his hero Gene Clark (who featured later in Looking For Lewis And Clark), he is critically acclaimed but has never troubled the hit parade despite lifting roofs off venues all over.
Alongside him were three extroverts, Kerenza Peacock on exuberant fiddle and vocals, Andrew Stafford on bass and Neil Robert Herd on guitar and vocals, going strong after two decades. In the more reflective camp, but out front anyway, was Paul Fitzgerald on banjo and vocals.
The band’s red jackets and black over-long trousers gave them the appearance of trad bluegrass, but the set list blew such notions away. Griffin’s jacket would end up hung over the church pulpit.
Across 23 songs and some 100 minutes the band threw themselves into a wide range of music. From the traditional bluegrass of Bill Monroe to ‘Porterised’ punk and rock songs reborn as country.
Heroes, by David Bowie, too ubiquitous, can rarely have sounded better, while Another Girl, Another Planet, by The Only Ones, confirmed that the best tunes can work in any genre if handled with care and again topped the original.
Griffin’s own songs could also make the journey back to punk rock. The Day The Last Ramone Died worked best (although Pocklington scored low for Ramones T-shirts in the audience).
The Coal Porters’ sincerely sung love of the material was clear, and also for one another. With their leader ailing and singing with teacup in hand (would one more song of souls in restless agony see him off?), the others took a number of turns. Peacock received the biggest hand for her instrumental Chopping The Garlic while Fitzgerald showed us his love of Chuck Berry.
Talking to charleshutchpress.co.uk earlier in the week, Griffin, a man who knows a thing or two about a good line, memorably said: “It’s what I do, it’s what we do, as Robbie Robertson said of The Band. Good times, bad times, I make music. I don’t have riches or fame. I’m just happy.”
All Saints Church is a venue that brings the best out of performers, with clear sightlines and lovely sound. It inspired Griffin to set aside his solo album in favour of a rousing version of I Am A Pilgrim (a stand-out single from The Byrds’ Sweetheart Of The Rodeo).
Played for the love of the music and despite illness, Griffin and his friends gave us a wonderful night of feelgood music.
Review by Paul Rhodes
Coming up at All Saints Church, Pocklington are Chris Smither on October 29, 7.30pm, and The Unthanks At 20 – already sold out – on November 22, 7.30pm. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/pocklington/all-saints-church/chris-smither/e-moryao.