The Scope

Last Thursday I decided to check out Allan Ricketts‘ CD Release show down at The Ship. I’ve been familiar with Allan for awhile from his phenomenal pedal steel playing (I played on stage with him a couple of times when he guested in on a couple of Angelshakes shows.) I’d since seen him play around town backing people up on a multitude of different instruments such as banjo, mandolin, accordion, guitar, etc, etc… all of which he is totally unfairly gifted at playing. But I’d never heard him sing and didn’t even know he did. When my girlfriend said that she was totally jealous of his voice that just toppled the whole Jenga pile of jealousy for me.

So after finally getting to see him play, I have to say his voice is really strong. But not just that, it’s a really interesting voice. Allan plays straight-up Irish and Newfoundland traditional music with a clear, lilting tenor and a very strong Irish accent. I would try and compare him to someone the trad crowd could easily identify, but I have to profess complete ignorance.

This is my favorite song he did the night, probably because it’s minor key, and I’m like that. It’s a moody traditional number called “The Blacksmith” sung from a womens perspective. This actually marks the first proper trad song I’ve had on this blog in my 8 months of blogging. Weird…

Anyway, the place was packed and having gotten there at 9:30 I had missed most of the show already, since it was mostly the folk night crowd out and those folks like their 11 hours sleep.

Luckily I caught Sherry Ryan’s performance as one of the supporting acts. She has always been one of my favorite singers in town and has been near the top of my list of acts I wanted to film for this, but I’d never got around to it for some reason.

She was telling me earlier that she had injured her shoulders a couple months ago and was unable to play guitar until she recuperates fully, so in the meantime she’s getting her band to fill in and just concentrating on vocals. This night she was singing with her beau Joe Belly taking over guitar duties.

She played a new song I was quite taken with, called “Burn My Journal”, which had an uncharacteristic Tom Waits vibe to it:

I would’ve taken a couple more videos but the crowd was packed so maggoty it was impossible to get a good angle without someone crashing into you. Which is really annoying when you’re an amateur videographer like myself, but it’s a sign that bodes well for the trad establishment that continues to produce many major talents.