Newly coined and proposed for next year, “Scallop Sunday” is the descriptor for the musical and poetic embarrass de richesses that enveloped and suffused Rye from 4pm to 6pm on Sunday February 25.
My Facebook page was tagged early with a to do reminder of Poetry and Miscellany at Olde Worlde Wines, bluesmen Louis Turpin and Roger Hubbard at The George, folksinger Claire Hamill at the Ypres Castle Inn and Phil Trainor at the King’s Head.
I was, however, under editorial diktat to cover The George so I experienced the world-class blues of the Turpin Hubbard Duo promised by my informant but missed the haunting voice and wonderful folksinging at the Wipers and apparently the eventual wild party which developed at the King’s Head.
An appreciative bunch of blues fans were treated to Louis Turpin’s raspy renditions of a range of blues classics accompanied by the ubiquitous National bottleneck guitar of Roger Hubbard.
The first part of the set was drawn from the duo’s repertoire of earlier “hard times” themed blues numbers with “Fish Ain’t Biting”, wayward women like “Corinna” and Curtis Mayfield’s Gospel grounded, “People Get Ready” followed by a percussive, deadened “Change”.
“Diddy Wah Diddy” lifted the tempo a bit before we were again asked to contemplate shadows falling and time running out in Bob Dylan’s “Not Dark Yet”.
Roger Hubbard gave us a couple of solos, “Walking Blues” being one I recognised and the other obscured by my immersion in my pale ale and ignorance.
Roger changed to mandolin for Tom Waits’ “Chocolate Jesus” and “Let the Four Winds Blow”, Fats Domino I would hazard.
The second set opened back in the 1930s with “Georgia On My Mind” followed by another Tom Waits, the brilliant “Heartattack And Vine”.
More of a calypso with the blues, Harry Nilsson’s “Lime In The Coconut” drew us inexorably back to fishing and things going wrong and culminated in Taj Mahal’s “Baby Goin’ Fishing” and “Further on Down the Road”.
The enthusiastic audience showed their final approbation as “Hey Joe” was given the inimitable Turpin and Hubbard treatment.
Last word though to Taj Mahal: “Here’s a little tip that I would like to relate. Many fish bites if ya’ got good bait.”
You can listen to Louis and Jem Turpin on March 14 in The Standard, The Mint at 8pm and The Turpin Hubbard Band have a CD “Heading Out To Sea” currently available.
Roger Hubbard and Guests can be heard at a CD launch of “Fifty Million Miles” in the Kino-Teatr, St Leonards-on-Sea on March 10.
Photos: Gerard Reilly
Great article – I was at this gig and it was fabulous (although I did manage to get to all the other gigs too – 4 in one afternoon: a record?). One caveat: as usual The George shot itself in the foot with many people leaving as they could not get served – I waited 10 minutes for my first glass of wine and then when it was clear there was no chance of getting another (I counted 15 people waving money at the ONE bar staff – poor chap he was doing his best) I left for The Ypres. Why oh why can they never get this right? It is a fabulous venue for music, just needs better organisation.