Review: Ruth Moody, The Band Room, Low Mill, North York Moors.
By Charles Hutchinson
ONCE musicians have experienced the tin shed magic of The Band Room, they always want to come back.
So much so that promoter Nigel Burnham could fill his diary with re-bookings but he gains most pleasure from introducing new names, be it Eilen Jewell or Laura Veirs in the past or Valerie June and Ruth Moody this year.
Moody was flying solo, taking a breather from Canadian folk trio The Wailin' Jennys, to release her second solo album, These Wilder Things, and garner radio play from Bob Harris for her string-driven cover of Springsteen's Dancing In The Dark.
Preceded by beautiful short sets on acoustic guitar by bushy-bearded veteran Gordon the Tasmanian and London-bound, 16-year-old singer-songwriter prodigy Amy Ellis, Moody surveyed her Friday audience.
"Is this the whole village?" she asked innocently, such was the perceived quaintness of The Band Room, a long trek north for Ruth and her three band members for one night between southern shows in Oxford and Suffolk.
The Band Room is far more than a village venue: Moody's gig had even drawn a young couple from Hungary and Russia whose ongoing British travels had taken them to Glastonbury the previous weekend.
Moody, on acoustic guitar, banjo and accordion, was accompanied by stand-up bass, mandolin, fiddle, guitar and bazouki for graceful songs that spanned country, bluegrass, gospel and folk-blues.
One Light Shining was an initial high, Life Is Long was a singalong favourite and Moody's choice of obligatory Bob Dylan cover, Walkin' Down The Line – learned hurriedly on the journey north – sent everyone home bathed in a summer glow.
Can Nigel Burnham resist inviting Moody back? Surely not.