Heidi Talbot, John McCusker & Boo Hewerdine – King’s Place, London 01/10/2010

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Ah, folk. The audience are real ale drinking, unexplainable foot stamping, strange yodelling noise making and sensibly dressed. The musicians are slightly incestuous, or are married to or been in a band with each other, and not exactly rock and roll.

Perhaps I’m stereotyping a little – but aside from a lack of yodelling, despite John McCusker’s best efforts – the rest is certainly all present and correct this evening, at the third in the Folk Union series at King’s Place.

The series runs ever Friday night for the next six weeks, and is curated by various different folk music bods. The line-up mixes the grand dames of folk such as Peggy Seeger with crossover artists like Park Bench, Sigrid Moldestad and the cream of modern folk like Kris Drever, and tonight’s line-up.

So, in true folk style, Hedi Talbot and John McCusker recently got married, and Boo Hewerdine is an ubiquitous name on any recent folk album, as well as recently releasing his own solo record.

And the audience is most definitely sensibly dressed, but then it is chucking it down outside. Sadly though King’s Place have most certainly missed a trick in their bar, and sadly there’s no real ale in sight. They’re lucky that folk audiences are generally quite polite, and settle for the overpriced wine.

The show is much like a hearty stew, simple, honest and filling. The instrumental line-up is fairly minimal, with guitar, ukulele and fiddle, as well as a brief appearance by a giant tin whistle and what I’m reliably informed is a cittern.

Whilst technically Heidi Talbot is headlining this show, folk music being what it is, the set is a mix of each artist’s songs, as well as songs they’ve written for each other, collaborated on, and written for others.

The sounds range from traditional sounding folk tracks, led by Heidi’s beautifully lilting Irish voice, to the more poppy, jangly guitar sounds of Boo Hewerdine’s ‘Patience of Angels’.

The trio perform two 45 minute sets, and their songs are punctuated by Heidi’s cute tales of married life with John, and Boo’s self-deprecating grumpy old man spiel.

Heidi’s voice is as pure and as Irish as they come, and when John McCusker whips out the tin whistle, the similarity in tone between it and Heidi’s voice is startling.

There are also plenty of opportunities for the audience to flex their vocal chords as well, and some parts of the gig resemble a choir practice as its listen, repeat, perform. Along with the foot stamping, it takes a fair amount of coordination to be an audience member at this show.

Ah, folk. Yes, it’s got it’s less than cool image, but ultimately, this was an evening of incredible musicians, personable performers, and the kind of music that it’s good to be reminded of once in a while.