Pete Morton
Edinburgh Folk Club
Sometimes you are surprised by a new experience in music; I've been a folk fan all my life, I've organised folk clubs in England and Scotland and I think I'm pretty knowledgeable about folk music, but I had never seen nor heard Pete Morton before and tonight was a pleasant surprise.
Before we heard Pete Morton, we had a short set from a new group on the scene, Shianfolk, founded by the talented Joss Cameron who is a fine singer, and with the great Jeannie Robertson as her great aunt she is steeped in the tradition. Other members of the group are Amy Dudley, Steve Tonner and Hilary Davies; they are all fine musicians. They gave us a fine set of Scots songs Ye Jacobites by Name, Jock O' Hazeldean, Ca the Yowes, Sally Free and Easy by the great Cyril Tawney, and their own creation, Shianfolk Rd. Later at the start of the second half Joss sang an unaccompanied Jeannie Robertson song "The Blackbird/What a voice" and showed us she was a fine singer. Edinburgh Folk Club should give Shianfolk a whole evening to entertain us and they would go down well in any folk club in Scotland.
Pete Morton is a 55 year old singer songwriter, originally from Leicester, but now living in London. Although I'd heard of him, I had never heard him sing and it was a revelation. Firstly he has a very good powerful singing voice, indeed I asked him whether he had voice training but no this is natural. As an opera lover, I told him he could have been a good operatic baritone! Secondly he is a very good songwriter and he sings many of his own songs which are interesting, entertaining and have a unique style. I said to him at the end ‘Pete you are a folk rapper’ and he answered ‘yes I call it frapping (folk rapping!)’ He also does a good line in 'talking Blues’ type songs, an old folk tradition which goes back to Woody Guthrie and of course Bob Dylan. These take on a 'stream of consciousness’ style which is truly original, something no doubt that Paddy Bort (the former organiser of Edinburgh Folk Club) valued, as he used to book Pete regularly. We remembered Paddy Bort on Wednesday; it is two years since he died and as Steve Byrne said in his tribute originally ‘his death leaves a hole as large as Arthur's Seat in our hearts’.
Pete's songs can be funny, like 'Related To Me', the story of a visit to the ape enclosure at the zoo, or they can be poignant like 'The Immigrant Child’ or they can also be very political like 'Yemeni Sky' about the war in Yemen. I loved his 'Shepherd's Song', about the poet John Clare. Less successful was his attempt at 'Green Grow The Rushes', rearranging Burns’ songs is rather difficult for English singers, particularly in a club where you have very fine Burns singers like Gilly Hewitt in the audience! However Pete ended up very nicely and got the great chorus singers of Edinburgh Folk Club in good voice in 'To Be a Farmers Boy' and his encore 'We Sing Together', where he ended up conducting us in silence. As I said to him afterwards, more chorus singing would have been good. Folk clubs in my view should be for folk to sing as well as to listen! He got a great reception from the members and I was delighted to have discovered Pete Morton late in my folk singing life!
