#suffolkiana

[plungermusic]

Gourmet rural fare in the land of beans on toast …

Plunger associate Kelly Bayfield, David Edward Booth and (now, after this year’s belated first  viewing) Honey & The Bear with the wide-open, big sky, sun-kissed (at least when we’ve been there) rural expanse of distant Suffolk. So it was a welcome surprise chancing across Honey & The Bear’s forthcoming appearance (with Kelly & Dave) at Barking Folk Festival just a tube ride away from us.

Bounded by the North Circular, the A13 and the C2C line to Southend, Barking Abbey Grounds seemingly couldn’t be more different to Easton Farm Park but the organisers and crew had done a good job of creating a friendly atmosphere (even the security guy on the gate complimented us on our ‘bag search’ etiquette) and with the main stage flanked by trees and backed by St Margaret’s Church tower it was a pretty rustic setting for East London (if you kept your back to the tower blocks).

Sadly the weather couldn’t have been less dry-and-dusty Suffolk: leaden skies and alternating rain and drizzle dogged us on the walk from the train through the Abbey ruins and churchyard to the festival (leaving the slushy sellers and ‘water point’ bowsers looking a bit forlorn and surplus to requirements, this year at least!) The wet weather didn’t stop a few hardy souls from standing (or even sitting on the corporation deck chairs) in front of the main stage as Jack Valero came on, although most had parked themselves on straw bales under the partial cover of some awnings. 

Jack and his band took a little while to warm up and hit their groove, but were on song by Heaven Help Me Now (“Every songwriter must have a lockdown song, this is mine…”) with fine harmonies, and the breezy bustling Coming Home. There were hints of 50s poppy rock’n’roll in a Buddy holly vein in the upbeat Something You Can Do and also (combined with a splash of Buzzcocksy punk) in the surprisingly positive optimistic This Is A Nightmare with tub-thumping toms, brisk acoustic strumming, and some twangsome electric guitar. After noting his familial connections to the area (and his father’s in particular) Jack’s last song, played at the request of his dad, was a solo rendition of Billy Bragg’s New England… at which point pretty much all of us went, “Oh, so THAT’s who his dad is!”

Plunger’s faith in miracles was bolstered by the simultaneous discovery of where the bar was, and the rain stopping, just as Honey & The Bear (Jon and Lucy Hart on guitar and upright bass - most of the time at least, with Kelly on harmony vocals and David on drums) did their soundcheck, the latter event drawing a few more folks out from under cover.

Their set opened with The Miller, combining loping bass, rustic acoustic guitar (including a dextrous solo) and a Featy drum shuffle with sublime three part harmonies for a TTB-ish vibe. An appropriately mellower feel came in the Laurel-Canyon-Ronstadt-meets-English-folk air of Sweet Honey with its traditional-sounding melody. Back to back covers saw an entrancing (if abridged) rendition of Helplessly Hoping, where (it seemed to Plunger) Jon took on the Stills role, Lucy Crosby and Kelly Nash in the stunning harmonies. Jon switched to an electric guitar for a punchy 70s west coast run at Gillian Welch’s Look At Miss Ohio.

Returning to their own accomplished originals, the hypnotic Riverman featured aptly fluid, restless picking on acoustic, rafter-shaking bass punctuation and tom-led drums for an almost Native American feel: piquant harmonies in the verse alternated with gentler, C&N tones in the chorus. One of Lucy’s older songs took us to a whole other sonic landscape - having swapped bass and guitar roles for this one number - the Waitsesque, Hot Club De Paris, 30s-cabaret bounce of Why Am I Always Saying Sorry also featured some manic whistling from Lucy.

After one of the crew popped his head round the back of the stage to advise “This’ll have to be your last one” (which Plunger for one thought was rather premature) the set closed with Wristburner: clever changes and less-obvious harmonies, tricksy timings, and a frenetic Gordon Giltrap-doing-Gerdundula urgency, topped with more fabulous harmonies.

Although we were naturally disappointed we couldn’t hear more, and a little suspicious when the MC announced shortly after, “Since we’re running ahead of schedule...” there were to be an extra 10 minutes of the (to Plunger’s ears, but de gustibus etc.) execrable-but-unaccountably-popular next artist, this brief but very tasty performance more than justified the slightly nervy tube ride and the rain-dodging, and gave us an appetite for more!

Honey & The Bear have a new album due out in November, with a short tour to promote it, details, dates ad merch here: https://honeyandthebear.co.uk