Barbara Dymock singing at the Ballad Workshop Pic: Pete Heywood
By Clare Button
Take a little detour from the busy main streets of the Trongate, Glasgow, and you will come to a bar called Lauries. From the outside it is an unassuming, even austere sight, with metal grids across the windows like a late-night off-license. But inside a group is singing their hearts out before the benevolent stare of a papier-mâché Robbie Burns, all sharing their love of ‘the muckle sangs’, those old ballads of love, death, and every possible human emotion in between. This is Glasgow’s Ballad Workshop, and Brian Peters is holding court.
Originally offered by Gordeanna McCulloch and Anne Neilson on an annual basis at Celtic Connections, the workshops now run entirely under their own steam all the year round, with occasional booked guests. Now with Ronnie Clark adding his expertise to that of Anne and Gordeanna, they draw committed audiences with little fuss – confirmation that what Neilson describes as a ‘blinding flash’ of certainty that there was a real demand for unaccompanied ballad singing is spot on. It is here that Ray Fisher made her last public appearance, and casual floor spots regularly go to the likes of Barbara Dymock, Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, Alistair Ogilvy, Mick West and Anne and Gordeanna themselves. To perform here is, as Brian Peters quips, ‘the sort of privilege that’s kind of intimidating’. Indeed, Peters joins a line of past guests of the calibre of Sheila Stewart, Tom, Margaret and Emma Spiers, and Sara Grey.
If Peters was intimidated he didn’t show it. Few performers combine the zeal, erudition and accomplishment that he displays, still less maintain unshakeable gravitas singing a gloriously outrageous revision of ‘Six Nights Drunk’ whilst wearing a ‘Satan is Real’ T-shirt. A preliminary quizzing from Adam McNaughtan revealed how Peters’ Welsh family background gave him a feel for ‘the colour of harmony’ which he uses effectively in his arrangements. Peters’ musical accompaniment, whether guitar, concertina or accordion, is always intelligently nuanced, as demonstrated by the oceanic rises and falls of the accordion in the dastardly tale of stormy seas and murderous captains, ‘Sir William Gower’. He is an equally powerful unaccompanied singer, as shown by his opening song, the powerful story of a woman pleading for her condemned husband, ‘Geordie’.
Peters’ penchant for providing a musically passionate as well as deeply informative experience is mirrored in the workshop’s usual monthly format, with the group discussing ways of approaching and performing a chosen ballad. There is also an opportunity for group members to perform a ballad they have been working on, and, as Anne Neilson explains, to ‘develop the confidence to make a good singable version consistent with their understanding of the story.’ The workshop is also, as Ronnie Clark elucidates, a forum to ‘create and raise standards’ of interpreting, exploring and performing these songs. Such a determined attempt to approach performance with a healthy balance of informed analysis and inherent ‘good fun’ – all key components of Peters’ approach too – is ambitious, exciting and valuable. It feels, to use Ronnie’s phrase, ‘in many ways like a coming home.’
‘Ballads remain popular for the insights they offer into human behaviour, even at the extremes of passion,’ says Neilson, adding ‘and as a listener, it's wonderful to be told a story.’ Brian Peters certainly brought us this sense of wonder and discovery as, with his a captivatingly unique version of ‘Scarborough Fair’, he brought to a close yet another inspiring workshop.
So do take that little detour from the busy main streets of the Trongate, Glasgow - you will come across a jewel of real value and rarity. World-class performers of traditional music in Glasgow, at affordable prices, and not just in January … who’d have thought it?
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Clare Button writes for The Living tradition magazine, which promotes traditional music in Scotland, the UK and Ireland. www.livingtradition.co.uk.
