Red Moon Road, Bodenham Parish Hall, Leominster, Herefordshire, 18/04/2015.

Red Moon Road are a folk trio from Winnipeg who are currently touring the UK with the support of various regional arts organisations. This gig at a village hall very near to me was promoted by Arts Alive who cover the counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire and co-ordinate events with the help of local promoters, in this case locally based music enthusiast and musician Dennis Jackson.

Arts Alive do a great job in helping to organise and promote cultural events covering all disciplines in rural locations, their ethos best summed up by their slogan “professional shows at affordable prices in informal spaces”. Bodenham Village Hall was packed out with a large audience seated cabaret style with every table fully occupied. The relaxed crowd enjoyed two sets of music from a trio who combined powerful singing with excellent musicianship and also engaged their audience with their wit and storytelling, a winning package that earned the three Manitoba based troubadours many new friends.

Red Moon Road were part of Arts Alive’s Canadian Season which will also see other Canadian performers across a range of disciplines visiting the Welsh Borders. To date the trio have released a five song EP “Tales from the Whiteshell” (2013) and a full length album “Red Moon Road” with a further album recording due shortly. Tonight the band drew on both their current releases as well as presenting some of their newer material alongside a couple of traditional folk tunes and a brace of well chosen covers, of which more later. The band consists of singer Sheena Rattai who also plays some percussion plus “the two Daniels”, hirsute and extravagantly moustached/bearded gentlemen who both play a variety of stringed instruments (guitars, mandolin,banjo), sing, and provide additional percussion. 

Red Moon Road’s original songs combine vocal harmonies with intelligent, sometimes humorous lyrics, which draw on both personal experience and on their shared ancestral background, all three appear to be descendants of German immigrants to the Canadian heartland. The trio are experienced live performers who have criss crossed Canada many times and played at several of their country’s leading folk festivals. They have also performed extensively in continental Europe and their relentless gigging schedule has ensured that they really know how to work a crowd with all three sharing announcing duties and bouncing jokes and stories off each other. I don’t mean to imply in any way that Red Moon Road are a novelty act, there’s also an underlying seriousness behind the banter, this is a band who are very proud of their heritage and chosen way of life.

“Hello, my name’s Daniel and I’m a folk singer” was the opening gambit of Daniel Jordan as he took to the stage. Jordan, with his rather splendid hat is primarily the group’s guitarist with his colleague and namesake Daniel Peloquin-Hofner tending to specialise on mandolin and banjo. Introductions over they launched into the rallying call of “Do Or Die”, written by Jordan and the opening track of the “Red Moon Road” album. Driven by guitar and banjo the song featured the powerful, soaring lead vocals of Rattai and the effective vocal harmonies of the two Daniels. Listening to the power of Rattai’s voice it came as no surprise to discover that she’d started out training as an opera singer before somehow finding herself falling into a folk band. The two guys come from similarly diverse musical backgrounds, Jordan was once a jazz drummer and Peloquin-Hopfner once wielded the sticks in a prog rock band.

From the “Whiteshell” EP “The Sailor Song” was inspired by the band’s visits to Canada’s east coast and the Maritime Provinces. Jordan shared the lead vocal with Rattai and Peloquin-Hopfner switched to mandolin for a typically bleak folk song about a maritime disaster in which both the sailor and his waiting lover both die in the end, the consequences of a ship wreck. The rousing chorus helped to compensate for the sadness and bitterness of the lyrics. It’s not clear from the credits to the EP whether this was a traditional folk song or one written by the band in that style.

Red Moon Road have also toured extensively in the USA and Jordan’s song “Private Love” was inspired by the group’s visit to Waco, Texas. It’s a song written in the country idiom and features Jordan’s lead vocal and some decidedly risqué lyrics. After the doom and disaster of “The Sailor Song” it came as a bit of light relief.

Co-written by Rattai and Jordan “Demons” re-introduced an element of introspection with Rattai’s wistful singing of her own words supported by the guitar, mandolin and vocal harmonies of her colleagues.

The “Whiteshell” EP was recorded in a cabin in the national park of the same name in the winter of 2013. The melody of “Mighty Glad You Came” was based on the song of the white throated sparrow, “no copyright problems !” exclaimed Jordan in his typically amusing preamble. Using bird song as a source of inspiration for composition isn’t new - but this was a lot more accessible than Messiaen! 

The two Daniels handled the vocals on “Why He Left The Ocean”, a beautiful song inspired by the life story of Jordan’s father and containing meditations on the meaning of family and “home”.

The first set ended with the rousing “Liesel Friedl” a quirky song and arrangement with a serious underlying message. The lyrics tell the tale of Jordan’s grandmother (or “Oma”) and her flight on horseback across war torn Poland at the end of World War 2 as the Russian army advanced from the east. The arrangement included banjo, vocal harmonies, the use of Jordan’s guitar as an auxiliary percussion instrument to complement his own bass drum, and Rattai’s glockenspiel.

The trio had been very well received and business at the merchandise stall during the interval was brisk. This included the sale, at the bargain price of £1, of the band’s own kazoos. Those audience members who had dug into their pockets were quickly given the opportunity to road test their new purchases on the first song of the second set. From the “Red Moon Road” album Jordan’s “Hypothetical Girl” is another of his country styled, slightly tongue in cheek songs featuring his own lead vocal and Rattai on kazoo. Rattai gave the kazoo owning members of the audience a brief lesson before the song began and the performance included a mass kazoo “chorus” alongside the banjo and guitars. Great fun for all.

Nest came one of the inspired covers to which I alluded previously. The members of Red Moon Road share a common musical heritage which includes the formative influence of The Beatles, the British band that had such a huge influence on North American culture. A delightfully reflective version of “In My Life” was movingly sung by Rattai with Peloquin-Hopfner’s mandolin solo replicating George Martin’s keyboard solo on the original. Written in 1965 the song is an impressively mature piece of writing and, for me, still ranks as one of John Lennon’s best. 

Having won the hearts of the audience with this double whammy of light hearted frivolity followed by a burst of nostalgia Red Moon Road now unveiled some of the new songs slated for their forthcoming album - not that the Bodenham audience were likely to be familiar with their existing catalogue anyway! The group were keen to emphasise the art of story telling as being part of the folk music process. “Sophie Blanchard” was a story song that related the tale of a female aviation pioneer from the era of the hot air balloon who perished in an aviation accident in Paris in 1819. The songs quirky arrangement with its rich three part harmonies had more than a touch of the chanson tradition about it. I’d never heard of Sophie Blanchard before so in the best Reithian tradition tonight’s show was educational and informative too!

There was more fine harmony singing on Rattai’s song “Seasons”, the lyrics reflecting on both the beauty of nature and the changing of the seasons - these being very sharply delineated in the heart of the prairies -plus the enduring power of human love.

Inspired by the life of Peloquin-Hopfner’s grandfather Arthur the rousing “Breathing Slow” features on a video on the band’s website http://www.redmoonroad.com. Peloquin-Hopfner and Rattai shared the lead vocals on this banjo driven statement of intent with Rattai’s snare drum and Jordan’s bass drum providing additional rhythmic impetus.

Introduced as a traditional English folk tune the familiar “My Grandfather’s Clock” had the audience singing along to a typically whimsical arrangement that included guitar, mandolin and glockenspiel.

Rapturously received the trio returned for an encore, coming to the front edge of the stage to sing without microphones or amplification. They chose to perform Pete Seeger’s song “Quite Early Morning” in tribute to the American folk pioneer who died in 2014 aged ninety four. I’ve seen other acts perform entirely acoustic encores, the element of contrast makes it a highly effective way to end a show.

Red Moon Road enjoyed a terrific reception from the Bodenham crowd and Rattai pronounced the evening the most successful of the tour thus far in terms of album sales and other merchandise. The Herefordshire public really took the band to their hearts and one nice moment featured the band accepting two bottles of locally made fruit liqueur in exchange for their two CDs!

The band’s blend of music, wit and humour had clearly struck a chord with an audience who were almost exclusively hearing them for the first time and I’m sure that this is a pattern that is repeated everywhere they go. Their albums are also well worth hearing and the studio recordings also include additional instruments including fiddle, double bass and keyboards. Gigs in Canada sometimes see the group expanded to a sextet, the RMR Extend-o Band. 

I haven’t tried to reproduce too much of the on stage banter, it’s best just to enjoy that in the moment and concentrate on the songs. The band were keen to thank Dennis Jackson and his wife Trish plus Sian Kerry of Arts Alive and I’d like to add to that and thank them for inviting me along. Thanks also to Daniel, Daniel and Sheena for taking the time to talk to me afterwards and presenting me with a copy of both of their very enjoyable CDs. This was music that was largely outside my current listening zone but I very much enjoyed Red Moon Road’s very natural combination of words, music and humour in a show that appealed to first time listeners but also included some impressive singing and playing for the serious music fan to enjoy. Their records are convincing too. This is a hard working band that is sure to add yet more names to its growing international fan base.

The only sour note about the evening was the news that Herefordshire Council have withdrawn their financial backing to the Arts Alive programme. The Council is experiencing well publicised financial difficulties but for local arts lovers this very much represents the thin end of the wedge.
It’s a pattern that is being repeated throughout the UK although our European neighbours, notably France and Germany continue to invest heavily in art and culture. “Libraries not Libya” was a slogan I always liked to use with regard to this issue and although the phrase may have dated the sentiment remains. If we cease all funding to the arts and culture we will create a generation of stupid, ignorant and bigoted people, it’s a process that’s already happening in the USA and I can see it happening here too. Rather than cutting spending on the arts let’s see a reduction in the ridiculous salaries paid to council chief executives, sums that are the result of the greedy bonus driven management culture that led to the financial crisis of 2008, the effects of which are still being felt by millions of people in this country and beyond - and almost certainly in Canada too. 

It’s particularly ironic that these cuts come at a time when the rural touring circuit is positively thriving, the demand is out there and Arts Alive are doing a fine job in bringing non elitist art and culture to the local community. I’d like to urge Herefordshire Council to think twice and don’t turn this county into even more of a cultural desert. 

It’s not often that the Jazzmann gets controversial or wanders into politics. I welcome readers’ comments on this issue.

Meanwhile Red Moon Road have the following dates scheduled in the UK and Europe. Catch them if you can.

April 23: Lyceum Folk Club - Gwent, South Wales, NP20 5PL

April 24: The Woodman Folk Club - Kingswinford, DY6 0AQ, UK

April 26: Brackley Folk Club - Brackley, Northants, NN13 7BW, UK

May 1: Café ‘t Keerpunt - Spijkerbor, Netherlands

May 7: Club am Donnerstag - Hamburg, Germany

May 18: Unplugged and Uncorked - Vinothek La Sosta, Switzerland