Original British bluegrass and fish ‘n’ chips was cracking combination

THE barn in Hurley was a perfect setting for the first night of the inaugural Music & Arts Festival at Hurley. A full audience enjoyed an evening of British bluegrass from the local Chiltern group, Papa Truck, together with a delicious supper from “Howe and Co 22 — mobile fish and chips”. What could be better?

Well, the weather wasn’t at its warmest but, after a set from Pop Unplugged featuring Tara Deane on vocals and Marcus Lewis on guitar, the Celsius had climbed. Some humdingers in this set included two Fleetwood Mac songs (and Tara’s strong voice reminded me of a young Stevie Nicks), Elvis and Bryan Adams’s Summer of ‘69.

Supper and the bar also helped the temperature, and by the time Papa Truck came to the stage, everyone was comfortable and ready to throw themselves enthusiastically into bluegrass territory.

Papa Truck have been together for 12 years and have released four albums. The group comprises Martin Selman on vocals and acoustic guitar, Dan Abram on banjo and Charlie Sarnen on vocals and bass guitar. Usually, there are two other members of the group but tonight, Tara stepped in (magnificently) to help with vocals.

Papa Truck’s set was largely their wonderful original songs, mostly written by Martin, with tight harmonies and some equally snappy lyrics. Although the topics can be serious, as in Broken, a plea to a potential lover to be truthful (“My heart can’t take another break”), or the lovely Daylight (“We cross the lines; we fall apart. All that’s left is a broken heart”), the music on Friday was toe-tapping and upbeat, almost entirely in major keys.

One song the audience greatly appreciated was the cheeky, fast-paced Hurley Marina. “This was one of the first three songs we wrote. We’ve never been to Hurley before, so we thought we’d better sing this tonight.” The lyrics are fun: “Fishing all night down Hurley marina. Ain’t got nothing but a tyre and a boot. Fishing all night down Hurley marina. Ain’t exactly what I call a hoot”. All imaginary, of course…

This was a highly successful opener to the first Music and Arts Festival at Hurley, much enjoyed by the attentive audience who left contentedly, full of good music and fish and chips. Let’s hope it’s the first of many such events.