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My young man's a Cornishman
Aug. 8th, 2018 06:05 pmJim Causley was the guest at the Davy Lamp Folk Club on Saturday, and we went along to hear him. I didn't really know what to expect. All I knew of him was that he had set a number of poems by Charles Causley, which I had heard as background music in a documentary about the poet, broadcast at the time of his centenary (but which I don't seem to have written about), in the repertoire of Martin Simpson, and by Jim Causley himself through the glass darkly that is YouTube.
So I wasn't anticipating his stage presence, which is droll bordering on camp: the picture on the front page of his web site conveys this very well. He sings a wide range of material, much of it from the southwest, but not all:
which YouTube informs me is a Sid Kipper song, and therefore from Norfolk.
He also still sings his settings of Charles Causley, plus an additional group of Causley's poems for children. I liked them enough to buy Cypress Well, the original recording, made in Causley's house using Causley's piano - and I liked these even better in the recorded version, which is more subdued, less amplified than what I heard live. Jim Causley has a good voice, and the accordion is not a quiet instrument, and the club is not held in a huge hall: the sound desk does a good job, but it really isn't needed, and I'd be happier without it.
So I wasn't anticipating his stage presence, which is droll bordering on camp: the picture on the front page of his web site conveys this very well. He sings a wide range of material, much of it from the southwest, but not all:
which YouTube informs me is a Sid Kipper song, and therefore from Norfolk.
He also still sings his settings of Charles Causley, plus an additional group of Causley's poems for children. I liked them enough to buy Cypress Well, the original recording, made in Causley's house using Causley's piano - and I liked these even better in the recorded version, which is more subdued, less amplified than what I heard live. Jim Causley has a good voice, and the accordion is not a quiet instrument, and the club is not held in a huge hall: the sound desk does a good job, but it really isn't needed, and I'd be happier without it.
