Desperate for a bit of traditional folk music entertainment playing, I decided to visit the Barbican yesterday.
The Barbican, Plymouth, UK is a maze of narrow streets and alleyways and also the home to many art galleries. It has a number of unique and individual shops, many of them concerned with antiques and has a distinctly all round historic and interesting feel to it.
But the most important thing, from my point of view, was The Dolphin pub where I was hoping to play some traditional folk music.
The Dolphin is a good, down to earth, ordinary, unpretentious, drinking house. It has a really great historical ambience and you can imagine people sitting there and drinking their ale, in times gone by, after a busy day’s work gutting newly landed fish for the fish market.
The traditional folk music session players were crammed into the alcove on the right hand side as I went in and they were in full swing. The sound they were making was exciting and mainly seem to consist of jigs and reels. The pace was fast and furious.
I grabbed a chair, dug out my soprano saxophone and flute and got stuck in. There were a couple of violins, a piano accordion, a concertina, a banjo, a melodeon and a couple of acoustic guitars. A nice mix of instruments.
I was in heaven. However much I enjoy providing backing and incidental music to acoustic guitars, it was great to return to my roots and play really traditional English and Irish folk music entertainment and dance tunes.
When I left at about 6.00 in the evening, they were still going strong.
If you are looking for an Irish, English, almost anything goes entertainment session and you are in the historic Plymouth Barbican area, and it is the first Sunday of the month from 1.30 p.m. onwards, The Dolphin is a great place to check out. (Remember to phone the pub before hand, to ensure it’s taking place, to avoid disappointment).
I reckon that I will be going back there next month and I’m really looking forward to it.
Bye for now
Rob
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