Tamworth Folk Club
June 2010 Guest Night Review

Salmagundi

The ground floor room at Bolehall Manor was pretty empty at 7.45 when I arrived on Friday 11th June with only Guy Rodgers of Salmagundi tuning his guitar and testing the PA system, but soon people began to arrive and wished me hello for the second time this day, because most of us had met earlier at The Heart of England Crematorium in Nuneaton for the funeral of Ron Laird, a much loved member of the folk club.

Ron’s memory was to be remembered this night as he was also known to our guests.

With the room now quite full, Bob announced that our own Nick Dalmedo was supporting, and he began his set with a medley of songs that Ron liked, sang in Nick’s indomitable style, which went down well with the audience.
Mike Hadley joined Nick on stage with his double base to raise the momentum, as he always does.
Mike is always there every week, you cannot actually miss him or at least you cannot miss his instrument, one of the stalwarts of The Old Castle Band, but he steps up to give accompaniment to anyone who requests him and I must say improves the sound of any instrument.

Nick concluded his set with a Scottish song again to reinforce the link with Ron to a delighted audience.

Salmagundi it’s a strange name you will agree and after consulting my dictionary not to mention Google I have come up with the following. Salmagundi purportedly a meal served on pirate ships. It is a stew of anything the cook had on hand, usually consisting of chopped meat, anchovies, eggs and onions often arranged in rows on lettuce.
If translated to the French it means Hodgepodge, I will leave it to you to pick the best, I could not possibly comment.

Guy Rogers has been performing acoustic music for over 30 years. Originally his interest was captured by the thriving folk scene in the early seventies and he played with a number of outfits at that time, most notably in the Birmingham area.
After a move to Leamington Spa he soon became involved in the very active music scene there. Shortly after that, events conspired to bring him to Leicestershire where after a number of forays into Country music, he became involved with the Down County Boys, initially on Mandolin and Vocals then later on Guitar and vocals.

Dan Norton's interest in music and performing started at the very early age of seven and hasn't stopped since. Born into a very musical family, Dan's father Colin has played and still does play trombone in a brass band and upright bass with a Jazz Big Band.
Dan started playing brass band music but quickly turned to guitar. He has done his turn as a bass player in a rock band and then got curious about the Mandolin and came to see the Down County Boys because he'd seen a picture of the band with Guy holding a Mandolin.
He quickly became hooked and moved heaven and earth to learn to play it. Very soon he became a member, taking a fast track that only someone with Dan's talent could achieve. He has since played in bands with such notaries as John Dowling.
Dan still is a regular member of the Down County Boys.

Guy and Dan performed on both mandolin and guitar with the greatest dexterity (that means fast) their skillfulness was superb and the harmony of their voices was a joy to listen to. All of us in the audience were not prepared to let them go without many encores and Nick and Mike joined them on stage to bring the proceedings to and end just before midnight.

All in all if Ron Laird could have been there he would have said “it’s the best guest night the club has had”.

 

RDC 2010