Here is the latest in Salut! Live’s Treasures rediscovered series of items I post after coming across them again on record, tape, CD or clip …
Once, I called Vin Garbutt self-opinionated and he objected, rightly as I later conceded. Opinionated was not only the correct word, but fine with him.
I think that is the only occasion in the 40+ years I have known him on which we have fallen out, if falling out is not a gross exaggeration of the exchange of views that took place (it is, I hope).
Vin is fully aware that while I do not always share his point of view, and even then on one pretty narrow subject (abortion), I absolutely respect his entitlement to hold it and was horrified to discover, years ago, that folk club and festival organisers were deliberately avoiding him.
Artistic censorship is rarely edifying; this was grotesque – and not least because 90 per cent or more of Vin’s repertoire has nothing to do with the issue on which self-appointed guardians of politically correct thought decided it was acceptable to deprive him of the means of earning his living.
For this series, I turn to a rather less controversial matter. More to Vin’s taste, I also once said that if the River Tees could sing, it would probably sound like him.
The Valley of Tees is a great song. I managed once or twice to please audiences in the deep south with my own inferior version, which must be some kind of proof of its quality. Vin sings it magnificently.
Here is a clip from a performance at the Frazer Theatre in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire five years ago, and you get the best of Vin’s worlds: four minutes of his engaging banter followed by that tremendous voice, full of passion and strength.
It is a measure of how long ago he wrote the words that the second verse has these words, “and summers I have seen 23”; Vin nobly gets through the line with a straight face.
Explore Vin’s treasure chest of wonderful music at Salut! Live‘s Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00H6XERJ4/salusund-21
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