Salut! Folk

Colin Randall writes: Vin Garbutt was an important figure of my early interest and involvement in folk music in the North East of England, part pf the country we both called home. Eight years after his death, I am delighted to recall one of his many fine recordings as my Album of the Month here and at Salut! Live's Facebook group …

 

Vin Garbutt was the perfect choice of folk club guest artist. He sang with tremendous soaring power, was an accomplished musician (guitar and tin whistle), balanced his playlist between well-selected traditional and thought-provoking self-composed material and held audiences in his hand with fascinating and wildly funny introductions and between-songs patter.

He would, if still with us, be 77. But eight years ago this month, this unassuming but generously gifted performer, also a thoroughly lovable human being. died following heart surgery.

Vin Garbutt with Kate Rusby at the Broadstairs folk festival in 2015. Reproduced with thanks to Kate's father Steve

The album I have chosen is Vin’s first, The Valley of Tees, from 1972.

 

The title track is not the only reason for picking this from so many options, but is a compelling one on purely personal grounds.

It is a song I occasionally sang as a floor singer back in my folk club days. Geoff Lakeman, a friend and journalistic confrere who has fashioned a splendid second career as a professional folk musician, was kind enough to tell me I did it justice. He may well have been humouring me but felt like a much appreciated compliment. The song itself is a rousing celebration of natural beauty.

Mr Gunman was one of several songs Vin wrote about the Troubles. His mum was an Irish Catholic and introduced him to rebel songs and ballads, his father was English and Protestant. They might have served as inspiration for The Orange and the Green had it been among his compositions (it wasn’t but he did an excellent version).

Another of his own songs, Streets of Staithes, gives fully deserved musical recognition to the picturesque North Yorkshire coastal village, once a thriving fishing port and for a short time home to the Naval officer and explorer Captain James Cook.

The mix of songs and tunes is very typically Vin Garbutt, the sort of playlist* you’d expect to hear, along with the uproarious banter, at a gig. He went on to record more polished albums and his songwriting, whether evoking his beloved North East, defending the rights of the unborn or deploring social and political injustice, matured significantly.

I have great memories of Vin.

* being able to rely on him to fill a guest slot, often at short notice and always for far too small a fee than he merited,

* seeing him win over some hard-nosed cops in the incongruous setting, for a folk singer, of a night club 

* catching him at a folk club in Downpatrick, when I was covering the Troubles, and getting him back to where he was staying in Belfast

* arguing about a word I'd used in a review. I disagreed with Vin on abortion while absolutely supporting his right a) to hold his strong views and b) not to be blacklisted by cancel-culture zealots. Vin's quarrel was that I'd described him as self-opionated, to which he objected, rather than opinionated, which he could accept. He was alsolutely right and I said so..

Beyond any real doubt, Vin Garbutt's albums got better and better. But The Valley of Tees is the one that set the ball rolling and is therefore a worthy candidate for our Album of the Month series. 

Finally, if you have not already seen this, do read Michael McGeary's excellent synopsis of a life well lived that brightened many others. RIP the voice of the Tees.

 

 

 

SEE ALSO

Vin Garbutt: if the River Tees could sing, Vin would be its voice.

Two John Norths: Vin remembered by Mike Amos

'What a humble, gentle, talented, hilarious human being'; Kate Rusby's moving tributes

Cambridge Folk Festival and those anti-abortion songs: was Vin banned or not?  

Treasures rediscovered: Valley of Tees remembered

 

**  The full tracklist:

Danny Danielle

Johnny Hart

Glens of Sweet Mayo

Gallagher's Frolics, Sally Gardens, The High Reel Reel

The Valley of Tees

Barney Brallaghan's Courtship

Tim Le Blanc

Pat O'Donnell

The White Hart, Garbutt's Favourite Whistle Tunes

Streets of Staithes

Mr Gunman

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